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Sweatmaster

(© 2002 Maddie Brutalo, La Bruta Zine)


Hell yeah! This band is probably one of the most remarkable new Finnish bands of this decade, whose peculiar and powerful music in not only gonna shake the Finnish rock scene, but it also blows fresh air on the whole international rock music. Sasu Mykkänen (vocals/bass), Mikko Luukko (guitar) and Matti Kallio (drums) gonna tell you more.

You had this tour last summer, where did you go and what kind of response you had?
Sasu: Yes, it was in march, we were in Germany and we had also one gig in Copenhagen.
Mikko: Altogether sixteen gigs.
Matti: The response sucked. Or it depended, sometimes it was great and sometimes it sucked.
Sasu: For instance, if it was monday night, there might have been only three people in the audience.
Matti: Sometimes there was three people, sometimes three hundred.

Mikko: It was some kind of testing, 'cause we got plans to play more gigs abroad in the future, so it was a good test, 'cause nobody knew us.
Matti: Yeah, it was more like a nerve-test.
Sasu: Especially, 'cause we did the tour with Disgrace!
Mikko: Everybody how count themselves as rockers, go to tour with Disgrace.
Matti: Greetings to Taskinen!

Was there any difference between German and Finnish audience?
Mikko: I think that in Germany the rock scene is kinda extraordinary, there's many different people who listen to this kind of music. In Finland there's more just those particular people who come to see our gigs, also 'cause we are better known in Finland. In Germany there was many different people, not only garage guys, who came to see us. Besides I think they have a whole different conception about rock, they don't categorise it so precisely.
Sasu: There was also such fans who followed us to see more gigs in different places. That don't happen in Finland, at least I'm not aware of that.
Mikko: Yeah, they are hardcore fans.

Your new album is coming out in the near future, when exactly?
Matti: Fourt of November.

And through Bad Afro Records?
Mikko: Yeah, and in England we got another company (Must Destroy).

Did you like to work in studio?
Matti: Well, we were so several times in studio during these sessions, that we really didn't have a chance to get familiar with a normal album making.
Mikko: We were in the same studio five times, and the studio was really nice, it was kind of homemade.
Sasu: Yeah it was small, but very comfortable.
Matti: We had this "do it your self" attitude, so we didn't have any producers or anything like that. There was lot of testing and trying, 'cause none of us had much expirience about that before.

Did you have any arguments?
Matti: All the time!
Mikko: Sometimes we got provoked, when everybody observed different things.
Matti: When it was time to mix, Mikko payed attention to the guitars, Sasu to the vocals and I payed attention to the drums, so nobody had a chance to apply.

Do you have any pressures of selling enought records and that kind of stuff?
Sasu: We haven't thought about that at all.
Mikko: The record contains almost a half of new material, but we decided to use also some old songs, 'cause that full lenght album is for different guys.
Matti: We haven't had any CD's before to sell, so that's one good reason to use them.

Is a trio good size for you, or have you ever missed for instance another guitarist?
Sasu: I couldn't even imagine, that we had two guitarists. If we had another member in this band he would play some other instrument.
Matti: Mikko is so skilful that he can handle everything we need.
Mikko: I thought about that whole thing when we had couple gigs on festivals last summer, but then I decided that the trio is the best option.
Matti: It's been clear from the beginning, and it's been working fine.
Mikko: When Sasu wasn't in this band, I played the bass and we had this one very skilful guitarist and he was slightly too skilful and I said to him, that gimme that guitar, 'cause the guitars gotta be rhythmic and distinct, not only solos and stuff like that. And that's one reason why we got this unique sound.

Was it easy to find?
Mikko: We haven't thought about it too much.
Matti: It was born more like gradually.

How about your old bands, what kind of music have you played before this?
Mikko: Me and Matti, we had this band called Sweatmaster, which played little bit different music. When Sasu joined the band, the style changed. Today Sasu writes basically all the songs, that's why the style changed.
Mikko: I use to play punk and hardcore, Sasu played stoner rock and Matti played sort of "jazz-punk".
Matti: I've always been a rocker from my heart, that's why I had to leave those projects, 'cause I couldn't play anything else than rock.

Do you make any money by playing rock?
Matti: Yeah, sure!
Mikko: First of all, we put all the money we make to our own account, which helps to keep this band to go on. We all got our own main things, Matti is a graphic artist and we are society scientists.
Sasu: It's good that we've saved all our money from the beginning, and the amount is growing little by little.
Matti: It's like a nest-egg for a bad day.
Mikko: So we don't have to use our own money for band's expenses.
Matti: When nobody want's to release our music, we can do it by ourselves.

If you could play in any band you wanted to, what would it be?
Mikko: Sonics! And with Roky Erickson.
Matti: Peer Günt.
Sasu: Sly and the Family Stone!

How you always manage charge up before every show?
Mikko: Well, we had this one idea to make a little run before a show.
Sasu: We always try to focus somehow on the upcoming gig, let's say about a half an hour before it starts.
Matti: Not like Discrage.
Mikko: We never drink before the showtime, exept now we had couple beers, but usually we don't drink at all, and that's how the concert will be more tight.
Matti: I gotta have one or two beers before the show, to have this cool feeling.
Mikko: No...

What about next winter, do you have any plans besides that record?
Sasu: Well, we gonna play couple times in England between October and November. And then we're also going to Germany in April, and maybe to Spain.
Mikko: And after we got the record out, we have some gigs in Finland.
Matti: Those are the things we know now.
Mikko: Yeah, that's all we got going on in England.

But your album will be released there?
Mikko: Yeah, actually before the album is released, we will have this mini-CD realised there, only in England.
Matti: I'm A Cool Dude And I Like Rock'n'Roll, that's the name.
Mikko: But England is very strange place, most important things to take effect are the hype and style, and the some other things outside the music.
Sasu: And that's not our thing, we don't think those kind of things at all.
Mikko: Yeah, and this is a whole new label, if I'm right this is their second release ever.
Matti: England is sort of place that...
Mikko: We all should get ten years younger and put on suits! We are too nerdies for all this, we even wear glasses. Maybe we should play some nerdie music, 'cause we got glasses, it doesn't fit with rock'n'roll.




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