Greenhouse Ac

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Music
Interview : Greenhouse Ac

When and how was your band created?
The band was formed in 1987 by me (guitarist Jari Mikkola) and singer Jussi Nykänen. We had both been in bands before and we had already met in 1986, and we thought we should do something together. Hannu Kulusjärvi (bass) joined us in 1988 and Jake Seppänen (our fourth drummer) in 1997. Mika Saaristo came in as a second guitarist in 2001.

Where is the name of the band coming from?
Greenhouse is the local mental hospital. It really is green. AC was added later (in 1992) when we started to tour outside of Finland, and just before the release of our first album (we had found out there were other bands also called Greenhouse, at least in England and Australia) AC comes from "Arctic Circle", or "Athletic Club" or ."Air Conditioning"?

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Biggest influences and inspirations before starting the band were the Stooges, MC 5, Eastern Dark, the Fluid, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Velvet Undergound, the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Clash... we could list even more bands, but you can get the idea from these names.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
Positive: Finland is a bit isolated from the rest of the world, so we remain more personal.
Negative: Finland is a bit isolated from the rest of the world, so it demands a bit more work to get international recognition.

How could you qualify your style of music?
Twisted loud rock, with punk and pop influences. We have never wanted to play our rock or pop or punk the easy way or the same way as others. We have always wanted to push the limits a bit.

During the years how has your musical style evolved?
Well, we have learned to play little better.

How do explain these changes?
No idea.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
Postmodern traumas of personality. Fragments of modern life. Love. Be Bob-A-Lula.

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
No. It has to come out naturally.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
This is like asking "which one of your kids you love the most?".
Impossible to answer.

Do you tour regularly? Do you prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
We have toured as much as possible. Both live and studio are nice. Really difficult to compare live and studio, they are so different. Usually we record about 80 % live in the studio. Now there´s a connection!

During the process of making a song or an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
The moment when all the members of the band smile.

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
We have always been listening many kinds of music. Recently 8-bit punk (or micromusic or whatever you call it) has been quite interesting.

A stupid question but... what is, among all the songs you've been listening in your life, the BEST song?
A stupid question indeed. Saukki & Pikkuoravat "Jöröjukka-rock". It stands the test of time.

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
A great way of getting contacts, information and publicity.

What are your actual and future projects?
Jari is concentrating on a band called Desert Planet www.desertplanet.com Jake has a band called Drainage www.besonic.com/Drainage Mika is making a record with a band called Gas Fuzz, Jussi and Hannu have a project called the Newspaper Joes. So we are doing separate things at the moment, and GAC is hibernating. But there has been some talks about a possible compilation release in the near future.

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2004