Disco Ensemble

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Interview : Mika from "Disco Ensemble"

When and how was your band created?
Our guitarist and drummer have played together since they were ten years old, when they got their first instruments. I joined them in 2000, when their old singer decided to leave. Along the years we have had several bass-players but our current one looks like he's gonna stick with us.

Where is the name of the band coming from?
As I wasn't yet in the band while it got it's strange name, i'm not really even sure why we are called Disco Ensemble. We were called just "Disco." before, but a few years ago another band called "disco" showed up in Finland and we didn't wanted to be mixed up with these sissies, so we added "ensemble" to the end of our name. It really is a confusing name, but weird enough for people to remember it.

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
I believe a lot of influence and inspiration comes from unrecognizable sources. Many artists and bands or songs affect us, though we won't really notice it. I guess everything i've ever listened to affects the way I create music. My biggest influences propably come from the stuff I listened when I first started singing and playing in bands, early skate-punk and hardcore bands like NOFX or Refused.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
Positive? Maybe the long and depressing winter gives us inspiration for energetic music?
Negative aspects are definitively the music culture that is really mainstream-oriented and smaller underground bands don't have any chances on getting their music heard in the media. You can't really make a living with punk-rock in Finland.

How could you qualify your style of music?
I wouldn't want to tie our music inside a certain genre, cause we have different sides in our music, and labeling a band is always a bit boring. But if I had to explain our music to someone who hasn't ever heard it, I guess I would say we play emo-punk-rock.

During the years how has your musical style evolved?
Along the years we have developed our sound to a more accessible punk rock, from the weird progressive metal that it used to be.

How do explain these changes?
We are getting old and tolerant :) No, really our music just evolves naturally, we've never been so conscious about it.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
I'd like to leave my lyrics open, so that the listener can create his own picture of what the song is about. Generally I like lyrics with a real meaning and signifigance as long as their not too obvious or literate. I like to play with metaphors and sing about my own feelings. Even politics can be poetic...

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
Not really, I think loud rock will always be compelling to me. I love the aesthetics of a simple rock band. But I do make noise/ambient music with my Windows Media-player and a cassette deck :)

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
I like our song "Zombies" best, cause it's a great song to play live and the lyrics have caught something special.

Do you tour regularly? Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
We are definitively a live band. Performing for an audience is the most rewarding point of being in a band. We have been touring Finland pretty much and finally this January we're heading up to Europe for a three-week tour.It's going to be dangerous...

During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
I guess getting your songs caught on tape.Hearing the final results is propably the best moment in the studio. Personally I don't like to sing alone in a booth and we have always been in a terrible hurry recording, so the process itself is painful, but getting it done is great.

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
Recently I've listened a lot of Sonic Youth for some reason.Interpol and The Mars Volta have been playing in my apartment lately too...

A stupid question but... what is, among all the songs you've been listening in your life, the BEST song? Why?
Impossible question. Jesus. Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"? ha ha ha ha ...I really don't know.Propably some Guns'n'Roses song. They always bring back good memories of being young and unaware of the evil world around us...ha ha!

Internet is something interesting for musicians because it gives them the opportunity to touch a larger audience but it is also a threat for them (regarding the copyrights). What is your opinion regarding this medium?
In Finland for example a small band has to promote and give out their songs in the internet, cause that's the only way anyone will be hearing their songs. So it is an important channel for marginal-music.But as far as downloading and burning music on cd-r's go, I think it's bad to download an indie-artist, cause they really need the money from the record sales to keep doing their thing. But I dont really think anyone gets hurt if you burn a Metallica album from the net. So it really has both good and bad sides to it.

What are your actual and future projects?
Our next project is to survive trough the Euro-tour and then write new amazingly good songs for our next album. Then becomig the biggest rock'n'roll stars in the world is a big project too...
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2004