rozhovor_2016-10-06_Lordi_en - HELLMAGAZINE
Hlavná ponuka:
ROZHOVORY
Monsters from beyond the polar circle are asking for attention once again and this time, it would be so hard core. It was foretold by music video “Hug you Hardcore” which provoked huge discussion. Mr.Lordi spoke with us again without any limits and told us anything that came on his mind. And it was great fun sometimes as you can read it as well …
You are just releasing new album called Monstereophonic. Can you disclose us this new piece?
Sure. It is two half album actually. First half is the thing you know from Lordi. When we started doing this, I wanted to make it honest, because when I write the songs, I don’t give a shit about what critics think, I don´t give a shit what label thinks and I actually don´t give a shit what fans think about it. It is expression of me and I am doing it completely for me. Then I record it, finish the work and I start to think about what people would really think about this. First half of the album is traditional Lordi stuff and the second half of the album is concept album and it is something that was written really long ago. Musically it is what you know from Lordi as well as something new as we want to make another step with every new record. The thing is that mainly in case of drums, you would hear much more complicated music because now we finally can do it. Before – in the era of Kita, we just couldn´t do anything complicated because Kita could not play it. Then there was Otus, who passed and it is only now with Mana that I can write more complicated as he actually can play it.
Can you tell us more about the second part of the album? Can you tell us its story?
Well, it is story that took place in fictional town something like 200 years ago and it is place where the last four monsters live. And they actually are last of their kind and they live in same town. There is vampire, werewolf, witch and her son, who is a zombie. And they are trying to co-exist and so they set up a meeting to mark territories, and stuff like that and they start to fight and that is the time when townsfolk came to burn the witch. It is story of events that took place from evening to morning.
There is a little tradition you are doing called SCG which is some kind of horror intro to your album. What do those little pieces mean to you personally?
Exactly what you just said … they are intros to bring you to atmosphere of the album or at least first song of the album. And we are doing this every time. Actually, there was only one time we didn´t do this and it was on album To Beast or Not to Beast where we instead did drum solo as honor to Otus who passed out.
On your website, you are declaring that new album is beginning of the new era of the band. Anything you can tell us about this?
For me, every new album is new era because it comes with new music, new stage shows, new costumes. Everything is new. With every new album, there comes new era and it is circle that goes on and on and that is what it really means.
In my eyes, era is always starting with me starting to write first material for the new album. It continues with recording, preparing new costumes, painting album covers and finishing the album. Then it is release day and tour, which is climax of each era. Then comes the last show of the tour, last summer festival and it starts over again.
As you are speaking about new costumes … I saw them and as far as I can tell, every character has two faces. Is it only me or …
You are absolutely right. When we decided to make two faces of the album, Theaterror & Demonarchy, I said that we would do everything with two sides. Even the characters, which was pretty cool with some of them, for example Hella. She has one half, which is scary metal psycho doll and the other half, which is really … reaaaaaly sexy butt showing naked titty doll.
You released music video for song “Hug you Hardcore”. When I saw it for the first time, I was like what the fuck?! And as I realized reading comments and reactions on that video, it somehow has to separate hardcore Lordi fans from wannabies …
Yes, I think so. And it makes me mad that some people doesn´t understand the song, even some old fans are like “This song ended my 12 years love to Lordi” and I am like what?? You love band for 12 years and you stop loving band because of one video? Well, OK. Bye. We wanted to do what we really wanted. And when I was talking with the director for the first time, I said he can do it under one condition – he wouldn´t give a fuck about what label says and he would do it exactly like I tell him to do it. And he was like “OK”. And this is exactly what we did. If someone knows me and knows our previous videos and read our lyrics, he would know, that this is Lordi. Maybe a little more graphic, but it was something we wanted to do. We were thinking about what we had never touched and it was genre like Saw – and it is not really horror, it is something like gore thriller. And it is pretty visual.
What really makes me angry is when someone touch your artistic expression and tries to censure you. Because when it comes to this video, it is obviously OK if you show cannibalism, it is OK if you show that you are holding some people in cellar and you cut them with chainsaw. But then, you put strap on to a women and she puts it in guys ass and you are like “Noooooo …. What the hell, you can not put it there!” And it is actually the only thing that is not a violent crime from all those before. And everyone is going crazy about it. This is really fucked up! Sure, it is violent rape, but I can make you sure – if there wouldn´t be guy … if there would be chick instead, everyone would be fine with that. But “WHAT are you shoving up this guys ass FOR GODS SAKE?!!!”. You see my point, right?
And the other thing is that nowadays, you don´t have budget to make music videos. In the past, you got tons of money, our most expensive music video cost half million Euro, nowadays you are lucky if you get ten thousand. And with this budget, you get tons of videos showing band headbanging in old factory, or in graveyard. You literally can see hundreds of new music videos every week showing some band headbanging somewhere. We did video for “Bite it Like a Bulldog” on tape and with lot of effects. You are not doing any video on tape nowadays. We get what we could and make this video and you could see how much tense it made. Everyone is speaking about it, I for example am answering questions about this video for last two weeks.
Seeing this video, I get some comments and if it is possible, I would really like to hear your reaction on some highlight ones…
Number one: “Lordi just became weirder than Rammstein”
(Explosion of laughter) I really like this one. How can you compare two bands with two completely different positions in music business, two different genres and conception? You just could not! I understand what was weird on Rammstein, and when it comes to their video “Pussy”, I am actually jealous, because I really would like to do such thing. But they did it and you just couldn´t do it again. But I think I could take this as a compliment. So I am definitely fine with that.
OK … another one: “ Where can I find girl like this?”
(Laugh) Well, actually it is wife of producer of the video Per Bussmann. So you couldn´t take this exact one because she is already taken … or, well … married. But I am sure you could find such a chick.
“This is mix of Steel Panther and Cannibal Corpse.”
Uh … Steel Panther, OK. Cannibal Corpse, uh uh, OK, uh uh. I like Steel Panther, but Cannibal Corpse is not really my cup of tea, you know.
“This is big fuck you to Hipsters.”
Whaaaaat?! (Laugh) I don´t think this song anyhow as fuck you to anybody. It is actually about ass fisting, but it is definitely not fuck you to hipsters. But if you take it as an instrument to say fuck you to hipsters, OK, be it. I actually have some friends who are hipsters and I like them. They are great friends. Sure, their head is a little sick, but they are great.
After all that speaking about new video, I am a little scared to ask, but what can we wait from new stage show?
You know, it definitely would not be dildos and strap-on like on video. Those things are not Lordi and they do not belong on stage. After the show - maybe, but not on stage. (Laugh) We are working on it right now and I couldn´t say what would come in two weeks so I think I could say that we would see on tour.
As we spoke about traditions, there is one more tradition, which is called Lordi Calendar. Are you preparing something like that for 2017?
Yes! I am working on it literally right now. It would be for sale on tour. And as you might heard, we had some fuck ups with 2016 calendar and it would definitely wouldn´t happen again. It was the first time someone else did it for us. Because before, it was always same Finnish company every time. And now, it was new company from outside of Finland. So it came for the first time and it was fucked up, so we gave them more correct specifications, it came to us and it was fucked up. So we had to do it third time. And we gave them exact same specifications as we gave previous company.
Now, it would be two side calendar – one side would be classic calendar and the other side would be Hella only pin-up calendar. You would have side for time when your girlfriend is home and one for time when she is not.
New costumes are thing I want to return to. What was the biggest challenge for you this time?
Same thing as always – to come up with something new but to make sure you won´t mess up character, because characters are something like trademarks for us. For Hella and Mana, it was easy because they have only two costumes so there is a lot of space. But when it comes to me and Amen, we already have 8 of them and it is really hard to come with something new there, you know.
When we speak of Hella, she was the easiest one because she was coming with ideas for the costume before I even asked. She was coming and saying “What about making this” or “What if we make it like …”. She is the most active one when it comes to costume from all Lordi band members, former or current. And it was her idea to make Hella sexier. It was her idea to show a little booty and to show nipple. When you think about it, Hella really wants to show some body.
People are saying that it was not OK to make her wear this but it was her idea. I am not pushing anybody to wear or do anything he doesn´t want on his own. That is not me.
There is exhibition going on in Finland called “ExtraLORDInary”. Weren´t you thinking about bringing it outside of Finland?
I was and I would really love to do it, but it takes a lot to make exhibition like this. Everything comes in trucks, you need people to set it up, you need over week of preparations to make it look like we want and you need a gallery and finally a tons of paperworks. For example, I was asked to rent my costume from Eurovision contest to Abba Museum in Sweden. And you could not imagine how much paperwork it took to make it happen. I just don´t know regulations, restrictions and laws of other countries to make it happen. But sure, if there would be someone who would want to make it happen, I would be really happy if he contact the management of the band. For me personally, it just isn´t possible right now to bring it outside the Finland although I would really love to make it happen.
Added: Samuel Sámel
Added: 06.10.2016