Birds, break-ups, big choruses and the Charlie Chaplin effect can all be found on In Murmuration, the ninth album from Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers. But as they embrace their power pop influences, have the Finns cast off their prog wizard cloaks once and for all? Mikko von Hertzen talks about the Seattle influence, songwriting secrets and sax solos.
“It’s always hard to predict the mood of the Brothers when we start a new project,” says Mikko von Hertzen. Yet the Von Hertzen Brothers – Kie, the eldest, Mikko in the middle, and Jonne, the youngest – seem to be in a very upbeat place on their ninth album. The trio’s sound has always spanned a range of influences, but with In Murmuration they’ve blended their prog stylings with a generous shot of sunny power pop.
“The root of the band is very much in 70s rock – Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin,” says Mikko. But as teenagers the brothers also encountered American power pop and Seattle garage rock through Big Star, The Posies, Dinosaur Jr. and others. “We were 18 to 21 years old, and we were very much affected by that,” says Mikko. “That lingered in the background and every now and then it pops up in our music.
“If you look at ’90 to ’94, it was full of great albums like Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik and everything that came out of Seattle, including Soundgarden with the two best albums they made. We were sponges, taking everything in from what we heard on MTV.”
With its bouncy riffs, effervescent energy, and a notable lack of extended instrumental sections, In Murmuration feels closest in spirit to 2013’s Nine Lives rather than their prog-heavy recent outings. “I would say that War Is Over, in 2017, was a really epic prog rock thing,” Mikko says, “whereas in 2022, when Red Alert In The Blue Forest came out, that was very pandemic era – thoughtful, slow, long songs.
“It was more laid-back, contemplative in a way. With this album, we felt like it would be so fun to have something which is a little happier with riffs, good choruses, shorter songs. It’s like a reaction to what we’ve done just before.”
What’s immediately striking about In Murmuration is the strength of the songwriting, with an abundance of big hooks and anthemic choruses. The Brothers have scored three No.1 albums in their native Finland, so if anyone knows the secret to crafting catchy tunes, it should be Mikko, Kie and Jonne. Turns out the key involves a silent film star.
“I don’t want to sound like I think we know what we’re doing, exactly, but it always boils down to the melody,” says Mikko. “There are certain techniques you can use when you write a melody. You can use major and minor chords next to each other so that you create that Charlie Chaplin effect – like you’re hopeful but then you’re a little bit miserable. It’s melodramatic.”
It’s an aspect of composition that Mikko has studied in some depth – he teaches songwriting to kids in Finland. He picks out the chorus from A Good Life, the second song on In Murmuration, as a case study. “There’s a perfect example of being cheerful and then right afterwards you’re melancholic,” he observes.
“You’re playing with the listener’s emotions, throwing these little hooks into them. They get attached and that creates the feeling of a good chorus, something you want to sing. We learned how to write these really good melodies – this sounds very egotistical – that people remember and want to sing along to. It comes with experience and understanding how it’s done.”
Thematically, the album is divided into halves. The first explores environmentalism and conservation, expressed in the title and the image of birds in flight on the cover. It’s no coincidence that the Brothers’ father was an ornithologist and Jonne has a sideline as a nature photographer. Red Alert In The Blue Forest addressed the destruction of woodlands and habitat loss; and now In Murmuration continues in that vein.
“We were talking about cutting down the forests and how we’re losing so many species because of that,” says Mikko. “I had the idea of starlings in my head because so many times I’ve found myself mesmerised looking at their murmuration – it’s so beautiful; it’s amazing to watch.”
We find ourselves playing with the idea – ‘This is a total Rick Wakeman moment, a five-minute synth solo’
The album’s ornithological side has led to a collaboration with British comic book artist Charlie Adlard, who’s worked on The Walking Dead and 2000AD. The band met him at the Prog Awards in 2013 when they won Anthem Of The Year for Flowers And Rust. “Charlie came to congratulate us. I talked to him quite a bit – we were already thinking then it would be so fun to do something together,” says Mikko.
Life happened and years flew by until Mikko contacted Adlard to ask if he’d like to hear In Murmuration, and they decided to join forces to raise money for conservation efforts, with Adlard creating illustrations based on the music. “We’re not 100 per cent sure what we’re going to do with all of them,” says Mikko, “but we’re going to have them out there somehow and sell them with handwritten lyrics or something. All the proceeds will go to BirdLife International for protecting the birds.”
The second half of the record, starting with the song Tightrope Walker, explores the emotional stages of a breakup. “It deals with a bad relationship turning into separation and longing and acceptance,” Mikko explains. “In psychology, when a relationship comes to a close, you go through phases. It starts from a bad relationship, in need of The Change; then Separation, then Snowstorm, where you feel like you’re lost because something has really gone from your life. Then at the end, Wait For Me is a ballad that has that longing for something else.”
In the press notes, Mikko jokes that In Murmuration sees the Brothers casting off their “prog wizard cloaks.” He confirms: “I had Rick Wakeman on my mind when I wrote that,” but he’s lost none of his love and admiration for progressive rock. Those influences are still present, even if they’re not foregrounded as fully on this album as they have been in the past.
For Mikko, the appeal of the great prog bands is in their ability to throw themselves into the music with total abandon. “You can see they go into a zone where they’re the wizards,” he says. “They create this elixir people want to drink. We find ourselves playing with the idea every now and then – ‘OK, this is a total Rick Wakeman moment, a five-minute synth solo.’
Bringing the sax in felt fresh – I don’t know if any bands are doing that now. It’s not what a rock band would usually do
“With these new songs, there are hardly any solos here. It’s straightforward. There’s maybe one guitar solo, a few sax solos. Synth-wise, there’s not much there on this album. That’s what I meant.”
The sax contributions come from Markus Pajakkala, who accompanied the Brothers on their 2023 Acoustic Enough tour. While many rock acts of the 80s featured saxophonists, they fell spectacularly out of fashion in the 90s. “It was so uncool at one point, a total no-no,” says Mikko.
“But bringing the sax in, we felt like it’s fresh for us – I don’t know if any bands are doing that now. It’s not what a rock band would usually do. The idea came when he played a solo on Peace Patrol from the previous album, and we felt like, ‘Yeah, this guy knows his shit.’”
When the time came to expand their line-up, Pajakkala was the first person they asked. “That also creates some new, fresh feelings,” says Mikko. “It’s the ninth album – what can you come up with that feels fresh for yourself? When you go and perform this music, it has to feel like you have something new to say. And this element is new.”
While the Von Hertzen Brothers have released albums through a variety of labels in the past, nowadays they’re keeping the music in-house on their label DoingBeingMusic. “This is our life and we really want to be in charge of our music,” Mikko explains. “It’s not something that somebody else can decide what to do with. The record label has been there for quite a while but we’ve always just licensed our music.”
If we’d taken another route, maybe we wouldn’t be doing music any more – maybe it would’ve created friction for us to be something we’re not
There have been a few exceptions: the Brothers’ 2001 debut, Experience, was originally released via Finnish indie label Zen Garden Records, and War Is Over came out on Music Theories Recordings. The Von Hertzens have been slowly but steadily regaining the rights to their catalogue.
“Some of the licensing has expired so it automatically comes back to the band and our own label,” says Mikko. “Some of the albums, like War Is Over, we had to ask, ‘How much do you want for it?’ And we bought it back. We have a vision of the future with the band owning all our stuff and it’s just going be distributed by someone else.
“In March 2025 the last licence of New Day Rising will return to the band. Then after that we’ll have all nine albums under our own label. We can reprint vinyl or make a box set – whatever. We always thought these should be decisions the band makes as brothers, not somebody else. It’s going to be so much easier when it’s all under us.”
With the benefit of nearly 25 years’ hindsight, Mikko believes that they made the right call by trusting their own instincts. “We made a really good decision – I feel like the band’s music has stayed very original,” he says. “It doesn’t sound like anything else on this planet, at least that I have come across.
“If we’d taken another route, maybe we wouldn’t be doing music any more – maybe it would’ve created friction for us to be something we’re not. We could’ve jumped on a bandwagon and gained more commercial success, but I think we’re all very happy that we’ve kept our vision clear.
“We do our own stuff and if people like it, we’re happy. If they don’t, what can you do? We’re proud of the nine albums – it really sounds the way the Brothers wanted it to sound.”
