Interviews

How was your show in Antwerpen? Besides of the Moscow show it was one of the first shows outside of Finland wasn’t it?
Yes, correct. It was great. It was a good crowd and it was nice to get out of Finland for a while (laughs). Today’s show was also good, I even saw some people with Ajattara shirts

Is it hard for a band with Finnish lyrics and an extreme sound to find a fan base?
I don’t know because I don’t care about that shit. But I talked to people from other countries and they said that language is not a barrier so I think it’s quite ok to so sing in Finnish.

Some people like to call your sound black metal while others refer to it as dark metal. How would you describe your music in your own words?
It’s white man’s black gospel (everyone bursts out laughing).

You are currently the vocalist for 4 bands that all sound different in a way. Do you have so much creativity to give away or why is that?
Yeah, something like that. I just need different channels to express myself and… I don’t know… I’ve been such a stupid kid that I can live with this. There’s no reason to do this for money. But actually, there’s only two bands which are active, Mannhai and Ajattara. Shape of Despair barely make any albums, every three years or so. It’s not that busy. And To Separate the Flesh from the Bones has members from HIM so we’re not that busy either.

So there’s no time problem?
No. We have the same booking agency.

Why do you use the nickname “Ruoja” for Ajattara?
Well, we all have nicknames for the band.

Ajattara is a rather small band. Can you all live off your music?
Ehh, not exactly. We get some pocket money out of this but it’s more for the feeling of it. We love to do this. It’s all for the music.

If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing as a profession?
We would be alcoholics. Most of the time we’ve been on stage drunk I think.

Typical Finns huh?
Yeah, very typical.

Which bands influenced you?
Venom, Bathory and Sielun Veljet.

What bands are you currently listening to?
I listen to all kinds of music… (Someone throws in “Mötley Crüe”.) Yes, I was a big fan of Mötley Crüe when I was a kid. Now I listen to Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Darkthrone... Some of the other band members interrupt again: We all listen to James Blunt! (we all laugh).