Sata kaskelottia
Terve,
Kiitos for letting us interview you. Let's begin with discovering a bit more about the band. How did everything start? What's the story of the band?
We got to know each other and made friends some 10 years ago. We ended up playing together in 2010 first to make some noise and then to make good and heavy music. At that time we were all very tired of contemporary commercial music so it’s all based on a DIY way of thinking.
From where does your name come? How did you get the idea for it?
Sata kaskelottia is “One Hundred Sperm Whales” in English. It’s kind of a long story that involves coincidences and some misunderstandings. But basically: think about the amount and size of one hundred sperm whales. What does it look like? How does it sound like? Sperm whale is also a mythological beast.
From where comes the choice to sing in Finnish?
Let’s put it this way: why shouldn’t we sing in Finnish? Finnish is our mother tongue. You need to be honest in songwriting and express yourself the way it is natural. Every band or an artist is more or less handicapped when writing and phrasing lyrics in other language than it’s own. In dullest cases some lose their identity and end up sounding flat and the same as everyone else. For us the artistic ambition and desire to do things our own way is more important than singing in a majority language like English.
This year, your first album got released. Tell us more about it. What was the atmosphere you wanted to give on it?
The way one German critic put it: it’s in-your-face. We wanted to keep it as simple, brutal and honest as possible. The way we really sound when we play together. A minimum amount of production was involved and actually the circumstances of making the album were also very modest. We owe a great debt to our sound-engineer and mixer Juhani Jokisalo who was patient and lent us a lot of his time and equipment to make this album happen. We wanted to make a record that feels like a genuine offering of music without too many compromises.
Are there any particular things that influence your music?
We could make a massive list of foreign and Finnish artists that have had an impact to our musical thinking, but in the end it’s impossible to categorize all the conscious and subconscious influences and name the most important ones. Of course we all share a great love for certain American stoner rock and sludge metal bands of 21st century but to be fair we can’t underestimate our roots and Finnish influences either. While we give a deep bow to these influences, the main thing is to find and explore some kind of sound of our own and that’s all we can do.
If you need to choose one in all the songs you made, which one would it be and why?
Honestly, you should listen to all the songs in the album to find the different moods each track has and pick up the favorite for yourself. After all, it is an album, not a bunch of songs. One of the surprising and delightful things is that different people have found different songs as their favorites. If you really need something to get started with you could try for example “Yö on ohi” and see where you get from there.
Some of the people who will read this interview don’t know your music. What can you say for giving them desire to discover you?
This is rock music done the way we think it should be done. It’s not nice and harmless but it doesn’t need to be.
If someone will come to see you live, what kind of show will he/she see?
Well, we are musicians – not rock stars or models. We are heavy and loud and pack a lot of energy. Hopefully the show is unifying and empowering. Come and see it for yourself! Remember earplugs!
What are your plans for the future?
We will play some shows in 2015 and write new material for our second album. But first thing to do is to go to the grocery store and shovel some snow out of the yard passage.
If you could recommend some Finnish artists to discover, who would they be?
It’s misleading to name only a few but some easy answers would be the ones like Topi Sorsakoski & Agents, CMX and Harmaja. It is difficult to get any more Finnish than that. For more contemporary stuff, check out Ghost Brigade if you’re not familiar with the band already.
Thank you for giving us some of your time. Is there something you want to say to FI Musica's followers?
Thank you, and keep the spirits up!
(Interviewer : Isa)
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/satakaskelottia