Mad Eyed Moose

Stratovarius MTR 2009

2009-09-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

Matias Kupiainen / Stratovarius (Myötätuuli Rock Festival Vantaa 2009)

You are stepping into the footsteps of Timo Tolkki, how does that personally feel for you? Like, taking his place, so to speak, and having to fill a certain position…

Well, yeah, I don’t know… I took it in a mellow way in the beginning because actually, when I was making this new record with the guys, and it was kind of easy because we started to record new music. But when I had to practise all the old material for the live gigs this year, it hit me like “Oh my God I have to play all this”. It was a really big job. I don’t know, I tried to take it that way that it doesn’t stress me out too much.

So you just go with it…

Yes, I go with the flow.

What is it like to play all the old songs with Stratovarius? Despite the fact that you have been referred to as a “killer player”, did you have some doubts how things would turn out?

Of course there are some parts in the old songs that I really, really had to practise like hell, but, I don’t know, every time when you play it live, you never know what you’re gonna get anyways, you live in the moment and try to do your best, that’s what actually Tolkki did also. If you’ve seen Stratovarius live before I came into the band, you know what the band sounds like live… But I think we are in the same line now with me. There are some very difficult parts and there are some very fast songs, for example “Speed of Light”, it’s really, really difficult and it doesn’t matter how many days and months you practise those songs, when you have to play them on stage you’re in that “adrenalin mood”, and you never know…

How did you first get involved with Stratovarius at all? Did they have a sort of casting where they were looking for a new guitarist? Or did you know them before or…?

Well, I knew Kotipelto from something like 2004/05, something like that, like, through the studio thing. But actually it went through Lauri. We were having this silly guitar hero gig at Tavastia Club in I think it was late 2007 and we played there with Lauri this guitar w***ing music and I played like 15 minutes with him and then I think Lauri spoke some kind words about me and my playing to the other guys and it was someday like in spring 2008, I think March, when Kotipelto came to my studio and then, you know, brought up the question, like “We have this kind of band and we don’t have any guitars, would you like to try it out?”. Since then I have been trying!

What about the work for Polaris, that’s your current album… How long have you worked on that album and are you satisfied with the outcome?

I think I made the first demo for Polaris in April 2008… But Lauri had some songs in his pocket already like in February. He went to Prague and rented a place for like one month and started composing work there and he has also composed for the previous years. So he had stuff and put that on the table. Um… It started quite early, I think. But actually, you know, when we started with the proper demos for the album it was like July or June last year. We went to Kotipelto’s hometown, Lappajärvi, it’s like a little town in the middle of Finland and we rented this big house and made some demos for a few weeks. Actually that was the first time I met Jens, something like one year ago. And it was something like autumn when we started to make some drum recordings near Helsinki in a summer cottage place. So if you think that the actual album was released in May, it took 13 – 14 months to do it.

Okay! And what kind of feedback did you get from the fans so far? Because it’s always kinda difficult when a band changes members… What were the reactions so far during live gigs and all?

So far it has only been really positive feedback from everybody. Of course there are some people who are, you know, hanging on to the Tolkki days and the Tolkki material, but I think this is a pretty good and fresh start for the band. If you know what the band has gone through like for the last 5 years, it’s nice to have a clean table now and a new CD out and things look better now.

So it’s like a new beginning for the band.

Yeah. And you know it’s like, they had so much fighting between Tolkki and the rest of the guys, so it’s very good now that things have settled down and there’s like positive vibes going on and not like “Oh I f***ing hate them” and all that… So it’s kind of good and I’ve been playing with the guys and if they had those bad vibes of course it would show to everybody else and also in the audience. But now it’s very good.

So did you change the band logo also because of those mentioned fights?

[laughs] Well I think the actual logo was made by that Hungarian woman who made the core from Polaris and we also tried some other graphic designers, I think it was last year in autumn at some point. There was some kind of things going on with the other guys, Jörg and Jens and Timo, they wanted to put this also like a fresh start, like, put a new logo on and put the whole band image on a new level. Actually this flower logo is what Tolkki has used since… oh my God…

Since forever?

[laughs] Yes! Since forever… So it’s like a sort of respect thing to him that we don’t use it anymore.

What feels more exciting for you? Festival gigs or club gigs, or which do you prefer?

Um… we did some club gigs in the UK and Russia and those were fun, but… I don’t know… The big, big festivals are a cool thing also because you can meet lots of people and other artists. But when you do these club gigs, you sit in the backstage, you know, and there’s nobody else there and you’re all alone [wails theatrically] and stuff like that… Or some guards say “You’re not allowed to go to the audience”. I think that’s bullshit sometimes. But, you know, both club gigs and festivals have good and bad sides. It’s nice to play anywhere! It doesn’t matter if I play in a little bar somewhere or in a big festival.

What are the best and worst things about being on a tour together and being stuck with each other for a long time?

Hmmm… I don’t know! So far there have only been good things but I think I can answer that question at the end of the year when we’ve had like 12 weeks of touring in the USA. [laughs] So far the longest trips have been 10 days in the UK and then we went back home. And then we took the train to Russia but that was only like 2-3 days. So I don’t know. It has been cool! They are all strong drinking guys and so there’s always a party. It’s quite nice, we will see!

Indeed! You have played in several projects and currently also have one called Fist in Fetus – let us know more about what you do apart from Stratovarius and how do you manage to get it all done at the same time?

Right now I’m concentrating on Stratovarius. Fist in Fetus is more like a hobby, you know. When I have some spare time then I go and do something with that. But let’s see… My friend Perttu Wänskä is the composer in Fist in Fetus and when he has a new song he just sends me the arrangements and all the sheets and notes, so basically I do this in the studio and play it. Let’s see, I think we’re gonna make some full-length album, I think it was meant to start in July this year, if there’s some time left. You never know. Like I said, it’s more of a hobby.

Alright. What is your general musical background? At what age did you start etc. and do you play other instruments?

Umm… I played acoustic guitar but I never practised like, you know, the piano or anything like that. I played drums for a few years when I was like 10 years old or so. Now just especially electric guitar.

Okay! Last question! What is your most favourite Stratovarius song to play live?

Hmm… I think it’s Black Diamond. I mean it’s such an old hit and you’ve heard that song 1000 times but it’s always fun to play that song. Very fast song and there’s some really cool parts, especially the solo part is one of my favourites!

So you will hopefully play that one tonight?

Yeah!

Cool!

Might be the last song of the set, as usual.

Great! Then that was it! Thank you very much for your time!

******************
Thank yous go to Matias of course, and also to Merja Halme and all the MTR staff, as well as Taija Holm.

Interview: Tina/Mad Eyed Moose
Photography: Natascha/Mad Eyed Moose

Concert Review LOVEX 19/05/2007

2009-04-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Gig review Lovex – Cologne, 19 May 2007

19 May 2007, Lovex had their first headlining gig at Underground, in Cologne, Germany. Lovex is a relatively new name on the German rock scene, but all the same the gig had sold out.

By the sound of it, support act Kind Im Magen did a great job warming up the audience, but they couldn’t convince us.

As if the temperature inside wasn’t high enough before, things really heated up once the six band members entered the stage. The band was very energetic and full of confidence. Every now and then, singer Theon missed his cue, but that was very well anticipated by the rest of the band, so that many a fan didn’t even notice the hitch.

The crowd went wild from the first note, with peaks during Anyone, Anymore and Guardian Angel, the two singles released in Germany so far.

An enjoyable night out.

Set list: Divine Insanity

Die A Little More

Bleeding

Runaway (Bon Jovi-cover)

Remorse

Anyone, Anymore

Halfway

Shout

Heart Of Stone

Larger Than Life (Backstreet Boys-cover)

Bullet For The Pain

Encore: Yours

Love And Lust

Guardian Angel

****

Review by Heidi van de Vreken

Review Myötätuulirock 2007

2009-04-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK FESTIVAL

Vantaa, Hakunila (FI) 16./17.06.2007

Line-Up:

Saturday 16.06.

12.30 MACHINE MEN (V-stage)
13.35 ENSIFERUM (THE VOICE-stage)
14.50 BLAKE (V-stage)
16.00 KOTIPELTO (THE VOICE-stage)
17.15 MOKOMA (V-stage)
18.30 LEVERAGE (THE VOICE-stage)
19.45 MAJ KARMA (V-stage)
21.15 POISONBLACK (THE VOICE-stage)
22.30 KOTITEOLLISUUS (V-stage)

Sunday 17.06.

12.30 CARMEN GRAY (V-stage)
13.40 PEER GÜNT (THE VOICE-stage)
14.50 PRIVATE LINE (V-stage)
16.00 AGNES (THE VOICE-stage)
16.55 BLEAK (V-stage)
18.05 VON HERTZEN BROTHERS (THE VOICE-stage)
19.15 TIMO RAUTIAINEN (V-stage)
20.30 APULANTA (THE VOICE-stage)
21.45 NEGATIVE (V-stage)

The Myötätuuli Rock Festival is located in the beautiful area of Urheilopisto in Hakunila, Vantaa.

The first time Myötätuuli Rock took place was in July 1997. Back in the day, the festival was run under the name of 'Bikini Summer' (now Myötätuuli Rock sounds a tad cooler and rockier, eh?). It changed into Myötätuuli Rock in 2001 and in 2003 it was made a two-day festival for the first time and gathered more and more people.

This year, 2007, it was MTR's 11th year and for the first time held on two stages onwhich only Finnish bands performed, among them Private Line for the fourth year in a row.

the two days were sort of divided into "Heavy Day" and "Rock Day" - the audience in our opinion was slightly younger on the sunday due to "teen" rock bands playing, such as Private Line and particularly Negative who have many teenage fans, whereas on the day before, quite many die-hard metal fans were to be seen.

Find MTR pictures in our Galleries.

CD Reviews

2009-04-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

Concert Reviews

2009-04-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Myötätuulirock, Hakunila, Vantaa (FI) / June 2007
Lovex, Underground Cologne (GER) / 19/05/2007

Contact / Imprint

2009-03-15T21:17:00.001-07:00

Mad Eyed Moose Promotions
c/o Tina Makiolczyk
Im Eulenbruch 19
51570 Windeck
Germany

Phone: +49 173 734 2874
E-Mail: info[at]madeyedmoose.com

Tourdates

2009-03-15T20:51:00.001-07:00

The Black Light Theatre
Apr 16 2009 Kauhajoki Kauhajoki (FI)
Aug 7 2009 Härmän Häjy Seinäjoki (FI)

Brother Firetribe
Apr 11 2009 After Eight Karjaa (FI)
Apr 15 2009 Apollo Club Helsinki (FI)
May 20 2009 Klubi Tampere (FI)
May 21 2009 Klubi Turku (FI)

Jonathan Casey
-

Happoradio
23.04 Espoo, Barona-Areena

Iconcrash
May 20 2009 Semifinal Helsinki

Leverage
May 1 2009 Red Neck Jyväskylä (FI)
Jun 12 2009 Sataman Yö-festival Jyväskylä (FI)

Machine Men
-

Outtakes
-

Ponies To Kill
Apr 18 2009 Rikala- salit w/ Kotiteollisuus, Salo (FI)
Jul 29 2009 On the Rocks, Helsinki (FI)

Private Line
June 13 2009 Myötätuulirock Festival, Hakunila, Vantaa (FI)

Seamus
May 6 2009 On The Rocks, Helsinki (FI)
May 22 2009 Red Neck, Jyväskylä (FI)

Shamrain
-

Anni Suominen
-

V:NESS
30.04.2009 Kempen Maifest (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)
16.05.2009 Sigmaringen tba (GER)
23.05.2009 Lippstadt Altstadtfest (GER)
12.06.2009 Thale Sachsen Anhalt Tag (GER)
13.06.2009 Wanne-Eickel Wanner Mondnächte (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)
19.06.2009 Greitz Thüringen Tag (GER)
03.07.2009 Hohenlimburg Stadtfest (GER)
04.07.2009 Koblenz Altstadtfest (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)
05.07.2009 Korbach Altstadt- und Kulturfest (GER)
18.07.2009 Schorndorf SchoWo (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)
31.07.2009 Kassel Zissel (GER)
05.09.2009 Mittweida Tag der Sachsen (GER)
19.09.2009 Köln Tanzbrunnen (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)
31.12.2009 Koblenz Palais (V:NESS & MARS) (GER)

Sammy (Private Line), Stuttgart, 16/09/2008

2009-03-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

Interview with Sammy in Stuttgart, 16/09/2008

This following interview was supposed to happen in a completely different way and with all the guys, but due to illness and time matters we ended up with Sammy alone and since we had something else prepared before, the interview was just a short one but still we hope you enjoy. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, could you give us a summary of the gigs so far? How's it been to tour Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Tell us a bit about the gigs, the places, the people…

It's been so many gigs, it's not easy to put it in one word, but we've been enjoying every gig I think, yeah. It's been really nice to see different kinds of clubs, different kind of audiences, different things, you know. And I think it's been great, I think we're really happy so far. Only one gig left, so… And it was really nice also to see Vienna and stuff like that and the people were really into it and the audience was great.

And was there much time for sightseeing or no time at all?

Actually in Vienna we had a little time, yeah, because we had a day off and we travelled through the night afterwards so we saw a bit of the town but basically the days are like sitting in the van and going to the club and doing sound-check, doing gigs and then go to the hotel, sleep a couple of hours and then go back to the van. And that's how it goes.

Yeah, it must be stressful; we had the stress too because we were travelling as well so now we can imagine what it's like to be on the road.

Yeah, yeah, the only thing is like… it's because you always have to choose if you have a nightliner or the hotel and a van or something like that and in this case it was like somehow easier to go for the hotel and the van but with that thing it's always like less sleep because after the gig it's really hard to go straight to the hotel and go to sleep because you maybe need more time and want to talk to the fans and you don't want to disappoint them, so… it's always like those little hours you go to the hotel and you can sleep maybe for three hours and then jump back to the van and go to the next city and the same thing again, so… But we really love doing this so all the gigs are worth the stress.

And do you have the problem that you wake up in a city thinking "Oh, where are we now?" or something like that, or do you know right away?

Erm, well, not really, I don't know… Many times I really don't know… but maybe the gigs are like bookmarks, so you know where you are, after that, yeah…

Okay. And what was it like to tour with Sister?

Tour… Fun! [smiles] They are like young and energetic and it reminds me back of the days when I, erm, you know…

…when you were "young and energetic"? [grins]

When I was young and innocent, yes! [laughs] But erm, yes, they are funny guys and it's nice to be with them. And they've always been really helpful and stuff like that. It's good.

Right. How do you deal with homesickness? Does it occur at all?

Home, sick home… hmm, well yeah, of course I miss home or something but it's almost like… when you're on tour, you go for that mood and it's so different… because it's quite easy actually on tour to hang around because it's like, somebody always says what you have to do and what time you have to be somewhere, you know… It's maybe… you don't have to think too much. It's like going there, you know, just the clown with the circus. It's like… of course I miss home but it's almost… always… after the tour it's almost scary, you know… After a couple of days home, you like… feel fucking useless.

Oh God… Erm, maybe we should change the subject… So we know that over the summer you've been working on a new album… How's that gone so far and can we expect you back here with the new stuff?

Yes, definitely! That's our priority number one right now, to finish the album and the songs. We have really good stuff on tape so far and we have done a lot of demos and stuff but we're still writing some new material for it because we want like the full package and we don't want a bunch of shit, we want every song to be fucking brilliant, so it still takes a little time to finish it but that's the priority number one and I think the tour has been great also because we have been in the studio a lot right now and this gives us a little bit of a feedback and being with the guys like 24 hours and it's always great to go back working after that. And yeah, I'm the kind of guy who is not very good with deadlines or something so I can't give you the exact date when it's done but it will be done as soon as it's done [grins] and it's gonna be some part of the next year and hopefully early and definitely we'll come back with the new album!

Great! Thanks a lot!

Thank you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A huge Thank You goes to Julie from Save The Night Booking for making this interview happen and to Sammy for taking the time and being lovely and helpful.

Moose Links

2009-03-10T18:05:00.001-07:00

Some awesome links to check out!

Happoradio International
~ Always wanted some Happoradio info in English? Here you go! ~

Leverage Forum
~ Official Forum of Leverage, check it out ~

Myötätuulirock Festival
~ THE summer festival to go to in Finland ~

Private Line Media Chest
~ All the media about the Hellsinki Pirates ~

United Lost Generation
~ Awesome German Private Line Support Page ~

Apulanta.de
~ German Apulanta Forum ~

Interview w/Flamer (Ex-Bleak) 10/03/2009

2009-03-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

When was FLAMER formed and why?
Caleb: Officially Flamer was formed the day Bleak broke up - that would be the 6th of Feb 2009 - but the idea of Flamer was born already in 2003. As for why - you could call my previous band, Bleak, a "difficult relationship". Me and the rest of the band members were heading for different directions and we all were really unhappy musically and otherwise. I realised if I was to do things my way, it had
to be with other musicians - so that's why Flamer was formed in the first place.

What is your music background?
Caleb: The members of the band are yet to be revealed but I can say this: all of the members in FLAMER are very talented and have a lot of experience in playing with bands - they've played in several Finnish groups that you've probably already heard of.

What kind of music do you guys play and has it changed during the years?
Caleb: The idea of the music style was born in 2003 when I wrote a song called 'Crossword', and I've developed it ever since - you can hear it in most of the songs on the album [Burns Inside] that I wrote while being in Bleak, but also in the new Flamer songs. It's hard to describe it shortly but let's call it " hooky gothgrungerock".

What does a rocker's spare time look like?
Caleb: I for one have no "real" spare time since a lot of my time is spent in songwriting and other projects I'm with at the moment. But maybe a enjoyable night at the bar, a walk in the park, a good book/movie and most important: good company, will do!

What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Caleb: FLAMER's songs are about issues that affect me so strongly that I have to write them down to get them out of my system - about the way of the world today, about people and their behaviour, about love, anger, lust, fun and all kinds of memories & thoughts that fill my head.

Do you write your own songs? If so, who?
Caleb: I write all the songs in FLAMER - with few exceptions: for example our song 'Pyromania' was co-written with our lead guitarist, Sigurd.

What's your favourite venue to play at or to watch gigs?
Caleb: Although I prefer venues with space and lots of crowd, the place isn't that important - the people and the feeling they give us, is what really counts. At best, it can be something that's pure magic.

Who is your shining star in live performances and why?
Caleb: In live performances, I'd say we all "shine like stars"! We all have a lot of experience in playing live and it shows.

What are your immediate career goals? (Next 1 to 3 years)
Caleb: The next step would be to start touring and record the album! Let's hope we'll get to release a single in Autumn!

Which one do you prefer, chocolate or strawberries and why..?
Caleb: I'd say chocolate with strawberries since both are delicious!

What could be found from your backstage?
Caleb: Lots and lots of scary stuff! Beware....

What do fans mean to you?
Caleb: I genuinely respect all the loyal fans that have shown undying support all these years. They are our brothers and sisters. I also welcome all the new fans, join the family :)

Have you ever experience anything crazy with a fan? Or what was the weirdest thing that happened to you with fans?
Caleb: One time I was singing in a bar and this drunken girl suddenly appeared behind me and tried to pull my pants down - and as I tried to keep them on, I fell and hit the ground, cutting myself in the arm quite badly and there was blood everywhere but I could only laugh. Her enthusiasm was admirable!

Will we see you in the near future :)?
Caleb: You will certainly see FLAMER in the near future! Just you wait ;)

******
Interview: Iris-Jasmin Merikivi

Moose Work / About Us

2009-03-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

What is Mad Eyed Moose about?
We are a free promotion website, spreading the word about all kinds of good music! Moreover, we work as a small music webzine; you can find interviews, pictures, concert- and CD-reviews on our site.

What do we offer?
- Forum maintenance
- Street Teams
- Graphics & Myspace design (Layouts, banners...)
- Tour map creation & maintenance
- Promotion on- and offline (bulletins, flyers...)

Contact us:
If you are an artist/a band and interested in our offers, feel free to contact us.
Simply send a pm on our Myspace or email:
info[at]madeyedmoose.com

SERIOUS REQUESTS ONLY PLEASE!

Our projects so far:

- Happoradio International Myspace

- Happoradio Street Teams

- Iconcrash Official Forum

- Leverage Official Forum

- Leverage Street Teams

- Machine Men Street Teams

- Private Line Media Chest

Add our banners to your site by copying the codes from the boxes underneath. :)

Moose News

2009-03-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + +

Sept. 20, 2009:

Interviews & Votings
Finally, the interview with Matias/Stratovarius from Myötätuuli Rock 2009 is online here! Interviews of Happoradio, The Winyls and Apulanta to come soon so please check back!
Please also vote for your favourite Finnish band at the MTV Europe Music Awards!
To vote, do the following:
1. go to http://ema.musictelevision.fi/aanesta
2. click "Paras suomalainen esiintyjä"
3. Next to band of your choice, cliek "äänestä" - done!
THANKS! :)

May 6, 2009:

April 7, 2009:
Ponies to Kill is one of the top five bands on Rock Band 2009 competition by finnish radio station Radio Sata.
Winner of the competition is chosen by audience, so go and vote for Ponies to Kill at Radio Sata!!!

To vote, you must tick the box next to the band you want to vote for and fill in the form below.

Nimi = name
Ikä = age
Katuosoite = street name
Postinumero ja -toimipaikka = postal code and state/region
Puhelinnumero = phone number
Sähköposti = email address

April 3, 2009:
|Ask Ilari / Private Line|
Hey folks! On the official Private Line forum you can now ask Ilari something you have always wanted to know! With some luck, your question wins a PL related prize! This runs until May 1st so be creative!

March 29, 2009:
The Hellcity Punks are coming to Austria and Germany beginning of April, so get your tickets now!
Check their Myspace for more info!

March 27, 2009:
|Pictures|
Pics now online of:
Happoradio @ Tavastia, Helsinki 26/03/09
Private Line @ Klubi, Tampere 22/03/09
Private Line @ Gloria, Helsinki 20/03/09

March 16, 2009:
Vote for Outtakes at Radio Rock NOW!
Outtakes need your help! Vote for them now on radio rock!

March 10, 2009:
Interview with FLAMER (Ex-Bleak) up now!

March 7, 2009:

=> Happoradio and Private Line are both playing at Myötätuuli Rock Festival in Vantaa, Finland, this year, on June 13!

March 6, 2009:
Site is relaunched! =D There will be interviews etc coming up, stay tuned!

Moose Artists

2009-03-06T14:11:00.001-08:00

APULANTA (Rock/Metal/Punk - FI)

BLACK LIGHT THEATRE, THE (Rock - FI)

BROTHER FIRETRIBE (Classic Rock - FI)

CASEY, JONATHAN (Rock/Progressive - IE)

HAPPORADIO (Rock - FI)

ICONCRASH (Rock/Electronica - FI)

LEVERAGE (Rock/Metal - FI)

MACHINE MEN (Metal - FI)

OUTTAKES (Rock - FI)

PONIES TO KILL (Metal - FI)

PRIVATE LINE (Rock - FI)

SEAMUS (Rock/Pop - FI)

SHAMRAIN (Rock - FI)

SUOMINEN, ANNI (Acoustic/Indie/Pop - FI)

V:NESS (Rock/Pop-Punk - GER)

Moose Pics

2009-03-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

BLAKE 16/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)
BROTHER FIRETRIBE 10/08/07 @ Virgin Oil (FI)
BROTHER FIRETRIBE 17/02/07 @ FME (FI)

CARMEN GRAY 17/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)

FLYLOW 14/07/06 @ TAMMERFEST (FI)

HAPPORADIO 26/03/2009 @ Tavastia, Helsinki (FI)
HAPPORADIO 15/12/06 @ FORSSA (FI)
H.I.M. 07/07/07 @ BRUSSELS (BE)

LEVERAGE 01/09/07 @ SARKANNIEMI PARK, TRE (FI)
LEVERAGE 16/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)
LEVERAGE 15/02/07 @ TAVASTIA (FI)

MACHINE MEN 26/10/07 @ Hellä, Tre (FI)
MACHINE MEN 16/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)
MOKOMA 16/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)

NEGATIVE 17/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)

PMMP 24/08/06 @ VIRGIN OIL (FI)
PMMP 12/07/06 @ TAMMERFEST (FI)
PRIVATE LINE 22/03/2009 @ Klubi, Tampere (FI)
PRIVATE LINE 20/03/2009 @ Trash Fest II, Helsinki (FI)
PRIVATE LINE 16/09/2008 @ Keller Klub, Stuttgart (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 14/09/2008 @ B72, Vienna (AUT)
PRIVATE LINE 12/09/2008 @ Rock City, Uster (CH)
PRIVATE LINE 11/09/2008 @ Garage, Saarbrücken (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 10/09/2008 @ Nachtleben, Frankfurt (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 08/09/2008 @ Wild At Heart, Berlin (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 07/09/2008 @ Logo, Hamburg (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 06/09/2008 @ Paunchy Cats, Lichtenfels (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 04/09/2008 @ Underground, Cologne (GER)
PRIVATE LINE 17/06/07 @ MYÖTÄTUULI ROCK (FI)
PRIVATE LINE 14/02/07 @ TAVASTIA (FI)

Moose Team

2009-03-06T13:45:00.001-08:00

Tina
- Main Editor
- Interviews
- Translations (German/English)
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contact: tina[at]madeyedmoose.com
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Moose Interviews

2009-03-06T13:37:00.001-08:00

2009
13.06. Stratovarius @ Myötätuuli Rock Vantaa

2008
16.09. Private Line / Sammy @ Keller Klub, Stuttgart
02.02. Private Line / Sammy & Spit @ Bar Ilves, Helsinki (video interview)

2007
01.12. Shamrain @ Gloria, Helsinki
08.11. Carmen Gray / Nicklas @ Bar Inferno, Helsinki
07.11. Lovex @ Underground, Cologne
03.10. The Ark @ Prime Club, Cologne
03.09. Serenity @ Matrix, Bochum
03.09. Machine Men @ Matrix, Bochum
02.08. Poor Seamus @ Henry's Pub, Tampere
27.06. Alterblood @ Bar Inferno, Helsinki
16.06. Pekka Heino (Leverage / Brother Firetribe) @ Myötätuulirock, Vantaa
19.05. Lovex @ Underground, Cologne
10.03. Flamer @ Helsinki
19.02. Pekka Heino (Leverage / Brother Firetribe) @ Helsinki

2006
14.07. Flylow @ Tammerfest, Tampere

Iconcrash @ Gloria, Helsinki, 01/12/2007

2007-12-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

Interview Iconcrash, Ghost Frequency Night, Gloria, Helsinki – 01.12.07

MEM: Tell me something about the band. Who is Iconcrash?

Jaani: Okay, Jesse is the bass player. He’s in charge of bad humour while touring and manager of parties. (laughter)
Matti & Jesse: True, true.
Jaani: And Anu, she’s the keyboard player and she is really into (laughs) Japanese stuff. She heard a lot about it.
Matti: So I have noticed.
Jesse: She is into the Final Fantasy soundtracks.
Jaani: She is like a mother sometimes, but sometimes not. She is really into parties too. Party mama. (laughter) Blush. (more laughter)
And Ose, he is always lost, like now. He is the drummer. (Finnish conversation about where he might be) So he is lost and always late. But like the best drummer in the world. I am so proud to have him in the band. I heard him play for the first time ten years ago and I was like “What the fuck, this guy is so talented!” And now he plays with us, and we are extremely happy… when he is around. (laughs)
And then Matti – we haven’t actually talked about Matti’s situation yet. Is he a full member or not? He is up on trial and we were meant to talk about it when we came back from Italy. But –
Jesse: We really haven’t had the chance to talk about it. But I’m pretty sure that he will be.
(Oskari comes in)
Jaani: Okay, there he is! So this is our drummer.
(Jesse leaves to get coffee)
Jaani: But he is already in the photos, so… He is like –
Oskari: Who, me?
Jaani: No, Matti. We haven’t been talking about Matti’s situation, like, is he a full member or what?
Oskari: I think he is a full member.
Jaani: Okay, what about Anu?
Anu: Yeah.
Jaani: Okay. He is a full member. We haven’t asked Jesse, but I know Jesse likes him, so he is a full member.
Matti: Let’s have a drink now! (jumps up to the fridge. Comes back) I can’t have a drink.

MEM: How would you describe your music?

Jaani: Ose, try.
Oskari: (mouth full of chocolate) I can’t right now.
Jaani: Anu.
(Anu thinks)
Oskari: You should be the one responsible for this, questions.
Jaani: No, it’s so cool, I don’t have to do these interviews alone. I’ve done this shit too much, so…
Matti: About what? What did you ask?

MEM: How would you describe your music?

Matti: Right, I’ve been in the band like… 2 months.
Jaani: No, two minutes! (laughter)
Matti: But I’m the one responsible for this. So…
Oskari: I think that it’s getting a bit darker now. Some poppy moods, a bit…
Jaani: Poppy melodies, but it’s much harder and rougher music. We have like really, really aggressive drums, just bass with lot of buzz. And keyboards feel dreamy, dreamlike keyboards.
Matti: And we have like the most beautiful guitars, and then we have these chainsaw guitar also.
Jaani: It’s much heavier, but not like – it has nothing to do with metal. But it’s darker and harder.
Anu: It’s more melancholic, not metal or poppy.

MEM: What does the name Iconcrash actually represent? Is it something religious or breaking with religion?

Jaani: They are two words that I really like combined. I’m really into orthodox art and stuff like that. I have like a love-hate relationship with icons. I mean like religious icons, not the poppy pictures. I’ve seen the dark side and the lighter side also. We are somewhere in the middle of them. And sometimes we are crashing into the walls when we are travelling far away.
(Jesse comes back in)
Oskari: It’s weird that you say that, because the first time I was playing with you, I had this feeling that if I had to paint this kind of music, it would be something like light at the end of the tunnel.
Jaani: There is something, but you have to run to it.
Oskari: It’s a long way there.

MEM: On your MySpace we can read that you are in the studio working on the new album. How is it progressing?

Jaani: (laughs) Really slowly. Actually we’ll start from scratch next week. We have been working on the album two years already, and now we have been a year and a half in Dynasty studios. We have recorded like sixty songs and now we have gotten down to ten. So we start from scratch next week and start recording drums and bass. Now we know exactly what to do.
Oskari: We have been trying different methods to do the record.
Jaani: First it was more electronic, but then the band started to sound really big and good. So it’s a real band album. First work was just, like, me, but now it’s better.

MEM: What can people expect from it?

Jaani: (thinks for a while) We have our own expectations of course… (silence) I think it will be a big surprise for people who know Iconcrash. It’s like a whole different band, totally different songs. Of course there’s some familiar stuff.
Jesse: Because songwriters always have this certain kind of autograph. But the whole band sounds so different.
Jaani: Yeah, and all the instruments are represented better. Because now I don’t have to think about all the instruments. I have specialists to do this stuff. I just need to focus on vocals and my… bad guitars.
Matti: Which will be replayed by me. (laughter)
Jaani: So true.

MEM: So it will be a completely different style from “Nude”?

Jaani: Yeah. You can still recognize it, but…
Oskari: Yeah, it’s recognizable definitely, but…
Jaani: It’s just going forward. And the third album, I think it will something whole different, I don’t know. I hate bands that are all the time doing the same albums again, again, again. I think it sucks.
Matti: But you got to love AC/DC.
Jaani: But we already have AC/DC.
Matti: Yeah, that’s true.

MEM: Where do you get inspiration for your songs?

Jaani: The lyrics? They are going through the stuff I experienced, years ago when I was more into the dark side. I didn’t realise what was going on then, but now I’m older and I hope wiser, so I am analysing it at the moment. It’s pretty religious. The first album was about the you-and-me stuff. Interesting, but I’ve done it already, so now I’m going deeper, in the spiritual world.

MEM: Do you have a favourite song to play live?

Jaani: I think each of us has something different, we have our own favourites. Jesse, what’s your favourite?
Jesse: Something light. Faith is one of my favourites.
Matti: My favourite song is also Faith.
Anu: It’s one of my favourites also.
Jesse: It’s really nice to play live.
Matti: It’s perfect. First it’s so melancholic with harmonic vocals, and in the end it’s like fucking chaos, you know. So cool to play.
Jaani: It’s my favourite also actually. (laughter) Ose, what’s your favourite song on stage?
Oskari: I don’t know, they’re all my favourites in a way. There’s the challenge to get in the mood for each song. I like the Anniki as well because there’s lot of challenge –
Jaani: Anniki is Faith.
Oskari: But Fifa is also nice.
Jaani: That is Between Light and Nowhere, the title of that song.
Oskari: Oh yeah, I’m using the ‘word-names’.

MEM: Do you have a lyric you are particularly proud of?

Jaani: (mouth full of chocolate) The lyrics aren’t ready yet, so… they will change. They are like 80 % ready. I don’t know.

MEM: Like you mentioned in the beginning of the interview, you have played a couple of gigs in Italy recently. How did the shows go?

Jaani: Really good. It was like a band school for us. Working with the new line-up. It was really cool.
Matti: We had so much fun there. Jesse was the manager of the parties. (Affirmative sounds from the others) He worked so hard. The party section was arranged properly. (laughter) And the gigs were also outraged. The Italian audience was great, they were all like “We want to hear your music.” It was pleasant to play for them. It was a good experience for us as a group, I think.

MEM: Is playing abroad a lot different from playing in Finland?

Jaani: Yeah, it was much more relaxed somehow.
Matti: But the sound checks are as slow as in here. So… everything was just fine.
Jaani: I liked more those kind of tours. I feel so much more relaxed.

MEM: That were all my questions. Thank you for your time.

Iconcrash: Oh, thank you.
Jaani: Have some chocolate!

***
Interview by Heidi van de Vreken
Copyright: MadEyedMoose.com

ShamRain @ Gloria, Helsinki, 01/12/2007

2007-12-14T19:47:00.001-08:00

On Dec. 1st our team member Heidi met they guys from the awesome Finnish band ShamRain at the Gloria in Helsinki for an exclusive interview. Here is the outcome, enjoy! :)

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Interview ShamRain, Ghost Frequency Night, Gloria, Helsinki – 01.12.2007

MEM: About your name... There is this Celtic harvest feast called Samhain which translates to "end of summer" and is connected with witches and ghosts, the Celts celebrate the end of the harvest then and that tradition is nowadays carried on by Halloween feasts etc. - Is your band name a wordplay of the word Samhain?

Kalle: No, actually it’s just two words, “sham” and “rain”. I think it was first “sham” only and there kind of needed to be another word added and it sounded cool, so…

Mika: Yeah. It was Matti’s idea. He said: “Okay, ShamRain.” I was like: “What is it?” “Nothing, but it sounds cool. I like it.” And we were: “Okay.” (laughs) No deeper meaning in that.

MEM: How important is it for you to use images of mystique and darkness and such for your songs?

Mika: I don’t think it’s something that we do, that we want to do, use that kind of images. It’s a natural way to express yourself.

MEM: It’s Matti who writes the songs…?

Mika: The most of it, but Kalle writes as well.

Kalle: I’m writing songs or music too, and also lyrics to my own songs. But mainly Matti.

Mika: And I’m kind of the producer of the lyrics.

Kalle: Yeah, Mika arranges the vocal lines and creates melodies for vocals.

Mika: The thing is, sometimes it can be like “Okay, this chords, it is going to be the verse, it works better” Changes in the lines and stuff like that…

MEM: Reason I was asking is because the next question is lyric related. What do you usually do to get inspired for the lyrics? Maybe walk over graveyards at nights?

Kalle: (laughter) No, no, it’s nothing like that. It also comes quite natural to write about such things. I get these lyrics from books I read, movies. Some lyrics are real life experiences inspired, but their stories are kind of lived in a different way, so that you can’t recognize them anymore.

Mika: Fact and fiction.

Kalle: Mostly fiction.

Mika: (laughs) Liar!

MEM: Your latest album is entitled "Goodbye to all that" - what is "that"?

Mika: Ha! That’s the thing. You can think about it. There is – Was there actually anything for “that”?

Kalle: Actually I thought it could be this code in the cover and it could be Goodbye to all that, meaning life, happy life and such. But it can be anything you want actually. It can be goodbye to all good things or goodbye to all bad things.

Mika: It’s kind of an opportunity for everybody to choose their way to go, you know. Goodbye to all that, if you got some shit behind, you have to leave that, you have to learn to let go and stuff like that. If you want to put it that way.

MEM: Could you possibly name a personal favourite song of this album and why?

Mika: Oh, too hard for me.

Actually, Stars Will Fall, for me, is – I don’t know, it just grew up when we went to the studio. Before that it wasn’t such a good song (Kalle, who wrote it, shakes his fist), but the thing is that, by the time you start working on it, it started to grow inside me. It’s like “Okay, this sounds kind of good.” And then it grew more and more and it was like “This is a fucking great song.” I don’t know what it is, but the song is so intense, like you get sucked into it. For me it goes like that. It’s not a mainstream song, but maybe that’s why it’s so good, for my opinion.

Kalle: I think Evangeline, because the lyrics, I love them. They are so sad and beautiful at the same time.

MEM: Tell me something about the album cover. Who came up with it, and is there a story behind it?

Kalle: Actually I got this ideas of doing sketch-like drawings and then I asked my friend, who drew them, and then I manipulated and put them together and made them negative. They were originally black drawings on white.

Mika: So is it kind of reversed colours or something?

Kalle: Yeah, kind of. I had my computer with me in the studio and made it there one night. I thought that it looked really cool and it was finished. (smiles)

MEM: You were supposed to tour in Germany last year already together with Iconcrash, how come it didn't happen in the end?

Kalle: I think the person who was organizing that got sick or something and she couldn’t arrange it. So she told us. But it wasn’t that serious. It was unfortunate, but hopefully we can arrange something later on.

Mika: We will see what is going to happen. We are trying to get the tour – probably next spring or something.

Kalle: Hopefully.

Mika: Hopefully, yeah.

MEM: What do you do when you have a really bad time within the band? Do you rather fight and not speak to each other for ages, or is everything solved right away in discussions?

Mika: We don’t fight so much, yet. Sometimes we did, but…

Kalle: We’ve had some fights in the studio last summer.

Mika: Yeah, we did!

Kalle: (sheepishly) It was kind of horrible.

Mika: Everybody was like “I want this.” “And I want this!” “Oh, fuck you!” “Fuck off!” But it’s just – I think it’s pretty natural. Everybody is so, kind of nervous all the time, because everybody wants the album to sound the best, you know. And if you have different opinions it’s always like banging your heads against the wall. But we’re not actually fighting so much. Maybe that’s because we’re not so much together. (laughter) Should be more, you know.

MEM: What do you think about people who come from abroad to see you?

Mika: Oh, it’s nice.

Kalle: Yeah, it’s really cool. It shows some kind of deep devotion to come from so far.

Mika: But of course, there’s like our album releasing party, we had to cancel it a couple of weeks ago, because I got totally sick (A/N: It was actually a week before this interview and is rescheduled for 14 December) and I was lying in bed for three or four days, I couldn’t do anything. I’m still sick. You can hear it in my voice and I’m all the time sneezing and coughing like hell. In those situations, it feels very bad because there were those people coming from Spain, from Germany and probably a couple from… (looks at Kalle for help)

Kalle: Russia.

Mika: Russia, yeah. But actually, I got to see two girls from Spain, because I was talking to them, “Okay, you can come and I can come out of my apartment for a couple of minutes and talk to you”, because they had a DVD of Entwine, the last – last December in Madrid, they had that and I stayed out for 10 or 15 minutes and they were kind of pleased.

But I felt so bad. It feels very bad. And it’s not the first time I had to cancel, because the last year has been very hard for me because of my throat and stuff like that. And I think it started last year after Entwine’s Fatal Design album. I have had a lot of shitty things with my throat. And it is what it is, you know.

But it’s nice that people are coming to see us.

How does it make you feel when people are very moved by your lyrics and they tell you that? Like when they have problems and your lyrics have helped them.

Kalle: It feels really good. When someone is saying “This song has helped me through” or “This song is the best I’ve ever heard” or something, it feels really good to get such feedback.

Mika: For me, it’s personally the main thing, when you hear something, that somebody says “This song helped me to realise something” or “go through a lot of shitty things” or “I got very good vibes from this” or whatever. That’s why I do music, to get something more out of it, to realize you’re not alone with your shitty things. That’s what it’s all about for me, personally.

Kalle: And it’s nice, since our lyrics mean so much to us, when someone else also finds them important. So it feels good.

MEM: Can you relate to that sort of feeling from your own experience with listening to songs or lyrics?

Mika: For me, it’s both actually. Especially in ShamRain because I’m not writing any songs. But the thing is that I can get really deep into those lyrics, because that’s what I have to do. Not have to but that’s the thing that I do, I want to express, you have to be like an actor kind of to – how can I put it? You have to be behind the lyrics and that’s what I’m trying to do. Not only with the melodies, but also the expression. What was the question about, I forgot? Did I answer your question?

MEM: Not completely, I meant more if you listen to other bands’ music rather than your own.

Mika: Oh, both for me, definitely. I’m not listening so much to the lyrics, but if something, you know, some melodies or some hook, layers, I get touched by that. I get deeper into it. But I have to admit that I don’t listen so much to the lyrics. I should. (laughs)

Kalle: I actually watch the booklet and read all the lyrics for albums first.

Mika: For me, I have to get moved by the music first. If it’s very good, I get goosebumps and go like “Okay, what the fuck is this?” and then I go to the booklet and “Okay”. I don’t know when it happened, but it kind of turned upside down. I used to be like first the lyrics and then what’s the rest… Maybe it’s the age thing. (laughs)

MEM: If you could be a mysterious animal of your choice, what would you be and why?

Mika: (thoughtful) Mysterious animal… What are those ghost – ghost animals, you know, the small ones in the rainforest or somewhere...

Kalle: With glowing eyes…

Mika: Yeah, glowing eyes, they are the ghost – ghost monkeys or ghost something, I don’t remember the name. Probably that. Big eyes and (makes ghostly sound)

Kalle: I think ehm…

Mika: Unicorn! (laughter) High five!

Kalle: Sure. Okay, let’s move on…

MEM: And why would he be a unicorn?

Mika: (looks at Kalle who is laughing a bit uncomfortably) That’s about it. But for me, ghost animal – ah, I can’t remember the name! Ghost something. I don’t know, there’s no reason.

MEM: They’re just cool.

Mika: Yeah. They are mysterious and stuff like that, but after all, they are a little bit like pretty normal things. They’re both, you know, very mysterious and very down-to-earth. (laughs) Both sides: the darkness and the light… (chuckles)

(A/N: Despite an extensive search on the internet, I couldn’t find the right name of the animals Mika is referring too. The closest to it are perhaps the squirrel monkeys, with big white rings around dark eyes.)

MEM: Okay, the final question: do you believe in life after death?

Mika: Depends. I guess… Yes and no. It depends what the life is after death, and if there is, where is it, you know. Is there a heaven, is it that your spirit just goes to some place and wanders around or is it left in here to check on the living people, trying to help them or whatever it is. But I really do believe that we do have a soul. Because if you see a dead person. When it’s lying in a coffin, it’s only a kind of a – what is it? – a shell. There’s no life in it, it’s just like a statue or something. So, there’s no life… Yeah, there’s no life, when you’re dead. (laughter) But you know what I mean, immediately it’s not a person anymore, it’s just some “thing”. That’s why I believe that your soul leaves your body and where it goes, you never know. Everybody can believe where it’s going. I really don’t know. Probably there is a heaven and hell, but this is different for everyone.

Kalle: This is too serious a question for me right now, I’m a bit hangover. (laughter)

Mika: (still pondering) Where do we go? Somewhere. (smiles)

MEM: Somewhere… Okay, that were all my questions. Thank you for your time and answers.

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Interview: Heidi van de Vreken

© MadEyedMoose.com 2007

LOVEX 07/11/2007 @ Underground, Cologne

2007-11-09T15:04:00.001-08:00

Interview Lovex 7.11.2007

Here goes Lovex #2. We had already met the guys back in May for some questions and now caught them again. Same place, different questions and a bit more disorganised which led to two interview teams and band splitting into 2 groups and doing the interviews at the same time in the same room. We kept it short; hope you enjoy anyway. :)

How has the Germany tour been so far?

Vivian: So far, the two gigs behind were two great gigs, very strong.

Ok. How are you feeling about being back here and has anything changed compared to the previous tour here in spring?

Sammy: We don’t have our bus anymore, so… We’re travelling with a smaller…. erm, actually quite big, van.

*laughter*

It’s a bit harder but –

Vivian: Well yeah, a bit tight, but we got used to it. And we have a few new songs on the setlist, new stuff.

Do you do anything social apart from music, like making donations or are you in organisations like Amnesty International or something like that?

Vivian: Erm… Well, Theon is - *he trails off looking over at Theon but can’t be helped out cos Theon is doing another interview a few meters away from us*

Well, I donate a few Euros every month to the children in Africa…

Christian: Unicef.

Vivian: Yeah, Unicef.

Are you planning to release your stuff abroad, in the USA for instance?

Vivian: Yeah of course we would like to but it’s all up to our record company, you know. We would like to release our album all over the world!

You have lately played on a ferry, the cruise gig called ‘Rock’n’Roll Circus’ – and we heard you had to argue about the playing time. What went wrong and how did you sort it out in the end?

*Everyone smirks*

Vivian: I don’t know… We played when we should play… For us it wasn’t a problem at all…

But for others…

Vivian: I don’t know…

We heard that some of the other bands were quite upset.

All: Yeeeeah….

Christian: Yeah, I noticed.

Vivian *sighs and rolls eyes*: Yeah, I noticed too. Private Line!

*Loud arguing starts*

Vivian: Well I don’t know, from our side… we didn’t do anything wrong! We just skipped our deal and… I don’t know why they were so upset.

What do you think about bands who perform drunk?

Vivian: Erm… hmm… well, I don’t know, I don’t have any particular opinion about that.

Now something about your personalities, how would you describe yourselves? What kind of characters are you?

All: Quiet!!!

Vivian: Shy!

Christian: But sometimes not at all shy. At night time…

*laughter*

At night time we are different persons.

Vivian: I think all Finnish males are a bit shy. I don’t know why but…

Christian: Then we get all drunk and start talking!

Vivian: Yeah, or something like that. *grins*

Did you ever experience anything crazy with a fan? Or what was the weirdest thing that happened to you with fans?

Vivian: Erm.. I don’t know… There’s nothing crazy we can say or… it’s not for the public eye.

*Everyone laughs*

Ok! Last but not least, do you have an advice for young artists, how to survive in the music business?

Vivian: Follow the dream

Christian: Train hard!

Vivian: Yeah, and be patient.

Sammy: Study some English!

*Everyone laughs*

Thank you!

Interview conducted by Jacqueline Duzaar and Saskia Steil

Photos: Tina Makiolczyk

Special Thanks to: LOVEX, The staff of Underground Cologne

And Alana, Markus and Sibel from Gun Records.

Serenity 03/09/2007 @ Matrix, Bochum (GER)

2007-11-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Here's the English transcript of the Serenity interview we did in Bochum. Enjoy!

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Interview with Serenity, Bochum 3.9.2007

Larissa/MEM: “First of all your name – how would translate it into German? Does ‘serenity’ refer more to happiness/joy or to equanimity?”

Georg: “It has several meanings, as you probably found out already. ‘Serenity’ means happiness/joy, which we found quite fitting for us as we usually are in good spirits. But it also means exactness, which we want to mirror with our music, as it has quite a progressive side as well. Which then fits with the meaning of exactness.”

Larissa/MEM:“And what are your favourite bands, who do you like to listen to personally and who would you say particularly influences you?”

Georg: “Right, this is both an advantage in the band and also a difficulty we have several different bands who influenced us or who we liked. For example our bass player, what music do you listen to?”

Simon: “Er…on the one hand more melodic black metal, and on the other melodic rock/metal.”

Georg: “On the whole it’s bands like Kamelot, Sonata Arctica, Nightwish who influenced us a lot. Symphony X definitely. Threshold, certainly also an influence for us. Right, and for our guitarist, for example – Yngwie Malmsteem.” *laughter*

Mario: “Yea.”

Franz-Josef: “Or even Queen.”

Georg: “Queen, yea, of course.”

Franz-Josef: “With their pompous choirs and stuff. And as Andreas said, several bands in the rock area, and, not to forget, classical influences as we are familiar with classic music and symphonies, great choirs.”

Larissa/MEM: “Do you plan to use classic instruments some time, or maybe play with an orchestra as well?”

Georg: “We have worked with orchestra samples on our current album, “Words untold and dreams unlived”, because a real orchestra is simply too expensive at the moment. Of course it would be our dream to work with an orchestra at one point in time, but that is really in the far future right now. But the next album will certainly contain even more orchestral parts than WUDU, that’s what we can say definitely.”

Larissa/MEM: “And do you have plans concerning the heaviness for the next album?”

Georg: “Yes. More bombastic and classic elements, and more heaviness. So both sides will be increased, really. We just want to make an even better album than the current one. Which should always be the goal of a musician.”

Franz-Josef: “In comparison to other bands, we also try to produce an authentic piano sound, so we try not to keep using always the same piano or an electric one. To have an authentic piano sound.”

Georg: “That means in the studio we also work with a real grand piano and not with samples.”

Larissa/MEM: “And how do write lyrics? Do a few of you write the lyrics and the others the music, or does it flow together?”

Georg: “Mainly it is two people of the band, me and our keyboarder, who are responsible for the lyrics, but the music is written by all of us really. Of course, it always happens that one of us, guitarist, keyboarder or singer, has an idea, develops it and presents it to the others, and we work out the whole song together.”

Larissa/MEM: “So it’s not like you have the lyrics before writing the music.”

Georg: “No, it’s rather the other way round, the music comes before the lyrics. That is usually the case. That makes it possible to judge by the melody if it is more of a light-hearted piece or a more melancholic one, and to adjust the lyrics accordingly. Or to see what topic you want to treat in your lyrics at the moment.”

Larissa/MEM: “On your current album, did you consciously emphasize themes like death or “lost love”?”

Georg: *laughs* “Yes, curiously those things crop up repeatedly. If you take “Forever” with the line “forever your eyes will be closed”, or “standing at your grave, on a sleeping bed of roses”, there is a lot about death, when on the other hand we are also Serenity! But yes, I think the lyrics are quite suited to allow you dealing with the depressed side every human being has.”

Franz-Josef: “That often lies close together as well, death and life.”

Larissa/MEM: “So, and what about the cover illustration? If, how is it related to the lyrics?”

Georg: “It is not directly related to the lyrics but rather to the title. The title was born at a time when we did not yet have a deal, but after we had released the demos and gained excellent critiques and votes, without receiving any offers from labels, though. At that time the words of the title were extremely fitting. As in respect to “words untold”, as band we still had so much to say and great plans, and those “dreams unlived”, when you opened magazines like Rock Hard and saw Kamelot and Symphony X, that was where we wanted to be as well. So that is the situation we wanted the cover to reflect, this dream-world with the butterflies and beautiful landscape, and the circle with the fire as the reality in which we lived while things didn’t look that rosy for us, that is, while we had no offers from labels.”

Larissa/MEM: “Are the illustrations within the booklet arranged in a sequence? Because it seemed like that to me, first you have these rather torn images and in the end a whole face surrounded by butterflies? Or did I imagine things and it was just chance?”

Georg: *laughs* “That was chance, really.”

Larissa/MEM: “Uh, okay. And do you have concrete plans for the next album?”

Georg: “Yes, we have concrete plans. That is, we have four songs basically completed, though the lyrics are not yet fully finalized. As for the direction, it will be more bombastic, heavier. We also have plans in respect to the production, but I don’t want to say much about that yet as we do not yet know if we can get the producer we want to. Which is also a question of budget. In any case we will do the orchestral part in Prague again, as we did on our current album, and we also intend to use the same cover illustrator, as we like the artwork he did for WUDU very much. So we want to keep going in that direction. As for the booklet, you can see there are five or six different drawings, each of which could have been the front cover. That is how we received them anyway. The illustrator sent us four different sketches, each of which could have stood on its own, and we decided which we wanted on the front cover, and the remaining ones we integrated into the booklet.”

Larissa/MEM: “And the current tour…?”

Georg: “Of course it’s a wonderful opportunity to tour with a band like Kamelot, firstly because we can play in venues of 1200 to 1500 people every night, and we get to countries like Spain and England where we have never toured before. And then the chance to tour with Symphony X, personally I think we have managed to get the best bands to tour with. *laughs*”

Larissa/MEM: “Is it two separate tours, one with Kamelot, one with Symphony X?”

Georg: “Yes.”

Larissa/MEM: “Chances that you’ll headline a tour?”

Georg: “That seems to have little merit at the moment. A lot of people come to us each night after the show, going ‘Hey, I had no idea you existed at all. It was a great show, I bought a CD and a T-shirt, I will certainly come back for the next gig!’. It will probably make sense only when you have done three or four tours, then you can try. But I think even with the second album it will be too early. Maybe with the third…depending how it sells – we still don’t know how the current one will sell, so…*laughs*. At the moment it looks quite good, also in Japan, where there album is much in demand.”

Larissa/MEM: “What are the chances that you will go to Japan at one point?”

Georg: “We don’t know yet, either, because it quite a financial enterprise. The Japanese label would have to cough up a lot of money to pay for our flights, accommodation and stuff, so…”

Larissa/MEM: “So the Kamelot-tour will cover Europe mainly…”

Georg: “Yes, England, France, Netherlands, Spain. Actually those countries they hadn’t covered in the first leg of their European tour two or three months ago, in April.”

Larissa/MEM: “How did you get into contact with Kamelot?”

Georg: “Through our booker and our management respectively. I also know the guitarist of Epica, who were on tour with Kamelot for quite a while now, and he put me in touch with Kamelot’s guitarist directly. So it went rather smoothly.”

Larissa/MEM: “Will you play festivals as well?”

Georg: “Yes, next summer. We are confirmed for the ProgPower UK, with bands like Evergrey and Vanden Plas. We will certainly play some summer festivals, though there are no fixed schedules yet. We have a few offers for Holland, Belgium and Germany. So there will definitely be festival gigs.”

Larissa/MEM: “Okay…*fidgeting*…are there any ‘last words’ you’d like to get rid of? Because I have run out of questions.”

Tina/MEM: “I have one left! – What is it like to tour with so many bands? Do you get along with each other, are there rows?”

Franz-Josef: “Well, there are no serious rows, but of course it takes a few days to get to know each other – or not…*general laughter* You know that the European and the Scandinavian – or Finnish - mentality is quite different…so naturally it takes some getting used to each other.”

Georg: “It’s just strange to get up early and wish someone ‘good morning’, and they look at you and just say nothing. But that’s okay, I mean, that’s them. They tell you that, and they are like that among themselves – just looking at each other saying nothing!”

Franz-Josef: “Unless they are sort of tipsy.”

Georg: “Then they are party guys.” *laughter*

Larissa/MEM: “So what percentage of the time are you sober? Or drunk?”

Franz-Josef: “Do we appear drunk?! *laughter* I think you wouldn’t manage this if you were drunk each night, because usually we head for the next location at two or three o’clock each night. Unless we have to leave later the next day, then we might seize the chance and hang out after the show, maybe go to a pub. Basically it’s show over, take down the equipment, stow it, and go to sleep afterwards, and wake up in the next town.”

Larissa/MEM: “So you don’t see much of the cities you visit?”

Franz-Josef: “Not that much. Though we try to have a look around for a few hours each day.”

Georg: “It also depends which job you have within the band. I mean, I haven’t been drunk on this tour yet and will not get drunk in the future either, simply because I could bin my voice the next day. So there are a few unlucky jobs.” *laughs*

Franz-Josef: “Though this doesn’t apply to all musicians here.”

Georg: *pointing at drummer & bass player* “Those two are our specialists concerning alcohol.”

Andreas: “We’re always sober.” *laughter*

Larissa/MEM: “Okay…”

Georg: “Well, thank you for interviewing.”

Tina/MEM: “Quite spontaneous.”

Georg: “So what, you have to be spontaneous, right?”

Larissa/MEM: “Apologies for the disorganization, though.”
Tina/MEM: “I’m going to zoom in on you again, you said nothing at all.” *zooms at Mario*

Georg: “He’s handicapped, but still our friend.” *laughter*

***

Interview: Tina Makiolczyk & Larissa Budde

THE ARK 03/10/2007

2007-10-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

Interview with THE ARK @ Prime Club Cologne
October 3rd, 2007

On October 3rd I (Tina) met Ola and Leari of Swedish Eurovision participants The Ark for a short chat at the Prime Club in Cologne. Due to a couple of journalists taking a tad longer than planned, I hopped on the bus to catch the guys for a few questions - also a bit longer than planned. Especially Ola was pretty worn out and tired so extra thanks for taking the time for this, Ola and Leari!

****

MEM: So first of all maybe you could tell me a little bit about your musical background? How did you start making music at all, like when and why?

Leari: It started in the southern parts of Sweden. We come from a city called Växjö, Rottne, actually, and I think we started to play music 'cos we found some records in our brothers' and sisters' and parents' closets and we were these guys that were more like outsiders. We didn't like to play football and to just hang around; we wanted to do something more with our lives. So we started a band. And actually it was Ola, the lead singer here, that came up with the idea of starting a band. And that was fantastic because it was an opportunity to find or make a totally different atmosphere, a little culture with your friends and yeah, I think that's one of the main reasons why we started to like, rock over Växjö and be in a totally different atmosphere, a totally different world. And we moved from Växjö, actually, because we wanted something more.

Ola: And culture started growing in Rottne.

Leari: Yeah. As we speak.

MEM: How would you describe your style of music and did it change during the years?

Ola: If I would describe it today I would say that it's some sort of new wave glam rock, rock opera. And throughout the years we have sort of circled around these fundaments of glam rock and psychedelic rock and classic rock music, new wave music. But I think that changed a bit but it's always been sort of the same foundation. You can spot there influences from David Bowie, Abba, Queen and Kiss… But then this changed slightly from every record because we want every record to be unique. I think the first album was very… I don't know, it was a bit musical-ish, the second one was a little bit more bombastic, the third album was very disco influenced and this new album is a sort of a mixture between all the previous albums. But I think that our music has been always a sort of mixture between these… Bowie, Beatles, Abba, Queen…

Leari: And we've been listening to all that as well. We're into that scene, late 60s early 70s scene and I think we have tried to deliver our own sound of these inspiring bands, like Ola said, like Bowie, things like that.

Ola: Yeah. It's probably a combination of the early 70s glam rock and glitter pop, in combination with late 70s, new wave and power pop.

MEM: Okay! So… you did take part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year, how did that feel, and would you participate again?

Ola (laughing): No I think we'll never participate again. It felt quite strange but it was fun to us, it was very much an experiment. We were working in a new way with media. I think that our initial ambition was to create a big buzz in Sweden around the fact that we were releasing an album this spring. And in Sweden Eurovision is a really, really huge thing so we felt that if we, being an established rock band, would participate in that, which in many people's minds is just a sort of erm… very kitsch, kitsch and a sort of banal occasion, we thought that would create a lot of attention and it certainly did, you know. But then, it was never in our plan to actually win the Swedish contest. Our plan was to come second or third or something like that (laughs).

Leari: We were One in Sweden!

Ola: Yeah, we were too good! (laughs) And so we came to these European Finals… It was big fun and we met a lot of people from all over Europe and we got the chance to speak to a lot of media, journalists from all over Europe.

MEM: Aha, well that sounds great then! Now I have a question about one particular song, 'This Piece Of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm' – is that referring to Shakespeare? I mean obviously it is but, you know, what do you think about Shakespeare and do you think that his sonnets are actually dedicated to a man or a woman?

Ola: Oooh that's interesting! I think I have always been inspired by Shakespeare and especially sonnets and I think especially the metre, the rhythm in his writing is very nice. But then, also Shakespeare's texts are like the Bible. It's like part of the universal knowledge, it's like part of everyone. So if you refer to Shakespeare, it's like referring to something everyone can relate to. That's why I refer a lot to The Bible and to religious stuff, but I also sometimes refer to stuff from classic literature that people can relate to, I think that just gives the feeling of, you know, that sounds like recognition. And I like the idea of paraphrases and travesties, you know, you sing a phrase that people are familiar with, like "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" or "In God we trust" and then I twist it around saying "In lust we trust"… And I like these mixing high and low things, and "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is probably one of the world's most famous love poems. And it was interesting to like take that poem and like put it in a mixer and just tear it apart and make a hate-poem out of it. That was a fun idea that I had and so the reference to Shakespeare is absolutely supposed to be there. And I think that some of Shakespeare's sonnets are… it's pretty clear that they are written to a man, and the others I don't know. I'm not that familiar with him, so I don't know all about it.

MEM: Okay. So what's your favourite piece of lyric then, from your own songs?

Ola: Actually I think that 'This Piece Of Poetry' is maybe one of the best lyrics I've ever written. I always get shivers down my spine while singing it because it's pretty powerful and it's pretty harsh and I like it because it's sort of angry. And I like that stuff that I write that is angry. I think that one of the best lyrics on the new album is 'Death to the Martyrs' which also has got that sort of angry attitude. Besides that I think that 'It takes a fool to remain sane' is a very good lyric, so if I would choose one from every album I would say 'It takes a fool to remain sane' from the first one, from the second one… I don't know, maybe 'Beauty is the Beast' is a pretty good lyric, and then on the third one 'This piece of poetry', on the last one I would say 'Death to the Martyrs'.

MEM: And does your country, Sweden, or the mentality of the Swedes have any influence on your music?

Ola: Yeah, I think in many ways. In one way we are very Swedish in the sense that we, though we're a glam rock band, we don't believe that much in glamour. We believe very much in hard work, which is a very sort of Swedish social democratic Luther and Protestant philosophy. (grins) And I think that's very much what we believe, we have a pretty hard working discipline when we work with our music.

Leari: On the other hand we're not that Swedish 'cos we go our own way. And I think The Ark's strength is to believe in yourself and be quite comfortable with the idea of being ridiculous and doing ridiculous things sometimes. And that's quite unusual for Swedes.

Ola: Yes. Swedes in general are very afraid of conflicts. And they are very afraid of seeming ridiculous in the eyes of others, so in that sense, the Swedish mentality is also influencing The Ark because we're sort of, well, what we're doing is a sort of a protest against that mentality.

MEM: Okay. And have you ever considered singing in Swedish?

Leari: We have done one song in Swedish. Well, we haven't done the song but we did a cover version of an old Swedish prog band. We did a disco version of a song. The disco scene in Sweden with Abba and things like that in the 70s wasn't that… - well, the prog scene in Sweden was quite political and quite strong at that time and the disco scene wasn't; they didn't really like the disco scene in Sweden in a way. But anyway, we did that disco version of a band from the 70s who actually did that prog thing and actually he liked our version!

MEM: Good! (grins)

Leari: Yeah! He's a little old now. (laughs) He accepts disco.

MEM: Okay! (smiles) Well, I've cut the questions down a little bit so this is the last one; what are your plans for the future?

Leari: Rock the world!!!! (laughs) I think we're gonna keep on doing what we're doing until it gets boring or it's not fun any longer. I think that's the most important thing when you're in a band, that it's fun to do it. And it's very fun so I think we'll keep on doing this, we'll see!

MEM: I hope so!

Leari: Mhmm, I hope so as well!

MEM: Okay, I think that's it from my side, thank you for taking your time for this!

Ola & Leari: Thank you!

****

Interview: Tina Makiolczyk
Special Thanks to: The Ark, Gun Label Group, in particular Sibel (thank you SO much!) and the Prime Club Cologne.

Interview © MadEyedMoose.com 2007

CARMEN GRAY 11/08/2007

2007-10-14T13:06:00.001-07:00

MEM Interview with Carmen Gray

Iris-Jasmin met Carmen Gray's singer Nicklas in Helsinki on August 11, 2007.

MEM: How was your summer?

Nicklas: How has it gone...fast or...though it hasn't gone yet. *laughs* Summer came back. Just fine, thanks. Just gigging, though there has been more but its enough. We entered the studio to produce a new single. Everything is good and we got good news

from Japan too.

MEM: So, will you go to Japan?

Nicklas: Oh, I don't know, hopefully ;) *winkwink*

MEM: How are you going into autumn?

Nicklas: Relaxed J Luckily winter comes soon. *smiles*

MEM: Will you start working on your new album this month?

Nicklas: Now we are only doing the single. We will propably start doing that album next month. We just have to get the single ready... actually it is ready but it just needs to be mixed first. There's good stuff coming ;)!!

MEM: Will there be any changes in your music genre?

Nicklas: Well... changes, it goes to a better way, of course. It 's been a year since The Portrait Of Carmen Gray, so we have learned something from that time and it will become "more professional shit".

MEM: Why do you guys want to play rock in particular?

Nicklas: Why? Those are the big questions of life. *laughs* In the beginning we didn't sit down and keep any "voting session" like: "Who wants to play finnishpop? Ou, O.J wants but no one else does, how about rock? Here's three people who want..." *laugh* No, not like that. I have always been interested in rock and I have always sung it. When i was a teenager I had some kind of thing going on, I tried my limits like heavy screaming and everything. It just wasn't my thing, it just comes naturally.

MEM: Does any other band member have other band projects?

Nicklas: Not as far as I know. Hopefullly not *laughs* O.J had, he played in Godsplague, but now he plays completely in CG.

MEM: Do you spend time together with the other band members or do you all live your own lives?

Nicklas: It depends... we are together but now I live in the city centre, so I have to be separated from the boys. They're hanging together in Kannelmäki. I try to be as much as possible with the boys. They're my best friends.

MEM: What do fans mean to you?

Nicklas: Well... what do they mean.. they mean to me, of course, very much. Without them it wouldn't be such fun to do this, I would do it, but certainly it wouldn't be as much fun as it is now. *smiles*

MEM: How do you feel about that idea that you are a celebrity?

Nicklas: o.o I haven't thought about that yet, I don't see myself as a celebrity. Not at all! If I go somewhere and someone asks, am I some kind of celebrity, I answer no, I'm just Nicklas. I sing in a band called Carmen Gray but that's it. I don't think that anyone keeps him/herself as a celebrity, or maybe Leppilampi *laughing* I really don't know, I haven't got there yet. *smiles*

MEM: Can you go into the city without fans who follow you and scream?

Nicklas: Yes, of course I can *smiles* There are times when you see those lovely fans, then i stop and talk to them.

MEM: What does a rocker's spare time look like?

Nicklas: Well.. a rocker's spare time is... it depends where you are when you have spare time. I don't have much free time, hardly none at all. That free time what I have might be, that I go to the shower and being online on the computer. I have always something, sometimes it pisses me off. There isn't that kind of free time that I could lie on my couch and watch television. Not at all..

MEM: Who is your role model and why?

Nicklas: I have many role models. Musically it is of course Axl Rose and also in attitude level my brother. As a person it is my mother. There's many of them.There isn't just one that should imitate. *laughs and smiles*

MEM: Have you always been musical?

Nicklas: Yes, I have always been. My brother threw a guitar into my arms when I was four years old. I have always been surrounded by guitars and other instruments which I played. My brother showed me, how Guns 'n' Roses' Patience goes, I was so enthusiastic learning c, g, a, d and like that. Singing came when I tried to imitate Axl and my hair grew at the same time.

MEM: Why did you change your style from the beginning style to as it is now?

Nicklas: I'm not aware of it, I don't look at old pictures like "Oh, I looked like that, now I have to change that hat to another!" *laughs* It just comes, I dress up clothes where I feel good and look good. I look like I feel.

MEM: What fascinates you in your stetson?

Nicklas: It's goddamn fine! *laughs* Why do you wear your beautiful necklace? What facinates you in it? *smiles* It's just so fine, it fits well on my head, it's comfortable and protects well from rain! *both laugh*

MEM: Do you like books or comics more?

Nicklas: Comics. I read everything, if they're good. For example Donald Duck is of course the best! And Viivi & Wagner is also very good. *smiles*

MEM: If you have to choose, which one of the characters you would be in Donald Duck?

Nicklas: Jaa-a.. maybe I would be Super-Duck.. That would be really cool! *laughs*

MEM: What is your bad habit?

Nicklas: Bad habit? Jaa-a... I don't have any bad habits anymore. I quit smoking half a year ago, which is wonderful! *smiles* Hmm... chocolate eating is likely worst. I love chocolate! Especially Marabou's original and nut. *drools*

MEM: If someone would sneak to your wardobe and open it, what would he/she find?

Nicklas: Cockroaches!! *laughing* Just kidding! Terrible mess and with good luck he/she could find something what I have worn sometimes. It shouldn't be dirty but it could be messy *laughs* I am a very clean person. *smiles*

MEM: And the last question, what do you wish for the future?

Nicklas: I hope that I and people around me are happy. *smiles*

MEM: Thank you for this interview. It was very fun to do this with you! *smiles*

Nicklas: Thank you very much too!

Interview: Iris-Jasmin Merikivi

MACHINE MEN 03/09/2007

2007-10-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

A bit late, but here it is. We did an interview with Antony, J-V and Eero from Machine Men, at the Matrix in Bochum on September 3rd. Apologies to J-V for not knowing how to pronounce your name (duh, Finnish way or English way? ). Anyway, here is the transcript of the interview!

****

MEM: So you have been to Germany before… Have you tasted any traditional German food yet or German drinks and what did you enjoy most about German stuff?

Antony: I think drinks. I like this German white wine… I get it from Finland also but… I like German white wine.

J-V: Beer!

MEM: You like the German beer? I heard it's nasty.

J-V: I do!

MEM: Okay! And what about you? *looking at Eero stuffing himself with sweets* - You like the cookies?

*Everyone laughs*

Eero: Yeah! I really like them, do you want some?

MEM: Eeeehm… nah thank you, not at the moment but maybe later! So how come you have a German management or did I get something wrong there? Because on your website it says for management please contact Continental Concerts, and that's German, so how come you don't have a Finnish management?

Antony: We have just a Finnish booking agent. They heard our first album and they really liked it, and actually it was kind of a mess, that whole start because there was also one manager guy who told bullshit to Continental Concerts and that he would be a manager and booking agent of Machine Men, but he wasn't, so he lied… Then I emailed to Continental and asked them if they were still interested in Machine Men and they said of course.

And then we flew to Germany and spent two days there so…

J-V: Yeah it's a good company, so why not! It doesn't matter if it's a Finnish or a German label, as long as it's good.

Antony: Yeah.

MEM: So you've just come from the Netherlands, how were the shows there?

Antony: Eerm, it was okay. I think the audience were –

J-V: a little bit… lame.

Antony: Yeah.

J-V: Hm, well, I don't know, it was okay.

Antony: It was great to be travelling again.

MEM: So what are you the most excited about on this tour in Germany and actually the whole European tour, what are you most excited about or what do you expect of it?

J-V: I like to be on stage, that's the best.

Antony: It's a great thing, but I also like to see new places. I'm also like a tourist, you know. So… I like to see new places and… I don't know, playing, it's always fun to play somewhere else than in Finland.

MEM: Could you name any striking differences between the Finnish fans at home and the German fans for instance so far?

Antony: Finnish fans are more drunk. Or fans or anywhere people are more drunk, so, sometimes I feel like it doesn't matter what you play on the stage then, they like it.

MEM: So you mean because they're drunk, they like it no matter what?

Antony: Maybe, yeah.

Eero: And Germany has much older people who want autographs and stuff like that, I noticed that.

MEM: So what do you think about that then? About autographing, is that fun for you or do you think "Oh not again" or…?

Antony: Yeah of course, if someone wants my autograph, it's my pleasure, of course, so, I can do it always.

MEM: Ok. Coming to your music actually, first a bit about your past…

Antony: Talk past.

MEM: Yeah, exactly! Well, your guitarist erm… what's your name again?

All: J-V!

MEM: Eh yeah, sorry, I really had troubles pronouncing… Anyway, you've been in a band called Palmcut before together with Jack who's now in Private Line, I wanted to know is there now a kind of rivalism between the bands? Or do you enjoy when you have a gig or when Private Line have a gig or is it kind of "Oh they/we are better" or…?

J-V: Oh, no, we are great friends still, of course. He lives like 300km away from us but we see each other quite often. So it's not a competition between the bands.

Antony: And it's a totally different kind of music. Otherwise it would be a problem.

*laughter*

J-V: Yeah. But we are great friends.

MEM: Why did you split with the other band anyway? Was it not going so well because you have CDs out I think…?

J-V: Palmcut?

MEM: yeah.

J-V: Well, Jack moved to Helsinki and we didn't have the time… and I started in Machine Men then.

MEM: Ah ok. So how about the others, were you in bands before or was Machine Men your first?

Antony: Yeah. Actually we had a cover band that played Ozzy Osbourne songs, a year ago or something. Nothing else. I had just one project… it's just at Christmas time, nothing serious.

MEM: Oh, is that that Finnish singing stuff? I think I saw that or I read about it…

Antony: Yeah!

MEM: Okay! Well, I heard it through the grapevine, you *pointing at Antony* are actually going to do the background vocals on the new Leverage album – and greetings from Pekka by the way! Is that true and have you started recording yet? And how did it come to that collaboration anyway?

Antony: Yeah, I was singing in the studio about a week ago. I knew the owner of the studio and the owner of the studio is also a guitar player of the band, so… he just called me, is it possible to come to the studio and sing and I said yeah of course. And also we recorded our first album in that same studio.

MEM: What do you think about Finnish bands and bands who sing and write their lyrics in Finnish and was that ever a possibility for you as well or not at all?

Antony: We've never thought about singing in Finnish.

J-V: I don't like the idea.

Antony: Yeah. Then you would tour just in Finland. And…

J-V: There are a few good bands in Finland who sing in Finnish but most of the bands are crap.

Antony: Yeah, it sounds crap. I think a few bands who sing in Finnish sound really good and of course it depends on the lyrics…

Eero: Like Popeda.

Antony: Yeah. But I think if you play traditional heavy metal, and you sing in Finnish, I think it would – it sounds like – weird. I don't know.

MEM: And uhm… who came up with the band logo?

Antony: I did. And our drummer, we designed it. He had an idea, and I had an idea, and I drew it.

MEM: Ah ok. Very cool idea.

Antony: Yeah, I like it too.

MEM: So what's your favourite piece of lyric from your own songs?

Antony: What?

*(a/n: Thanks to the soundchecks next door! We were really having some damn hard time here)*

MEM: What's your favourite lyrics from the songs you've written?

Antony: Eeerm… eehm… *long pause* Hard question! I have to think about it!

MEM: Yeah well I desperately tried to not ask anything about Iron Maiden, so…

Antony: Yeah! Ehhm… Maybe from the new album, a song called Ghost of the Seasons. Maybe that, or October from our second album. I don't know, maybe these more melancholic, emotional songs. Their lyrics are the most important. For me.

MEM: And how about you? *looking at the others*

Antony: They don't read lyrics!

Eero: I'm not interested in any lyrics.

MEM: Oh! So you just play…

Eero: Yeah.

MEM: Ah, okay. I thought, could have been, but…

Antony: He's not interested in lyrics.

MEM: *looking at Eero* Tell me about you then, what are you interested in?

Antony & J-V: Women!!!

*Everyone laughs*

Antony: He's a little bit desperate. And also men, you know, he's bisexual.

MEM: Ah okay just like me then.

Antony: Yeah it's a good thing!

MEM: Yeah, you have like twice the possibilities.

Antony: Yeah!

MEM: Eeerm… Alright! Oh my God… back to the serious stuff! – Are you sure you want that published anywhere?!

All: YES!

Antony: Everyone knows that he's bi! I mean when you look at him you can recognize -

MEM: Are you saying he looks like it already? Naah.

Antony: Nah. It was a joke.

Eero: A kind of joke from our band. J-V is the real gay!

*Everyone laughs*

Antony: Next question, please!

MEM: Haha ok! Well, if people come up to you and tell you that a song of yours has made them cry or like, you know, these people who want to commit suicide and they tell you that your songs have just pulled them out of the deep black hole and everything, that kind of stuff, how do you react to that? Or how would you react to that?

Antony: Ah yeah, of course, the most important thing about music… You get some feelings from the music and I think that's the most important thing. It doesn't matter do you like it or not, so… I think if you react somehow, if you listen to some bands, I think that is the most important thing, so… I think music can be like… elevator or so. Of course if some people come to me and say that my lyrics or songs have helped him or her, through these dark moments, that would be great. Of course.

MEM: And what's your personal favourite song to perform live on stage?

Eero: Antony can start.

J-V: Depends on the day.

Antony: Yeah. It changes all the time. But… Erm… The Shadow Gallery from the new album.

J-V: Or Ghost of the Seasons, on this tour.

Antony: Yeah.

*At that point, the soundcheck next door reaches its climax and neither of us is able to speak loud enough to be heard, so we are forced to make a short cut. Antony went to tell the others off for being so loud. ^^*

MEM: So where were we? Ah, favourite song live.

Eero: I can't say which one but all the fast ones that need more bass. *grins*

MEM: Okay! Uhm, did you or do you ever perform when you're drunk?

Antony: I don't.

Eero: I don't. I don't drink at all.

MEM: Aah, okay!

J-V: We try to be sober on stage.

MEM: And what do you think about bands who are drunk on stage?

Antony: If they can still play then it's okay. But if they can't, I think its underestimating the audience.

J-V: We don't have any deals or anything. I drink a few beers on stage but I'm never drunk.

MEM: Do you have a favourite venue where you go to watch gigs or where you like to play?

Antony: There's a local club in our hometown called Lutakko and a smaller club called Bar 68. Those two clubs are pretty good.

MEM (to Eero & J-V): The same for you then?

J-V: Yeah. You know, we live there, so these clubs are common for us. We go there all the time and watch bands or play there once a year.

Antony: Actually, I don't spend so much time in bars. I like to get drunk at home.

MEM: Cos it's cheaper?

Antony: Yeah. And I think it's sometimes more fun. I talk to myself and – you know –

MEM: Wait. You drink – alone?

Antony: Sometimes, yes.

J-V: I don't understand him!

MEM: So you just sit at home alone and you get drunk just by yourself?!

Antony: Yeah. *smiles gleefully*

MEM: That's sad!

Antony: No! It's fun! *pouts*

Eero: It's sad.

J-V: Yeah it IS sad.

Antony: … Okay maybe it is, I don't know. *grins*

MEM: Haha, well, do you have a rider and what's normally on it?

Antony: One case of beer or… 24 bottles, a case anyway. 24 bottles of cider, vodka, white wine, some lemonade for him *points at Eero*, candies… Erm, porn magazines, handtowels, mirrors, bright light.

Eero: Yeah.

Antony: Yeah, stuff like that.

MEM: Okay.

Antony: But it's a totally different thing what we will get, you know. It doesn't matter if you ask for something, you know. Just blue candies or something, you know. It doesn't mean you will get it. You can write anything, you know, what you want…

MEM: Yeah but there's some person who has to make sure that the stuff is there.

Antony: Yeah…

MEM: Well I worked at a venue once and I had to get all the stuff people wanted, that was hard. But that depends on the stuff I guess. So hm, this is the last question: How would you describe yourselves in three words?

*pause*

J-V (pointing at Antony): He's hobbit, I'm Gandalf!

*Everyone laughs*

J-V (at Eero): And he's Gollum.

*Everyone laughs*

MEM: Oh my God *grins*

J-V: No, I'm just kidding *grins*

Antony: Erm…

MEM: We can leave it at that, you know *smiles*

Antony: We're crazy. We have a lot of good stories but I think it's not for interviews.

MEM: Oh, we can switch it off and then you can tell, no problem! *grins*

*laughter*

Antony: It's personal things, I think we don't want to tell them

MEM: Okay.

Antony: Ah, something about me?

Eero: Something about Antony… Well Antony is a small guy. And he has a small –

*Everyone laughs*

Eero: And he can laugh at some stupid things. *pauses* And he IS stupid also. … Yeah.

*laughter*

Antony: I'm small and stupid.

Eero: Yeah. Small and stupid.

Antony: Better than really big and wise. I think.

MEM: Haha, very nice last words was it. So I think that was it, no more questions from my side. *smiles* Thank you for the interview!

All: Thank you!

***

*CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW*

Interview & transcript: Tina Makiolczyk

Recording: Larissa Budde

POOR SEAMUS 02/08/2007

2007-10-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

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:

*****

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!

ALTERBLOOD 27/06/2007

2007-10-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Interview /ALTERBLOOD

MEM Interview with Alterblood @ Helsinki, Inferno Bar 27/06/07

MEM's recruit Iris met Nocu Delacroix from Alterblood at the Inferno Bar in Helsinki.

MEM: When was AB formed and why?

Nocu Delacroix: It was Early 2000 when I was still 12. I told to my two friend (past members: Sindread and Sir Whitewolf) that we could form a band and make music that we really like. Though first year was just training and planning. We just formed it because we wanted to make something special and unique music for us and for fun.

MEM: What kind of music do you guys play?

Delacroix: My personal opinion is that it has really unique sound in it. First we played by name The Reapers Guild and our music was melodic dark metal with some gothic melancholic sound in it. But when we changed our name to Alterblood we changed our music style to industrial sounding gothic metal.

MEM: What do fans mean to you?

Delacroix: They are our support and it's nice to know that a lot of people like your music even if we are just only indie band. We have a lot of fans and we hope that when we release our new EP we get more of them and maybe record label soon. *smiling*

MEM: What kind of EP will it be and when will it be released?

Delacroix: It will contain 3 songs. 2 more brutal like and 1 ballad. Also there might be surprise cover song *wink & smiling* And I dont know the release date yet but we try to go record it in september.

MEM: You are a new band here even you guys have been around a long time so how have gigs been in the past and when will you guys have more gigs?

Delacroix: Gigs in the past have been great, I personally enjoy every gig I have had and there have been those a lot. *laugh* We have had nice credit from those, though we haven't been touring or having any gig in long time now because of member changes. But we hope we can have a lot of gigs this year and next and so on...and get things rolling again...

MEM: Okay, so what kind of stage personality are you?

Delacroix: Umm, tough one *laugh* I think I am a really extroverted person. I love to perform and sing in front of an audience.

MEM: If you were a fan of your band, who would be the most handsome member in the band?

Delacroix: ME! *laughing Nach, the most handsome is really LTG who is our drummer. But how about you? *smiles*

MEM: That is interesting. In this situation I would say you. But yeah, who are your idols?

Delacroix: I wouldn't say idols but more like role models and fav. bands are Moi dix Mois, X Japan, many industrial and industrial metal bands like Pain and Rammstein and some gothic metal bands like Entwine and To/Die/For. There is hundreds of artist which I respect. My personal role model is Mana-sama from Moi dix Mois.

MEM: What does Alterblood mean?

Delacroix: It is a twist of two words. Alter is old and when you combine blood to that you get Old Blood. And that means vampires blood which is hundreds of years old and their blood is called Alterblood which is the disorder of blood.

MEM: Ok then, what kind of underwear subscribes your personality best and why?

Delacroix: Red with black, because....*long silence* ...they just do *smiles*

MEM: ...and last question, what are your hopes from the future?

Delacroix: That we can make music as long as we can and get more listeners and to get more gigs.

MEM: Thank you for your time and I wish you best luck for the future!

Nocu Delacroix: Thank you!

Interview : Iris-Jasmin Merikivi

Promo picture Nocu Delacroix

PEKKA HEINO 16/06/2007

2007-10-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

New interview with Pekka Heino [Leverage]

It's Saturday, the 16^th of June, 2007. We meet the Leverage guys before their show at Myötätuuli Rock. There were some problems with our camcorder so there was some delay with everything and the rest of the band had to go prepare their show quite soon, so I ended up with Pekka, in the grass behind the tent to escape the pretty loud music coming from the festival ground. Now here's the typed up version, sadly no video, but hopefully nonetheless enjoyable.

MEM: Did changing to Kingfoo Entertainment change anything for you as for work or gigs?

Pekka: Well… First of all we started getting gigs, so…it was a turn for the better, absolutely. Definitely.

MEM: So the other booking agency was not so good or…?

Pekka: Well if I understood right there were some personal problems with the guy who sold us but you know… shit happens and thank God we were able to switch so… it's all good now.

MEM: Ok, that sounds good.

Pekka: By the way, things have taken another turn just recently, Minni who is our agent, she just recently went to Dex Viihde so we are not in Kingfoo anymore.

MEM: Oh.

Pekka: Yeah. It just came in! [laughs]

MEM: Ok! Where do you want to get big first, Europe or the rest of the world like America or Japan or somewhere?

Pekka: It really doesn't matter, you know. Getting big is not what we're aiming at really. We're just hoping for the best and we're writing music, we're putting out records and if people like the stuff, that's always a bonus. But, you know, I have no preferences in what country or continent we're gonna be big but just… we'll just continue making music and hope that other people like it too.

MEM: So you just let it flow…

Pekka: We let it flow, exactly, yes.

MEM: What's normally on your rider? Do you have one and what's on it and are you pissed off when something you want is not there?

Pekka: Erm… I guess the normal rider would be 48 bottles of beer, 24 cider or gin long drink and 2 bottles of noble booze if you know what I mean - … I think you know what I mean [grins].

MEM: Yes I know what you mean!

Pekka: Yeah! And if something's missing of course we're pissed, you know it's part of the deal and if the promoter hasn't done his part of the job, of course it pisses me off…

MEM: But normally it's some poor person running to get the stuff you want and… maybe if the person has tried very hard to get the stuff and it just didn't work out… Are you still pissed or…?

Pekka: Well… then they obviously have the wrong guy for the job, you know.

MEM: Ok. What's your favourite venue to play at or to watch gigs?

Pekka: My favourite venue… well I love going down to Tavastia in Helsinki, Tavastia Club. That's like the ideal place for a rock band and the bands always sound good there. So yeah, Tavastia is one of the best rock clubs I've ever been to, you know, in terms of sound.

MEM: And it would be your favourite place to play at as well?

Pekka: Well it's a cool place to play, yeah. Definitely.

MEM: What do you do when you get on each others' nerves on tour?

Pekka: We haven't been on tour yet, you know [laughs]. So erm… we'll just have to see. Erm… we get on each others' nerves in the studio sometimes but in a positive way. Just… we laugh a lot and we joke a lot and, you know, I think we're able to handle ourselves like adults when it comes to touring.

MEM: Okay, that leads me to my next question; who's the moodiest in the band?

Pekka: Moodiest… It's hard to say! There aren't really any moody or gloomy persons in this band. Like I said, we like to joke around a lot and laugh a lot so… it's really hard to say, I can't say who's the moodiest. Depends on the day.

MEM: Ok. This is an interesting question a friend of mine had about the 'Tides' album: She was looking closely at the cover picture and it shows an old door handle; why is that so? Because it doesn't have to do anything with the actual sea tides…

Pekka: Well… There's some philosophy behind it, you'd have to ask Valtteri and Tuoppi more about that but… if I understood right, Leverage on the whole, as a band and as a project, you know… We're not kids anymore and we've all done our good share of different bands in the past and now that there was time that it was possible for us to make music again and someone was willing to release our music, it was like opening an old door that has been closed for so long and behind that door is sort of another chance and I think that's the philosophy behind it.

MEM: Okay… Uhm, in what country or countries is Tides going to be released next?

Pekka: Oww… Please don't ask me any of these questions, I have no idea. Erm, the next album… we're in the middle of the recordings pretty soon and we're closing deals. I think we're gonna have a simultaneous release in all of Europe and in Finland and the Baltic countries but I'm really bad at those, you know, I really suck at those contract sort of things… among many other things.

MEM: Ow don't put yourself down! …Do you already know anything about more touring plans for this year or is this going to be the last one of the year or what's next?

Pekka: [pauses] … Well those are the other things that I suck at! Erm… I think we have a couple of gigs left. Not that many though, but we're gonna have to concentrate on recording the next album, so… I have no desire to really go out there every night, cos we got a lot to do, it's time for the next record.

MEM: How's the work for the new album going so far?

Pekka: We've got more than plenty of material written and demoed already, so we basically have all the songs put together but none of the actual recordings, you know. We haven't recorded yet but I think we should start in July, so, pretty soon.

MEM: Okay. And how often do you normally get together for rehearsing? Is it different when you're recording and album or when you already have something? Like, do you rehearse more with the new stuff or the old?

Pekka: Yeah, erm, we don't rehearse that much, because of the distance, you know. Me and Tuoppi, we live in Helsinki, and the rest of the guys live in Jyväskylä. So we don't rehearse that much. But now that it's time to start the recordings of course we have to play these songs through, like, many times, before we get the arrangements together. So yeah, before we start recording anything we have to rehearse like crazy.

MEM: Alright. So, if you could 'turn back the tides of time', what would you change in your life?

Pekka: I wouldn't change anything. Erm… You know, I'm the kind of person who lives pretty much day by day, so… I don't worry about the past and I don't worry about the future either that much, so… It's a curse and a blessing in some ways, but I wouldn't change anything.

MEM: So you live for the moment.

Pekka: I live for the moment, yeah.

MEM: Ok! This is something different: What's the best music video you've ever seen?

Pekka: Bon Jovi, 'You Give Love A Bad Name', that was the first music video that really hit me big time. You know, I can still remember every frame and every cut in that video. If you give me the material, I can put it together in an edit exactly the way it is, you know.

MEM: Wow, that's impressing. Why? What struck you so much about it?

Pekka: Well, you know, that album 'Slippery When Wet' was one of the best albums ever and that's a big record for me and that was basically the first time I saw the band in a live environment, so to speak, and the guy who directed it, directed so many great videos back in that day, it's unbelievable. And that's one of his best works in my opinion. It's just, you know, the guys on stage. But the way it's shot and … yeah, it's just great.

MEM: Right… Can you quote one piece of lyric that you wish you had written yourself?

Pekka: Erm… Yeah I guess I can. [long pause] Give me another minute! [laughs] I have to get back to you on that one!

MEM: Okay! I'll ask it again at the end then.

Pekka: Ok, cool.

MEM: Actually, we are almost at the end actually! What's the nastiest prank you have ever played on someone?

Pekka: I am not really a prank kind of person, you know. I'm usually the guy who gets the other end of pranks. Erm… I am not clever enough to do pranks. You have to ask Richard Blackmore from Rainbow and Deep Purple, he was pretty good at that, I've heard.

MEM: Oh okay, so what's the nastiest prank that has ever been played on you then?

Pekka: Erm… I've been lit on fire once. That was probably the nastiest.

MEM: [shocked] With any bad injuries afterwards?!

Pekka: No, thank God.

MEM: How did that happen?!

Pekka: Oh, let's not get into that…

MEM: Okay. So, the last question is, what are your plans for this year's midsummer?

Pekka: Oh, I'm playing actually. I'm playing with Brother Firetribe at the Raumanmeren Juhannus Festival in Rauma.

MEM: Ow, I wanted to go there really bad but it's so far away from here. So, now back to that lyric piece, have you come up with something?

Pekka: [laughs] Argh, I forgot to think about it! It has to be something from David Lee Rod cos he's just a master. Erm… what line would be… damn! Kotipelto is confusing me right now cos he's on the background. [a/n: We were having that interview behind a backstage festival tent and Kotipelto was playing on stage at that moment] Ah damn!

MEM: You can quote him, too!

Pekka: "Hunting high and low", yeah!

MEM: Okay! Thank you!

Pictures:
Leverage @ Myötätuuli Rock 2007

Interview: Tina Makiolczyk
Interview- and concert pictures: Iris Merikivi
Pictures and text © MadEyedMoose.com
Special Thanks to: Leverage, Merja Halme and everyone at Myötätuuli Rock, Minna Kumpuvuori and Jani Jalonen.

LOVEX 19/05/2007

2007-10-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

MEM Interview with Lovex @ Underground, Cologne, 19/05/2007

We meet Theon and Vivian of Lovex before their first ever headlining gig in Germany at the Underground club in Cologne.

MEM: So now that you're touring here in Germany, what is your impression so far of the people and the country?

Theon: The country is very beautiful. You have a much older architecture and another culture than in Finland and there's many beautiful places and the countryside is very different. In Finland it's all forests and lakes all the time…

Vivian: And especially Cologne has been a very beautiful city. We had one free day yesterday.

MEM: So you visited the Cathedral as well?

Vivian: Yeah!

MEM: Have you climbed it?

Theon: No. Well at least I didn't climb it…

Vivian: Well and also the people are very polite and very easy to deal with, something like that, so it's been very simple, very easy and very nice. [pauses] - And Jägermeister is really cheap!

[Everyone laughs]

Theon: Yeah, you can get it from anywhere at any time!

MEM: Haha okay, well I have not tried that yet… Are you considering touring other EU countries in the near future, like The Netherlands, Belgium or the UK?

Vivian: Yeah we have some plans for this…

Theon: Yeah, but I think it would be better if we released our album there first. I mean it's now released here in Germany and Switzerland and Austria… But probably after releasing it there it would be great to go there for touring.

MEM: True. Do you have a rider and what's normally on it?

They both point to the table on which a collection of booze is displayed.

Theon (grinning): Well you can see it there! Well some of it.

[Everyone laughs]

MEM: Aha okay, so as long as there's booze it's fine?

Theon: Yeah, well of course we also have like one warm meal and well, some small stuff to eat and maybe for me the most important thing water, non-sparkling.

MEM: Okay. What do you do when you get on each others' nerves on tour?

[Silence]

Theon: Well we grab the bottle and –

Pretends to hit someone with one of the bottles from the table

[Everyone laughs]

MEM (grinning): Oh so you're going for the violent way?

Theon: Nah, we drink ourselves happy.

MEM: Ok, sounds like a good plan.

Vivian: Sounds like a Finnish plan!

Theon: Yeah!

MEM: A good Finnish plan though! So now, coming to your music: Shortly after releasing the singles Remorse and Die A Little More, you made a video for Bullet For The Pain. Why was that a video but not one of the singles?

Theon: Hm, well the single didn't come out in stores but it was played on the radio in Finland and stuff like that. So it was a single but not a commercial one.

Vivian: In Finland it's not so important to release our singles in the stores.

MEM: Okay. Will Anyone, Anymore and Wild & Violent be on the new album or just be available as singles or on the German version of Divine Insanity, and how are your plans for the new album going so far?

Theon: Well, Anyone, Anymore is on the international version, and it seems that Wild and Violent is going to be just a B-Side. About the second album, we are writing a lot of new material at the moment and we are rehearsing a lot, like three or four times a week. And it's going to be like that through the whole summer. On weekends we'll have festivals or gigs and on the weekdays we'll be rehearsing the songs.

Vivian: In September we are going to stop the touring and in November we are going to the studio.

Theon: Yeah, that's the original plan.

Vivian: Yeah.

MEM: Okay. Which other artists or bands could you imagine to do a collaboration with musicwise?

Silence. Each of them is thinking hard.

MEM: Or do you have like… any idols you'd like to sing with or something?

Theon: Well there are not too many bands that we all like. We all have different idols. Well there's one band called 30 Seconds To Mars…

Vivian: Yeah maybe we'll do some Jared. [a/n: probably means they might cover something?].

MEM: Okay. So now this last question is rather random; if you were girls and you liked Lovex – who of the band would you fancy?

Long silence, then sly smiles.

Vivian (looking at Theon): Theon.

Theon (ponders and then looks up at Vivian): Vivian.

They cuddle.

MEM: Awww.

Theon: Well I've seen him naked, so…

[Everyone laughs]

MEM: Shall we better not put this anywhere in the interview?

Theon: Oh, you can put it.

MEM: Okay, I think the fans will love.

[Everyone laughs]

So that was it really, thank you very much for taking time for us.

Vivian & Theon: Thank you!

***

We gave the two of them questionnaires to fill in as the second and more random part of the interview. Please find them here:

Vivian's Questionnaire
Theon's Questionnaire

Interview pictures:
Theon, Vivian, Theon & Vivian 1, Theon & Vivian 2, Vivian filling in the questionnaire, Theon filling in the questionnaire

***

Interview: Tina Makiolczyk

Interview Pictures: Heidi Van de Vreken

Special Thanks to: Lovex, Stephanie Glockmann, Sibylle Klein, Sibel Eroglu, SonyBMG and the staff from Live Music Hall and Underground Cologne.

PEKKA HEINO 19/02/2007

2007-10-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Interview with Pekka Ansio Heino, February 19, 2007

(a/n: me=Tina/MEM)

me: Pekka, would you describe yourself as a 'typical Finn'?
Pekka: Well, the picture other people have of the Finns is that Finnish people are shy and not very open. The Finns appear as sulky or moody, but once you get to know them, they slowly but surely open up. (pauses) Do you know these bottles you have to hold upside down and tap hard several times until something comes out?
me: yeah?
Pekka: Yeah, a Finn could be described as such a bottle. You need to continue tapping them until slowly, something comes out.
me (laughing): That's a good description. And what kind of bottle would you be then? (I mime shaking a bottle, and when it opens, everything comes splashing out in a fountain)
Pekka (grins): Yeah, tap me once and everything just spills out. So I'm not the typical Finn. I'm more open and outgoing.
me: Staying 'Finnish'… What traditional Finnish drink would you recommend to get drunk on the quickest?
Pekka: Hmm. As for really traditional Finnish drinks I would say Koskenkorva Vodka. You have to drink it ice cold and dry.
me: And Minttu?
Pekka: Nah I hate that. Torsti loves it.
me: Okay. Would you ever want to live in a country other than Finland? Because in some questionnaire you said you like it warm and sunny and I thought okay, you live in the wrong country then…
Pekka: Nah. I love this country. Of course we have long winters and it's dark and cold, but if I lived in another country like, let's say Spain, I would miss this. You have to appreciate where you live.
me: What were you afraid of as a child?
Pekka (ponders a long while): Hmm… Good question. I never really thought about that… What was I afraid of? (long pause again) I guess I wasn't really afraid of anything.
me (grinning): Okay, that's cool. Well, so then, staying in the childhood… who was your favourite cartoon character?
Pekka: Oh I'm a huge comic fan. Batman was a hero of course. And Spiderman. me: Oh, do you like the Spiderman movies as well?
Pekka: No, they are crap unfortunately. Well, the comic book series that is my absolute favourite is called The Preacher. Do you know it?
me: No… What's it about?
Pekka: Well that's a long weird story but it features a preacher man, an Irish Vampire and God.
me (laughing): Okay, sounds weird indeed.
Pekka: Yeah. It's a really great comic.
Since the full story is way too long obviously, we switch topics.
me: In an interview for powermetal.de last year you said that Finnish lyrics have to be well written to sound good. What do you think of bands (and their lyrics) like PMMP, Apulanta or Uniklubi then?
Pekka: Well I'm not that familiar with those bands except Apulanta. Toni is a great guy and what he does, he does well. I can't say much about the lyrics but the guys are nice and Toni digs the same music as I do. I can't really say anything about the Finnish bands and their lyrics though. But the greatest lyricist who wrote in Finnish would be Juha Vainio.
me: Okay. So, to come to Leverage… How did you come up with the band name?
Pekka: Tuoppi came up with it in the end, when we realised that this would not just be a project but something serious. I remember we were texting possible band names between each other and went 'Oh what about that one?' 'Nah, but that one?' 'No, and how does that sound?' (laughs) Well at some point we were sitting in McDonald's and Tuomas just came up with the band name of Leverage. And he asked 'Do you know what that means?' and I was like 'No'. He explained it was a term used in American Football a lot.
me: And in what way?
Pekka: Oh, I think you have to ask Tuoppi about that. But 'Leverage' can mean many things actually. It has several meanings. For instance, if we have a conversation and I have the possibility to say something about a topic and you don't, I can leverage it or, I have the advantage.
(a/n: There are really plenty of definitions of 'leverage' in the dictionary)
me: And what does that have to do with American Football?
Pekka: Uuuuuhm. (laughs) Nothing! Well, also, Leverage is a word nice and sweet and easy to remember and pronounce, even for the Finns if you pronounce it the Finnish way. And when Valtteri designed the logo, we thought okay this really is it. It looked perfect.
me: How about the Leverage lyrics. I noticed that the Brother Firetribe lyrics contain a lot of passion, you write about women and sex. And Tuomas writes about war and warriors and strong guys. Have you ever thought about writing together?
Pekka (laughs): Well can you imagine Brother Firetribe singing about war??
me: Ehm no not really.
Pekka: See? Well Brother Firetribe is all about the music and the feeling and the good time. We are having fun. As for Leverage, Tuomas is an excellent songwriter and his lyrics are awesome and deep and I think much better than mine. And I can sing both Leverage and BFT lyrics, I can get into both the same.
me: Yes, it's noticeable when you're on stage. You look very into it when you sing. Very passionate. What is your favourite Leverage song lyric- and musicwise?
Pekka: Strangers is a great song I think, in any way. I think everyone can relate to the lyrics and there's a lot of feeling in it.
me: Any favourite song that you love to perform live?
Pekka: Yes, that would be Twilight Symphony. It has a great rhythm and beat.
me: True! I love to hear it live too. Hey what was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on stage?
Pekka: Well there were a few moments when I was close to falling off the stage. And not so long ago I messed up a song. In fact that was my favourite I just mentioned. Twilight Symphony. I totally fucked up, I started singing the chorus like four bars before I should have, and Torsti almost fell off the stage laughing, and Tuoppi shouted into my ear what to sing, like 'Chorus, Moron!' and I was just standing there smiling.
me: Did you or would you ever perform drunk?
Pekka: Not in public. I try to avoid that. But there was one occasion when we played at a friend's wedding and we all were hammered. Thankfully no-one recorded any of that.
me: Is there a special festival or place you would like to play at?
Pekka: No not really, it doesn't matter where you play as long as people show up. It comes down to the people. It is the audience that makes the gig.
me: Is there a Leverage gig you look back on as the best so far?
Pekka: I think that was the one at Virgin Oil Co.. It was clear to see that people had actually shown up just to see us, and they were singing along and all. That was really nice.
me: Are there any new songs for a new album yet?
Pekka: Yes! There are. In fact, we're in the middle of writing and me and Tuoppi already demoed 5 or 6 songs. And Torsti is also writing something!
me: That's great news! Really looking forward to it! You said that Brother Firetribe is a fun project. How do you feel about it with Leverage, would you like to get really big/internationally known?
Pekka: I have to say that right now I am so lucky and fortunate to be involved in both bands. Now is the time for that kind of music. I mean Tuoppi and Torsti already had stopped playing and making music, in the 90s, because there was no room for that kind of music. And they picked it up again now and the time seems to be just right!
me: True. And that's a really good thing, and you'd definitely deserve getting really big. Are there any plans for a music video? Personally I had a story in mind for Twilight Symphony that would include an evil woman and you tied up on a bed with handcuffs.
Pekka: Well, I wouldn't mind that.
me: What? The handcuffs? (evil grin)
Pekka (laughs): HAHAHA! Well no, the video. Making a video is all about the money. I mean we wouldn't want a low-budget video. But we will see how it goes. Actually there's a video up on our website, but it's no real music video, it's a mix of live performance clips.
me: Ok I'll check that out – if I haven't already. Now that we're kinda at it though, what do you think of bondage?
Pekka: Bondage… (a/n: I don't think there's an expression for the face he made then ) Welllllll… Why not? I mean each to their own as long as no one gets hurt. Or hurt deliberately. But generally I'm not really interested in what happens in other peoples' bedrooms…
me (laughing): Okay. Well, last question is going into that direction too; did you ever do a secret striptease backstage?
Pekka (for facial expression see above question): Well usually the backstage bit contains the band… And stripping in front of these guys… would be a bit ugly. (grins) But of course unnecessary nudity is always a good thing otherwise.
me: Haha, alright. Thank you very much for this talk!
Pekka: Thank you too!

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