Impaled Nazarene - Interview Hanzi / V.U. and Mika Luttinen / I.N.
VU: So I’m sitting here with Mika from Impaled Nazarene and got a couple of questions. Kippis!
MIKA: Cheers! Prost...
VU: So how was the tour up to now? Did you make some great experiences? How was the audience?
MIKA: The first show was in Hildesheim or whatever it is called, it was a fucking small audience, it was good. I mean, not that many people but who gets bigger crowds nowadays..unless you are on festivals. It’s nice to be back on the road, especially playing in Germany. This is exactly what we said when we booked this tour, that we wanted to have shows in Germany. That’s my priority cos we have not headlined here since 1998. It’s a very long time.
VU: Let’s go back to the past. When you started with Impaled Nazarene you all came from Oulu and I’ve heard you are moving to Helsinki right now. Is the rest still living in Oulu?
MIKA: First of all, in 1993 I moved to Belgium. I was seven years in Belgium, then I moved back to Helsinki. We had had line-up changes of course... Then Jarno was the next one, he moved to Helsinki when I was living in Belgium, so one by one everybody started to move to Helsinki. And when I moved back from Belgium it was clear to me that I would not move back up north because the place where I come from is such a small and shitty town, there’s absolutely nothing to do there, no jobs, no anything. So it was clear that if I want to start my life all over again (what I needed to do at that point) I had to move to Helsinki, not only because there are jobs and shit but because all of the band members were living there. At that time in 2000 we lost our bass player. When we were in Helsinki there was me, Jarno and Raymond, so we basically started to just looking for people from Helsinki or nearby to make it possible to keep the band going. When I lived in Belgium we rehearsed like once in 6 months.
VU: That would have been one of my questions anyway, so I’m gonna ask it now: How difficult was the rehearsing back then ? Were you sending tapes to each other?
MIKA:Yeah, that was when we were doing the new stuff. Everybody wrote at home and we changed tapes and ideas. It worked but it doesn’t make you a tight band cause we were did not rehearse together, so there was an absence of a band unity feeling. You need to klick together.
VU: But after a short time you went on tour without rehearsing before.
MIKA:Yeah, the other guys in Finland rehearsed together and I just joined, you know. We didn’t really have a choice. But when we flew to Mexico, Japan and shit like that, I always flew to Finland first to rehearse. It did work out but we were not tight.
Now that everybody lives in Finland we rehearse regularly, we are a damn tight band at the moment and it is definitely the best and tightest line-up we have had so far. We are so good players now. I’m proud of us.
VU: Since you have released your first CD the style didn’t change that much. Have you ever thought of changing your style, for example doing slower songs or midtempo songs?
MIKA: We could do it, but this band is not about writing gothic love songs. I know what you mean, but..... perhaps we could sell more records then, but we all prefer making extreme metal. We do have different kinds of songs and different band influences, for example there is lots of Motörhead.... and for example the “Blood is thicker than water” album....I don’t hate it but it’s kind of boring. We have played it live lately but you kind of fall asleep when you play it. Nothing happens. But you never know what we will do next.
VU: Please describe the personalities of the whole band and start with yourself.
MIKA: I’m the alcoholic who only wants to fuck women, our bassplayer is completely insane, that’s the only word I can use. He’s alcoholic, too.Our drummer is insane and alcoholic, too. Our guitar player is not that alcoholic but he’s insane, too. And the new guy, he’s insane and alcoholic. That’s the only thing I can say.
VU: What are the musical influences of Impaled Nazarene ?
MIKA: Anything from Motörhead, Kreator, Venom, Sodom, old stuff. Bands like Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, you know. Everybody of us has different kinds of favourites. For example our bassplayer’s favourite band is Iron Maiden and you can fucking hear it. I’m the one who listens mostly to punk music.
VU: In the early days when you started all the magazines called your style Black Metal. It wasn’t that much Black Metal, I think...
MIKA: Well, I mean maybe you can call it Black Metal because our music has satanic lyrics. Some people say Black Metal is equal satanic lyrics and that’s it, no matter what kind of music you play, but if you compare us to Darkthrone, we don’t sound like that. And Darkthrone is THE Black Metal band.
VU: At that time, in the middle of the 90’s, there was this fucking asshole in Norway, this murderer. And there were some things that some bands and fans were putting into Black Metal and Impaled Nazarene. We just heard rumours about it, so what was the story behind it ?
MIKA: I mean, in 1992 the Black Metal started to happen.......
Bassplayer joines: Can I join the interview ? I mean, I’ll just sit here and.....shut up.
VU: Of course.
MIKA: Where were we ?.... Black Metal started and in Finland it was started by us. In Sweden bands like Marduk were starting up. And bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone in Norway, blablabla....And this guy, when he first came into the scene he was calling us a grindcore band with satanic lyrics, blablabla, whatever. So I never really payed attention until one day he sent letters to everybody. He wrote “You are a White Metal band and if you ever come to Norway I will kill you.“ That was it. And when in interviews people asked about him, we of course said “Fuck him!!” But people started to talk bullshit and spread rumours, that this huge war was going on between Norway and Finland. That was just childish, we were fucking 18, 20 years old, so we were young and we had to proof something to everybody. Emperor for example were supposed to be our huge enemies. It was the first time we met them cause we played the same fucking Metal Fest in the U.S. Everybody was just laughing about it and asking “ What about the war “ ...”What fucking war ?” We have played with Emperor, Mayhem, .... I mean, we know the truth, but everybody else makes a big thing out of it, like “Oh, did you hear this?”.
VU: The song “Nyrkillä Tapettava Huora“ is about....?
MIKA: .....My ex-girlfriend. But it’s not such a bad situation. You have to understand the humor behind the song. It’s not that I hate women or something. Some people said shit like this.
VU: Are you still working on the new album ? And have you chosen a place where to record it?
MIKA: As a matter of fact we just recorded the live album in Helsinki. We played a gig in Tavastia on December 19th, we recorded fucking 27 songs or something, but we’ll only take the best parts. We already did some mixings.
When we get back home we’ll take a little break of this tour and do the final mixing of the album and mastering. And we’ll put the album out at the end of April. This year Impaled Nazarene is 15 years old and we want to put something out due to the fact that we are celebrating.
And at the same time everybody writes new stuff at home. But the live material sounds fucking killer, absolutely fantastic.
VU: How important is the contact to your fans for you? Do you talk to the fans when you are on tour?
MIKA: All the time. And when we are at home we do it by internet. We are probably one of the few bands that has that many CDs out. We have our own IRC channel, so we are an interactive band.
VU: And when you are on tour?
MIKA: Yes !! It’s very important. I mean, sometimes, when you are really tired you don’t necessarily go out like “Hey ! It’s me here !”
VU: The last question for this interview is: what are your plans for this year ? You have never played on a big festival in Germany like SummerBreeze or Wacken for example.
MIKA: We did that in 2002 on With Full Force which was one of the best festivals ever. We play Fuck the Commerce, then we are still booking our shows, so it’s difficult to say, cause it’s too early but we will headline in Canada , we headline the Northern Lights Festival in July, we are now building shows in South Amercia, it’s an area where you never get to that easily. We do the new album at the same time and lots of shit going on but we take our time because we don’t want to put out half-products, I rather do a strong album and do strong shows to support the album and then, when you have done enough, you can start thinking of the future and of what’s coming up next. That’s a much better way to work, we have done it for 15 years, so it must be the right way.
VU: Yeah, it is. Okay, that was it. Thank you, and have a nice show today.
MIKA: Thank you !
VU: Well, thank you, too and greets to the whole band. Can you maybe say something in Finnish to our readers?
MIKA: What was the name of the mag?
VU: Visions Underground
MIKA:Visions Underground. –Speaks something in Finnish-
VU: Maybe some Vittu Saatana Perrrkele stuff?
MIKA:-Points at the bassplayer- He wants to put his asshole on the camera.
Bassplayer: No !
MIKA:Yes, he does.
Bassplayer: Cut !!
MIKA:What do I have to say? I’m Mika from Impaled Nazarene and you are reading Visions Underground, blablabla. Haistaka vittu, saatana.
VU: Okay, that was it, cut it.
