Mad Eyed Moose: POOR SEAMUS 02/08/2007

Poor Seamus @ Henry's Pub, Tampere (FI), 02.08.07

On August 2nd 2007, Mad Eyed Moose member Heidi met Poor Seamus before their gig at Henry's Pub in Tampere. We are proud to present you the interview here:

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Seamus sounds Irish. Why did you choose that name and not some Finnish name?

Anni: It is Irish indeed. Jussi heard it and thought it was a beautiful name.

Anna: He always said that if he had a son, he would call him Seamus. And then we decided to call our band Seamus. But because of the resemblance Seamus would have with The Rasmus, we had to put something in front of it, so it became Poor Seamus.

Anni: Jussi is also the one who drew the Seamus you can see on the album, with the oversized t-shirt and boots.

Who will be the producer(s) for the new album?

Both: We honestly don't know.

Anni: We have dreams and plans, but nothing concrete at the moment.

The next album will be rougher than the first one, not too clinical and technical, too perfectionist.

For the previous album you worked together with AH and Aki from Happoradio. How did you come to that collaboration?

Anna: Well, AH lives in the same town as most of us, and the guys were in the same class with him. He has a studio and we have always done our demos there. So it came natural to work with them for the album.

How long did recording and producing Sydney 5 Miles take?

Anni: The actual recording was done in two parts. The first part took about a month and the second maybe – (thinks)

Anna: Two months, something like that.

Anni: Yeah, it was longer than the first part. But we weren't in the studio every day, so if you only count the days we were really there, it wasn't that long. The recording went surprisingly fast. But then of course there's the mixing and producing. I think all together it took about one and a half year to really finish the album.

Why did you choose Sydney 5 Miles as the album name?

Anna: It's a part of a line in a song. "I want a sign saying Sydney 5 miles" from Tomorrow.

Anni: And Anna and Jussi have a bit of an obsession over Australia. It would be nice to be able to tour there. Anna and Jussi had the thought that if by 2010 nothing had happened with the band, they would give up and move to Australia. But obviously they had to let go of this idea.

Anna: But it would still be nice to visit the country.

Anni: And a funny thing is that there will never be such a sign 'Sydney 5 miles', because Australia also indicates distances in kilometres.

Have you got any influences music-wise?

Anni: Everyone has their own influences and examples. Jussi and Anna wrote the songs, so there are a lot of different influences mixed in our songs.

Anna: Jussi likes a lot of bands, from The Beatles to W.A.S.P. We (Anna and Anni) like the female singer/songwriters like Tori Amos and Sheryl Crow. And Jarkko likes Jimi Hendrix and Travis.

Jarkko: The drummer's role is really minimalistic, but really good.

Anni: And we all listen to the "new" bands like Muse and so on.

But basically the biggest influence must be The Beatles.

Is there any place/venue where you would really love to perform once?

Anni: (Straight away with shining eyes) Roskilde in Danmark!

Anna: And Australia of course. Or London…

Any gig that you would consider your best so far?

Anni: The most fun gigs are the ones we play in our hometown Loimaa. There's always a lot of familiar faces at those gigs. The gig last Friday in Loimaa was absolutely great again too. It felt really good and Jussi even jumped on a speaker.

But we've had a lot of 'good feeling' gigs so far.

Anna: Yeah, and the one we did in Virgin Oil was good too.

Anni: The first or the second time Virgin Oil?

Anna: The first time.

Anni: Oh no, that was absolutely not a good gig for me!

Anna: There's two floors where the audience can watch and they were really close to the stage, so you could really feel the audience. I liked that a lot.

Are there messages in your songs/lyrics?

Anni: That's a question for Jussi because he writes most lyrics. But as a rule, he never writes love songs. That's our job.

Jussi: Yeah, there are messages in the songs, messages for myself. But if someone reads the lyrics and thinks about them for a while, what they're about and what is said in them, they should be able to find the message. They may have another idea at first but when they think about it, they'll find it.

Anni: Or another message that suits the person reading the lyrics.

Jussi: Nois ive leT, for instance. At first sight, the words don't mean anything. But if you read the lyrics and have a good look at the title, the way it's written, you'll find the meaning.

Another song is Elephant's Eye. The hint for the meaning of that song is in the booklet. There's a picture of the Elephant Building in Thailand. It's a building in the shape of a white elephant. The eye is a big window of two storeys. And I was wondering who would be living there, they must be really happy. And I thought that if I lived there, I would be happy. Because in Thailand, a white elephant is the equivalent of our horseshoe, it's luck. So it's different for each culture what it is that make people happy, but the outcome is the same no matter where you are.

What is Home of the owl about?

Jarkko: Owls are not what they seem.

Jussi: That's from Twin Peaks. But the song has nothing to do with Twin Peaks.

Home of the owl is the name of a bar somewhere in the USA. But when I wrote the song, I didn't know that. Coincidentally the song is about a bar or a pub, or how people act in a bar. First they're fine, but then they start drinking.

Anni: (laughs) I suddenly see a new meaning for the line "I get cramps", the bad feeling after a heavy night.

Jussi: Most of the time, people go to a bar to find someone to date or to get to know new people. The song talks about when they go to a bar night after night and keep failing at meeting someone. They become frustrated.

Anna: So it's about love after all, a love song in disguise!

Thank you very much!

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POOR SEAMUS 02/08/2007

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