Interviews

MR: Can you tell us a little bit about your beginnings. Where was your first practice place, where did you record your first demo...?
Riku: Good old times when we were young, (Smiling). Well, our first practice was in our first drummer’s garage here in Oulu. Firstly we just played for fun and the music style was something like punkish death metal. First demo was recorded in 1995 and in the same place where we have recorded our previous three albums, Mastervox Studios – but back then the studio carried a whole different name and totally different equipment.

MR: What about a name. Is this the first name or did you change it to Catamenia? What does it mean?
Riku: Catamenia was not the first name we had. We had many different names, but after we realized and began to make this music seriously, came the name Catamenia. It was invented by our ex-vocalist Mika Tönning. We thought the name sounds great. Just before our debut album’s release, one of our first fans contacted us and asked do we know the meaning of the name. Of course we didn’t and he said, menstruations. We were really shocked and thought of changing the name, but it was already too late because the album was already in pressing. But we thought what the hell – for us it does not mean anything but great sounding name.

MR: Where and by whom was Catamenia formed?
Riku: Band was formed by me and Mika Tönning here in Oulu 1993. Itself the name and the band Catamenia was born in 1995 when we started to play more seriously.

MR: Did line-up changes in the past somehow affect your work now?
Riku: I’ve always been the main composer of the band, so the line-up changes have not affected so much in the music. Of course it always affects a little, but I think they have been just natural evolution steps in our musical direction. Line-up changes are never easy, but sometimes they are just a must.

MR: You also lost a drummer now. Are you still friends? Can you reveal some more details about his leaving?
Riku: Yeah, we had to let Veikko go because he was not ready to go on tours anymore, so he left us no other choice, but to kick him out of the band. Sure of course we’re still good friends, drink beer together and have fun among the other friends. He’ll always be a part of Catamenia.

MR: Who is in charge of your lyrics? Where do you get the inspiration?
Riku: The lyrics are mainly written by me and our rhythm guitarist Ari Nissilä, but every one of us takes a part in writing them. Example on our latest album, everyone has done at least one of them. Inspirations come and go from whole different places and situations. It’s impossible to point out some certain inspiration sources. You just get one idea in your head and you start to write it out. I know it’s a cliché, but a fact – at least for me – but I feel more comfortable writing lyrics in winter, when it’s really dark and cold outside.

MR: What are the lyrics about? Some personal experiences maybe reveals there?
Riku: Our lyrics tell different things from different views. There is no certain concept behind everyone of them though we always try to keep the concept quite tight in the albums – example Winternight Tragedies – what a surprise, the concept is that there are different stories and views about winter in general. There are histories of Finnish wars, plain fictional stories. But basically if you put every our lyrics into one piece, there are so many different things, stories, point of views that it’s impossible to put them into one. Of course there are also personal experiences among the fictional ones.

MR: You had several concerts and tours. Which tour/concert had the best effect on you?
Riku: Definitely our last tour in Germany in February and our Russian tour in September 2006 have been the best so far. We had absolutely great time during those tours. If pointed out few individually through our history, the best concerts have been in Bucharest, Moscow, Tula, Madrid, Berlin, Aalen, Sofia, Cluj-Napoca, Budapest, etc.

MR: What about fans on concerts. Is there anything you expect from them? Is there any special connection with you and fans on concerts?
Riku: Of course we expect lot of moshing from the crowd and fans on our gigs. I think the fans have learnt that we like to spend time with them before and after the gigs as well. We always like to have a huge after-show party with many fans as possible. So, I would say we have a special connection between. On the gigs, sometimes if some fan wants to sing a song with us, hell yeah we call him/her/them on the stage (Laughing).

MR: You have two short movies on your site called Cataventures. Can you tell more about them? What’s their purpose or goal?
Riku: Actually nowadays there are three parts of Cataventures and what can you tell about those. They are just funny clips which we wanted to make about our studio sessions and from our touring. There are no goals or purposes on making those. Maybe we just want to show people that we’re just plain humoristic people, who want to have fun beside the music and touring. Everything shouldn’t be taken too seriously. If someone cannot stand the clips, who’s making them to watch the clips.

MR: On every cover of your albums there is a wolf. What does that mean for you? Does wolf have any special meaning for you?
Riku: No. There’s no special meaning in wolves for us. It’s kind of a trademark for Catamenia which we decided with our CEO when we were recording our debut album in Germany. It’s just a brand from where the fans can recognize our albums. Of course itself the wolves are beautiful and mysterious animals which we totally respect.

MR: Which album in your opinion had the best feedback so far?
Riku: There are clearly three albums which has had the best feedback so far. They are ChaosBorn, Winternight Tragedies and Location: COLD. Especially our previous one has got wide and great response though out the world.

MR: Recently you released album Location:COLD. What’s the main idea of this album? Why the title Location: COLD?
Riku: This is the same issue as with Winternight Tragedies. There are stories, experiences about dark, cold things and places in mental way as well as in physical way. We thought a lot about this title and together we realized that it works damn well, so we decided to use it for this album. Especially the cover design and outlook shows really well the meaning of the title.

MR: Are you working on any new material?
Riku: Yes, I am already working on the new songs and material because we’ll record our new album at some point this year – depends a lot of our time schedule.

MR: Where can we see you playing in these days?
Riku: Well, I think the next place we are going to tour is South America and/or Mexico around July-August. After that as said we will go to record our new album, and shortly after that we hit the States and Canada in October-November-December. Next year is fully open so hopefully we’ll do a European Tour as well.

MR: Do you have any special ritual before you go on stage?
Riku: No…we just hang around, talk with fans, drink few beers and just few minutes before the stage time, we stretch a little cos if you don’t, your muscles are quite in pain of moshing after the gig (Laughing)

MR: What is the bands motto? If you have one.
Riku: No, we do not have any certain phrase except VittuSaatanaPerkele.

MR: What do you do in your free time? Do you hang out with band members a lot?
Riku: Some of us work; some of us are in school. Basically we like to gather around somewhere with many friends, drink beer and have fun.

MR: Any special words to your fans and readers of Metal-revolution?
Riku: Stay metal. Cheers and beers!