Interview с MyGrain : DARKSIDE.ru

What kind of music did you perform with the bands you played in before?

Eve: My first band was Salacia and it played dark/goth metal. I was about 16 years old as it started, it lasted for four years or something like that. Then I went to Embers Left which played rock and goth metal. When it split up I had some mixed-up gigs, not real bands, but some line-ups that we played with our friends. Now it’s myGRAIN which started in 2004 and this time I am helping my friends in a doom metal band. I play the keys in live situations but not the album.

Tommy: My band career started when I was about 12 years old, in a grade school, and we played Guns N’Roses and Metallica covers songs at school parties. After that we started our new bands, played heavy metal and some rock’n’roll songs, and my band prior to myGRAIN was New Science Band.

Matthew: I was 16 years old when I joined my first band, we played our own songs and then Korn and Deftones covers. After that it was New Science Band which saw the daylight in 1999. We played progressive rock and a little bit of metal and all in between. It lasted for about three years, then we broke up. We had some difficulties between band members, we didn’t rely on each other that much anymore. After that it was myGRAIN.

How did you come up with the band name?

Matthew: It was something I saw in an arcade game, it was the letter “M” and there was a circle around it. I was thinking about some band name starting with an “M” and… MyGRAIN yeah, that sounds pretty good, it just came up from nowhere. I thought it was a good name. It’s not a negative thing to refer it to as migraine, like the headaches, it’s just you have ‘my’ and wheat and oat ‘grain’, so it’s meant to be positive. But there are people who don’t like our music so it’s ‘migraine’ for them, but for us it’s ‘my grain’. (laughs)

Tommy: And the grains are growing in our own field!

What’s the funniest gig or gig offer you’ve had?

Tommy: There were two funny gigs, the Club Metal Barbeque in Nosturi, it was

in the summer, we had beach party clothes on, Hawaii theme, and another one was…

Eve: I had a mustache!

Matthew: And a Turbonegro hat!

Tommy: … and we had the sandals on. And again it was last Friday, 13th - we had Halloween costumes on, fake blood and stuff.

Eve: I was a vampire and our bass player Joonas was Jason from “Friday the 13th”.

Tommy: And I was some kind of angel of death.

Matthew: I was a killer clown! (laughs)

What bands influenced your metal tastes?

Tommy: Bands like… well, of course we have to say Soilwork, but also Finnish metal, like Amorphis.

Eve: I would have to say Amorphis is the most important band to me because of the album “Tales From The Thousand Lakes”. As it came out I really got into metal. So Amorphis is responsible for my metalheadness.

Tommy: And for me I think it’s Metallica and Judas Priest. And Guns N’Roses isn’t metal, but they led me into the right direction a bit.

Matthew: My main influences were Metallica, Machine Head and Faith No More.

There was a video coming on…

Eve: Well, there have been some difficulties in finding the locations where we can shoot it, but I guess it is going to happen in December.

Tommy: Hopefully this year’s December.

What is the main concept of the upcoming video?

Tommy: It’s a kind of surprise, but we can line up a few things: it’s not supposed to be a normal heavy metal video where you play in a warehouse. There may be some booty-shaking and dancing in the 1980s gym clothes.

Eve: But we won’t tell you everything because we want it to be a surprise. It has to have a shock effect when you see it the first time.

Tommy: It’s supposed to be humorous but at the same time it’s heavy metal. Dark and rough.

What about the second album?

Tommy: We’re heading into the studio next autumn.

Eve: We now have about six or

seven songs that are going to be included on the album. Of course they aren’t totally finished but they are in a good state.

Tommy: There are more to come, now I think we have two more in progress, so maybe by springtime we’ll have to drop out a few songs to choose the right ones to bring into the studio. Hopefully we’ll get enough songs.

How do you organize the creative process?

Eve: Usually Resistor (guitar) or Matthew have some kind of a sample, not a ready song, but something that they have come up with at home. They bring it to our rehearsals and we start working on it together. But this time it hasn’t been that simple, sometimes I have had some riffs brought there, or our drummer has something that he had come up with. Maybe the songs will be quite different on the second album.

Tommy: Sometimes the ideas come crazy, like for example DJ Locomotive, our drummer, has a funny idea: play the guitars like this: wee-dee-wee-wee. He has this big picture in his head, but he doesn’t know how to play guitar.

Matthew: Some of our songs are written on the spot. It’s another way to make a song finished… done… complete.

Other than the band, what do you do?

Matthew: I study.

Tommy: Me too.

Eve: I’m working. I have to work because I wouldn’t have money if I didn’t.

Tommy: There are too many activities in addition to the band, so it takes a lot of time from the band and free time. School…

Matthew: They don’t want to be a welfare case. (laughs) None of us wanna.

What is your favorite music or show business-related activity?

Eve: They’re all great. They all have good and bad sides. Gigs are great. Recording is great. Afterparties are even better.

Matthew: The greatest.

Tommy: Actually, you cannot name one on top of the other.

Eve: There aren’t many things that we wouldn’t like to do.

Do you prefer to share the stage with other bands or play alone

?

Eve: With other bands.

Tommy: Yeah.

What bands have you enjoyed playing with?

Eve: Mmm…. it depends very much. Now we have been touring with Misery Inc. and it’s really nice because we know the guys.

Tommy: Other bands that we have played with are Profane Omen, Kiuas and Amoral, but only one or two times…

Matthew: They all vary. It’s not a specific band that we play with, it depends on who organizes our gigs, so we don’t have much to say about who we’d like to play with.

Eve: It’s nice to play with bands that we know already. Like Misery Inc. and Profane Omen.

Tommy: Yeah. There are a lot of friend bands that we sometimes hang out with at afterparties. Sometimes we’ve played with them together and hopefully we’ll play with the rest of them also.

What do you usually do at afterparties?

Tommy: Drink a lot of booze. And get passed out.

But before you start drinking, right after the gig?

Eve: Actually we start drinking before the gig. (laughs) Then it gets worse when it comes to the afterparties.

Eve: Then we are dancing sometimes, like in Lappeenranta we had—

Tommy: Yeah, that disco dancing thing.

Eve: They played some heavy metal before the gig, but after it turned out to be some kind of a disco. Our friends from the band Battlelore came with us and we were dancing disco style… I don’t know what music they played but for many hours we were just dancing.

Were your parents supportive of your interest in music and did they try to influence you to get into music when you were kids?

Eve: My parents have been very supportive. My father is a musician and my mother has been playing a few instruments when she was a child. They have been very excited all the time and went like, “yeah, go for it.”

Tommy: My mother has actually only sung karaoke, but my grandfather bought the tickets to the first concert I ever went to, and

it was Judas Priest. He also came there with me and my mother, it was kind of funny. (laughs) My grandfather was hanging around and was like, “What are those guys doing?” My mother was bringing hands over me to defend me, because the other metalheads were moshing and yelling.

Matthew: When I was 12 years old, my mother asked me, “guitar or piano?”. I said “guitar”, and after that I found myself at a guitar class. I started acoustic guitar lessons when I was twelve years old and after that I purchased my first electric guitar and started doing my own stuff. So, that’s pretty much how it went back then.

Does the band have a leader?

Eve: No, not exactly.

Matthew: We’re a democratic band.

Eve: There are some people who maybe did more, but nowadays we don’t have to do that much because we have a label and a gig booker. But in the beginning some of us maybe did a bit more concerning the gigs.

Tommy: No artistic leader.

How do you take criticism?

Tommy: If we get a not-so-good review, it doesn’t make us feel bad. But of course we are pretty self-critical.

Eve: I don’t actually read the reviews much anymore. When the album came out I did, but I just don’t have the time, there are so many of them and it doesn’t really affect you. Some like it, some don’t, the main thing is that the fans who like it hang on to it.

If you were not pressed on money and could afford any special effects, merchandise, stage costumes, what would your dream gig be like?

Tommy: I think that pyrotechnics would be nice and… police car lights. (laughs)

Matthew: Siren.

Tommy: Siren. Maybe several of them…

Eve: No, hundreds!

Tommy: …on the stage, and the sound would be all over the music.

Would you sing, or just stand there with all those sirens?

Tommy: (laughs) I think the pyrotechnics would be the thing, maybe, someday. Or some kinds of costumes showing we’re in the same army.

Eve: Sailor costumes!

Tommy: Sailor costumes! (laughs) Same armor, with shields and swords. (laughs)

Eve: Yes, swords, and dragons, and fire, and explosions!

Thanks to Susanna Vare for arranging this interview. Special thanks to myGRAIN’s Eve, Tommy and Mathew for doing the interview twice.

Interview by Jana B.
Photos by Jana B, Kari Helenius
October 27, 2006
28 ноя 2006 the End

MyGrain

Don