Hail!... What´s up there?
It´s been busy. I came back a bit over
week ago from my two month trip to Tokyo and I couldn´t sit for a
very long time, before I had to go to studio. There is recordings of Gloomy
Grim´s debut album for Holy Records going on. In fact I´m also
today going to studio, to record my remaining bass- stuff.
Some time ago Nomicon released it´s "Yellow"
CD through shiver records... Could you tell something from the whole process
of making this album? Are you satisfied with the final result? For many
people "Yellow" will surely sound very... strange?
The songs I composed by siting on my computer
through the autumn 1996. In the beginning of year ´97 all 10 songs
were on the point, that I could do planning for going to studio. When Roope
did appear, we rented 16- track equipment from Tolkki of Stratovarius and
we recorded guitars, basses, vocals and drums (mostly live-cymbals) to
the top of music that I had made with my computer, in rehearsal place of
Waltari for a month or so. Before this we naturally had to keep one night
midi-audio sessions in studio Narri. After the recordings we mixed up the
whole shit in studio Soundtrack. This took five nights. I´m really
satisfied to the final result, especially due to fact that the record finally
came a work of handcraft of me and Roope. We did almost everything together
from the start to the end, including mastering. Response has been good,
very much it has been just that "strange"- response, but mostly in positive
meaning. It is often told that the listener couldn´t find anything
to compare with Anti-Mecca metal. I think it´s just the way Nomicon
should be.
According to my knowledge you are the
member of Nomicon and others in it are more or less session musicians?
How did "maybe the best metal guitarist of Finland" Roope Latvala join
you?
Yes, I am the only full-time member of Nomicon.
Roope did join in when I had got 10 songs made, I introduced them for few
guitarists. Originally it was meant to be that there would be more guitarists
playing in the record. When we were practicing some song with Roope, I
asked that what songs he would want to take. He answered by asking, "what
if I take them all?". For me of course this was better than anything and
the other guitarists were "kicked out", right at the same moment. Sometimes
I have heard some complains about some persons, when they after all didn´t
get to play for this record, but let them cry.
You have probably used drum computer on the
record? And there seems to be a bit "computerized" feling on the
record (though not in any negative sense of the word!)...
Drum computer or not, there are the sounds of
my computer´s sound card beneath the "live-sounds" in violins, synths,
choirs and so on too. There are also my own "instruments" that I have created
from samples. Like I said, real drums are mostly on crashes, but there
are actually live-drums too, in some songs. Promo is totally computer,
but nothing more from that. It is so shit.
And "Yellow" is a kind of album which has a
clear (?) concept and what´s lyrics make a sensible story (?), which
tells about this creature what goes for destroying the city of Mecca, so
how did you came up with that?
That concept is production of some kind of frustration.
I think I was in my hangover-depression and I did think the meaningless
of all religions and all the turban heads worshipping that pile of stones.
And angry I was, I wrote the "Yellow"-story.
The maniac and quite complicated riffing on
the songs brings Morbid Angel and Deicide to my mind, but on the other
hand, some influences of modern black metal are also to be seen... is this
true or my imagination?
Probably there are even lots of black-influences,
that direction of music is what I mostly listen to currently. I don´t
deny influence of Morbid Angel or Deicide neither. Morbid Angel I listen
to still, but that band of soldering iron brow sounds really boring nowadays.
I don´t deny any influences, I deny nothing but god.
Besides Nomicon, you play in many other bands
as well and you have also the aquarius prod., so how you have time for
all this? What have you released with aquarius productions?
I think I play in five bands at the moment (Gloomy
Grim, Nomicon, Soulgrind, Tenebrae and Walhalla). Besides that I have a
job and then there is that god damn graduation of theoretic philosphy,
which does not advance, not at all. Time I have enough, when I do plan
a bit, but Nomicon is and always will be number 1. I think that my own
promo ´96 is the first and up to date, only, what I could call as
a release of Aquarius productions. Maybe I will do a real record label
out of my distro sometime, when my taloudellinen situation happens to be
right. In the meantime, write to to get my list, which has over 100
different black/death/doom releases!
In "Dark Flowers" ´zine, you told about
your interest in the philosophy of Nietsche, you also said that La Vey
(R.I.P!) is full of shit when compared to him... so you think La Vey is
something like a poor copycat of him or something? There has been talk
of Nietsches relationship to satanism and even nazism (!), so what do you
think of that?
First of all, write that Nietzsche right, god
damn it! La Vey doesn´t manage even to copy Nietzsche, not even poorly!
Even theTony-boys (the mean Anton´s original name really is Tony)
own system falls to it´s internal chaos. La Vey is the subject of
my graduation and hopefully I will get it done. It would be so nice to
mock that stupid bald- head. Nietzsche did deny already in his own time
of living the direction where his sister did join and what we can today
call nazism. That´s about it. About Church of Satan- and other satanism,
be they influenced by Nietzsche or not, they always seem to be systems,
for what the master himself would have been laughed cruelly. Nietzsche
does not go for any system, not even his own.
You have said that you are maybe about to do
some live shows with nomicon, so have the plans advanced anywhere? What
kind of gig we could except?
No, the plans have not been advanced, mostly
due to my visit to Japan... But you never know, what I will invent. What
kind of gig? Bombs of course!
In the scene of today, there´s lot of
talk about "over population" and it is maybe quantity instead of quality,
when it comes to the bands... What do you think, why is this? Is it maybe,
because even the most not-noteworthy bands do get publicity? Do you think
that Finland can compete with f.e. Sweden or Norway, when it comes to the
bands?
I always do feel that, even the most boring bands
get too much publicity, but this is only what I think. I don´t
even hope that everybody would like the same music as I do. Overpopulation
is probably mostly because ,that pressing of CD´s is nowadays so
cheap, that you don´t need to sell a lot to get your money back.
Finland is always better than Sweden, but Norway we can´t beat, hopefully
in the future we will also lose in ice hockey for them.
And now you can say what you wanna say...
Thanks for interwiev! By the way, you didn´t
tell for what magazine this will come...???
Well, I guess you probably know it now! Anyway, that was Nomicon and thanx to you, Tommi for answers!
