Anima

Anima began its journey as a five-piece heavy rock band in South-Helsinki, January 2005. The beginning was mainly rearranging of older songs composed by brothers Rissanen. In the process of buliding a setlist for a show, the concept of the name Anima was presented to the band by Matias and all accepted it as a suitable title. Basically the influences of each player were freely expressed and a consistent sound started to take form for the band. Brothers Rissanen's metal riffs blended in with J. Immonen's burton-ish repertoire of bass lines. J. Latvala and M. Reenpää had their thing clicking together pretty soon also, their combination being something along the lines of a valo-ish vocal and lyric blending into a tool-ish jazzy rock beat. This created the first lot of songs that were recorded on two demos. Demo 1 was finished 2005, Demo 2 in 2006. An EP titled Spirit Cultivation was compiled of these tapes and remixed, released daringly on 6th of June , 2006.
Gigs, rehearsals, and fun were to follow as Anima got involved in rock events around Helsinki. In the summer of 2006 it became obvious that Janne was going to need more time with Waltari, for which he played, and still plays, keyboards. We came to a conclusion that Andy was going to be the next bass player after he filled in for Janne on a gig. Soon after Janne informed that he would support the band in his own way but not play bass anymore. The switch was fluent enough, and Andy got it going right away. Andy being exclusively a bass player, he helped bring a certain classic rock-feel to the songs. More gigs came up and every time the band took on new challenges in the form of new songs and a more exploding live performance. As the summer of 2008 came to a close, the band had a show in Gloria, Helsinki. The hunch that Jussi was not so enthusiastic about playing anymore proved to be real after the show as he announced himself to be retiring from drumming. Although hard to swallow at first, he had always come by as a guy who didn't grind any useless excriment when it came to music and so it was quickly accepted and understood by the rest of the band. Anima sailed to harbor and put the ship in ropes to wait for what was happening next.
In 2009 the next step on the way came to the band in the form of Mr. Niko Hyttinen of Eno, Finland. Suitable for a young man as he was, he returned Anima right back to the heavy metal sound of the early times. Anima returned to the stage with a show more loud and visual than ever before. Some of the most memorable shows came to pass as the band got to shoot off at Tavastia Klubi, joining with Ville Tuomi of Suburban Tribe for Faith No More's 'Falling to Pieces' , and also teamed up with Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks in Henry's Pub, Kamppi for the Anima song 'Unbreakable'. Within a short timespan the band renewed its live sound considerably.
But all was not well in paradise. In taking steps toward heavy metal the band had drifted somewhat apart again. This was due to the fact that each musician had also evolved into their own directions along the years, also in their personal lives and this started to be the problem mainly with Andy and Matias. After a nerve-racking brainstorm, Matias decided to break up the band. Andy, already having told Matias he would leave, too, if the vocalist left, decided to pack his things. The guys had hooked up in Anima to play together, and so they would also leave together.
Time will tell what Anima members will do next.
In a nutshell, Anima came to be a safe haven where grunge gave some freedom to the sound, heavy metal was the bedrock on which all was built, and pop-rock blended in to give the mix a softer emotional side.
- ANIMA -