Interviews

 For those who don't know Lordi, let me make a brief introduction for an amazing and talented band from Finland.

..In a world where fantasy conquers, in a world where dreams and nightmares are fulfilled, exactly there we meet Lordi!...Amen, the unstoppable mummy, Enary the Ruiner of Valhalla, Kalma the biker-zombie from hell and Kita the extraterrastrial manbeast lead by the most fearsome Khan of all, the one and only Lordi, this real last gang was armed with electric guitars and sound that "KILLS"!!!....

Just let me give you a piece of "advice" for Lordi:

DON'T be fooled by Lordi's image so as to count them as a "Black Metal" band or something like that...That would be 100% WRONG!!!..Lordi is a really melodic Hard Rock/Heavy Rock band with amazing choruses, a sound clearly of their own and a great concept based on horror movies.

Mr. Lordi talked exclusively to Rockpages.gr about the history of the band and their new upcoming album.

Interview: Harris Bakopoulos

Rockpages.gr : First of all, let me tell you that we all in Rockpages were blown away by Lordi's music! Would you like to give us a little background of Lordi?

Mr. Lordi: Do you want the short version or the longer version...,or the REALLY long version (Laughs!) ? Well, we started around 1992, it's like 13 years ago. That's when the first demo under the name of Lordi was produced, but at that point there wasn't anybody else  than just me in the band, it was a "one man project". I was the lead singer in another band, just a local club band but I wasn't that satisfied with the music that we did with the other band, so, I made  my own music under the name of "Lordi" (which is my nickname that I got from my friend's mother). So 2 years later, like 1994 - 1995, I started gathering around people to join the band and make Lordi a real band and "build"  the make-up and the image thing. Around 1998 - 1999 things started crawling and we got interest from a record label. At that point no label was interested anywhere in the world, all labels were just saying, "OK, your image is so stupid that we can't do this", or "Your music is so stupid that we won't do this" but we only said, "Well, this us, this is what we want to look like, this is how we want to sound like", so eventually and luckily for us we got a record deal from BMG Finland in 2002 and that's when the first single came out! So, the first official single and first album came out 10 years, whole 10 years after the first demo was released.

Rockpages.gr : I personally think that your music is a mix of old-school 80's metal in the vein of Accept and Kiss and sharp guitar riffs in the Rob Zombie style. Do you agree with that?

Mr. Lordi: Yeah, well, it's definitely like that, it's 100% like that! Our idols are Kiss, Twisted Sister, W.a.s.p., Accept, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue and so on... Basically I think that you described it perfectly! My singing style is like Rob Zombie or Lemmy or Gene Simmons or something like that, so yeah, we have this modern kind of edge to our music but basically if you try to fit accoustic guitar in our songs it's like 80's hard rock-heavy rock. So yeah, you're absolutely right!...

Rockpages.gr : We are really fond of your great lyrics! Very expressive and satirical! Where do you get inspiration from? Maybe "Gene Simmons"?...Just kidding! (Laughs)...

Mr. Lordi: Well, we are not a political band, we are not a religious band, we don't have anything that important to say. It's our job to entertain and I always admired bands that entertained me. Like Kiss or Twisted Sister for example, they don't sing about politics, there are other bands who do that. So basically, my lyrical ideas come from horror movies and I use (2) different lyrical styles. I write a song either based on a horror story - a really horror story - or  in order to entertain and have fun!

I really like 80's metal anthems that entertain me. That's what I do.There are a few songs that I have written in a satirical way though. For example, "Devil Is A Loser" is a song that its lyrical idea is towards those kind of people who are hysterical about Satan and are not allowing anyone to say bad things about Satan. I'm not saying this for all black metal and death metal bands but for some of them. So, this song is a comment on that! It's like telling those people, "Wake up! These are just words about not taking your life and definitely your attitude too seriously...". We're definitely a serious band, we are REALLY serious and we mean what we do, BUT...., the concept we have is not that serious! You know, the world wouldn't end if our band didn't succeed. I'd like to think that our band is like a musical version of a good movie because people need such bands. Music is all about having fun and making you feel good. It doesn't matter if you're listening to Radiohead or Coldplay or whatever if it makes you feel good,that's cool! For us listening to Kiss feels good, for some people it's stupid. Some people think "Those guys are not serious, they are stupid, they're like clowns" but we're NOT!..We're 100% serious at what we do but the message we send is not that serious!

Rockpages.gr: Being a Finish band, how easy is it for Lordi to establish themselves in the world rock scene? I mean, has the success of other Finnish bands like Nightwish and Stratovarious helped Lordi break into other countries?

Mr. Lordi: Yeah, Nightwish have been really helpful to us! They have taken us to open up for them - I don't even remember how many shows, we've been in Germany and Sweden and around with them for the past 3 years to open up for them. So, yeah, we owe a lot to Nightwish. Of course there are a lot of Finnish bands like Him, Stratovarious, Nightwish that we talked about, lots of Finnish bands! The funny thing is that none of those bands that are famous or popular sound alike. We're a few steps behind those bands because we're such a new band for the audience in Europe. I think we cause them fear (Laughing) !...You can't compare Him to Nightwish or Stratovarious and you can't compare Lordi to any of  those bands. So, Finland has all kinds of unique bands that do their own thing. Finnish bands have made it in the foreign countries. It is easier now for people from Finland to come out and say: "Hey. we're a band from Finland". If you go back to the late 80's or early 90's, if your band was from Finland you probably shouldn't have said that because back then everyone thought that no good band has ever come out from Finland. Now, it's totally different! So, I think in some ways the fact that we come from Finland and we say that has also helped us. People now appreciate the Finnish way of doing hard rock/heavy metal music.

Rockpages.gr: Tell us a little about the recordings of the album. I understand that you're now laying down the vocal lines.

Mr. Lordi: Actually, I've done those, like 1 - 2 weeks ago, I'm not really sure!..Right now we are doing the synthesisal parts, the keyboards and stuff like that...We're doing some rock mixes of the songs. All the guitars are recorded, all the basses, all the drums, all the vocals, mid and backing vocals are recorded. So basically, we're in the final stages of completing the album. All the albums we have done they have been with a producer and all the producers have a different way of working.This time it's been really fun to work with this new guy because he's more like, "Ok, let's sit down and let's think about it, let's not rush things ", when the past few times was different. For example he who produced the second album for us, he was more like, "Let's do this, let's do that and today's schedule is to have everything ready by 4 o' clock in the evening". You know, it's completely different. I'm not saying it's better or worse, but it's different! For some people of course when you have 5 members in a band works  better to take it easy in the studio and for some members it's kinda harder to work that way when you don't have the pressure from the producer. But anyway it's been really great and I'm 100% satisfied with the material at this point. It sounds really good, it's like kick ass!..It's like 80's Rock with a capital letter, if you hear the songs you will think that this could be an album that could have been released in 1986 or something. Of course we are trying to do the sounds more modern, of course it's an album of 2005. So, to put it simple it's "kick ass hard rock"!...

Rockpages.gr: Have you decided on the title of the album?

Mr. Lordi: Well actually we were thinking about a song that is going to be in the album and is called "Hard Rock Halleluja". In the verse there were lines like, "This is the rockening day, it's the Arockalypse". It sounded so cool and looked so cool! When we started to do the album further and further we saw and we felt like this worked! The "Arockalypse" really defines what the album is about. When you have some mental images on your head of what is "Arockalypse", I'm sure that it will fit the music that you will hear. It's like we're upadating the Heavy Rock!...

Rockpages.gr: Will you tour for the promotion of the album? How about Greece?

Mr. Lordi: Well, hopefully! If you ask me or the band we would definitely love to come to Greece! It depends on the booking agencies and the promoters in your country if they want us there. We don't know exactly when the album is going to be out, probably around late February or maybe March. At the moment there's nothing confirmed about what we're are going to do after that (the release of the album), of course we want to do a tour, maybe a full European tour. Last time, we made lots of concerts and had a lot of fun, so, it'd be great to be in Greece.Because I like the Greek food!

Rockpages.gr: We would like to see you live in Greece, we need a really good show like yours....Are there any plans for a DVD release?

Mr. Lordi: Yeah, actually there are! The Finnish label already wanted to make a Lordi DVD for this Christmas but there just wasn't enough time to do it. We have tones of material, we have almost everything from around '96 - '97. We have material from when we were making the first versions of the makeup and costumes, doing the first demo...We have hundreds and hundreds of hours of material from the beginning of the band. So, it's going to be a really good DVD! Of course, we need to have a full show filmed somewhere, because at the moment the only full show that we have on video is  the " Wacken Open Air 2003", and then some Finnish Festival that was on TV. We want to do our own really good show, not a festival show. So, it's definitely in the words that in a year from now, around Christmas 2006, a Lordi DVD will be released!

Rockpages.gr: You're clearly a fan of the thriller movies. Which is your favorite one?

Mr. Lordi: My favorite one is "Evil Dead 2" but also I love "Nightmare On Elm Street", "Alien" movies, "Hellraiser" movies. Especially I like the characters in these movies. I love "Freddy Krueger", "Pinhead" in "Hellraiser", they are great characters although those movies are not that great. The characters are also great in "Alien", "Predator", "Fiday 13th". Basically I love all the horror movies if they are really really bad! I love the American versions of "The Ring" and the remakes of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Dawn Of The Dead". They're absolutely amazing!

Rockpages.gr: How does it feel to perform with those costumes? I thought that Kiss had a problem but your costumes make Kiss' ones look like a child's play...So, how does it feel?

Mr. Lordi: Well, imagine as if you were covered by a full-body condom!..It's really hot, it's terrible! You start to sweat immediately when you put on the costume and the make-up. It doesn't let your skin breath at all! Sometimes it's kinda awkward. For example, when we're playing in a festival or something and we need a transportation to a bus, to the hotel or whatever. Usually there are transportation cars which are like small, mini vans and it's difficult to fit into them with those costumes and those big boots and everything. There are some sorts of difficult situations every now and then with the costumes but hey, it's like a second skin and when you put it on you feel different. We would never be able to do a Lordi show without the costumes. Some people take off the make-up like in 5 or 10 years but if we did, it wouldn't be Lordi then! When we're doing a live show our goal is to give something for the eyes too. You hear the music when you buy the album and when you come to our show we want to show you something that you don't see at home. If we just played without the costumes and looked like ordinary people, there would be nothing to see.

Rockpages.gr: Thank You very much Mr. Lordi. We really hope to see you live in Greece soon!

Mr. Lordi: I hope so too!