Sami sends you dirty greetings

Dirty Fingernails released one of the best Finnish indie-pop albums of 2008, Greetings from Finsbury Park, N4, a great achievement taking into account that it is their debut work. And they did it from abroad. Brother/sister Sami and Paivi decided a couple of years ago that they have had enough of the coldness of Kajaani, and moved to London to pursue their dreams. Sami eagerly attended my questions and the result is one of the funniest interviews you have never had the chance to read at FREE! Magazine… Enjoy it!

Hello Sami and thanks a lot for answering our questions. So you moved from Kajaani to London a few years ago together with your sister. If you are so kind, explain to us a bit more the reasons for this change of location and what your expectations with this decision were?

You can kinda blame it all on the EU; as it’s become so easy to move between different European countries now, it’s really difficult for someone like me who’s into rock & art & going out to find reasons for living in someplace like Kajaani. I’m not sure what it’s like now though I can’t imagine it’s changed all that much. It’s not even a band or a career thing or anything. It’s just: do you wanna live someplace where there’s no jobs and it’s darker and colder than a penguin’s arse or do you wanna go to London and party? Paivi moved to London a few years after me and then we finally hooked up properly with the band thing about 3 years ago now.

How is a typical day of your life in London? What are the best and the worst things of living there?

This is one of the most over-used quotes of all time but Dr. Johnson said that “if you’re bored of London, you’re bored of life.” There’s always something happening but obviously you also got to go out and seek it out a little bit and be creative and active and open-minded. But you have to be those things anywhere. My ideal day in London is: wake up late, head down to Rooz (our rehearsal studio) work on new stuff, head round the corner for a couple of drinks after and maybe check out a band or club with friends. A nightmare day is: wake up early, it’s cold, damp, have to do something all day you don’t enjoy doing, stand on packed trains, crying babies everywhere, automated announcements, noise. A typical day is somewhere between those two scenarios

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So if I am walking around London and I pass by Finsbury Park, N4 (the title of the band’s debut album), will you be for real the ones greeting me there at the door?

Ha ha! Hey, if you give us a call we will be! And we’ll take you for a little drink at our local! Otherwise, there’ll probably just be the alcoholics & crack addicts that normally hang around near the station

What are your feelings when you come back to visit or play in Finland? Does anything change about your perception of the country and the people now that you live abroad?

We were shocked by the violence man! Some dude got the crap kicked out of him at one of our shows. And a couple of days before that we were in Helsinki and Charlie (our drummer) was cleaning out the car when a guy nonchalantly walked up to a car about 50 feet from ours and smashed a brick through the side window! It could’ve easily been our car had Charlie not been down there. I also witnessed a very well known rock guitarist (who shall remain nameless) necking other people’s leftover drinks at a rock pub. You definitely forget how keen some people in Finland are for alcohol when you’re away for a while!

It seems that for being a debut album, the record caught very fast the attention of audience and media, for example you appeared in the cover of the magazine Rumba. How was that, were you well known already before? Is it about the good marketing of Poko Records, o just simply happened?

Well, it’s probably a combination of a lot of facts: obviously the label have been working hard to push us to the media. Also, our album was the first release on the new imprint Northern Swing so I think that gave it an extra lift as well. And maybe it was an interesting story for the media to pick up on. After all, they do have a certain number of pages to fill week after week and most bands are just so excruciatingly boring that I wasn’t surprised when people wanted to write about us.

Please resume with your own words what people can expect of this Greetings from Finsbury Park N,4.

It’s what it says on the tin: it’s a bunch of songs that we got together in a flat in Finsbury Park and we’ve sent it out to the world as a bit of a greeting to introduce ourselves. It’s poppy songs about stuff I think about wandering around the streets of London Town

It surprised me a bit that you cited at your website early 69 Eyes as a major influence. Difficult to link the “Helsinki vampires” with an indie pop band living in London…

Ha ha! I’m a rock dude at heart! When I was a kid those guys were more of a straight up rock band than what they’re doing now. When I was 12 or 13 I was mad for 69 Eyes. I even sent for their fan club and after what seemed like an eternity (but I imagine was actually more like 3 weeks), they sent me back a photocopied lyric sheet to go with their album, some fliers for their shows in Helsinki and a ticket stub from the New York subway!

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How is to play with your sister, is it easier to play with a relative, or when there is a fight, does it become more “personal” or “touchy”?

I’m not really a laid back guy at all so I can quite easily get personal & touchy with anyone! It’s easy with Paivi, she works hard and I appreciate that. We’ve got a common goal and we’re working to achieve that.

How are the sales of the album working so far, are you having a good feedback?

It’s all good. To be honest, when we started recording the album we weren’t really thinking in terms of it being released or anything like that. We were basically just having fun and trying to be creative and trying to get something together. I love the fact that if people want it, they can now quite easily go out and get it and we don’t have to do the admin either. We’re privileged in that way as a lot of bands have to run their own online shops and I don’t think I could be bothered with any of that. But yeah, money is power and the more records you sell the more stuff you can do so obviously we’re hoping for the album to do well.

I see that mostly you have been touring around England or Finland. Are there future plans to expand your concerts to other countries in the near future?

We should be going to Italy in March so already looking forward to that! We’re happy to go and play anywhere but obviously it makes sense to play in the U.K. where we live and in Finland where the album is currently out.

Anything you want to add for our readers?

All the best for 2009 and don’t forget to stick it to the man every once in a while!

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FREE! Q&A with Sami from Dirty Fingernails

Name and Age?

The Salo

Favorite hobbies?

Been doing a bit of roller skating recently.

Best band you have seen on live recently?

Favours for Sailors

Best band you have shared stage with?

With this band, let’s say: Robots in Disguise

What is your biggest musical sin?

Dude, all of it!

If it would not be in London, where would you like to live?

Somewhere sunny. Hawaii

Your favorite word or sentence in Finnish?

Jos et veikkaa et voi voittaa. You gotta be in it to win it!

Photos by Tina Korhonen.

Felon

{mosimage}Life in jail turns into hell for Stephen Dorff. But he will also find some important allies inside the walls…

 

I must confess I did not have many expectations before watching this Felon. I thought it would be the typical film about jails, and certainly, in a way it is the typical film about jails…but well done. The topical issues are there: the surviving inside the walls, the enemies and the friends, the desperation, the unfairness… But one feature that turns a movie into a good one is a good director with a good script, and Felon has both. Director Ric Roman Waugh transmit a lot with his style of filming, with those fights that look so real, with the oppressive atmosphere of a real prison, and with the duality in the minds of the main characters that make you feel identified and guessing what would you do if “that” would happen to you in your real life.

 

The other main feature is to have good and talented actors, and this Felon nails it there again: Val Kilmer is at his best since… I don’t know, maybe since Heat. Stephen Dorff is reborn here and totally plausible in his role, Harrold Perrineau and Nate Parker are just perfect as the good and the bad prison officers and Marison Nichols goes alone with her part more than finely (and leaves us as a gift for the eyes a tasty top less scene).

 

A movie worthy to watch. It will make you reflect about how life can change very fast from one day to another.

 

Rating 4/5.

    

Pankkikeikka (The Bank Job)

{mosimage}Based on true events, here comes a twisted history involving the British Royal Family, a porn king, the secret service and a bunch of crazy criminals.

 

Films about bank robberies are not exactly anything new. Every year there are a bunch of new ones trying to be the ultimate shock in the genre. With this Bank Job you are not going to find amazing final second twists, or great action sequences; the strongest points are in the solid acting skills of Jason Statham, perfect as always in his role of tough pettish British criminal and a good selection of secondary actors.

 

Nonetheless, I do not like Saffron Burrows for the main female role, she does not appear sexy neither enigmatic, and the chemistry there is just totally missed; a poor counter partner for Statham. Dialogues have some good moments, but characters are not built strongly enough. You do not feel identified with them, ending up not giving a damn if they get caught or suffer, or they can finally get rid of their problems after the robbery.

 

From my point of view, director Roger Donaldson tried to make his own personal version of Guy Ritchie’s movies, taking inspiration from Lock & Stock or Snatch, but the script miserably failed, leaving a film that you will forget about after 10 minutes of watching it.

 

It has a couple of good details though, if you are a rock music fan, try to spot the cameos of Pete Townsend and Mick Jagger…

 

Rating 2/5.

 

Five Finger Death Punch – The Way of the Fist

{mosimage}One of the strongest debut releases in American metal scene, a band that sounds great in studio and are not afraid to backing it up on Tour.

 

 

Hungarian Zoltan Bathory (ex member of U.P.O.) formed 5FDP in 2005. The musicians are young but not inexperienced, since they have a strong background, having played with bands such as W.A.S.P., Motograter or Anubis Rising.

 

What you have here is 12 tracks of metal “on your face”. Music is direct and a bit raw (same than the excellent artwork of the album), but also compact and with good melody. You get a good impression from the beginning from this fans of Kill Bill (the name of the band is extracted from the blow that Uma Thurman gives to David Carradine at the end of the second part of the Tarantino´s saga), with the outstanding track Ashes and the album continue evolving you, special mention for the good skills of the vocalist Ivan “Ghost” Moody, who knows when to scream and when to soften the tone (if not take a glimpse at his excellent work in the 4th track The Bleeding), mastering the tempo of the songs and receiving a great help from the rest of the band with the back-up vocals. Guitar riffs are sharp like a knife, but overall is the brutal drums of Jeremy Spencer what keeps pushing and pushing the album all the way until the end.

 

Although maybe does not sound so classy metal, the quality of the record stands itself to gain fast a good legion of fans, no wonder that sold 300.000 copies while the band introduced it touring extensively in North America; it is certainly a superb first effort and specially if you like bands like Korn, you will adopt them into your CD collection in no time.

 

Rating 4/5.

 

Soziedad Alkoholika – Mala Sangre

{mosimage}One of the most veteran Spanish rock bands is back on the road after a few years of silence with a new and deliciously incorrect album.

 

 

After having signed with Roadrunner, the Basque band from Vitoria is back again with this Mala Sangre (“Bad Blood”). SA was in the middle of a big polemic a few years ago, when their lyrics were targeted by some sectors of the Spanish society as being praising the terrorism. Finally, the band was absolved in court of any responsibility, and here they are again with the songs and far from other turbulent business out of their music.

 

What you have here is an album that sounds rounded, well measured, powerful, “thrashy” but also with some touches of punk and classic rock, and with Juan, the lead singer, shouting again acid lyrics that complain about the Government and the established forces of power in the society.

 

If you do not understand Spanish, this is obviously going to undermine your perception of SA, because the lyrics have really a strong political content and a lot of slang. Maybe is not the best rock band in Spain from a technical point of view, neither have the best vocalist, but their charisma on and off stage is still ranking very high. If you enjoy discovering rock bands that do not only sing in English, and listening to lyrics loaded with rage and messages, SA is for you.

 

Rating 3/5

 

Swallow the Sun – Plague of Butterflies

{mosimage}Finnish doom phenomena are back holding hands with Spinefarms Records and bringing an unusual new album.

Certainly this Plague of Butterflies is not the usual doom studio album that you could expect from many other bands. The main “corpus” of the work is an unique track of more than 30 minutes divided into 3 movements: Losing the Sunsets, Plague of Butterflies and Evael 10:00. This starts to have more sense when you realize that the project was composed originally for a ballet (yeah baby, doom ballet…) and after the cancellation, it became part of this new studio album that gets completed with 4 more bonus tracks from the first period of the band, for scoring a total playing time of a bit more than 1 hour.

Even when the Finnish musicians put a lot of effort into this product, I am not sure if even their hardcore fans will be able to swallow this “pill”. Dark melodies, decadent sounds and some cutting riffs trademark of the band are very present here, but I am still not convinced of the vocal skills of Mikko. I do not think he has the charisma enough to lead the band with sense, and in the end, after a few minutes, you can feel kind of lost (or bored) with such a long and “never-ending” track.

Probably if you would hear the track in the right context, as the original soundtrack it was supposed to be, the result could be different, but just like this looks like a dead material that had to be released in one way or another, so the final result is weak and without harmony.

Rating 2/5.  

Rock2008.fi

{mosimage}One of the most complete compilations of the best Finnish rock hits of the past year.

Now that 2008 has just finished, it is an excellent time to make balance of all what the Finnish rock and metal scene offered during 2008. And surely, nobody can deny that it is going through a sweet moment, with veteran bands in good shape and new interesting ones appearing behind every stone. In this double CD you will find a bit of everything among the 32 tracks: heavyweights of Finland´s rock scene such as Nightwish, The Rasmus, Negative, Apulanta o the Euro-Teräsbetoni together with new blood with young bands of excellent quality such as Automatic Eye, Lovex (these ones are young but veterans) Dirty Fingernails or the dangerous girls of Pintandwefall. And as the cherry on top of the cake, one of the best melodic rock bands that you can find in Europe nowadays: Brother Firetribe.  

As all the albums that try to gather material from so many different bands, there are good and bad sides. It is an excellent chance to discover new Finnish bands, or an excellent album to give as a present to a friend eager to discover the rock music of Finland, but it does not scratch much deeper, and mixes bands that go from punk to merely pop. If you go to the official website of the album www.rock2008.fi, there is the chance to listen to a sample of every song, which surely will make easier the decision of purchasing the album and will avoid unpleasant surprises about what to expect there (although it is pretty obvious what to expect there).

 

All in all, I enjoyed listening to the selection and the album shows once more that Finland and its music really kick ass!  

Rating 4/5.

Happy 2009!

A new year starts (shit, it seems to be yesterday when they were announcing the end of the world with the arrival of year 2000…), and FREE! Magazine is still here to offer you more interesting features, stories, reviews, interviews and prices.

From my personal point of view, 2008 was a tough year. I spent half of it trying to look for a job, and the other half trying to recover from all the previous months without job. Situation led to my temporal move from Finland to Estonia to work with an IT company, but one also learns important lessons from the bad times. Even though the difficulties, I was able to graduate with a MD at Tampere University, and continued writing for FREE! Magazine and other publications inside and outside Finland, although not having always all the time wanted to improve the contents.

happy 2009

Music, overall rock music, has been the spine of FREE! Magazine in 2008, but I still hope that we can offer more diversity in this new year, focusing also not only in happenings that take place in Finland but as well on a more general landscape that could include all Scandinavian and Baltic countries. And as always, you are more than welcome to participate with your comments, ideas and help. If you want to be in direct contact, you can easily drop me a few lines to:

antonio.diaz@freemagazine.fi

For the moment, we know that in 2009 Metallica and AC/DC will visit Finland again, so this year cannot be so bad (even including worldwide crisis), can it?

Petollinen Suhde (Deception)

{mosimage}A game of sex, power and betrayal for a movie that reunites to 2 heavyweights of Hollywood: Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor.

Having Jackman and McGregor in a tête à tête dressed with expensive suits and chasing beautiful girls (such as the always delicious Michelle Williams) seemed to be a secure way of success. And certainly the movie is entertaining for the first 15-20 minutes. After that, better forget about it. Everything turns to be too predictable; the characters lose their colour and seem to be a parody of themselves and the script leaks every ten seconds of action with some absurd situation.  It is very easy to say that this “Deception” really makes honour to its title, but that is the total truth of it.

Unless you are a super fan of Jackman behaving as the perfect snob, you will feel bored like hell and praying for the movie to end quickly without adding more pain to your eyes. As an example, for me the funniest part of watching this movie was when reading the interesting and funny posts in imdb page with people looking for authentic list where letting fly their sexual desires, or hilarious lists of fails and bugs in the script (and the list reached over 100 after a few posts…).

A pity that director Marcel Langenegger and writer Mark Bomback wasted so much good talent and a nice original idea, turning it into one of the worst disappointments of the last year.

Rating 2/5

Eagle vs. Shark

{mosimage}One of the indie movies of 2008. Follow the awkward love story of two misfits trying to find their own little corner in the world. 

One thing you can say about Eagle vs. Shark. It is not the stereotypical movie about a love story. The characters are social outcasts who do not even make a big effort to integrate with the rest of the society, which is the reason maybe the reason why finally they turn to be so appealing and touching. Shot in New Zealand and directed by Taika Cohen, the film combines some good moments, like when they are at the party playing videogames dressed with their customs or the final fight with the old school bully with other not so brilliant. Some up and downs, but all in all, a consistent product. If you enjoyed watching Napoleon Dynamite, probably you will feel identified again with this one, but I must confess I had more fun watching ND. 

If you like unconventional movies with some twisted sense of humor, you will love this film. It is the kind of movie that you can love or hate, but certainly will not leave you indifferent after watching it. Worthy the effort to take a look at it and decide yourself! 

Rating 3/5.

Marshall Law – Razorhead

{mosimage}If you like British Power Metal, certainly you are going to be delighted listening to the new album of Marshall Law. 

The band is not new in the metal scene. With seven albums behind their backs and a career that spins around 2 decades, they feature their new studio album, a result of a long process of 3 years of writing and recording. If you are into bands like Saxon or Judas Priest, then definitely you will be into this immediately after turning on  your stereo. Andy Pyke´s vocals sounds charismatic, and the homonymous track of the album, Razorhead, is a great example of what they offer: cutting guitar riffs, blowing drums and no time to retake your breath. Gods of Deception or Night Terror are also a couple of good examples why to purchase this one. 

The good thing is that this work is a solid album of power metal. The bad feature is that basically does not add much new to the genre. Veteran metal heads will be happy to include it in their CD collection, but maybe younger ones prefer to skip it in search or more adventurous musical experiences. 

Rating 3/5.    

Gothminister – Happiness in Darkness

{mosimage}Third album for this Goth cult band that has enjoyed during the last decade great success in Germany or Holland with their danceable songs. 

The lovers of goth indunstrial music are just shaking with joy with the come back of the Norwegian Gothminister. There are not big changes with predecessors’ albums, the band continues with the similar formula that so good results brought in the past: danceable tracks able to hit the dance floors of the clubs, such as Dusk till Dawn or Your Saviour. There is also space for more introspective and beautiful tracks like Darkside and more ravaging ones like the catchy Freak, paying homage to the classic Michael Jackson’s Thriller song. 

All in all, a good work that does not make you feel bored at all, although sounding classic and familiar at the same time. A must have for goth music fans who like to move their feet in the dark of the night. 

Rating 3/5.      

Silentrain – Wrong Way to Salvation

{mosimage}This young formation is hitting hard and mercilessly! You will have to see them soon opening for Lauren Harris in Helsinki.

Silentrain are coming from Kitee, the same small population near the Russian border that saw the birth of Nightwish. And you can find some similarities in the style between both bands, although here you can find maybe a more direct classical approach to metal instead of so much symphonic ornamentation. Previously known as Dunces (the new name sounds much better, don’t you think?), they feature their third studio album, first one with StayHeavyRecords.

What you will find here is a good collection of metal. Great work with the instruments by the guys, you can notice that here are many hours of hard practice in their backs, and from the beginning the album sounds solid and well produced, with the epic Until You Break giving a great start and No More representing an awesome follow-up. Broken has a similar sound to the great Nightwish classics, maybe a bit more thrashy instead of harmonic, but it perfectly works and Ride with the Devil has that touch of instant classic that makes it be my favorite track of the album. Marko Kämäräinen makes a great job with the vocals, and certainly the impression is that the band has been on the road for longer time than actually has.

Added to this, the CD artwork is great, so the band can feel totally satisfied with the result of the album. I hope that after new chances to play in front of bigger audiences will appear soon for these talented metal heads.

Rating 4/5.

Wall-E

{mosimage}Disney and Pixar release one of the most innovative animation movies in the history of cinema. Join this little robot in its amazing quest! 

With no doubt, this is the most “adult” animation movie that the privileged brains of Pixar have created so far. That does not mean that children would not enjoy it also. Wall-E is able to touch the hearts of all just with a shocking visual display and a great script, where dialogues are almost non-existent (the first human dialogue appears long after the first half an hour of the movie). Maybe you do not encounter here the hilarious humor of other previous great movies like Toy Story’s saga, but Wall-E digs much deeper, with robots that have feelings more humans than the humans themselves, flourishing topics like loneliness, love, commitment… It is a small homage to all the great science-fiction movies (probably you won’t miss the connection between Autopilot and 2001. A Space Odyssey) but at the same time it places far from being just a rip-off.

Just after watching the movie, my first thought was that it was not as entertaining as other animation movies. Then, reflecting about it, everything made sense. Wall-E is far beyond the animation genre, it becomes simply a beautiful piece of cinema, leaving you with the impression that you assisted to something magical and beautiful; the essence of cinema itself.

Rating 4/5