Samuel Sámel
LORDI
Do you think that Donna Summer, Pantera and Pink Floyd don't go together? That no one can enjoy the situation we live in right now? Do you think that only madman would be able to release 7 albums at once? What Mr. Lordi has told us all can show that no one really guarantees anything today. Not even that Hawaii pizza should be outlawed!
----- WARNING: Mr. The Lordi does not care to be careful about his language and as I did not talk to him for the first time, neither did I and the conversation is not censored in any way. It can be outrageous for some readers - also because of expressing of sympathies for Hawaii pizza. -----
Hey man. First of all – WTF? – I mean ... I´ve heard that this album would be long and everything, but as 78 songs landed on my table, I knew you had to be super bored!
(Laugh) I don´t think that it has something to do with me being bored at all. Well, it was just an idea – originally, I wanted to do 10 albums. But the record label said no, that´s too much. 7 should be enough. So, it was just an idea and I was curious if it´s possible to do. And it was! I have to say, even 10 albums would be no fucking problem at all. So ... yeah (laugh)
As far as I know, the albums are somehow what Killection was made of – somehow – but can tell u show was it to write 78 (well, or much more) song in that many genres in that short period of time?
Not a problem at all. This has always been the case with me. In those 20 years of Lordi, the problem we have had is that I write a lot of songs because I write with intuition. And it means that every time we make Lordi album, that is mostly around 10 songs, I have at least 20, most likely 40-50 songs that are leftovers. They just don´t fit into album. So usually, the problem is not writing songs but that we have so many of them because I write so much. I write fast and I write a lot. And I mean A LOT. That´s always been a case and I really enjoy it. The way that I write music is that when I write one song, at the end of the day, I have 2-3 songs. They just come out as a side effect.
Let´s say it that way – if I have a chorus that goes like ta-dada-da-dada-da or whatever and I just go with my intuition or you can say it´s some kind of gut feeling, it just comes what might come next and I come with something I record and put it down. Then I see that it´s great song but it just doesn´t fit that well with the chorus I was originally working on. So, I just put it aside. And this shit happens all the time. That´s why, at the end of the day, if I have one finished song, in reality, I have two or three of them.
That said, it was not a problem. And when it comes to different genres, they are all music genres that I love. So, it was lots of fucking fun to have a little bit of a freedom and not to have all those rules. There are certain rules for every genre, you know, and you have to follow them. I enjoyed every fucking moment of it.
If I am not mistaken, all those albums are some kinds of tribute to the bands that affected you somewhere on the way?
I mean, there are some pieces like that. It all started with Killection, the previous album, when the idea was to make something like Kiss Catalogue, basically. With Lordiversity it´s a bit different. The first album, Skelectic Dinosaur, you can hear a lot of Kiss influence there but when you go further, I went deeper to the theme. For example, with the disco, it doesn´t really sound like Kiss – Dynasty or Unmasked at all. Those are Kiss disco albums. And they are actually not that much disco. (Laugh) They are still rock albums. I went further to the field where there is Boney M, Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire and Donna Summer. Those are actually Disco. And it goes like that. The conceptual album, The Masterbeast from the Moon, the idea started with Kiss – The Elder, but I wanted to go further than only Kiss. It´s more like Ruch and Pink Floyd inspired. I think it´s only the album Abusement Park where in every song, I wanted to write in the style of certain band. If I succeeded, you can hear a little vibes and feelings of bands like Twisted Sister, old Accept, old Iron Maiden, old Helloween, old W.A.S.P.
So far, from what I´ve read online, those you said are exactly like that. Humanimals should be Radio Rock – Bon Jovi-ish style...
That´s correct. Humanimals is hair metal / AOR, but it´s not anything like certain band, it´s inspired by writer – Desmond Child who write a lot of stuff for Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Kiss and bands like that. It´s my absolutely most favorite album of them all, actually. That and Superflytrap – the disco album.
Abracadaver is trash – Metallica and Pantera like ... (Yes!) ... and with Spooky Sextravaganza, I was thinking a lot about what it is and the only thing I could came up with was Rob Zombie.
That´s definitely Rob Zombie. It´s also Clawfinger, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Shotgun Messiah. That album was the easiest to write as Lordi already existed at the time so I all I have to do was to think back on Lordi demos from ´92, ´93, ´94 and ´95. And this was exactly kind of music Lordi was making at the time of ´95. It was really easy because I have to go to my roots anyway so that´s the style that Lordi was starting with at the time. Funny thing is that even everything is fictional, in reality – 1995 was the year when first Lordi song was officially released. It was called Inferno and it was part of compilation CD in my hometown where young bands have one song and Lordi´s first officially released song was on that album. So, I thought for some time that we should re-record this song and put it on the album but then I decided we´re not gonna do it as it´s such a shitty song. (Laugh) But it would be funny to combine reality with the fictional timeline but ... yeah ...
Most of the time this part is easy but ... how would you describe Lordiversity as an album. Because it is one release – kind of – but ... how is it even possible to describe it as album?
Well, it´s fictional back catalogue. That´s what it is. That´s the easiest way to describe it. It´s fictional back catalogue to fictional timeline that doesn´t really exist in reality. That´s what it is. It says what would Lordi sound like if it would exist in 1975 and ´79 and so on. But another explanation for that and another hint for listening that is that all these different genres are the musical styles I enjoy. And I am well aware that die hard Lordi fans would probably not like all the seven albums because they would probably like one or two albums and they would hate the rest or the other way around. Unless ... you have exact same taste of music that I do. For me all these different genres are something I grew up with and I love those styles of music. In a way that I am saying this – you have to think about it and I think I can put it like pizza restaurant comparison. So, every two years, the Lordi pizza place opens and we come up with the new pizza. And you can come every two years and get a new pizza. And you know that on Lordi pizza, there is always pepperoni, jalapenos, tomato and cheese. Right?! Every two years, when you come to get new pizza, you know what you´d get. Sometimes, there is more jalapenos, sometimes, there is less pepperoni, sometimes there is more cheese and less tomato or whatever. But basically, you know what´s on pizza when you come to Lordi pizza place. This time, when you come to Lordi pizza place, there is no tone pizza, there are seven different pizzas. Ingrediencies are all the same but you get them separated. You get one Jalapeno pizza, one cheese pizza, one Tomato pizza and one Pepperoni pizza. So that comparison is the best way to describe what Lordiversity is. You get all these genres together and then you get my way of thinking about music. And that combined, you get classic Lordi music. You need a little bit of disco, you need a little bit of thrash, a bit of industrial and the rest to have the Lordi as it normally sound. But now, on this release, they are all separated and put apart. That´s how I see it. They are all really essential parts of the Lordi sound.
Because some people just ask what does disco have to do with Lordi sound. Whoa! A lot! If you think about the melodies of disco music, if you think about something that goes under your feet and makes your head tap, that is basically disco. And you are not supposed to think about the sound, you are supposed to think about arrangements and music and the actual feel and the beat and the vibe of the music. If you take Would You Love a Monsterman for example, it is essentially disco song if you arrange it differently and use different instrumentation. It´s a fucking disco song arranged to be rock song. But that´s how it is. It´s not only about sound or the production what makes a different genre, it´s also about the writings, you know. That´s how it goes. I see all music is pretty much the same – there are melodies a top of the chores and that creates harmonies and then you have the beats, you have the tempo. It is just about the time and certain opinion in what arrangement will you put it and in what genre will it fall into. And every genre has its laws and rule show to write music and how to make something sound like that genre. I don´t know if it makes any sense at all but you know, that´s how I think about it.
You compared the albums to the pizzas and I love it. which one is the „weird“ Hawaii pizza?
I have no idea. (Laugh) Because I love them all. And for me, by the way, I love pineapple on the pizza. So, it is just the matter of taste with both music and food too. My favorite pizza is where you have very strong Jalapenos and very sweet pineapple and then pepperoni. I love the battle they fight with each other. So, I have no idea. It depends on listener which one would be Hawaii or the shitty pizza. And I know there are many people who thinks that this or that album would be the shitty one and which one would be the best of them all. And we already saw – when first single was out – Believe me, from the disco album. A lot of people loved it and then there were a lot of people saying „Oh my god, what the fuck?! What is this shit? Is this supposed to be metal?“ and I was like „Oh my god, you fucking idiot. NO! Nobody told you this is supposed to be metal, where the fuck did you get that idea? It´s DISCO!“ One month later, Abracadaver came out and there was exactly same reaction butt the other way around. Some people say „Yeaaaaah! Finally! Finally, metal! That Believe me month ago was so shitty! Fuck Yeaaaah!“ and the other ones were like „Oh, I don´t really like this type of music. I prefer the Believe me song.“ And that´s how it goes. I really do think that unless a person shares exact taste in music as I do, not all the albums will be pleasing to everybody.
Bands use to have a problem to pick songs for setlists when they got 10 new songs...
(Laugh) Yeah! (Laugh)
What the hell are you gonna do?
I know where you are going with this. I have no fucking clue. I would say... I remember when our first album came out. We had a problem because we only have barely 40 minutes of music and we had gigs that were supposed to play like hour and a half or something. That´s when you have only about 10 songs and then you have to play few covers to fill it up. On the second album you have enough material to fill the set. But then it´s still relatively easy up until band has 4 or 5 albums to do the setlist. But then after that it´s gonna be harder and harder to make a setlist that contains something from each album. It´s usually really fucking difficult. Until now, I mean, we have 10 studio albums. Now we will have 17 albums so I think Kiss have 20 studio albums so ask Kiss how easy it is to do a setlist. It is not easy and someone would always be displeased. Nobody has time to sit in audience for 5 hours and go thru everything from every album. It´s gonna be tricky. Probably we will be doing few songs from here and there and most likely you wouldn´t be able to hear song from each and every album on one set. That´s just the reality.
You got to postpone „F#ck COVID Tour“ few times ... because of, well ... COVID ... Is it still on table or are you gonna straight to Lordiversity tour?
Well. It´s gonna be interesting and we´re still thinking about what the hell are we gonna do but basically Lordiversity is Killection still. Now during the Corona times, the Killection world just got kind of bigger. For me, the way I see it, it´s the extension to the Killection album. It is true world of Killeciton basically so we are still in that era in a way. But when it comes to touring, we will go on tour with Sabaton and The Hu in the spring. We are the opening act so we won´t be playing full set, obviously. We will be doing like 45 minutes or maybe 60 minutes or something like that. So that´s not the place to do any new weird things and nothing very special and then comes the festivals and the festivals are not the place to start playing for example Church of Sccubus, 12 minutes long progressive song from The Masterbeast from the Moon. When you play on the festival, you are hired to play soundtrack for people who wanna get laid and wanna get wasted. That´s not time or place to play anything like that so we´re probably gonna still be having normal set – like a festival thing. Then it´s gonna be almost year from now in the fall when we´re gonna have our own tour, finally. Lordiversity would already be like one year old and Killection would be 2 years old or 3 years. I still don´t know what we´re gonna do. Corona fucked up all the plans we had because 2022 is also 20th anniversary of Get Heavy and original plan was to have Get Heavy themed things next year but now everything is changed so I have no idea what we´re gonna do. Probably on festivals, we´ll do some special Get Heavy things, maybe...maybe not, we´ll see. Then in the fall, I think it´s gonna be Killection/Lordiversity combination tour. I think. But the good thing now is that we would have a lot of time to hear from the fans what songs do they like and what they don´t like so for actually very first time in Lordi history, we would know what fans like and what do they want us to play. Because in every case it has been the thing that we are going on tour and album was just released and the fans hear it for the first time. But at that time, we have already made idea of what we´re gonna play live. We have made new setlist, we have made the show and everything so when we make the decision of what we play on the set it´s always our guess and usually this guess goes terribly wrong. Good example of that was with the Killection for example. We´ve already rehearsed it, album wasn´t out and we were already rehearsing whole set and the band´s favorite song was Blow My Fuse. We were happy and looking forward to play it live and when we got on tour and we were playing Blow My Fuse every night, which was the band´s favorite song, we realized that half of the audience went to toilet or they went to get a beer or something. Happiest people during those four minutes when we were playing Blow My Fuse were on the stage. I realized that we choose a wrong song even though this is the band´s favorite song from the album. Then on the Meet and Greets, we heard from the fans that we should play Cutterfly or Evil. And those two songs didn´t even crossed our minds when we were selecting songs. For some crazy reason, it´s always like that the fans and band have different idea on what should be on setlist. In that way, it´s gonna be good as now we are gonna have time to actually hear from the fans on what songs would they actually wanna hear and from what albums. That is quite a rare. Normally you have to make decision before you hear that. Funny thing is that I remember on many of my favorite bands that I see on show and they have a new album out, and I remember happening this with Kiss, Alice Cooper, UDO – going to a show and wishing to hear my favorite song from the new album and I don´t but they play the shittiest song from the new album. And that´s always been the case. I don´t know what it is but it´s not only us, it´s the most of the bands – band has different opinion than the fans on what are the good songs on the album.
You mentioned tour with Sabaton and it´s actually your first not headline tour after a long time. How would be stage show affected by the fact you are opening act and how does it feel not to go on tour as a headliner?
It doesn´t really matter where you play in a way because those minutes that we are on stage it is our stage. It´s kind of the same thing as when you are on festivals. You really don´t care who´s gonna come after you or who is playing before you. You really don´t care because those 60 minutes when you are on stage, it´s your stage and you really don´t care what´s gonna happen after and you really don´t care who else is there. So, it doesn´t feel any different. The good thing about it is that we´re playing pretty early (for us) so it´s gonna be really easy tour for us because our work is already over in the evening. It would be really welcomed thing for me.
And it wouldn´t be as hot in venue, right?
It´s gonna be hot anyway because of the masks. It doesn´t really matter when you play. So, this doesn´t change really.
Right now, as we already mentioned few times, it´s all locked down due to pandemic and everyone has to stay home. How have you used all that spare time?
Well, making seven albums. This Corona times has been the busiest years that I had in the whole time of Lordi. I have been busy as fuck. You can´t believe. Your mind would explode, you know. I got the idea for the whole 10 album set at the time, then we cut it down to seven. Literally within one week when the tour got stopped in March 2020 and from that moment on, I´ve been pretty fucking busy during all that shit. Because I´ve done all the album covers, all the merchandise, graphics, well ... everything. There is a lot of planning, there is a lot of things to do. Writing, the studio – as I was producing all the albums and after that, there is a lot of extra work. I´ve directed all the music videos for us so ... I am telling you, I´ve had no problem to think about what to do with my spare time during the Corona because I haven´t had a fucking minute of spare time. I have been busier than ever. Which I find good. I see my friends and people who are just doing nothing and asking what to do. Well, do something! I did. I am actually sad in a way when the Corona will finally be over at some time because I´ve been enjoying it so much.
I am kind of person who doesn´t really like people, I like only to be alone with my dogs and I like to create and to have my own routine of the day. I wake up on 11 or 12 AM and I go to sleep on 2 or 3 AM. I work at night – I start at 9 PM and finish on 3 AM. So, my world is ... well, I enjoy my own company a lot so I don´t really miss people or touring at all. For me, it is heaven that I just can do what I do. So, I know I am different from many people but I don´t miss this at all. It´s OK when it would come back but somehow, I´ll feel sad when the day will come and the whole Corona will be over.
You told us that you would easily write 10 albums, not seven. And you actually did.
Well, to be honest, we actually have songs for 11 albums.
How much of the songs were somehow recycled songs from the past?
Every single song on Lordiversity, except the one that already was on Killection, were written on summer 2020. Even though there are hundreds of unreleased Lordi songs I didn´t used any of the demos I´ve had. This time, I didn´t even feel like it and I didn´t even need to. And I even couldn´t, even if I wanted to because we used different genres here and you kind of have to write them all as those demos are all Lordi material, not Thrash or Disco. And because I write so much material, the thing is that I don´t even want to because I just want to write new stuff.
