EXPERIENCE
- Introduction
- Brother
- Experience
- Beside You
- Nothing Left
- Another Worthless Day
- Shanti Mantram
- Devil Of A Girl
- I Gave Up
- Dreamworld
- Hush Hush
- Time And You
Release date: 10th September 2001
Music by: Mikko Von Hertzen except tracks 2, 3 and 12 Kie Von Hertzen
Lyrics by: Mikko Von Hertzen except tracks 2 Mikko Von Hertzen and Kie Von Hertzen, track 3 Kie Von Hertzen and L.A. Skin
Arranged by: Von Hertzen Brothers and Lasse Kurki
All instruments by Von Hertzen Brothers except track 8 trombone by Magnus Andersson, track 10 Harmonica by Faija, Track 11 backing vocals by Mutsi
Produced by Lasse Kurki
Mixed by Jyrki Tuovinen at Petrax Studios Hollola and Finnvox Studios Helsinki
Mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox Studios Helsinki
KIE REMINISCES:
“This was a nice project through which we reinvented us being brothers, in a way, by actually doing something together. Mikko had been in India for a few years, kind of totally off the radar, so the distance between us had started to grow. At that time, I still had my own band Don Huonot in Finland and we had just had a 6-month period off during which I’d been travelling alone in South America contemplating my 30-year crisis. So, when Mikko dropped us an email in which he asked if Jonne and myself wanted to make an album out of his songs inspired by Amma and his new spiritual journey it was easy to say: Hell yes!
The most significant memory is not the actual recordings in Porvoo, Finland, but the two-week trip we took with Jonne down to Kerala, South India. Mikko had rented this weird empty mansion near the (at that time still pretty uncrowded) Varkala beach. We were to make demos of the songs there and the daily routine started with an early Ashtanga yoga practice (me and Jonne were quite into it at that time), after which we cooked some oats for breakfast. Only after that we started working on the songs. At noon it was time for a short swim and lunch, which we always ate in the same vegetarian biryani place by the beach. After chilling for a couple of “siesta” hours, we kept working on the songs again till late.”
We also had a lot of fun taking selfies (before selfies were officially invented, haha) with my Nikon F3 on our trip to Trivandrum. The album cover art was later made of that stuff.
The majority of the songs on Experience are Mikko’s, but I did bring some stuff of my own to the record as well. Out of those, three songs ended up being on the album: the title song Experience, Brother, and Hush Hush.”
MIKKO RECALLS:
“I was kind of surprised that Kari from Zen Garden was willing to pay for the studio and get the songs that we had worked on in India released. He knew very well it was just “a project” and he was still keen on being our label. I guess he liked the songs. I had no intention of moving back to Finland at that time. I had been living a carefree life under the sun, wearing flip flops and loose light clothing for a couple of years and the harsh reality to be thrown into a studio, in the middle of winter, made me kinda cringe.
But record the songs we did. And it was a lot of fun. I was supposed to play the drums for the album and since it had been almost three years from the previous time I had held sticks in my hands, I was a bit confused. In the end, with the support of Lasse, Jukka and Magnus, we did alright and got the tracks down. When the recordings were done, I flew back to India and left the project in Kie’s and Lasse’s capable hands. Lasse had been working on a few projects with Jyrki Tuovinen who was then asked to mix the album at Petrax Studios (where he worked frequently).
On one of those trips to Hollola (where Petrax Studios are located) Kie, Lasse and Jyrki had an accident that could have ended really badly. They hit an elk on the motorway at 120 km/h. The animal had somehow wandered to the road through a hole in a fence and there was simply no time to react. After the collision, the car flipped over many times and ended up all shattered in a ditch. The injured animal had to be put down. Thank God, the guys were alright and none of them got serious physical injuries in the crash.
In many ways, making Experience was indeed an experience. It brought us brothers back together and it also opened the door to a future we had no idea of while making the album.”
Experience
SINGLES
Approach
SINGLES
EMMA AWARD - BEST ROCK ALBUM
Love Remains The Same
SINGLES
Stars Aligned
SINGLES
OUR FIRST BOOK
The Best of
PROG AWARD - ANTHEM WINNER
RADIO NOVA SESSION
Nine Lives
SINGLES
OFF THE RECORD
New Day Rising
SINGLES
War Is Over
SINGLES
Red Alert in the Blue Forest
SINGLES
OMVF AWARD - DOUBLE WIN
THE BLUE FOREST
BEST ALBUMS OF 2022
LIVE AT TAVASTIA
VHB MK5
STARLINGS
ASCENSION DAY
THE RELAPSE
