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Sain päähäni idean haastatella Kitaa vähän aikaa siitä kun hän oli lähtenyt yhtyeestä ja aloin suunnitella haastattelua hieman Monsterboardin käyttäjän Idan kanssa. Yksi asia johti toiseen ja sain mahdollisuuden haastatella Kitaa. Ida sai idean kokonaisen Kita-lehden tekemisestä haastattelun ympärille (sen sijasta että haastattelu liittettäisiin Lordi Fan Nation -fanilehteen, haastattelu liitettäisiin Lordi Fan Nationin ekstralehteen) ja aloimme työstää lehteä. Meillä oli muutamia erimielisyyksiä mihin suuntaan lehteä alettaisiin viedä, mutta mielestäni lehdestä tuli erittäin hyvä.
Lehti on suomalaisten fanien epäonneksi englanniksi. Syitä on monia, mutta yksi näistä on se, että näin suurempi osa faneista saa lukea lehden. Jos on kysyttävää jostain kohdasta, kysykää. Virheitä ei pitäisi olla.
Lehti sisältää fanien muisteloita. Pyysin englanninkielisellä puolella faneja kirjoittamaan lyhyen pätkän siitä miten tutustui Kitaan, mikä hänessä on parasta tai kuinka tapasi hänet. Mukana on myös psyaniden, Judge Deathin, Petri Haggrenin ja minun ottamia kuvia. Haluan kiittää psyanidea, Judge Deathia ja Petri Haggrenia todella paljon siitä, että sain luvan käyttää heidän kuviaan. Kiitos!
Lataa LFN KITA EXTRA (pdf)
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How are you, Kita?
Fine, thanks. [laughs a bit] All kinds of little hassle are on, of course, naturally. Meetings and such. In fact Ive helped Lordi a bit as theyll have, how soon was it, in three weeks the first gig of their tour. Ive done like live intros and such to the songs, you know when theres all kinds of sounds of clatter and clack. And then of course weve started to rehearse with my other band, and weve been thinking of actually playing a couple of gigs still this year. And of course as Im the manager of myself so Ive been doing that job, too.
What memories come first in mind when you remember of all the years you spent in Lordi?
Well of course theres naturally a lot of memories. But what comes first all big gigs, big festivals, Wackens, Download festival in Donington, Rock2Wtgn in New Zealand, and of course the Kauppatori gig in 2006 was great. But then theres a lot of small: small succeedings, nice trips, nice people well, theres many of them and theres many stories too. Mainly positive and nice big things - and of course some funny mishaps have happened. But I happily remember those times.
What things you will miss the most from those times?
Maybe it would be those long trips - we probably arent going to do those with Stala & So at least for a while. [laughs a bit] But on the other hand the world has been travelled a few times already, so the novelty has quite gone. But maybe, you know, meeting people, spending time together, meeting fans Im not so sure how much I miss that, but at least it would probably be nice to go and go touring the world. So tours, in short? Yeah.
What Lordi era is or was your favourite?
Musically speaking?
Yeah. And regarding the events happened during the eras.
Well of course so many big things happened during the Arockalypse era, so naturally it was big, but somehow musically speaking I personally like The Monsterican Dream and the making of it a lot. When you think that Get Heavy was a collection of old songs mainly by Mr. Lordi - it had songs from ten years - The Monsterican Dream was the first band album and the band improved a lot in the making of it. It also was some kind of a showcase and I think we redeemed it pretty well. And somehow it feels like after that album people started to see us as a real band.
It didnt get so good reception, or did it?
Yeah, no it didnt. But thats how it goes; if someone would record the best record in the world now, without a doubt, it doesnt necessarily mean everyone would buy it. Fans liked it. And the same happened to Deadache. Even the critics flattered it but it didnt sell as much as people maybe expected. But that was because there came the Eurovision hangover, that we werent a trend anymore.
How about your favourite Lordi costume? My personal favourite is your Babez costume.
Yeah, Babezs costume was cool but I didnt have it on so many times. I like Japan a lot so I like the Deadache costume a lot. But on the other hand, theres certain memories related to every costume. I dont really count the Babez costume in because I didnt really get into it. But Id probably say the Deadache costume. I liked that samurai-monster thing.
Whats your favourite Lordi album?
Well If I had to listen to one of our records from the very first second to the last, I think Arockalypse is our hit album, musically inter alia. Of course theres great moments on every album, but in my opinion Arockalypse kicks the most. Regarding to its song material its in my opinion the strongest. If I should recommend someone who has never heard Lordi which Lordi album he or she should listen to, Id say The Arockalypse.
But Babez had Michael Wagener...
Yes, but he didnt participate in the writing of the songs, he just produced. So Im more speaking of the content. The producer has his own vision, of course, but if I had to choose. The name doesnt make the record any better; its more the music. Of course the new album is good too. I think Lordi has never done a bad album. And probably never will. But regarding to the song material The Arockalypse is stronger than Babez.
Which of all five albums was the most painless to do?
The newest. Definitely. At least on my part. I sort of achieved the top of my drumming. Ive never kept myself as a drummer, so when you think that I played fifteen songs in in four days. And weve always used a lot of computer before, weve edited a lot, changed the grid of the drums if you know what it means. Like we put everything like its a machine. But this was really a creation. Everything was played and replayed to the point it sounded good. Same with the backing vocal sessions. It was all easier than before. I dont know is it that I had got better comparing to the beginning when it was a lot of trying. But yeah, this newest was, for me, clearly the easiest.
Do you have a personal favourite song on Babez?
I like the opening track and Rock Police is good. And then one that was left over, a little similar to Rock Police what was it
Lord Have Mercy?
Yeah, I like that! I think it had a great spirit. I wouldnt have taken it off the album but wiser people decided to leave it off.
There were a lot of guest stars on Arockalypse and on Babez you had Bruce Kulick and Mark Slaughter. How did it feel to work with these kinds of big names?
Well, on Arockalypse we didnt work with anyone else than Udo. Udo was the only one who came to Finland. All the others recorded in their own studios and sent the files via the Internet. Though this time Lordi visited Bruce and made a song with him, and Mark Slaughter It cant really be called working with him as he just came to the studio, spoke the speeches and walked away [laughs]. But its always nice! Its always fun to see that those old own idols you have dug when you were a kid are really relaxed people. For example: we were some years ago - actually this time of the year, it was Halloween - on a Thanksgiving dinner with Jay Jay French. We visited his place and he showed us all his guitars and
and played with you on the gig
Yeah! The same time.
Has any Lordi song ever got stuck in your head and you havent managed to get it out?
[Laughs a bit] Quite often I guess, as they are pretty catchy. But I dont really remember is there any I havent managed to get out Then of course there are songs Ive done myself; I could have noticed that if some song gets stuck it might be good, theres some catchiness in it. Actually I just read from somewhere that when ABBA made songs in the 70s, they didnt record the ideas. If they didnt remember the same song the next day
it wasnt good.
Yeah, it wasnt good then. Its quite well said.
You wrote Hate At First Sight with Amen. Many Lordi fans think that its Lordis best song, or at least the best b-side. How did the song build up?
We were in the studio with Amen and we wanted to get something melodic, pretty pop also. Something like KISS Million to One. It came up pretty quickly. And actually, the intro melody was different in the original version. We changed that then. I agree that its one of Lordis best songs and now when we rehearsed it to Nosturi for example, it turned out really great. Of course we laughed with Amen is there any sense leaving these best songs off the album, but the record company decided to drop it off in its great wiseness.
Did the song feel like the best during the Deadache sessions?
Yeah, it felt really good back then too. But Deadache is so much heavier and darker album so it probably was a bit too zappy. I guess thats one of the reasons why it was left over.
You co-wrote It Snows In Hell, too...
Well, its mainly Mr. Lordis song, but when you hear those response lines in the chorus, I wrote them. But otherwise its Mr. Lordis song.
Eurovision Song Contest is a big part of Lordis history. You explained participation by stating that you do things other bands dont do. What was your opinion in the participation and do you regret it?
Well, I dont regret it, and I was the one who thought that this is a good thing and lets do this. And what we said was that we are that kind of band that is able to do things other bands dont do, but we didnt do it because of that. We had a new album coming out and the previous album Monsterican Dream didnt succeed so well, so we thought that we could get a good publicity from this and so called free advertising. Thats why we went, and part of the band was pretty sceptic about it. I myself am so positive person that I said that our starting point was to win it, at least the Finnish preliminary. And in Athens wed go at least to the finals. Which actually happened. [laughs] It was of course a good thing but it wasnt so big thing in Lordis history, it was quite short thing in time actually
But the effect was big.
Yeah, the effect was big. Also the side effects were big, as we got that certain mark which exists still and what has been tried to shake off. Media has marked Lordi and its interesting will Lordi ever get to ABBA. Its quite seldom that the media speaks of ABBA who won the Eurovision in the articles. Its there in the end of the article, like oh, by the way they won too. Of course they achieved so much that the Eurovision was just a small thing among the others. And I think its also because of our image [the Eurovision mark]. It was funny enough to think that guys who look like monsters won the Eurovision, that the press, especially in Finland wants to advertise it every time.
You filmed 10 music videos overall. Which one of these was the most easy and pleasing to film? Did we make 10 of those? Yeah, 9 or 10 depending on how you count it. If we count the Eurovision 2007 video in... Is it included in this 10?
Yeah.
Ok. What was the easiest? The easiest to film was This Is Heavy Metal, there we got off lightly. Hmm well, Whos Your Daddy was fun to film cause there were those girls. But I think Blood Red Sandman is still as a video definitely the best and the most pleasing. There was that flaw in Lordis videos, which many fans, and some of the band too, have been criticised: in some point they started to repeat themselves, they were really similar to each other. I think that Blood Red Sandman is the most succeeded; theres a good plot, its pretty fun and the band looks good. It just works really well.
You also filmed a full-length horror movie with Pete Riski. I remember youve said in some interview that you dont really like horror movies.
Yeah, I dont like them at all. [laughs]
So what do you think about this movie?
Well, how could I say it somewhat discreetly ? [laughs] It is a good movie and so, but Of course my part in the making of the film was so small - I had only one shooting day - that I didnt really get into the making of the film.
How does it look like in your opinion?
It looks great; there are few pretty good scenes. But I still dont really get the ending [laughs] But on the other hand, its really cool that a band gets to do a movie.
Even it didnt really succeed
Yeah How many films has WASP done? None. [laughs] But I have a gold DVD record on the wall of my apartment, so I think it has succeeded pretty well.
And its been sold to many countries
And awards have come from Spain here we see how the Finnish media likes to crush. But when you think that Lordi is in the horror movie genre - you cant compare James Bond to Dark Floors - this is horror and in horror genre this succeeded really well.
Your first gig was in Nosturi
And my last one, too. The circle closes. [laughs a bit]
But that wasnt the intention?
No, it wasnt.
and your second gig was in Germany. How did this kind of giant leap feel like?
It was quite big [leap]. The first gig in Nosturi was sold out, there were 900 people and the next gig in Germany was also sold out, there were 9000 people. It was a clear dream come true to get to play in that kind of ice halls.
Taught a lot?
Yeah. Somehow it was just so fucking cool. We just sat on the benches and watched mouth open how roadies road, how cool is this. And the fun thing was that I had the ear monitor, from which I could hear all the stuff, and it got loose in the very first song. The plug got loose and I didnt hear a thing in the first song. [laughs] All blindfolded. All kinds of mishaps happened on that gig. We got it fixed and the gig went fine.
How did it sound like?
I guess ok I dont know. Of course I didnt hear anything. [laughs]
Did someone tell you?
Yeah, not many even noticed that. Its great that we got some die-hard fans from that gig that are still around. No one knew who this Nightwish support act was. It was great. We were in Oberhausen and then we were in Munich and in Munich there were only 6500 people. But that gig went as a gig much better. In fact Ive saved the drumsticks I played with on that Munich gig. I have them at home. When Im old I can sell them in eBay very costly. [laughs]
You played in many different countries during the years. Which country was your favourite? Where could you leave to anytime to play a gig or two?
New Zealand in all its exoticness and of course as it was the only stadium gig I ever played with Lordi. It rises to the top spot.
You could return to New Zealand?
Yeah. Willingly. And just for a vacation, its pretty cool place. Its in the same landscapes where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. And of course the festival was pretty cool, as there was Poison, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Kiss and Alice Cooper besides us. It was pretty much the perfect line-up for myself. Also as a fan as we met some of the guys there It was great.
Did you meet KISS?
Yeah, I shook hands Paul Stanley and Gene. It was fun.
Did they say anything about Lordi?
Yeah and Gene especially, he digs the band, he thinks that Lordi is my boys. He always admires and digs.
Which venue was your favourite? Was it Wellington, too?
Well, of course the stadium was cool. What else could have been?
What would have been in Finland?
We played at Hartwall Arena, but personally Id say the old ice hall. We just never played there
But you were planned to play.
We were, but that cancelled back then. I saw KISS in there in 1988 and after that many other bands so its important to me. It would have been nice to play there sometimes. Theres that certain feeling in it. Maybe with my own band in some point.
Whats your best tour memory? Is it the Wellington, too?
But its not a tour memory Well, yeah. But there are a lot of memories in that trip too, for example: When we were on our way home we had to wait hours for a continuation flight at Londons Heathrow. We met Ronnie James Dio. He came to the neighbour table, we said hi and talked this and that. He was recording the last album of Heaven And Hell with Tony Iommi and he gave us some Tonys guitar picks and offered us beers. He was leaving back to America. He was going to play a gig at Lahti (Finland) that summer so he grabbed some paper and pen and asked us to write our names so hed put our names to the list. It was pretty cool.
Did he put you on the list?
I dont know. We had a gig the same time so we couldnt make it to the gig so I dont know what happened. But what I knew him I dont doubt it at all if there would have been our names on the list.
What song was the most fun to play at the gigs?
What were those songs you probably got a bit bored to play?
Are you still good friends with Lordi members?
Whos the closest one to you of Lordi members?
ja moni muu kysymys saa vastauksen. Lukaiskaa loput haastattelusta lehdestä:
Lataa LFN KITA EXTRA (pdf)
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