Biography
The band-thing started in 1994 when Paavo Pekkonen and I met. Soon after we got to know each other we decided to put a band together, a heavy-metal band that would crush your ribs. The band was called RIP and that was the start.
For so very long we tried to search for other members to join our band but didn´t succeed. We changed our name to Turmio and started to record some demo tapes with Paavo´s father´s recording equipment but we were still just the two of us. Not until 1999 we finally were a real band, at first as a trio when Janne Kolehmainen joined the band as a bass player and then later on as a quartet as Arnold T. Kumputie joined us as a drummer. And it was the same year we invented the name Bloodpit. As a matter of fact Paavo did.
We were now a four-soul group ready to meet the audience. We started to arrange these small gigs all around the neighborhood and in the summer we recorded our first demo “Promo –EP”. It shared some opinions, good and bad, but the most liked it. Soon after we made the first demo in 2000 these two managers were interested in Bloodpit but things just didn´t work out the way we wanted and eventually we were alone again.
The first real setback occurred in the end of 2000 when we realized we have to let our bass player Janne Kolehmainen go for musical reasons. So we brought my brother Christian Grigory in.
In the beginning of 2001 we faced the second tragedy and now it was more serious. Our drummer nearly died and he was placed in a hospital immediately. It was very serious and the future of Bloodpit was uncertain until after a few months Arnold got better and actually got out of the hospital. We started to rehearse again.
In the following spring we played in a band contest (Tampere-Ilmiö) and won that thing. Then there was this second contest arranged by Rockperry festival and for our surprise we won that too. By the way that show, the Rockperry gig, was broadcast by 2nd Head, a web site, and was on the internet for everyone to see.
We recorded our second demo-EP “No2” in August 2001 with the same producer (Pirkka Rännäli) we used on our first demo. The purpose was to create as professional thing as possible to impress the record companies. Then we started to promote our band as much as possible with the new cd.
The year changed and again there was a lot of rehearsing, some gigs and plans etc. We wanted to play at Satamarock 2002 again this year (we played there in 2000) but they said we should take part in a band contest, arranged by the arranger of Satamarock, and if we won we would get to play in the festival. “Well, if that´s what it takes… then, lets go and win that thing” -That´s what we thought about it and sure enough it also happened. We won the third contest within a year.
Another setback was to come; our bass player, Christian, left Bloodpit to join another band as a guitarist, which is what he had always been. We began to hold auditions and the first guy to audition made it. His name was Paspartou Hagen and he became our new bass player. His first gig at Satamarock was two days after he joined the band and you gotta appreciate it. In the summer we played a few festival gigs (Puustock, Valkeakosken Musiikkitapahtuma and that already many-time-mentioned Satamarock) among the smaller gigs and we had a great time. But soon we began to realize that there was something wrong with our drummer, Arnold… I mean he behaved very oddly, for example, he started to get drunk every time we had a gig and he behaved like he didn´t care anymore. It got to the point where we had to let him go and that was in October 2002. At around the same time Paspartou Hagen realized he was playing the wrong instrument. He wanted to play the guitar so he left Bloodpit to create his own band and once again we were forced to hold auditions for a new drum´n´bass team. Fortunately we found Alarik Valamo the drummer and Aleksi Keränen the bass player pretty soon and were back on our feet again. The new Bloodpit was born.
After some rehearsing we went to record some new material in the end of the year and in the beginning of the next year 2003 we had a new demo-EP “You Name It” in our hands and once again we started to promote ourselves.
In February this new record company, Grotesque Records, from Helsinki contacted us and soon after that we were getting ready to make our debut album. The schedule of recording the album began to stretch and stretch and we figured out there´s something wrong. Eventually I made a phone call to the company and insisted for an answer and that´s what I got; Grotesque Records didn´t exist anymore… they just didn´t tell that to us until now.
In 2003 we did a couple of TV appearances and about 30 gigs and we made it look good. Platitude-EP was released in January 2004. For now we are looking forward to the future and trying to make it.
-Matthau Mikojan
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