Category: Misc

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Ville Akseli Juurikkala is the most important rock photographer in Finland nowadays. His work can be seen in recent albums and official promotion material of top Finnish bands such as H.I.M. Nightwish, Hanoi Rocks, Apocalyptica, The Rasmus or 69 Eyes. International stars such as American actress and musician Juliette Lewis or Colombian singer Juanes had been also targets for Ville´s shootings. Discover with us a bit more about this fan of rock music who decided one day to exchange the electric guitar for the camera. 

Ville,you are mostly known for your work with rock bands. Are you a rock music fan yourself?

I used to play guitar and sing in various rock bands since I was 10. I was very serious about it. One of my bands even played in Tavastia. Then I got into photography about 10 years ago. And I liked more than playing. The band had to go. And I’ve never regretted that I did it.

It looks lately that every top Finnish music artist must be photographed by you. Is this the best moment of your career?

This is the best moment on my career by far, of course.  Five years ago this was my goal, what I wanted to achieve on my life. But then everything went just faster than I thought. And now I think that this all was just the start.

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Who takes the decisions before planning a photo session? It is done what you want, what the artists want, or you try to find a middle point?

All mentioned above, but I’d like add the client (record company A&R) on the list as well. But this all it depends so much about the band and the record company and all. There’s no one way.

Do you need a lot of preparation before a session, or do you enjoy more to take pictures on the spur of the moment?

I enjoy taking pictures on the field but sometimes it’s really nice to create ideas beforehand with the band.

Is there any particular picture you have taken that you feel especially proud of?

There are many, you should always be proud of your work, what ever you do. But it’s really impossible to raise some of them above others. One really good is that where Jussi 69 has collapsed on the floor of Tavastia after the show. It is “very rock’n’roll”… and very real.

You published during last year Route 69, the book you did with pictures of 69 Eyes during their American Tour. How was the experience to be on the road with them? Are you a friend of the band?

It was great to tour with them. We had a lot of fun, maybe even too much some may think. It was crazier than with Nightwish. I’m still good friends with those guys, especially with Jussi.

Do you do other projects apart from your photography side?

I’ve done 2 music videos. Hanna Pakarinen: Black Ice and 51koodia: Mustat sydämet.

You have been on tour with Nightwish. Can you tell us a bit more about the project?

It’s going to be a somewhat like the Route69 but this will concentrate not only on the band but also on the things behind, the roadies etc. On their Europe tour they had 56 people working for them, 3 busses and 4 trucks. It’s interesting to show some of that side as well.

Usually Finnish artists are quite down to earth, but has there been any artist or band that turned difficult to work with? And the easiest one?{mosimage}

Actually I was surprised the way that this one American rock band treated me when I was touring with them. People might think that they are some kind of big divas since their albums are selling millions. But then actually they treated me a lot better than any Finnish bands I’ve worked with.

What are your challenges for the future?

As I told I was working with this one American band right now. I’m sorry I don’t want to tell you the name before everything is sure. And we still have negations going on. I had one week trip with them on their UK tour and all went great. They asked me on their US tour later this year but I don’t want to tell too much before it’s all certain.

Do you have any advice for those young photographers who are starting now and could read this?

Use your soul. Let it help your eyes in your work. Don’t pay too much attention on how to use photo shop or things like that. That’s not what great photography is about.  

All Photos taken by Ville Akseli Juurikkala and extracted from his personal website.

For more information visit:

http://www.villejuurikkala.com

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Have Steve Vai, Clapton or Gary Moore forgotten how to play guitar? Many people asked themselves the same question after watching some videos in YouTube with awful performances by top rock guitarists, and the answer is: Santeri Ojala aka StSanders, the master of shredding the best solos of our guitar heroes. 

I meet Santeri in a cafeteria in the centre of Tampere. He makes a short escape from his work as multimedia artist to attend the questions of FREE! Magazine. What started as a hobby became a question of discussion in music and guitarists forums all over the world. Was it right to spoof the original work of artists like Steve Vai, Slash, Van Halen, Metallica…? Well, the person himself behind the nick of StSanders, Santeri Ojala, can give his own opinions about the videos circulating in YouTube: 

Santeri, tell us a bit about this phenomena, you started to shred the famous guitarists. How the idea did the idea come up?

It has something to do with the particular faces that the musicians do when they play. So I thought it would be interesting because they really seem to put a lot of effort into their playing, so make it appear badly would turn into very funny.

So this started like a hobby, totally different from your normal everyday work?

Yeah. Well, I do play guitar although my work is as visual artists. I work with pictures, music, visual effects and I also worked in the multimedia installation you can see in the main square here in Tampere. But I am happy with this, and it is fun, when I have free time to do it. I have to record every part of the video once and again, so in the end I spend many hours in the making of every video. And lately I was also very busy with interviews, etc, so I had a bunch of work accumulated.

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Were you expecting the huge response to the videos featured in pages like YouTube?

Well, not at the beginning but I thought that it could become something big very soon.

YouTube has banned your personal account under the nick StSanders, thing that obviously does not make you happy. Did they give you any reason?

Well, they said that they had received emails from 3 different artists and record companies giving complaints about what I do. So when your account receives 3 different complaints, it is automatically shut down. I have sent them many messages, but well, it seems there is nothing to do, so I cannot publish more videos there with that account.

When you choose the artists that are going to suffer this “Shredding experience”, do you follow any kind of procedure; are there artists you especially like or dislike?

Well, I try to pick the famous artists, and also the ones who “make faces”.  Those are the 2 main requisites. 

YouTube has banned my account after receiving complaints about my videos from 3 different artists and record companies” – Santeri Ojala aka StSanders-

So you say you play guitar yourself for quite many years. Do you have to concentrate yourself for playing the songs “convincingly bad”?

Well, if you try to do something like this with singing, it is impossible. For making these videos, it takes in the end as much effort as good playing, because in a way it is good playing, it is intentionally bad. I try to make it sound convincingly bad.

Do you consider yourself a good guitar player when you play normally?

Yeah, I think I can manage.

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Steve Vai took with good sense of humor your spoof. He said something like if he would be able to play like that, he would appear more often on MTV. Are there more artists that contacted you personally to give you feedback?

Not the ones I made the videos about, but other artists contacted me and gave me good feedback, people like Scott Thunes who was bass player with Frank Zappa (and he believed the videos were real) or Mike Patton and some others.

You were invited to Jimmy Kimmel´s TV show in USA. How was the experience there, sharing stage with Slash?

Actually turns that Jimmy himself is a great fan of my videos, so he wanted me to be in his show. They called me to fly there very fast because Slash was coming to the show too and I arrived so tired that I almost did not have time to feel excited. We chatted a bit after the show and yeah, he liked the video, he had no problem with it.

And you even had the chance to share stage with him!

Yeah, we played together a bit at the end. I was not even sure if I had to play good or bad or how…

For more information:

http://www.santeriojala.fi