Kitkerät Neitsyet

[ WWW.FINPOP.NET ]

THE FINNISH POP CULTURE PORTAL

Music
Interview : Leena from "Kitkerät Neitsyet"

When and how was your band created?
A group of us, Vappu, Eveliina, Leena and Katariina (left since) prepared some cover songs for a party in 97. When we were looking for suitable numbers to perform, we ended up making a couple of songs of our own.
People asked to hear the new made songs, and the whole thing got out of hand. The year after we had a version of our band together (Herzu, Juha, Markus and Perza, left since) and had our first official gig on vappu-eve, 1st of May, at Tampere student house.

Where is the name of the band coming from?
In Carelian tradition there is a song about a blond maiden (=neitsyt, also virgin) and a brown maiden... and obviously their third sister, the Bitter Maiden / Virgin who never got the attentions she deserved. At the time we were going through texts that were ranked out of Kanteletar because of their frankness and felt our songs would mainly be about women's lives.

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Vappu, Herzu, Antti, and Markus have been writing our songs, and we are burning to hear the songs coming up from Juha and Ruttu. We all have a different set of favourite music. This brings us to a musical cocktail of styles. Obviously, as children our ears bathed in the music of 70's and early 80's with all the pop and political flavours there were.
When it comes to lyrics, bards such as Mikko Perkoila have set us a path to follow.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
For our generation it's definitely a plus that we have been able to follow a certain education in music, and that it's relatively easy, cheap and popular to have music as a hobby. When it comes to breaking through, it's probably easier to get heard in a small community. As for negative aspects, it would be quite a challenge to make ends meet as a professional musician.

How could you qualify your style of music?
It is all about women, men, love and daily pains cooked in an ironical sauce and put into a cabaret. The style is optional.

During the years how has your musical style evolved?
From the four women, four men group the group has grown by two. Since we got drums with Tuomas and keyboard with Antti, our music has naturally grown to a less acoustic style. A fifth singer, Anna, with her diamond high pitch notes has allowed us to work even more on arrangements. And of course the fact that we've now been making music together for some 7 years makes things go on smoother. There have actually been seen some written music in rehearsals lately.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
The lyrics are the cornerstone of our songs. The self-ironic feminist approach is a filter to pass through personal and social dilemmas and to see the absurdity of daily lives. A lot of the songs tell a story about a moment in a life of an invented person, and these tales tend to be lengthy.

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
Well, since the style isn't fixed we do it all the time. If Markus, our guitarist got to decide, it would be all heavy metal, our basist Herzu would make it all latino. Thank god for democracy.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
It would be difficult to end a gig without "Humppa Fatale", a three chord wonder of twelve stanzas rhyming, every single one of them, pappada pappa pappada pappa pappada pappa daa. Now there's for a hit.
The wonderful lyrics and beautiful music were put together with all the girls in the band with the idea of using insolent exaggeration when knitting up the life of the poor heroine of the song. Afterwards it has become clear that every word is true. Scary.

Do you tour regularly? Do you prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
Touring and performing is the whole point of the show. Since it's more about lyrics and great atmosphere than sounds polished to their purest perfection, the gigs are definitely the most rewarding part of the process. And it is absurd but hilarious to spend time with these fellows.

Regularity is not a word to use in context of the Bitter Virgins. Well yes, we do practice quite regularly, but our gigs come following their own flow. That means there may be a couple of months with all week-ends and some week nights booked in a row and then nothing for a long time. That does suite us most of the time, since everybody in the band has their daily professions to pull through.

During the process of making a song or an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
Personally, I love most the moment when a new song is first played to a live audience. Next best is the moment when it is introduced to the band and it only starts to take form. Making an album takes enormously time and effort, but nevertheless it is lovely to spend time with your friends in the studio and be totally immersed in the process. It's everything around studio time that is totally nerve wracking.

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
There must be at least 10 different answers to this question.

A stupid question but... what is, among all the songs you've been listening in your life, the BEST song?
This question remains open ended by its impossibility. So many songs have so much power that it is out of reach to pick one.

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
On a theoretical level there is the serious risk on copyright involved. On daily routines it is by far the best way of keeping a herd this big somewhat informed about what is supposed to happen. Once we finally got our homepages opened www.kitkeratneitsyet.fi it has been utterly rewarding to get comments from people who came to our gigs. So, it is at least a wonderful tool for vanity.

What are your actual and future projects?
The Bitter Virgins has just completed a 6 week session of touring. We are working on new songs to include in our album that we are wishing to get done during next year.
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2004