Interview с Negative : DARKSIDE.ru

Jonne, the songs on Anorectic seem to have a more rough sound, including the vocals. Was it an intentional move from your side or did the change come naturally?

Jonne: Oh. If you think about the vocals the sound is a little bit rougher and there’s a more intense sound this time because we toured these songs, we’ve played much higher note than ever before you know… So I wouldn’t say it’s like a totally new direction for our band. These came pretty naturally cos we played many shows after Sweet And Deceitful and we wanted to put more playing and live feeling on this album, we wanted to catch more of that live show feeling so that’s why it’s more aggressive and more rough.

Who came up with the circus theme for the album cover?

Jonne: It came from the band, that idea came from us…

Christus: Everyone said something…

Jonne: The whole circus environment... we were really fascinated. We have put a really strong theme for the album, it’s the circus and it’s a little bit spooky. Maybe it was me who came up with this idea at first, and in the beginning it was like a joke or something like that…

There are some interesting characters in the artwork for Anorectic, for example, take the train picture on the inside cover of the CD. Do they have any personal meaning for you?

Jonne: We gave totally freehand to the artist who made that painting and there’s an original painting, it still exists, it’s like this size (shows 1,5x1 meters). It’s pretty big... and all we told him was paint something that comes close with the circus theme. Also that clown in a train in the front is the same clown seen on the cover of the album but he’s younger in that train picture…

Some of the photos for the CD were credited to be done by Negative…

Jonne: Yeah, in a studio, on a tour we took some photos…all over the world.

Who was most active with the camera?

Jonne: These days Antti, he has a digicamera, and Larry, he has a camera, and we all do have cellphones. You need to catch the moment. Also we wanna give a totally new direction for these days’ bands with these artworks. We wanted to put more and more detail in them. It seems like these days most of the bands… their outfit looks the same…so we wanted to get ourselves a little bit higher by that.

You have one of the most eccentric shows in Finland. How much of the live program is prepared and how much do you improvise?

Jonne: I mean… when you’re doing a lot of shows you face that so called routine, you know what I mean. But you’re trying to keep it interesting for yourself. Just let the music flow. Music comes first, then comes the show. It’s totally improvised to me, I don’t have any certain steps that I’m doing. But certainly you’re repeating yourselves.

Christus: Just basically playing in a different place is always nice and wonderful and every place where we’re playing is different, every gig is different and so is every act. What Jonne says… that routine… you know that is always worked on.

Have you ever been in a situation where the organizers would ask you to keep the action on stage down a bit or censor you in some way depending on who’s expected to turn up to the gig?

Jonne: No no no and if they would we wouldn’t agree to do that. We are what we are.

Christus: We try to keep that rock’n’roll feeling. There are no conservatives…we are not an example of what people should do. It’s not different if there are more younger kids at the show.

How do you pick the opening and closing song for the show?

Jonne: We have played about 30 shows on this tour or even more and we always start with Glory Of The Shame. It’s a good start for the show, but we try to change that setlist night by night all the time so we don’t get frustrated. It’s really important to keep it interesting to yourselves. We’ve released 3 albums now so we can pick out more than 15 songs, for example. We’re trying to change the setlist but we’re a little bit lazy.
We don’t rehearse so much these days, but now we do have some time. We have just played our last show in Finland so now we do have a lot of time to rehearse and play some new and old songs.

Supposing the turnup to your concert was significantly less than you had expected or for some reason the audience doesn’t seem to warm up. What would you do? Stay and try to work out or leave?

Jonne: We’d get away. I don’t know why play shows if the audience doesn’t care... We’re trying to entertain ourselves. In a great show the audience takes like 60 percent of the show and the rest 40 per cent is us. So we’d go backstage and try later.

Is there any particular piece of lyrics from Anorectic you’re proud of?

Jonne: Oh. (thinking). Tough question. I don’t feel like I’m proud. Always when you get new ideas and when they’re totally fresh, when you get inspired and you try to get it out - that’s the best part, not later... so I can’t say any particular line… maybe that moment when you get new ideas and play it to the other guys and we start to work on those ideas together… and when you hear it the first time in a studio that’s great, when you play it onstage in your concert and you see the reaction then I am proud…

Some musicians say that due to the lighting conditions at the venue they sometimes have to sing into pitch-black darkness cos they don’t see what’s going on on the dancefloor. What do you see during your gig?

Jonne: Actually I see... good looking chicks in our case and some tits sometimes... it depends so much on our mood, it depends if you’re playing a smaller club and all the people are like around your finger as they’re so close to you, you know what I mean… In bigger venues you’re usually checking the few first rows, see those people and further it looks like an ocean…
If you wanna get my attention you should do this… (flashes his chest) …or any of us. If I don’t see that these guys do and come up, like, check it out or if I see I will tell them… who saw first can always tell the other guys… tits... check this out.

The Anorectic tour started in Japan, then followed Russia and Europe. Finland was last. Who did you play your home country last on the list?

Jonne: We were planning to play the first shows here but then there were problems with the releasing dates and with promotion because our label in Europe, Germany, Roadrunner, needed more time to do wide promotion for Anorectic so the releasing date of the album was delayed. We needed to cancel all the shows here in Finland and start from Japan, then Russia and Europe. But it’s been good, like 2 years since we were here last time doing tour in a row and it was really nice to see that people hadn’t abandoned us, there’s a strong fanbase we have over here.

How would you define the term ‘glamorous soul’ referring to yourself?

Jonne: Glamorous is like a rock’n’roll life to me, when we’re on the tour I feel like glamorous… afterparties of course, we do have these glitter pools in the hotels.

Christus: And chocolate baths.

Jonne: Yeah, liquid chocolate baths we take those... we like to watch good looking girls wrestle each other in a chocolate bath. And we’re just checking out. That’s glam.

When it’s time for the band to leave the stage is it better to burn out or to fade away? What’s your idea of a band aging gracefully?

Christus: It’s better to burn out.

Jonne : Definitely. We do wanna create and make that sort of career like Rolling Stones, they’re still going on and they’re over 60 but it’s like... it seems so far away if you think about it now. We’re still young and it feels like sometimes in this business and especially if you play in a rock band it’s like burning the candle from both sides you know, so you need to light it up but there’s a certain time to burn it.

What have you ventured and gained in your showbiz career? Not the music, but showbusiness.

Jonne: I would say that we’ve sold gold in Finland with every album and almost every single and it’s something I couldn’t expect. In Finland rock’n’roll sung in English is a marginal genre, so that was something I couldn’t expect. But the more you eat the more you get hungry. We are not gonna rest until this band is bigger than anything else on the Earth, we wanna be the biggest band on the planet, that’s the main target. You won’t get satisfied, if you do it’s time for a change of view in what you’re doing.

What is irritating about fans?

Jonne: If somebody… rude fans, you know. When you’re having a conversation with somebody and someone comes up and interrupts you, I don’t like that.

Christus: Or if you’re eating something.

Jonne: Yeah, I agree.

Christus: It’s an embarrassing moment…

So you mean anything that’s graded as personal stuff.

Jonne: Yeah, it’s like rude when you’re having lunch or whatever, it’s the same if like you’re taking a shit in a toilet and someone comes up and asks can we take a photo.

Some musicians look back and give statements that the moment music came into their life great changes came along. Like for instance when they’d refer to themselves as being nerds before they got interested in the music business. Can this be applied to you?

Jonne: Not quite. We’ve always been wild Indians. We’ve always been the 6 crazy motherfuckers from Tampere together in the same boat, so we are all school droppers… less or more.

Do you follow or coordinate the work of Negative Street Teams?

Jonne: Of course, I believe it’s really important to have that kind of underground fanbase. So we really appreciate people who have that kind of energy. It is important to us, to all kinds of bands. It seems like these days radio’s only playing shit, if you know what I mean, or that kind of not annoying music, music that doesn’t bother anybody. We call it ‘elevator music’. So it’s really important for any kind of a band to have that sort of support.

What would you say to your Russian fans and what do you think about the welcome you received here this autumn?

Jonne: It’s positive, totally positive, we have the best memories from Russia and I have to say we’re getting back soon.

Christus: It’s the best place to do shows, the audience is wild and crazy. I have never seen that kind of craziness.

Jonne: The reputation of Russia and Russian audience is getting better and better. I’ve heard some stories like don’t go to Russia, it’s not worth it, but I did go. What the fuck, we wanted to get there and we went there and we saw those were rumors… People proved.
I really mean it, we’re getting back, maybe in springtime before the summer, that’s the plan. And we’ve never seen so many good-looking girls at the same time in the same place... you have really good DNA or genes. And we’d even more like to warm up towards Russia. I mean it.

Helsinki, January, 16, 2007

Interview by Jana B.

Thank you to Roadrunner, Playground Music, Kimmo Karrkainen and Nina Nurminen for helping arrange this interview.
15 фев 2007 the End

Negative

It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.