For parts of the year, Mikko Von Hertzen lives on the top floor of a 16-storey ashram in Kollam, on India’s tropical Malabar coast. The view is full of the colours and noises that have informed his band’s music – widescreen, enigmatic matter with rock vigour and a pop heart. Birds and butterflies swoop across the sky. Horns honk from the streets. Down by the sea, fishermen play cards under palm trees. Songs, chants and chatter drift up from various devotees and monastic disciples, all of them here for the spiritual wisdom of Mataā Amritaānandamayi Devic (or ‘Mother Amma’ as she’s often known).
It was this apartment that Mikko moved into for seven years, back in the late 90s, following some hedonistic years in different touring bands. And it was here, in 2000, where he and his brothers Kie and Jonne (both of them visiting from Finland) decided to join forces as The Von Hertzen Brothers – looking out at the Arabian Sea, worlds away from the icy forests of their motherland.
“I look out from my window that is facing the sea, the next thing there on the horizon is the Horn of Africa,” Mikko, now 52, tells us. “If you think of the soundscape, the ocean is moving all the time, there’s a lot of birds screeching; every sunset they come back, they live here close by. But then here I’m so high up, and people are playing music in different locations around this building, so I get this kind of polyphonic soundscape.”
It’s this height and openness that you’ll hear on the Von Hertzens’ new album, In Murmuration. On the back of two denser LPs, in a way it’s something of a palate cleanser. 2017’s moody, forward-kicking War Is Over drew on the refugee crisis across Europe. In 2022, their prog masterpiece Red Alert In The Blue Forest mixed the introspection of lockdown with impassioned environmentalism, the latter leading to the creation of a conservation area in Loppi, Southern Finland.
Conversely, In Murmuration has a brighter disposition. Songs are shorter, punchier – less prog epics, more alt.rock anthems, without sacrificing the angular qualities that have always made them interesting. Eastern scales and lines of Indian harmonium (Mikko learned to play it when he first went to the country) punctuate first single Starlings and other places on the record’s taut yet rich, clever tracks. Singalong standout Ascension Day, written by Kie (the oldest, “rockiest” brother), has a big, celebratory rock feel; a sense of stepping out of the Blue Forest and into the light, even as the world burns.
“In a sense it was very contemplative,” Mikko says of Red Alert… “But it was lacking that kind of joy and the glee that is in us brothers very deeply, you know; we are siblings who want to have fun on stage. Everybody who’s seen us knows that we are kind of that, and we do know how to write poppy rock songs.
“It was somehow like, ‘hey, we’re able to do this again and we’re having fun, and let’s not forget about having fun’,” he says. “Because, well, just recently there was a time where we didn’t know what to do with our lives, because we had been doing this for as far as I can remember.”
‘Fun poppy rock songs’ by the Von Hertzens are not like most bands’ ‘fun poppy rock songs’. Lifelong fans of Queen, Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and other purveyors of big, textured yet oomphy rock – who also grew up surrounded by choral music (their parents met in a choir) and the noises of nature at their family cottage in Raseborg, on the southern tip of Finland – they’re fastidiously cliché-averse.
You’ll find this across In Murmuration, that heart of darkness that’s never far from even the chirpiest of Von Hertzens songs.
“It’s so very easy to write songs which are too cheesy, too overflowingly syrupy,” Mikko says. “You can have love mentioned in a song in many different ways, but then if it turns a bit more into ‘longing’ [rather] than just love… Longing is something that everybody can relate to, whereas love being just love, it’s just a little bit boring, you know? Because it’s been done so many times. But I mean, we are still learning.”
Back in Finland (he lives in Helsinki when he’s not in India) Mikko teaches songwriting classes for young people, as part of the country’s Rock Academy. In these sessions he talks about what he calls ‘the Charlie Chaplin effect’.
“Charlie Chaplin was making fun things,” he explains, “but there was always a little bit of melodrama in it. So he was giving out this kind of, ‘oh this is so much fun, but it’s also a little bit sad’, you know? In songwriting, it’s a way to write melodies so that they’re hopeful, but then at the same time they have that bit of melancholic influence.” He pauses for a second. “And that, I feel, we are really good at… if I can say that.”
(Image credit: Ville Juurikkala)
In Murmuration came together over a relatively fast and furious period at the start of 2024. Strains of their personal lives fuelled the process (Mikko alludes to a relationship ending, in reference to moody, heavier number Snowstorm). And even with its compact, upbeat quality you’ll hear the commanding mystique of the natural world that’s so dear to them. Ripples from Red Alert…’s solemn, environmentalist message, perhaps.
Even the title has its footing there. The term ‘murmuration’ refers to a startling natural phenomenon, whereby huge flocks of starlings swoop across the sky in dramatic, shape-shifting clouds.
The Von Hertzens love this kind of thing. In Raseborg as kids they watched their musician father – also a keen ornithologist – tag local species to be monitored for scientific purposes. From a young age they knew the different features, even the different calls of their feathered neighbours.
“And the birds are still our pals, you know?” he adds, matter-of-factly. “Like, when we go to the cottage, we just have to hear one thing, and we’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s this and this woodpecker, you know, doing that’.”
That affinity with nature carries into their everyday lives. They still visit the family cottage and swim in the sea there when time allows. Jonne is a keen bird photographer. Kie rowed out to the remote islet of Söderskär in a canoe, while writing for Red Alert… Mikko relishes the peace afforded by his Indian home. Different sources for that space they all seem to seek, away from the din and distractions that fill up so much of modern life.
For Mikko this is also reflected in his listening habits. When he plays music at home these days, it’s likely to be “female folky acoustic singer-songwriters” and instrumental music; Aimee Mann, Phoebe Bridgers, Sigur Rós, contemporary piano, North Indian classical music.
“Maybe one of the things that rock has become to me is, like… too masculine, in a way.” He thinks about this. “I was always into Queen, because Freddie Mercury was a little bit softer, and maybe in my teens I used to listen to macho, kind of ‘male energy’ things. But with age, I become a bit allergic to that kind of male energy, and it’s nothing to do with anything else. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the softness in me that’s always been there, so I need music for that side of me.”
For any band with a lot of mileage under their belt, and a ‘plateau’ of sorts seemingly reached – in terms of commercial success at least (creative success is obviously a whole other, more open-ended thing) – dreams and priorities tend to change. Invariably it’s finances, family and the simple facts of age and/or health that raise more and more questions in the face of diminishing returns. After 24 years and nine studio albums, the Von Hertzen Brothers are no different. Ask Mikko today about what drives him at this point, band-wise, and he’s balanced but honest in his response.
“I think at this point, I can see the whole project as a big volume of work that we are proud of,” he begins, thoughtfully. “You kind of understand your worth in that, ‘okay, we’ve been doing this for a long time, we are very proud of all the nine albums, we still have things to say and melodies to write’. So that’s one thing.
“Of course,” he continues, “the music business is a hard, hard business for bands like us at the moment. You hear everybody quitting all the time. You hear bands who are not on that arena level going under you know, because they just can’t afford touring anymore. It’s very hard to make a living with this kind of music. We come from Finland, where there’s no radio support, there’s nothing because we are singing in English… So that can be kind of deflating, if you think like, ‘Oh Mikko, you’re fifty-two and you’re hardly keeping your head above the water’.”
It’s a concern faced by most mid-level bands at some point. Those who do well enough, for periods of time, but still often struggle to make ends meet. In the past the Von Hertzens might have held out hope that the next album would be ‘the one’. In 2015 that hope was New Day Rising which they recorded with producer Garth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Nickelback) and ploughed all their money into, to facilitate it. It topped the Finnish chart and went down well with fans and critics, and then… well, little else really changed.
These days their expectations are very grounded. They’re not expecting In Murmuration to make them megastars. And for the most part, they seem okay with that – confident in what they have already done, and in what they’re still capable of bettering.
“I really wish to myself, and all the whole band, that kind of fun, child-like mind, collectively,” he says, “so that we are able to transmit that somehow into our work environment. We are very serious about our art, but usually the best ideas come from goofing around a bit, and then it turns a little more serious after.
“And I think that if you just keep on going,” he adds, “if you just keep on doing what you love, there’s some grace that will keep you somehow protected from losing it all. You have to be humble. You have to be true to yourself and try, always, to do your best when you write new stuff. I mean, of course those thoughts of, like, ‘Oh, my god, this is too hard,’ they come, but they also go. So I’m not too bothered with that.”
He breaks into a rather knowing laugh. “And the moment we can’t make it anymore, we sell a few guitars, and maybe we can do it for another few months!”
At this point, their greatest source of pride is meeting the high standards they set themselves. Staying close, as brothers, business partners and bandmates. Making music that means something to them and their audience. Knowing that, not matter what ultimately transpires, they were fucking good.
“I mean, if this was the last album,” he says suddenly, “I think after five years we could look back and say that we had a good run. Probably we’ll just keep on doing it, but I think that it’s important to have these moments. Whatever happens, we can really be proud of ourselves.”
In the midst of busy lives those moments are rare but cherished. Evenings at the family cottage, with a new record or project successfully completed, are often when they happen. Swimming in the sea, or going in the sauna. Absorbing their forested surroundings. Cooking good food. Enjoying the restorative side of that strange, intense connection unique to siblings. The things that, in their own ways, really make life worth living.
“We value the brotherhood, and we love each other deeply,” Mikko finishes. “There’s nothing that we wouldn’t do for each other.”
In Murmuration is out now via DoingBeingMusic
