Boomhauer

(© Masa & La Bruta Zine)

Get ready for wild redneck country punk, pelvis-cracking burning soul, post-Generation X white boy blues and raunchy garage rock. Here's the Sweatmaster's twisted little brother, Boomhauer!

Boomhauer's drummer changed recently, and your new drummer is now Mikko Lappalainen, who's also known as a journalist (Kurnuk, Sue) and who's also drumming in Ben's Diapers and running cool record label called Rhythm Barrel Records. So Mikko, is it hard to get time for all this, 'cause I guess you also got some real job besides this?
MIKKO: Yes, it is very hard to find time for everything and I do get a bit stressed at times. And my wife is even more pissed off about it. But that's life. I love music and I want to do anything related to music as often as I can. My hobbies do interfere my job and my job interferes my hobbies. But I'm a happy camper.
SAKU: Mikko is a music man. He knows what we're doing and does a great job. Big man laughing, sweating and beating the hell out of drums.

How and why, did you get the idea for the comic character type of image?
MIKKO: I didn't know we have one. But if we do, I'm sure Saku worked on it for years in his head before he launched the project.
SAKU: I've been working on it for all my life I guess. That's just because my thinking is 'comic character type' of thinking.

How important part humour is in your music? Have you ever been afraid that you will soon be in the same genre with Turo's Hevi Gee and other bad humour bands?
SAKU: To make people laugh and feel all right is a good thing. But yes I know what you mean. We try to keep our humor in shape.
MIKKO: I think humour is very important in life in general and in music, too, to some extent. And yes, we are constantly afraid that we will share a genre with the Turos.
MARKO: Honestly, what's wrong with Turo's Hevi Gee?

Are you going to change your musical trend more diversified in the future?
MIKKO: I don't know. Depends on what Saku ends up writing. It can anything from quirky pop to eerie prairie ballads.
SAKU: We just try to do what feels natural. We can change it if we want to, it may happen, who knows. At this stage I like to get wild and so do the boys, so we gonna get a little tender later on. When we older and dumber. We'll see.
MARKO: I don't think we are going to change that much. Or who knows.. We all have other bands in which we play something different than Boomhauer. So we don't need Boomhauer to play grind-core or Finnish Schlager. Personally, I don't want Boomhauer to be the Waltari for the 21st century.

How did you react when you heard that Räkärodeo will end after few weeks and what do you think generally about radio now a days?
SAKU: I reacted bad. Räkärodeo is something so unique. For years i've been a big fan of that thing. When people ask me about my influences, like what bands I dig, I usually just say Räkärodeo. I love that music, it keeps me interested.
MIKKO: Personally, I was devastated and mortified, even though I knew it wouldn't last forever and the threat was on. That show has been a huge part of my life and maybe the single most important thing that has made my musical tastes the way they are. I don't really mind the daytime radio, I'm not appalled by it like many seem to be, but there should be alternatives and specialised, well edited and lovingly hosted shows in which the DJs know about the music they play and love it.

Did you like to play in big festivals, like Ruisrock, in last summer? And was it much different than a normal club gig?
SAKU: It was different but we liked it though. But sure I prefer clubs, people come closer. It's often hot and you get on the face.
MARKO: For me it was really strange. I'm always kind of lost when I'm on stage. And when there's like 500 people watching it's pretty.. weird. But sure, it was great to travel around the country.

What do you think about this hype over todays garage bands like Sweatmaster etc.? Would you like to be part of it?
MIKKO: I try not to think about it.
SAKU: It's kind a complicated. I wanna agree with Mikko. Maybe it's best not to think about it so much. Some bands deserve to get people's attention, but then again too much attention might do you bad.

What are your principles concerning your lyrics? Undeniably they sometimes sound like a parody of basic rock'n'roll lyrics.
SAKU: I don't have any specific principles concerning our lyrics. It's love - and sometimes being without it - that keeps me saying things I guess.

I gotta ask at least one stupid guestion every time, so do you like the Finnish Popstars band, Gimmel?
SAKU: It is/was something to talk about, the tv-shows and everything. So it was all right. I consider it more like a story than a band.
MIKKO: I kinda like it, although I think it could and should be much more better done. I'm a huge fan of pop music, so I like well-written, well-produced and well-marketed pop music, when the whole commercial aspect is taken to the extremes. Think about the girl groups of the 60's or the Bay City Rollers: it's all fun, a lot of records sold, great music, good songs. I'm not against that. People should lighten up and not be too serious about music - some people are seriously and personally hurt when they react to things like Popstars, I can't see the point. There are more serious things to be concerned about.
MARKO: Sure, there are much more important things in the world, like US-Iraq situation and so on. Somehow I find the whole thing pretty cool 'cause the whole thing is all about the money and people involved in it don't hide the fact. But at the same time and for the same reasons I find it totally disgusting.

When should we expect to see the third part of the EP trilogy?
MIKKO: Pretty soon!
SAKU: That's right.

Official Boomhauer site





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