Mokoma

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Interview : Br. Kuisma from Mokoma

When and how was your band created?
Mokoma was founded by band leader/singer/songwriter Marko in 1997 when he realized that he can do songs of his own. He also found out that he's able to sing too. Previously Marko had played guitar in several bands, but never had the opportunity to be the artistical leader, as he is now in Mokoma. He was also pretty much fed up with the band-democracy issues, and thus wanted to have a "solo project" where he can act as a dictator and could control the musical goals etc. Other members of the band have joined the band during it's 5 year history, and nowadays we are actually getting back to the democratic way of making music :-) We all contribute in creation process, but Marko still does the majority of music and 100% of texts, since he is THE MAN.

Was the choice to become professional difficult to make?
We aren't actually professional musicians. Semi-professional, I would say, since we have civil profesions/studying etc going on too... Anyways, you don't choose to be musician, music chooses you, so there isn't too much you can do about it, can you :-)

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
80% of us is born in the 70's so we were in our teens in mid to late 80's.
That means that music of that era meant lot to us, since we were eagerly looking to be influenced. We all found heavy metal -music mid 80's (WASP, KISS etc) and the we grew up with faster and more aggressive genre of metal, thrash metal. Bands like Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica and Kreator were a huge bands for us back then. In early 90's we pretty much listended to extreme death-metal acts such as Entombed, Sepultura, Napalm Death etc... In 90's some of us went a bit "grunge" for a while and listened to Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Rage Against The Machine etc... We also have listened to Finnish underground acts such as early work by CMX, YUP, Kauko Röyhkä etc. That gives us the touch to Finnish melancholy. That totals Mokoma.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician / singer (in Finland)?
Positive thing is that our "fans" are Finns. Negative thing is that you need to travel a lot to go gigs.

How could you qualify your style of music?
We play Heavy Metal sung in Finnish.

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
I don't think so. There is no substitution to Heavy Metal. Personally I could do electronic music that has aggressive elements in it, like... well let's say Prodigy.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
Our songs revolv around humanity, they have intertextual references to "The Big Book", but we don't consider us to be very religious. Humane, perhaps, at least some of us. I personally am against humanity! *laughing a lot to this "funny" joke*

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
We all like our new unreleased material, which is a big step towards more heavier and metallier approach. I would say song "Takatalvi" is our favourite. It is about a weird time of year in Finland when sun is shining, nature is blooming and everyone thinks that summer is here, and next morning you get a snow blizzard and -20C which kills pretty much everything, including people's good spirits :-) The music is in honour of late 80's thrash metal, furious outburst of loud speeding heavy metal guitars and fast drumming.

Do you tour regularly? Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
We have gigs occasionally, not too many at the moment... We like to record music in studio but the live gigs are definitely the most rewarding thing is this kind of music business.

During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
The best moments are in the reheasal room when wre are composing news songs and everyone gets for example the same arrangement idea to the song.
Then we really feel that when we work together our band is stronger that the individuals themselves!

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
Like said earlier, the biggest influeneces are from the late 80's tharsh metal, and that's what we listen nowadays too! Swedish/Gothenburgian melodic death metal is also a big thing now. A would also like to mention brilliant nutcakes from Umeå, Sweden, the band called Meshuggah.

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song?
A very good question and very easy to answer. Slayer: "Angel Of Death". That song pretty much defined the thrash metal genre in 1986. Fast & furious music, two guitars, fast drumming, high pitch screaming... It made a huge impact on early teen kid who is trying to understand what happening out there. Been on that road since then. Beautiful song :-)

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?
We are a marginal rock band, which means that we don't propser from album selling. The best thing that can happen to us is that people _hear_ our music and comes to see our shows. We also understand the record company's prespective who do their business with album selling. They want to have their investments (studio time, promotion, etc..) back with profits. That enables them to release more music. If they don't get their money, our band and similar are the first to get sacked.

Do you use computers or home studios during the process of making an album or a song?
Yes we do. We record with Pro Tools -system in studio, and we also make some demo tapes in home studios. The technology is nowadays so good that you can make decent quality demo tapes very easily.

What are your actual and future projects?
A few unimportant but very interesting and fun side projects going on...
More about them later :-)

See you at the gigs! Br, Kuisma / Mokoma / www.mokoma.com
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2002