Ok, tell us a short history of the Slideshaker?
Slideshaker is Arttu Keski-Orvola (guitar), Jani Korhonen (drums and percussions) and Heikki Savolainen (vocals and guitar). We got together sometimes early in the year '99 in Kuopio. We were friends already so it was easy to get along. We started out as The Cannonball but we changed our name in june 2001 'cause there's a motorcyckle club called MC Cannonball in Finland. We had a bass player too but we decided that we sound lot better without it.

How you created your punk-blues style?
When we started out our music sounded more like Sonic Youth. Then we heard the Blues Explosion's Now I Got Worry and that totally exploded our heads. That album has inspires us more than anything but it was more like a kickstart. But we all three liked raw blues music and garage rock before we knew that there's a band like The Blues Explosion. We just didn't realized how to express ourselves but Jon & co showed how. Also we wanted to wide out our style with punk and hip hop and use samples and remix methods. At first people said that you sound just like The Blues Explosion but that's because it's only band like us that people know. But in Finland there's Cosmo Jones Beat Machine, Trouble Bound Gospel, The Festermen (r.i.p)... they're all great bands. But nowadays I think we got our own unique style.

How about those gigs you've done?
We haven't done so many gigs but we're getting into that. We've played in Kuopio, Joensuu, Jyväskylä and Helsinki and some in private parties and so on. Every gig's been better than previous one and that's only way to go. Problem is that we don't have booking agent so it's hard to book and make connections by ourselves.

Do you think you're more like a live band?
Yeah, absolutely. We three have played so much together so we can jam and do new versions of the songs in live situation. And I think that Slideshaker's raw energy comes out in best way when we play in front of people.

Have you been in studio recently?
We have recorded and mastered 4 songs for the debut 7'-ep and one song for the Myrmecoleo Records (Japan) compilation. Jail Bait Blues 7'-ep is coming out soon on Legal Records. We got our own studio, K-Overdrive Studio, so we do the recordings there. We like to do experiments and remixes and hang out in the studio so it's good that we don't have to pay for the studio time. We'd be totally broke?

What inspires you to make music?
Women, all women are bad. We just write songs about things that happen near us. People that do stupid things, mostly our friends. We listen all kinds of music so that inspires us too. In rock music lyrics are not that important. You gotta feel the music not try to understand it. It's more like a religious thing but it's nice if you have something to say.

What kinds of music do you listen right now? What bands inspires you?
Nowadays we listen lots of electro and sample-based music like Dj Shadow, The Avalanches, Aphex Twin and also funk and soul. Of course we listen rock-n-roll and blues too but there's nothing new going on. I rather listen my Velvet Underground and Stooges albums than those new action-rock bands, they're so boring.

Have you got any new musical directions in mind?
Yeah, we're gonna do a rock opera and some heavy metal, we're just getting into what's our sound and style. But we're very close to that nowadays. In the new songs we got more kinda raw blues mixed with hip hop beats -style. We hope that sometimes in the future we'll sound like R.L. Burnside plays 'Groove is in the heart' with Pussy Galore!

More future plans?
We got no high-up hopes. We're trying to do as many gigs as we can and write new songs but I promise that Slideshaker is going to be one hell of a blues band. Hopefully sometimes in the future we're ready to do full-length album.