Voices of: Children of Bodom, Russian metal press and others 🙂
Transcription and decoding: Melamory and Kris
Press-attaché: Now we start a press-conference with Children of Bodom, the band, which was triumphant yesterday in DK Gorbunova. Today the guys are ready to answer all your questions. The guys are willing to communicate, but they don’t have much time.
Journalist: Who is your favourite guitar player?
Alexi: Randy Rhodes, Zakk Wylde, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert.
Melamory: Did you have any other candidates before you choose Roope to replace Kuoppala?
Janne: Roope is just playing for the tour we already have booked. We haven’t decided yet whom to choose as a band member.
Alexi: He will cover tour for the rest of the year. We don’t want to cancel the shows so we just figured it all.
Janne: It’s really important that he helped us out in this situation.
Melamory: Do you know who can be the next guitar player in Children of Bodom?
Janne: No. Not yet.
Alexi: No, actually. Some when we sit down and think about it, take time. We can’t say right now. We got all the shows that come over. We have to take the time.
Roope: *voice from the grave* Take the time. *all laugh*
Journalist: Alexi, can you tell something about Sinergy plans? Is there new album in the making? And when?
Alexi: We’ve actually started writing a new stuff a couple of weeks ago. So… We’re gonna record it in February. I’m not sure about it.
Melamory: Henkka, were you surprised when the girl came to you on the stage?
*all laugh*
Alexi: Where is she now?
*Henkka blushes, all laugh*
Henkka: Yeah, I was pretty surprised. I wasn’t expecting…
Melamory: What did she do?
Henkka: She gave me a photo of her and a rose.
Journalist: You did a lot of covers: WASP, Scorpions, Slayer, Ramones… Which is your favourite cover?
Janne: I used to like The Ramones’ cover, but I think the Billy Idol’s cover is good.
Alexi: Yeah, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” is pretty good.
Journalist: Did you like yesterday show?
All guys: Oh, yeah! Pretty good. Yeah, we liked it.
Journalist: A funny question. What’s your favourite sex music?
Alexi: Nine Inch Nails.
*all laugh*
Melamory: The girl just mentioned covers. Why don’t you play them on stage?
Jaska: Erm…
Janne: Sometimes.
Alexi: Sometimes we do.
Janne: We’ve been playing Ramones’ cover actually a lot of times.
Alexi: We did WASP cover a lot of time. We did Twisted Sister’ cover. I don’t know why. Maybe we should.
Melamory: Do you have any plans about recording DVD?
Alexi: We’re sort like working on it all the time. We have backstage products. We have good amount of cool stuff, but not good enough and it can be boring. It’s gonna be… it sounds like to put in on the wall.
Journalist: I have a question to Alexi. How long do you play guitar?
Alexi: Eeeerm… *counting fingers* 13 years. *happily* Yeah, 13
Melamory: Do you have rehearsals every day?
Janne & Jaska: No!
Someone: Actually we did before the show.
Alexi: When something is coming up like studio session or a tour or something, then we use to rehearsal every day.
Melamory: For how long time?
Alexi: A couple of hours. But it’s totally different situation if we’re working on a new album or… Then we might be in a rehearsal place like for 10 hour. If we have a tour in coming up, we just do the set list, or almost set list at least. We meet five times a week, you know.
Journalist: Do you have any plans re-release “Tokyo Warhears” all over world?
Janne: It’s actually been re-released.
Alexi: Wasn’t in only in Finland, or?..
Janne: No, or… maybe.
Journalist: You have some kind of hidden track… some speaking… at the end of Hate Crew Deathroll. What can you tell about that?
Alexi: Oh, yes! It’s shit! We were fucking drunk in a studio. I remember about that. We were recording the background shout and stuff like that. All five of us…
Janne: …around microphone.
Alexi: Yeah… We were totally fucking wasted. We were shouting. And between shouting we’ve been just talking about something stupid. The sound engineer were recording all the things we were talking about. When we heard it it was funny. It’s nothing… mmm…
Jaska: There’s no sense. At all.
Journalist: Maybe you know some Russian metal bands?
Alexi: Gorky Park.
Melamory: And what’s your favourite metal bands from Finland? And what can you say about freaky band Sleepy Sleepers?
*the band laughs*
Janne: He (Roope. – Melamory) has a t-shirt actually.
Roope shows his merchandize t-shirt with dead fish with human head on it. There’s written “Kekkonen” on it and says something.
Janne: He thinks it’s great band.
Alexi: I don’t mind. We’ve got a lot of good stuff. We have Stratovarius, Nightwish, Sentenced. Erm… Impaled Nazarene.
Jaska: Rotten Sound.
Alexi: Fucking Sleepy Sleepers of course.
Melamory: Do you like them?
Alexi: We have to like them. They are just funny. They sing in Finnish and you cannot miss a point.
Melamory: And what do you think of your band Negative?
Janne: What band?
Melamory: Negative.
Alexi and Janne: I have never heard them.
Melamory: So, you don’t read poppy magazines?
Alexi: Well, I have seen some pictures, but I have never heard them.
Journalist: By the way, on your website you have personal bio-section and everyone of you answered the question which is best Stratovarius’ song? What’s the joke about it?
Alexi: It’s a fucking joke. Why not?
Jaska: We have this kind of thing between us and Stratovarius. We are joking on each other in a funny way.
Alexi: In a friendly way.
Journalist: Here’s the question to Janne. We’ve heard that you were invited to join Masterplan, but for some reason you didn’t want to. What is the reason? And we’ve heard that you actually played on the album, but not credited.
Janne: I played the album. And it’s a funny situation. Somewhere down page there’s written that keyboards are played by me. It’s really small. On the band picture there’s a keyboard player who didn’t play on the album. I was supposed to play with them, but it wasn’t possible, ‘cos CoB had so many tours and shit and stuff. I decided I can’t play tour with them. I just played on the album.
Journalist: Another question to Janne.
Janne: Aha.
Journalist: We saw yesterday at the show that the position of your keyboard is in a very strange way. A month ago Stratovarius came to Moscow. Jens Johansson also positioned his keyboard in the same way. Is it kinda Finnish fashion?
Alexi: He is not a Finnish person…
Janne: Yeah, Jens Johansson is from Sweden. So it’s not Finnish, it’s Swedish. It’s how I like it. It’s good for me. I saw it first when Jens first did it. I tried to do it that way. Somehow I have my hands it a very good position to play.
Journalist: Why in the new album you have lyrics for only four songs again?
Alexi: *smiles* Always the same question. I think first of all the main thing is music anyway. And the lyrics can be secondary. In a way they are important. That’s why I print the lyrics for a couple of songs to people to get a point what we play all about. I don’t know. There’s lots of songs where I wrote the lyrics and they suck. I just don’t want to put them on the album.
Journalist: Do you have any plans to do some songs in Finnish?
Alexi: No. While we’ve been playing this kind of music, I think English is the most natural language, if you know what I mean.
Journalist: Question to Alexi. You worked as a producer with a band from Norway called Griffin. *the band laugh* Why did you decide to do it with the trash metal band?
Alexi: Well, first of all… I actually did not produce the album. At all. I just went to the mixing thing. I just helped with a couple of guitar riffs and a couple of ideas what the album should sound like. But I wasn’t around when they were recording the stuff. I couldn’t produce all the things. I just was there. I wouldn’t call it producing for sure.
Melamory: My question is to Roope. Did you have any doubts if you want to join Children of Bodom? And was it difficult for you to learn all the songs?
Roope: Well, it’s not like a decision, they asked me to and I agreed because I know I can play that and I wanted to help the guys.
Journalist: And now the serious question…
Janne: Aha, the first one 🙂
Journalist: You became a part of Universal. Has it changed anything for the band?
Alexi: No, not really. Sells are changing. Somewhere sells are better, somewhere – not. But it has changed nothing for the band.
Journalist: Alexi, what about your relations with Kimberly?
Alexi *tries to be serious*: We play in the same band.
Journalist: That’s all?
Alexi: Well, we’re still friends.
*everybody is happy but tactfully keeping silence* %))
Journalist: Guys, do you like Russian beer?
All: Yeah, it’s good.
Journalist: Many people don’t like it…
Alexi: Really? Well, it’s okey. It’s better than German beer for example.
Melamory: And do you like Lapin Kulta, ’cause some Finns like it and some – not.
Alexi: Yeah, it’s okey.
Janne: Finnish beer is good.
Journalist: I know that many Finns are excited about cheap booze in Russia ’cause in Finland it’s very expensive.
Alexi: No, not really, it’s just that you can’t buy it in the shops after 9pm. You have to go to the bar, and there it’s really expensive.
Janne: And you can’t buy it if you’re too young. Other than that there are no limitations to get drunk.
Melamory: Which are your favourite bars in Helsinki?
Alexi: *looks like thinking* Ehm… Rock Corner…
Janne: Lost and Found.
*Henkka turns and starts to giggle*
Janne: But don’t tell mama, it’s a gay bar.
*all laugh*
Journalist: Do you plan to release old Inearthed stuff..?
Alexi & Henkka: No.
Journalist: …because there are many bootlegs and all they sound like shit.
Alexi: It sounds like shit anyway, no matter how you put it. *laughs*
Journalist: There’re many bands nowadays what look and sound like Children of Bodom. Do you like any of them?
Alexi: *Allu is sitting in a Norther shirt *ggg* There are some bands that could be influenced by Children of Bodom. But I don’t think they play the same music and I hardly can mention any of them. But all of them are cool.
Journalist: Roope, do you plan to re-release Stone albums? They can’t be found nowhere nowadays.
Roope: Not like re-release, reprint.
Journalist: Do you want to make cover of any young punk bands, like Norther covered The Offspring?
Alexi: We’ve covered some punks already and I think it’s enough. But maybe we may make a cover for Sex Pistols. But they are not young punks, of course.
Journalist: In some metal magazines’ CD reviews Children of Bodom is called the extreme version of Stratovarius. What do you thin of that?
Alexi: Oh my god! Well, they can write whatever they want… I mean, maybe there were some Stratovarius influences on our first albums, but if you listen to, for example, Hate Crew Deathroll… it’s totally different
Journalist: Question about yesterday show. Are you satisfied with the sound that you have yesterday, especially the balance between the guitars and the keyboard?
Alexi: I don’t know. I was just playing. *all laugh* When you are on stage, you have no idea what is happening in the audience. *Allu asks from sound engineer* How was the balance?
*voice from somewhere* I think it was fine. *all laugh*
Journalist: Yesterday at the show you played a small fragment of Rahmaninov’s 2nd concert. Are you planning to…
Alexi: What!? *all laugh*
Journalist: You played a section of Rahmaninov’s 2nd concert.
Alexi: *turns to Jaska laughing* Who the fuck is that?!
*all laugh*
Janne: *to Allu* It wasn’t you actually.
Alexi: It was Roope maybe.
Janne: Now I remember. It was Roope.
Alexi: Yeah, I think it was Roope, actually.
Roope: It was my fucking first gig yesterday. And he (Janne) was teasing me. *all laugh*
Melamory: What classical composers do you like?
Alexi: Mozart, Bach…
Janne: Tschaikovsky.
Melamory: Do you listen to them?
Alexi & Janne: Yes.
Melamory: And Sibelius?
Jaska: Sibelius? Yeah…
Alexi: Of course!
Melamory: And do you like Sibelius monument?
Alexi and Janne: It’s weird.
Melamory: Do you go there to see it sometimes?
Alexi: Actually me and our former guitar player, Alexander… we went there. Do you know there’s a Sibelius’ face there? We put a cigarette into his mouth. *all laugh*
Journalist: More about yesterday show. Are you satisfied with the reaction from the crowd? Did you expect so many people to come?
Alexi, Janne and Henkka: No.
Jaska: No. It was really cool ‘cos there were so many great metal heads. They went crazy and that make you… eee…
Alexi: Yes, it was great. They were kicking ass. But sometimes I was kinda scared for the audience. They were running around on the stage and they were kicked by security guys, which was kinda fucked up.
Journalist: About metalheads. Is there any difference between metalheads in different counties? In Finland, in Russia…
Alexi: Yes. I mean… It’s kind of matter how crazy you are. Let’s say here people appreciate a lot more then they do for example in Germany, ‘cos in Germany they have the gigs like that all the time, you know. And everybody had tours there all the time. So it’s not that special when you go there. Whenever you come here, you can see from the crowd that they like it totally ‘cos it’s something really special for them. The same things are in Japan or in South America.
Janne: In Japan people… mmm… keep… eeemmm…
Alexi: Yeah, ok, in Japan people are crazy, but they also polite. That must be something to do with their culture. And in South America when we play, they are just crazy. I remember… I think it was in Brazil or somewhere… there were a lot of people. They were like running towards the band and swung our bus with their hands.
Melamory: Do you prefer to play in club or at the festival?
Henkka: I like them both.
Janne: They are different. The circumstance is usually shitty for the bands to play in a big crowd. In clubs are always a really good sound and money.
Journalist: What’s your attitude towards religion and black metal?
Alexi: I don’t give a shit about any religion and black metal is cool.
Roope looks somewhere at the CD stands, then suddenly goes there and grabs a Cannibal Corpse CD with huuuuuuuuuuge female tits graphics on it. All the press starts to laugh. Roope examines it intently and shows to Henkka. Henkka giggles. Then Roope turns to Janne and shows that masterpiece to him, Janne smiles but refuses to pass the disc to the others. Roope returns it back to its place.
Journalist: This question is to every band member. What kind of music do you listen to at home? So you listen to metal at home, do you listen to some other stuff? Some bands say “we don’t listen to metal at home, we have so much of it in the road”.
Janne: I can listen to different music. Maybe some classical music, some pop… maybe some jazz. On tour I usually don’t listen to metal ‘cos you have to listen to it like five hours every day. At home I listen to all kind of stuff.
Alexi: I listen to music all the time no matter what I’m doing. And it shouldn’t be metal all the time. I mean, most of the time it’s metal. But I’m into everything which sounds good. I can listen to Madonna or something like that.
Roope: I listen to… *mumbles something*
Press-attaché: You have time for a couple of questions more.
Alexi takes the mobile phone out of his pocket, does something and puts it back.
Journalist: Guys, what’s you attitude to such music styles like dark-wave, synth-pop, the electronic music.
Alexi: Well, I think some of that stuff may be good. But I don’t listen to it.
*Everyone turns to Henkka* He might listen to this kind of music
Henkka *taken by surprise*: Me? What?
Janne: …Electronic music…
Henkka: No, I don’t listen.
Melamory: I’ve just noticed mobile phone in Alexi’s hands. Guys, what kind of ringtones do you use?
Alexi: *looks puzzled*: Ehm… well, standard one.
Janne: I don’t download anything special. So, standard one.
Henkka: Me neither.
Journalist: Do you plan to release one more live album ’cause Tokyo Warhearts was a great success and everyone will be happy to have another one.
Alexi: No. Actually, some time ago I listened to Tokyo Warhearts and noticed many mistakes. Back then, in 1999 we were not ready for the live album and I’m sure if we recorded it right now it would be a lot better then that one.
Janne: I think the DVD will cover it.
The time has finished. And after that all the guys gave autographs and took pictures with the journalists. Sure, everyone of them has become a huge CoB fan after the fabulous gig and really pleasant press-conference.
P.S: Crimson Dawn thanks Big Brothers Entertainment for the perfect job they have done.
Be the first to comment