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Music Interview : Onni from "Eläkeläiset"   When and how was your band created? The band was created/invented 1993 while we were playing with our "main" band Kumikameli at Lapua, which is a small patriotic hillbilly town in western Finland. After Kumikameli gig we were drinking heavily and later tried to "jam" but were too drunk to play anything else than blues or humppa. Blues is shit so played humppa. First song we tried was Kiss song "Rock'n roll all-night (party everyday)". We noticed that it sounded very funny so played some more and more and more... First gig was in Provinssirock festival the same year. Where is the name of the band coming from? The name Eläkeläiset means Retired people in English and humppa is traditional old peoples dance so that's where the name comes from. Simple as hell! What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work? Of course old Finnish humppa-artists like Humppatyttö Berit, Humppaveikot, Pispalan laulava pystytukka Pauli Räsänen and Solistiyhtye Suomi, but many modern punk, ska, heavy and speed metal bands have influenced us too. That's where the energy, power, speed and attitude come from. We're the fastest humppaband in the universe, or should we say humppaverse. What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland? There are no positive aspects of being a musician in Finland, at least when you're a humppa musician. The backrooms are cold and dirty, no food except potatoes, 1 bottle of warm beer / musician and the money's no good. How could you qualify your style of music? It's at least excellent! During the years how has your musical style evolved? Our style evolved in 10 minutes. Nothing has changed since our first session! We're still loud, stupid and drunk. How do explain these changes? Why repair something that's not broken. You can't improve a perfect product! What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs? We sing about life of elderly people in Finland. Bingo, war memories and scars, alcohol, old women and men not having sex, humppa parties, power of humppa and death. Have you ever considered the possibility to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose? No, not really. This style suits us perfectly. If we we're forced to change our style of music, probably we would play heavy metal or reggae. What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why? There's so many, but now I would say that's "Jääkärihumppa" from our first album "Humppakäräjät". Or "Hump" from our album "Werbung baby". They have good dance beat and extremely absurd lyrics. Do you tour regularly? Do you prefer performing your music live or in a studio? We don't play so much in Finland anymore. The stadiums here are so small. We tour twice a year in Europe, mainly in Germany, Austria, Holland and nowadays in Switzerland too. Personally I like playing live, you play 2 hours and then you can go home or hotel to drink and party. In studio you have to struggle for days and days, that's boring... During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer? When the album reaches the top of album charts! What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen? There's five guys in the band and I don't know exactly what the other listen but we do have some common favorites like Kiss, Kraftwerk, Aarne Tenkanen, Simo Salminen, Jaakko Teppo, Children of Bodom, Tarot, Ramones, Motörhead, Die Komedie Harmonisten, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, SOD, Rammstein... A stupid question but... what is, among all the songs you've been listening in your life, the BEST song? My all-time favorite might be old "Kiss" song "Going blind" or "Mutkattomat" song "Jätkän humppa" or "B52's" song "Rock lobster". What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet? Internet is a wonderful invention! Despite that it's filled with useless garbage and all the junk mail etc. problems it an amazing tool. We are a coverband so we can find lot's of lyrics, tabs etc. for our cover versions. The band members live in several cities all over the Finland, one lives even in Belgium, so the cheapest and fastest way to communicate is via email. Some bands complain that their music is stolen and distributed freely in internet, but personally I don't give a shit. I've found many excellent new artists from net, downloaded few songs and if they were good, bought the record... What are your actual and future projects? No plans for today or tomorrow except breathing. Ok, we'll play in Wacken Metal festival in Germany this summer and try to release a new record sometime next year (2005). Then we'll probably tour in Europe again, but we'll see... Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2004

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