InterviewFirst the boring "history" - 2001 until now,
only two waltari-cds. Not much for one (or four)
creative person? What did you deal with in the
meantime. Sideprojects? Or did you only spend the
whole money, who earned before;-)? And what about
other projects of the band-members - yes, I know,
that "one guy" is playing in a well-known german
band. But what am I not knowing? Hi! We had a break during 01-04 (the real break lasted only half year in
reality, fall -00). 2001 spring we released
a-therapy-kind-of rare punk vinyl ep
called Back To The Persepolis to loose the little-bit-tight-and-tired
atmosphere after the year 00 and 14 years without any break, did some small
touring in Finland 01 (unplugged tour and ep tour, maybe around 20 shows all
together) while demoing already songs for the
next Rare Species album (released March 04)
thinking about having that album out in 2002.
What then really happened that it took so long before the release? The
first point was changing the record company after a huge disappointment with
Edel (releasing our Radium Round album late -99). I went to Pop-Komm in
August 01 for getting us a new deal, and picked up a lot of good choices from
there. But, then another bad thing was coming up: our long term drummer Janne
decided to leave the ship spring 02 after 12
years. I was ready to bury the whole band without
having that familiar boy drumming there anymore,
but the other guys and our management convinced
me and Jariot to continue with a new drummer
saying: "hey, we still had the front of the
stage, three of us, remaining and original"
(after Sami joining the group again,with being
nowadays the Kreator guy as well, but still
loving to play with us also).
So, year 02 went pretty much with searching a new drummer, negotiating a deal
(which sometimes can also take a dead long time blaah...) and making some
more demoes for the "still coming next album" Rare Species. January 03 we
were then finally ready to go to the studio with a new deal, new drummer and
with a totally new bursting energy inside the band. We spent the whole year
03 more or less in the studio (we hadn´t used so much time ever in studio
before, that was fun and exiting!), for putting the single One Day out in
Finland during that summer followed by Life Without Love single in the same
fall in Germany. Finally Rare Species came out in Europe 04 and so we were
back in business. After that it´s been a full time job again with touring and
studio all the time (Blood Sample came out in Finland already Sept.05!) and
during the period 04-05 we also used a lot of
time putting up our first DVD which hasn´t come
out still in Germany unfortunately, but was a good
success in Finnish music dvd-charts summer 05.
During the break I also went for a totally new project called Wax- Real Time
Orchestra to keep on my stage fit, and have been gigging with the band since
then every time i have had some free time. We might also do some recordings
in close future. During the break I also had to make some money to keep
myself in bread coz the band was having a break, so i tried some soundtrack
music. With one friend in Finland Kimmo Kajasto we composed music to the
biggest selling entertaining product ever coming from Finland: computer game
Max Payne part 1 And 2 (having around 6 million copies sold worldwide so far,
we even got some prizes from States et.etc.). It was a nice different thing
to do, nothing dealing with rock music, but finally a real possibility to do
music only on computer screen (one of my musical dreams). Some theatre musici
composed too... and 2 solo singles. Anyway, we
never forgot Waltari during the break and did
meantime our best to get the ball run again
a.s.a.p. Waltari music kept us together. We still
had feeling that we have something to say to the
audience.
Try to describe the new CD in your own words?
And why is it interesting to mix up like hell
some many different styles/types of music?
After a pretty straight melodic gothic-industrial influenced album Rare
Species (with full of mainly simple
"rock-pop"-songs, pretty easy ones, in fact) we
had already an idea in our heads about doing next
a more complex album with all the typical land
marks of Waltaris unique crazyness, like
introducing our original crossover idea (from the
early 90´s!) to the new generation with an
updated sound. Anyway, it´s no retro album. It
sure has this original idea of us mixing all
kinds of different traditions of these
electronic-rock-metal styles in a pretty wild
way, but also it has many recent new incluences
in there, what we have took to our soup during
the last years too... a mix between older and
newer Waltari i would say. We call our music
nowadays "Mental Metal".
As i wrote you before, we still have our words to
say to rock business nowadays: We´re talking
about versatility, openmindness, freedom from
prejudice in music (as well as in life
generally!!), that´s what our band is about,
honesty! We want to show people, that it´s possible to be a musician with
a REAL rock credibility (this is not any boring art you know - it´s just
openminded rock music that´s all!), and still try to move on things in
music. Rock music nowadays is more or less just full of egotripping
retroiing entertainers with nothing more in mind than just a bunch of
clishees and a will to become rich in aweek, WE then STILL want to change the
world! We don´t want to stop thinking with
influencing people in a couraging way for a good
music experiences with a high quality. People
don´t feel music´s so important anymore, because
for most of the people it doesn´t really mean
anything anymore, just a nice background noise
coming from your radio speaker or from your
stereos while cleaning at home. No no, music is
much more, Real
rock music is much more, an endless adventure, like life itself should
be. Rock music can still be IMPORTANT for people, opening many new doors
in life, not just a safe entertainment 100 times heard ( and normally made
even in a more exciting way before ). Don´t get me wrong, the world is full
of great innovative music nowadays with lots of big talents (maybe even more
than before! ), it´s just more attitude thing, problem amongst the musicians,
maybe due to the illusion of peoples music tastes and listening habits
what music industry is offering today to the poor
young musicians when first time sending their
demoes to different labels. Waltari has proved
that all wrong. We have found very important the
need to get changed every now and then, you know,
to keep it more interesting also for the band
members.
Toast of course to AC/DC or Slayer and these kind of bands for keeping it
all the same 30 years without changing a bit... its very entertainting and
safe always to the listeners why not, but rock music generally is
getting old and tamed, and it needs a new direction to keep its wild
side living. For us good rock music is an endless
mind blowing adventure with each new album! For
us the rock revolution hasn´t died yet... it´s
been just sleeping... it´ll be always on in us as
long as we just dare to keep it on... as long as
we dare to search for more and more... when your
mind will stop moving you will die. And, i´m sure
that amongst metal/crossover people there are
also many ones who think exactly like i do.
AND, secondly, what is pretty important as well, we want to show people
that it´s also possible to earn living from THIS kind of musical
attitude, we don´t only have to learn to roll our
asses or to play "the same song" for the rest of
our lives to be able to live from own music!
A lot of patience and ambition will be needed, but if you REALLY want
you are able to create a long lasting professional career, like we have
had now god dammit 15 years.
What’s the meaning of "Blood Sample”?
.
Blood Sample is our first kind of concept album (if you don´t
count Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! symphony), describing the mental state of
different corners of today´s Europe... kind of taking a blood sample of the
mental situation here. There have been lately lots of discussion (at
least in media) about pros and cons of the European union, is it really a
real thing or just a fake union between financial leaders. We,
personally, been feeling during the whole career of Waltari (15
years since the first album!), especially since ´91 when we first time
moved to Berlin to get ourselves the first international record deal, as
cosmopolitans travelling annually around Europe with playing to the
Europeans, enjoying and having fun with the Europeans, as an enormous
playground for our career, you know, the whole area has been very
precious to us always. On the CD there are songs about different corners of
Europe... and due to the idea of having stylewise a very versatile album, this
lyrical concept, i think, suits to this musical idea.
Tell me something about your lyrics and give
me some examples? I know, that some of the Songs
symbolize Countrys like Germany (Autobahn!),
Julia (England of course) and so on. But don´t
you think, it´s a little bit cliché, if you
reduce a land on his streets (by the way
constructed from the nazi-regime, what you do
know of course). isn´t it like: The finnish men
are pale and don´t talk, the French only eat
baguette and the italiens only make pizza and
drink wine?
Of course it is a cliche, but believe me or not, many times when you travel,
you, in fact, want to go to a country partly to see and feel all these
original clichees to reflect them to your own life or mentality of your
country. In that way it makes everything more understandable and easier to
get into the "mood" of local people i think...
Well, Helsinki-song, for example, of course is
about our home city, it is also very cliche kind
of story of a
general Finnish mentality, BUT turned it into a todays rock musicians mind. It
tells about a guy who is always longing for something, a very typical, even
a bit in a romantic way, state of depression inside Finns minds. Sitting in a
table with a pint as a friend, longing for his girlfriend who left, longing
for his musician mates travelling far in Europe at the moment, always longing
for... and feeling frail. Believe me, this is still a very stereotype feeling
inside a Finnish musicians heart.
Something about your image? In former times
you were a blue-painted-crazy-man. And now?
Now I´m crazy clown-like carrot top freak from Helsinki preaching the
people about openmindness in life!
Back to music: What about producing of the CD
Something interesting/ funny happened in the studio? br>
This time we decided to bring both the producer and the studio to Nosturi,
the rehearsal place of many Finnish bands (HIM,
Rasmus, 69 Eyes, etc.etc.) as well as ours. We
recorded there with our new producer Sami
Koivisto with his studio kit, so we had as much
time as needed (oh of course with
along the other bands rehearsing there he... always when the place was empty
we sneaked in to record and record and record). We recorded during the whole
spring of last year, little by little the songs
got their identities, it was easy to record there
because that was the place where we´ve also
rehearsed the
songs, very familiar place to work in, with all the amplifiers and the other
electric dust there. In fact we have used almost always other location than a
normal studio for recordings, we don´t really like the atmosfear of a cold
studio environment. To record somewhere which is nice surrounding or
otherwise familiar place give us much more better mood. I don´t really seeany
glamour in recording in a clean studio environment, to me its more like
working in the office or something. Now we had situations like: after
having lunch at home i could think. "hmm, now i could go and do vocal parts
to this or that song" and so on... very relaxing way of making music.
What about your chances in germany? I think
in soumi you sold / will sell one or two cds;-)
To be honest, the last time it was a bit quiet
around WALTARI - your biggest efforts I remember
back in the 90s. br>
You know, we sure have a very strong fan base everywhere in the world, and we
do sell still ok in Finland. But, of course, with bands who have been around
for such a while the biggest hype always calms a bit during the years. Today,
at least in Finland (and i think in Central Europe too) we enjoy huge
respect not only for making still very high quality albums but also being one
of the first Finnish bands to hit the charts in Europe already early 90´s and
still being around and feeling well. It´s sometimes even embarrasing to mea
bit, because i´m just thinking myself as a worker whose profession is music,
that´s all.
What about touring Europe?
We are now preparing the European tour for fall. We tend to do at least one
tour per year in Europe.
Do you play also some festivals?
We have now 5 festival confirmed for this summer in Europe (there might be
some more coming), a bit easier summer to us this time. But, of course,
festivals are the best! Roskilde sure is one of the best.
Helsinki! Some hints from your local scene?
Lost and Found.
Skandinavia and "your" country especially:
what means this for you? Describe your
native country.
Manic depressive people (due to the dramatic
changes of the weather), very happy summer time,
very depressive winter (cross over you know ha
ha), very beautiful
landscape any time of the year, best general quality with rock bands after
USA/UK.. yes, sports is very famous too! Clean streets and houses, lot of beer
drinking inside the apartments... beer beer beer.
Tell me something about your private life! The Beatles? What else?
I go to gym 3 times a week, i had a big knee
operation during the break 5 years ago, i have to
keep it fit with exercise... it might sound
boring but i´ve became a bit addicted to that,
it´s great break for the BIG HUSTLE going on all
the time. Otherwise i party and smoke pot. Jari
acts in a children´s theatre sometimes, he´s
getting good at that, otherwise he also parties
and smokes pot. Sami is always away, if he´s not
playing with us. Otherwise he parties and
occasionally smokes pot. Ville lives in Lahti,
100 kilometer from Helsinki. We citizens of the
capital don´t appreciate Lahti people very much
usually. But he plays drums every day with
somebody somewhere and also has learned to smoke
a bit with us. And Janne, the keyboardist, smokes
in his studio. A lot.
Plans for the future? Some new soundtracks
for which PC-Games? Ballet, Opera, something like
this?
Just plans for next ten years... meanwhile our next cd will happen next year
2007. We will go to a studio by the seaside in August (that´s the plan at the moment).
Bis später! KKK from WWW
Interview Tony, danke erstmal für eines der coolsten Coverbilder der letzten Jahre! Wer war dafür verantwortlich?
*lacht* Vielen Dank! Ed Repka heißt der Mann, der für die bad ass cover art verantwortlich ist. Er hatte bereits einige kranke Coverbilder gemacht und wir können allen Leuten nur sehr ans Herz legen, auch seine anderen Arbeiten anzuschauen. Er ist ein Meister!
Kann ich nur empfehlen, der Mann hat mit vielen Größen gearbeitet und echte scream bloody art erschaffen. "Hazardous Mutation" ist euer Earache-Einstand. Seit ihr mit ihrer bisherigen Arbeit zufrieden?
Ja. Earache sind bisher wirklich gut zu uns gewesen. Sie verstehen, das wir echt hart arbeiten wollen und im Gegenzug arbeiten sie hart für uns. Wir kommen gut miteinander aus und halten unsere Musik für eine gute Erweiterung des Eraches-Kataloges.
Verschaffen sie euch auch Touren?
Die einzige Tour, die Earache bisher an uns getragen hat, war die mit LINEA 77 und BEECHER in Europa- Normalerweise booken wir unsere Shows selbst und Earache promotet sie nur und die Scheibe.
Was hältst du von der ANTHRAX-Wiederauferstehung mit dem alten Sänger?
Ich hätte es liebend gerne gesehen, ich wette, das war eine sehr spaßige Zeit. It would have been great to get caught in the mosh again!
Ihr habt mal eine Split rausgebracht, bei der alle Titel nach Kurt Russel-Filmen benannt sind. Wer waren eure Partner bei der Scheibe?
Es ist eine 7"-Split mit BAD ACID TRIP aus Kalifornien. Sie ebenso verrückt wie wir und gelegentlich trinken wir was zusammen.
Warum Kurt Russel?
Weil Patrick Swayze ausgebucht war. *lacht*
Wirum geht es in euren Texten?
Unsere Texte reichen von sozialen Kommentaren bis zu Songs über Monster und so’n Scheiß. Wir mischen gerne Themen, um die Platten interessant zu halten.
Welcher Song von "Hazardous Mutation” ist dein Favorit?
Du kannst mich nicht dazu bringen, einen Song auszuwählen… das ist wie ein Kind herauspicken. Das ist einfach nicht fair!
Wie habt ihr euren Drummer dazu bekommen, nicht nur bei BURNT BY THE SUN mitzuspielen, sondern auch bei euch Platz hinterm Kit zu nehmen.
Wir haben ihn bei ebay für 69 Dollar gekauft.
Über eure Heimatstadt Richmond, Virginia, weiß ich so gut wie gar nichts. Mach doch mal ein wenig Werbung.
Richmond ist eine tolle Stadt zum Leben, wenn man sich für Musik interessiert. Es gibt verdammt viele Bands, die alle möglichen Stile spielen. Bands aus allen verschiedenen Genres spielen oft zusammen Shows und es ist immer ein gemischtes Publikum da, was die Sache interessant hält. Es gibt einige gute junge Bands hier, wie BATTLEMASTER, ARGENTO AGENDA und WARTORN. Diese Typen haben in letzter Zeit einige coole Shows gespielt.
Welchen Scheiben lauscht du gerade?
Poison Idea-Feel The Darkness
Tankard-Hair Of The Dog
Nuclear Assault-Game Over
Dj Assault-Jefferson Ave
Annihilation Time- II
Und ein paar letzte Worte?
Come see us on tour...BRING THE MOSH!!!
Dass wird vor allem die Fans des hervorragenden Debütalbums "Supersonic Speed" erfreuen - DIE HAPPY können auf ihrer bereits vierten Major-Scheibe "Bitter To Better endlich wieder mit fetterer, teilweise fast roher Produktion, betont heftigen Breitwandgitarrenriffs und einem etwas aggressiveren Gesangsstil von Frontperle Marta Jandova aufwarten. Der auf den letzen beiden Platten für meinen Geschmack viel zu vorherrschende Popappeal bzw. ein relativ glatter Mix sind jetzt komplett über Bord gekippt worden. Die Band aggiert spürbar druckvoller, wirkt irgendwie befreit, der Schmuseballadenanteil wurde ebenfalls erfreulich in Grenzen gehalten und das wichtigste: Die Ulmer klingen jetzt endlich so erdig-rockig wie bei ihren zu Recht vielgelobten Livekonzerten. Es gibt nach wie vor recht abwechslungsreiche Songs aber jetzt mit viel mehr Groove und Power als zuletzt. Ein Textauszug "My Mouth is a loaded Gun, my Words are Bullets" sagt eigentlich schon alles - Marta "röhrt" mit ihrem Organ, was die Hütte hergibt. Anders noch als beim auf international getrimmten Vorgänger "The Weight Of The Circumstances" wurde diesmal auf ein zu oberflächlichen Produzententeam wie "The Matrix" (u.a. Avril LAVIGNE) verzichtet. Stattdessen wurde mit Udo Rinklin zwar ein (noch) recht unbekannten Produzent geholt aber die Wellenlänge paßte einfach, dies hört man auf "Bitter To Better" bei jeder Note. Bei einigen Tracks haben sich DIE HAPPY etwas von fremden Songwritern "unterstützen" lassen u.a. wurde die Ohrwurmsingle "Big Big Trouble" mit Hilfe von Jörgen Elofsson veredelt, "If I Could Fly" (einer der besten Songs) entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit Peter Kvint und die Ballade "I Am" stammt von Diane Warren (u.a. schon für AEROSMITH, oder ALICE COOPER tätig). Man könnte sich jetzt natürlich streiten, ob dies eine (gute) Band nötig hat aber warum eigentlich nicht?! Die Zusammenarbeit mit Außenstehenden kann auch Kräfte bündeln, neue Ideen freisetzen und andere Perspektiven eröffnen. Diese Einflüsse haben DIE HAPPY jedenfalls viel besser getan, als beim Vorgänger. Aber auch eigene ganz starke Songs wie "Perfect", "King For A Day" oder dass fast schon New Metal geprägte "Love To Hate You" sind Killersongs geworden.
Es wird endlich wieder so richtig in bester Crossover/New Rock Manier Gas gegeben, man zeigt sich betont kraftvoll, die Tracks kommen frisch und absolut unverbraucht aus den Boxen. Selbst auf der, für dieses Review vorliegende soundmäßig eher bescheidene, Promokassette (mit nur 10 Liedern - "No final Tracklist & Endmastering") ist dies mehr als deutlich auszumachen, wenn auch die Dynamik natürlich etwas dumpf bzw. flach ausfällt. Weiterhin muß an dieser Stelle, die ansonsten doch (leider) immer etwas im Hintergrund ihrer Frontfrau agierenden Instrumentefraktion, besonders positiv erwähnt werden. Denn was da Bassist Ralph Rieker, Schlagzeuger Jürgen Stiehle und Gitarrist Thorsten Mewes auf diesem Album an ihren "Geräten" abliefern, ist nach meinem Dafürhalten spitzenmäßig und sorgt deshalb dafür, das "Bitter To Better" für mich ganz klar die bisher beste DIE HAPPY Scheibe geworden ist. Die Musik wirkt noch etwas reifer, es wird akzentuierter gespielt, zugkleistertende Keyboardsample wurden weggelassen und der Bass wummert nahezu gleichberechtigt neben klasse fetten Leadguitarriffs. DIE HAPPY bedienen mit ihrer eigentlich radiotauglichen, relativ einfach gestrickten Mucke natürlich nicht die anspruchsvollen Musikklientel sondern eher den kurzweilig orientierten Rockkonsumenten. Aber schwarzmalende und tiefsinnige Bands gibt’s ja zu genüge, die Jungs um ihre Marta wollen einfach Spaß haben, rocken ab wie Sau und vermitteln diese Lebensfreude pur auch mit ihrer Musik - nicht mehr aber auch nicht weniger.
"Bitter To Better" erscheint auch im DUAL Disc Format, das ist relativ neu und bedeutet, dass CD & DVD auf einer Disc kombiniert sind. Außerdem werden neben einigen Specials, alle 13 (!) Tracks im 5.1 Mix sowie sowie eine ganze Reihe unveröffentlichtes Akustik- und Backstagematerial enthalten sein.
Bitter To Better
Band:
Genre:
Nicht angegeben
Tracks:
10
Länge:
44:23 ()
Label:
Vertrieb:
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