record "Through The Red" has been released in may last year. But it´s
now that SUNRIDE are touring Germany for the first time. What did you do
during the last year since your album was out? Touring Finland at
least?
Jani: Yes we did a Finland tour with a hardcore band called
ENDSTAND. They´re from Finland as well.
Wille: It was nine or ten gigs in a row. We played two gigs in
Sweden and some occasional gigs here and there. We had to wait for half
a year for this tour. Now we´re here!
I read that you´ve been on tour with NINE of Stockholm´s fame as
well?
Wille: We toured Finland with them in 2002, a few shows only. We
knew the guys from before. Last time they were in Finland, a few month
ago I was travelling with them and selling their merchandise.
Jani: And they stole a guitar riff from us!
Wille: If you´ve heard their new record, it´s a rip-off, really a
rip-off.
Jani, grinning: So, greetings to Sweden.
Wille: We will steel it back! It´s from a song called "The
Earthmover", it´s the first song on our first record "The Great
Infiltration". On their album there´s a song called "The Strategy Of
Fear", it starts with the almost same riff. When we played with them we
asked them if they´re gonna play any new songs. They said they´re going
to play one new song. And they have admitted that they actually stole
this one. In that live situation when I first heard it I thought like
"what ever...", but on the record it´s so pretty clear. But I don´t
care, it´s one of my favourite bands, so it´s cool actually for me, that
I have composed such a good riff that it´s ok for them to use.
Jani: They are really a cool band.
What do you think about the reactions you´ve got after the release of
"Through The Red"? (Both are vividly talking simultaneously and eked
their words perfectly though, one was picking the end of the last
sentence while the other was already telling the next one, so don´t take
it too literally who said what)
Jani: I think generally the feedback has been really good.
People...
Wille: It has been really good. I read one (!) bad review at all.
And that consisted of only one sentence, it was saying something like
"this is exactly the reason why I don´t like KYUSS". But otherwise: In
four out of five reviews we scored nine of ten points.
What does "Through The Red" mean?
Wille, cryptically: It means several things actually.
Jani: Wille thought a lot about the title. It has so many
meanings, and I personally think that we´ve struggled a lot, and we´ve
had bad times, and then we went through the bad times, (a smile and a
short break) to the top.
Wille: The "red" is equal to bad times. We´ve had line-up changes
and some other things, I mean sometime I think we were cursed or
something, because all the bad luck happened to us all the time. Well,
it happens to many bands, so it may be normal, but... Still the title is
reflecting of that time. Yeah, I thought about it a lot and there´s just
no other title for this record. And to talk about the music, I think
that it´s just a little bit harder than the previous one.
Jani: Or a little bit more melancholic.
Wille: Maybe darker. So that´s another reason to call it that
way.
It´s a little bit slower in comparison.
Wille: Yes, it´s more mid-tempo. Slower, and maybe a little bit
heavier.
Did you listen to KINGSTON WALL when you were young teens in the
early nineties?
Wille, raising his brow: KINGSTON WALL? Ah yes... Our drummer is
a fan of KINGSTON WALL, but...
Jani: And I like KINGSTON WALL, too, but I think they´ve not
really been an influence to us in any way.
Wille: I don´t have any of their records...
Jani: We like their music. Some of us like their music, but they
have not been an influence to us, in any way.
Who did influence you more? I read about XYSMA...
Wille: Good old finish band. The best...
Jani: The best band in the world!
Wille: ... best band that Finland has ever created. I´m always
feeling very proud if someone compares us to XYSMA - in a good way.
Because that band is the reason why we play rock ´n´ roll.
Jani: Yeah exactly. It´s XYSMA. That´s when it all just began.
I think on "Vinegar Fly" and "Days Inside The Capsule" you´re really
singing a bit like Joãnitor does nowadays.
Jani: Ok, is it?
Wille: Oh, I don´t know about the singing. But there is a little
bit of XYSMA still in our music if you listen to it carefully and if you
know the band XYSMA from the beginning to the finish, when they split
up. If you know the whole history you can find some little things.
Jani: Yeah, there are some similarities.
Wille: It´s not like any specific riffs, it´s more like the
spirit of doing it. And the way of composing songs, I think.
Unfortunately there was only "Lotto" released in Germany as well. And
even that was hard to get.
Wille: That´s their best record. I think it´s one of the best
records ever.
Jani: And one day they started with death metal, and so did we.
We started as a death metal band years ago.
Wille: Actually we never quit listening to hard music, I still
listen to AT THE GATES and CARCASS and stuff like that, occasionally.
But THIS is the music I love playing myself.
Jani: Personally I don´t listen to that Stonerrock music myself,
maybe only some KYUSS classics, but not the newer bands. Personally I´m
into the punk and hardcore scene at the moment and maybe some hip-hop.
Is there Punk and Hardcore in - where is it - Jyväskylä?
Wille & Jani: Yeah...
Jani: It´s in the middle of Finland. I think there´s a pretty
good rock scene in town. There are some good bands as well. In Jyväskylä
there is a small part of the city which is funny because I think all the
punk and hard core bands from Jyväskylä they are all from this little
part of the city.
Wille: Which is a little part of the city just outside the town
where about a thousand persons live. And every hardcore and punk band is
from there. It´s so strange.
Do you still live in Jyväskylä, altogether?
Wille: It´s only me and the drummer left. Those guys live in
Helsinki (pointing towards the other side of the table where Jani is
sitting).
Jani: I live in Helsinki, Mikko, our second guitar player, lives
in Helsinki, and Janne, our bass player, lives in Tampere. So it´s kind
of hard, because we have a rehearsal room in Jyväskylä.
Is it still standing? You´ve told in an interview before that it
should be demolished.
Wille: But they saved it. There is the best rock venue in Finland
in the same building and I work there. Actually it got awarded as the
best club. So I´m happy the building was saved. We have now a new
rehearsal room. We rehearse there, and we phone each other and set up a
weekend or something when everybody comes down.
Jani: We can´t rehearse everyday or something like that. When me
and Mikko come to Jyväskylä it´s four or five days in a row just
rehearsing so we really have rehearsing days.
Wille: We don´t rehearse that much. Just enough to keep it
going.
Jani: Some may think that we should... I think we should rehearse
a bit more.
Wille: I think so, too, to be honest. But it´s hard...
Jani: hard to gather all the guys.
So how do you organise your holidays altogether?
Jani: Our bass player Janne is the only one who´s actually
employed at a "real" nine-to-five job.
Wille: So he works six days and has six days off. When he has his
days off he calls one week before the other guys and maybe they can come
around and rehearse. And me and the drummer, we are always in Jyväskylä,
so we can go to rehearsals any time.
Jani: Mikko is unemployed, and I have a kind of part-time
job.
Wille: It´s not really a problem, it´s more how you organise
things. But of course it would be very cool if everybody lives in the
same city. We´ve got to do a little more rehearsing, I think.
Jani: Just give me a call.
Rehearsing rooms in Helsinki are expensive, are they?
Wille: It is maybe, but it depends. We have some friends
actually, who offered us a rehearsing space in Helsinki, a cheap
one.
Jani: The guy who´s booking our shows in Finland. He has this
kind of indie-center thing in Helsinki.
Like the Nosturi?
Wille: No, very different, it is really new, there is no kind of
venue in it, only rehearsing rooms.
Jani: ...and some record label offices. He offered us some space.
But we have to have our rehearsal space where the drums are. And the
drummer is in Jyväskylä, so we have to have the space there. He
rehearses almost every day.
But you don´t think about moving to Helsinki?
Wille: I thought about it, but now I don´t think so, to be
honest. I´ve been there a couple of times. It´s a nice place to visit,
but I don´t want to live there.
Jani: You should, you´ll love it. I think it´s cool, I personally
like Helsinki really much, I couldn´t imagine any other city where I
could move to, now, after Helsinki. I think I´ll stay there.
The guy who´s booking you is now working for Welldone, right? (A big
Finnish booking company). Isn´t it a nice incident?
Wille: Yeah, it is, but we knew this was to come because he´s
booking all the cool shows in Finland and he did all the work himself,
he had his own promo agency. And then we´ve heard already a year ago
that Welldone had asked him, and offered him a job. Because he´s been
doing all the cool shows and Welldone is gonna try of course to get such
a cool guy to be part of the company.
So you are now booked by Welldone, too?
Wille: We are now. Because when the guy took the job and went to
Welldone he phoned us: Hey, do you want to come with me to Welldone? So
we´re here, why not. Things won´t change because of this.
Jani: If things change now, they´d change to a better way I
think, because Welldone is so big in Finland.
Wille: I was a little bit worried that maybe they´ll put our
price so high that there would be no gigs for us anymore. And that´s
what I discussed about with the booker at the first place. That we can
go with him, but please do not price us too high, because that´s always
what happens to a little band if they go to a bigger booking agency.
Jani: That would be way too expensive for the venues.
And this way you are here now?
Wille: No. Welldone is only responsible for us in Scandinavia.
This tour is booked by Vibra, it´s two guys from Bielefeld, they are
organise gigs for Dog Eat Dog, for example.
So you´re through the red now?
Wille: Almost. Only four gigs to come. No sleep ´til Finland!
If the boys would have known that they´re not through yet... They
slept at the clubs or friends of their bookers´, the car broke down
several times and finally for good, and even in Hamburg there were
adventures waiting for those danger seekers. But read it in their own
words on their class="link3">homepage.
By the way, the mega-cool poster in the style of Frank Kozik
announcing this tour has been designed by Wille himself.
Wille: At Lutakko I´m responsible for all the graphics, do the
web site and sometimes even the posters for bands who don´t have their
own. And I did designs for some friends of us as well, for example some
merchandise of DOZER, ENDSTAND and some local Finnish bands. There is a
funny story behind this poster, because I have been searching the
internet for cool, free pictures. This guy under the mask is a friend of
Tom Hanks and he´s working in Hollywood as a make-up artist. I send him
a record for it, and now we´re free to use it, pretty cool.
When did you invent you band name, during the summer?
Jani: Sunride, hah. That was Wille.
Wille: Back in ninety-something I read Kerrang magazine. Me and
the drummer have had a band with different members than today and we had
this many, many names for the band and changed it every second week or
so, because it wasn´t anything serious. But then it got to the point
that we actually thought about doing a demo, so we had to take some
name. So I read Kerrang magazine, and, I think it was a David Leroy
interview and he mentioned the name "sun", I read it and thought "cool".
But I preferred two words together. Then I turned the next page, there
was an ad from a band called RIDE, I don´t know if they exist anymore, I
never heard of them before or after. So I´ve had it, Sun Ride, that´s
it. There were no deep thoughts, I was like 15 years old at this time.
Jani: But it´s just a name, and it´s not bad. As long as it
fit´s, it´s ok.
It´s funny how many different people seemed to like you, a bit aside
from the usual rock show: Even Kerrang magazine (as you mentioned it)
wrote a good review, though they are only high on the latest "Nu"-Wave
and THE DARKNESS normally.
And the last time I read Finnish Soundi magazine they were covered by
Britney and Justin, even they liked you.
Jani, self-ironic and a bit smug: We are just so good.
Wille, earnest: Yeah, but if you think of it, our music fit´s to
any kind of people. It doesn´t require you to be a real rock ´n´ roll
guy or something to like us.
Jani: It´s a bit heavy maybe for somebody but for most people I
think it fits. I think our music is pretty easy to listen to. There are
enough melodies, and I don´t do this growling sound.
Wille: It´s easy rock music.
Jani: That´s why it is so popular - as it is.
Before Wille could destroy this little laughter by being to rudely
honest and earnest, I promise you: They will be, at least after YOU
watched them live on stage the next time they´re around.
