Author: Antonio Díaz

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

Discovering Bukowski

And after it, I just can say that I
love it. I love his raw style. I love how he expresses so frankly his
disconformities with the world where he lived. I think that his texts
are overall honest, and this is an adjective that you do not find
easily in our contemporary times lately. Bukowski has no hope or love
for the rest of the human beings, and he is not afraid to show it.
So let’s be honest for one time as well, and answer to me, what
kind of people do you meet more often, nice and friendly, or
assholes? How is it possible that some people with no talent or
extremely bad taste have a huge success, and the intelligent ones
struggle to survive day after day? This world is a strange place with
strange rules, but these books gave me hope actually. They are
refreshing in those moments when I think that the rest of the
humankind has let me down, because maybe, we expect too much from the
humankind, and at the end, everyone has to carry his own ghosts in
the most decent way.

Definitely spring has started up my joy
of reading! And after devouring Bukowski´s works, I thought
that it would be nice to change the author, so since I watched weeks
ago the excellent film Capote, I have started today the book
Music for Chameleons from the genial American writer who made
a revolution in writing style with his “non-fiction” novel In
Cold Blood. And what I read today. I must admit I liked it a lot.

Somebody said that a man is worthy
depending on how many books he has read. I think that it is not true.
A man is worthy depending on how many book he has read + how much
music he has listened to + how many films he has watched…
Of course, I am joking, but if you let me give you one advice, now
that the sunny days have come to the city, grab a book and sit in a
park to enjoy the pleasure of reading (well, just take care it is not
cold enough that your ears get frozen during the experiment).

I must not be much of a worthy man,
since I have discovered Bukowski with 27…well, at least I try my
best when the making of FREE! Magazine spares me with some
free time. So many things to discover, and always the problem of free
time…Tempus fugit…

Categories
Cover story Misc

The new Noah’s ark is in Norway

The vault will consist mainly of a chamber excavated 120 meters
inside a rock. The location has been carefully chosen in a mountain
130 metres above sea level, so the risk of global warming has been
also taken into account here.

The
project became possible after the International Treaty of Plant
Genetic Resources came into force. The construction of the vault is
funded by the Norwegian government, which is pretty much involved in
the project. The construction is carried on by The Global Crop
Diversity Trust, and
they plan to finish the work fast. The construction is due to be
completed by September, and the vault will be functional by winter.

So,
how is this seed bank different from the other 1.400, which exist
around the planet? Well, for one thing, the massive collection of
samples that it will store: over 3 million. Svalbard will become with
much difference the largest collection in the world. The system will
operate like this: samples are sent in “black boxes” that are
stored in the vault. The boxes are not opened there and no other
breeder can use them, unless all other seed sources are destroyed. If
that happens, then the samples in Svalbard can be released.
Permafrost and thick rock will ensure that, even without electricity,
the samples will remain frozen.

 

{mosimage} 

 

Hope in the middle of nowhere

 

Although, collecting the samples will not be a problem for those
hypothetical survivors (in a hopefully faraway future apocalyptical
time), reaching the vault might be quite a difficult task. The
construction is located in quite a remote area: Svalbard is a group
of islands nearly a thousand kilometres north of mainland Norway. For
nearly four months a year the islands are enveloped in total
darkness. And if you wonder about security measures, nature and the
Norwegian authorities are making the “Doomsday vault” like a
fortress: access to Longyearbyen is effectively limited to one plane
flight a day and the occasional boat during summer. Freezing
temperatures, ice flow (and waters), polar bears, camera
surveillance, and the inherent security of a reinforced underground
location with locked vault-like doors combine to present a formidable
obstacle to any kind of attack or mischief. Unfortunately, the
designers cannot guarantee the vault withstanding the direct impact
of a nuclear bomb.

 

Categories
Albums Music

The Jade – Slow Motions on the Fast Lane

Wille's voice is
clean and catchy, and the band sounds great for being a promo album.
Lyrics are well worked, and there is this essence of glamorous
hard-rock from the 80's mixed with love tales that for sure will
make the band popular among the female public. As highlighted tracks
to listen, I would choose the first song Drowned together with
the last one Beautiful Things, and the cover of Pet Shop
Boys' It´s a sin (reminds me of another version of
the same song done years ago by my beloved German metal heroes, Gamma
Ray. although at present time, obviously with a softer tone). The
band also knows how to play a harder sound, like in Roseate Sky,
and in general, it is a pity that there are only 7 tracks available
in the album. One feels like expecting more songs coming. Too
good…too short.

The guys work hard
in keeping their fans satisfied, and you can notice that if they
visit their page on MySpace. Resuming, the album is a great first
step towards a, hopefully, brilliant future.

Categories
Albums Music

Jana – Pelkuri

Once you start with
the tracks, one must recognize that his voice evolves you in this
traditional spirit of sadness and melancholy that feature so many
native bands in Finland. In any case, the guys from Hämeenlinnä
sound like a compact and talented band in their debut album Pelkuri,
that is also the name of the opening song, ideal to play in moments
of reflection and solitude, or just if you want to share a glass of
wine with your couple in an intimate atmosphere. Tales of love like
in the ballad Pauliina together with other songs with a
harder touch such as in Taikuri make this album a delightful
piece to be enjoyed. Highly recommended.

Categories
Books Features

A noble prize impossible to duplicate

Having no boundaries
at all at expressing his personal opinions, convinced Communist until
the end, and atheist, Saramago has provoked polemic and
admiration towards his creativity and integrity, plus he was
unanimously considered a worthy winner of the Nobel Prize. During his
intervention in Helsinki, he pinpointed the fact of having a break in
his writing process for more than 20 years.

Actually, he did not
publish anything from 1947 to 1966, because, as he has repeated many
times, “I had nothing to say.” And he
also had time to defend the respect for the elderly, “When I
started to be published internationally, I was 60-years-old and I was
a beginner, when many others are retired. So I have a message for the
young people, and also for the ones who are not so young. That means
basically for everybody, and it is that life does not end when you
are 30…or 40 or 50. I have written my best books when I was old.
And I enjoy working, I do not believe in this thing called
retirement. So please, respect the older people because they still
have many things to offer.”

And
really, like with a good wine, the work of Saramago improved with the
passage of time. Since 1980 he has written many acclaimed titles such
as The Year of the Death of Ricardo
Reis, The
Gospel According to Jesus Christ, The
Cave and The
Double.

The author is quite
a talkative person who does not feel shy at all to analyze his works
or his previous experiences. He exhales an
aura of satisfaction about all the things achieved in his life, but,
at the same time, he is very humble and respectful in his comments
and answers. Although Saramago’s schedule was very hectic, he kindly
had some minutes to answer a couple of answers from FREE! Magazine:

{mosimage}Mr Saramago,
coming back to the topic of your book The
Double, how
would you feel if you went out to the street and met a duplicate of
yourself?

I think I would not
like it at all. As I said, I think that if you meet a person exactly
the same as you, the tendency would be to
eliminate that person. The topic goes very faraway in time; it was
treated already in old Greek Mythology, in the story of Zeus in the
role of Amphitrion to get Alcmena, his wife. And we could discuss a
long time about nowadays issues such as cloning, but well, I think we
have not enough time, and better things to do…

What was your
reaction when you received the Nobel
Prize?

Well, at the
beginning I was shocked, it was like if they had hit me with a hammer
in the head. But then, I took it more relaxed. Of course,
it was very nice to go to Stockholm and receive the prize and
everything…but you know… I was alone at an airport when I
received the phone call that gave me notice of being awarded with the
prize, and after a while, I just thought…well… I have won the
Nobel Prize… so what? Life goes on…

After renouncing to
take a taxi, preferring to take the arm of his wife, the Spanish
Pilar Del Río, who is also his translator, they walk off into
an exceptionally sunny day in Helsinki. Later, at the end of one
interview in a bookstore full of admirers and curious people, he
received a quick visit from a very special fan: the president of
Finland, Tarja Halonen.

 

Photos by Eduardo Alonso 

Categories
Art Exhibitions

The age of the animal in Ateneum

The works
are by almost two hundred artists, mostly Finnish ones. The pieces, from the
16th century up to the present, have mainly been provided by the Finnish
National Gallery.

The various
themes in the exhibition illustrate how the roles of animals have changed over
the centuries. Pay special attention to Gallen Kallela’s and Ferdinand
von Wright’s paintings.

{mosimage}There is
also a special display created for children by the students from the University of Art and Design, called In a Magical
Forest. Here parents can find many animal books as well, if they want to
tell stories to their children.

But the
exhibition has also a dark side, such as the sinister works of Juhani Harri:
in his Andalusian Dog, for example, dead animals and objects melt into a
unique and ambiguous new shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Books Features

The polemic pencil

When
did you publish your first comic?
When
I was 13 years old, I self-published a 50-paged album. It was an adventure
influenced by Asterix, Corto Maltese and Indiana Jones.

Favourite
place to draw, meaning where do you feel more comfortable and concentrated to
work?
I
like to draw in cafés drinking coffee and smoking mini cigars. But I think the
place I can concentrate best and find my inspiration most easily is my own
drawing table in my workroom.

Finnish
artists you admire?
There
are a lot of excellent artists here! The poet Pentti Saarikoski is the most
important (called himself "The Poet of Finland" and translated
Joyce’s Ulysses into Finnish). In the comics I like Jyrki Heikkinen, Marko
Turunen, Terhi Ekebom…

International
artist you admire?
James
Joyce, Picasso, Keith Jarrett (jazz pianist), Ornette Coleman (jazz musician
also), the poets and writers of the Antique Greece and Rome like Petronius…
Frédéric Chopin…

{mosimage}What
was the last comic you read?
Jyrki
Heikkinen’s Tohtori Futuro that is about to be published by the small
publishing house Asema in Finland. I am one of the founders of Asema and do a
lot of work as editor. Otherwise, I think the last book was Joann Sfar’s latest
Chat du rabbin, Jérusalem d’Afrique (Dargaud).

What
was, in your opinion, the best comic of 2006?
Well!
You know, I haven’t read them all. I’m quite fond of Joann Sfar’s Chat du
rabbin albums. One appears every year and it’s almost every time the best comic
of the year, for me.

What
makes a Ville Ranta’s comic work different from the others?
I
rarely use panels in my stories, I improvise alot and find my influences a lot
from other art than comics, for example modern jazz music. As a comics artist,
the rhytm is the most important thing in storytelling.

Do
you like being polemic when drawing a comic?
Yeah,
I find contemporary subjects interesting and I comment things alot. When I get
furious about something, I draw a comic. A lot of this material is published in
my comics blog in http://www.villeranta.com but I also draw contemporary and
politic comic/cartoons in the on of the biggest newspaper in Finland,
Ilta-Sanomat.

Do
you like manga?
No.
Though I’ve get to know only the mass entertainment stuff which doesn’t
interest me at all.

What
can you tell about the censorship in Kaltio for the Mohammed cartoon?
Lot
of people in Finland (and in Europe) are afraid of the discussion of religion
and islamistic fundamentalism. Or even afraid of any discussion on muslims. A
group of people among the sponsors of Kaltio and the publisher of Kaltio got
extremely afraid of something when Kaltio published my comic on Mohammed. They
didn’t even read it. The comic ironizes the fundamentalism and the European
fear of Muslims and opposes the Iraq war. But they were totally ignorant of
what I had to say. They didn’t want that this discussion is done in Kaltio and
they censored my work in a brutal and illegal way. That’s all I have to say
about that.

What
do you think about so many comics adapted into films in last few years?
I’m
not very interested in those films more than the comics behind. Except The
Ghost World is a great book. I haven’t seen the film.

What
other activities do you do apart from drawing comics?
I
run this publishing house of alternative comics, Asema. I teach comics a little
in a art school near Oulu.

What
other hobbies do you have?
Cleaning
the house, listening to free jazz, watching films of Fellini.

You
have your own company. Is it hard to be an artist and business man at same
time?
I’m
not a business man. The publishing house is a hobby, it doesn’t produce money.
I only get paid of the rights if Asema publishes my book, the rest is hobby of
me and Mika Lietzén. We run this house for free.

What
are your future projects?
I’m
going to finish my next graphic novel in fall. I’ve worked a long time at it.
It will be probably published in France at the same time as in Finland.

Categories
Cover story Misc

Porn is in the air

Maybe names such as Laura, Mr Lothar, Eve
X, Rakel Leikki, Mariah or Henry Saari do not ring a bell to you… or maybe
they do. Undoubtedly, porn and sex industry are not a marginal side of society
anymore. As an example, there are 3 big sex festivals, called Sexhibition, all
around Finland:
In Oulu, Turku
and Helsinki,
being the latest the most important one, with a number of visitors that oscillates
between 25,000 and 35,000. We are talking about the same number of visitors
that could go to the biggest Book Fair of the country, so … do you still
believe that sex business is not mainstream here?

An industry not
much openly discussed, but massively used

Go to any of the most popular chat rooms in Finland, such
as Suomi 24 website. Sex rooms are overwhelmed by visitors; meanwhile the others
are almost empty. Not exactly that people overcrowd the gardening chat rooms…
Young people want it fast and want it wild, so why to waste time and money
going to a club, when you can hit on somebody from your computer? Or take a
walk around Kallio neighborhood, and you will see the huge amount of sex shops
every few meters offering all kind of films and products. It could be that sex
industry is not still a subject of massive study at serious academicals circles
but… maybe the trend should start to change soon.

Vesa Riihinen,
who is the responsible for the biggest porn magazines publishing company in Finland, Press
Masters, with approximately. 40 % of market share, explains to us “There are
approximately 20 000 different readers/month on our for magazines Kalle,
Jallu, Lollo and Ratto, and in our on line service there are about
2000 visitors per day”.

{mosimage}Different ways
of making porn.

As most of the people involved in Finnish
porn film industry assures, this is a small country with a small market, so
everybody knows everybody at the end. There is not much space for launching
dozens of films a year as in USA market, so apart from the mainstream and more
classic porn movies, where the biggest and most demanded names by the audience belong
to Rakel Liekki and Henry Saari (better known as “Henry the
King”), there is a big trend towards the home-made and amateur porn.

Basically, the new genre consists on
recording sexual encounters with an amateur video camera, and with no other
effects or crew collaborating during the shooting. As Mr Lothar,
stripper and porn actor, who has filmed dozens of encounters during his
wanderings all over Finland,
explains to us, “It is a fast way for many girls to get some extra money. Some
of them appear only once, and some others become part of the business. With
some of them I just spend few minutes and some others have fun and stay with me
for the whole week”.

Most of the actors contacted in Finland are
quite proud and happy of what they do, out of the image one could have of
“sexual and manipulated objects”. But hey, being in the business can have also
many others unexpected risks. As Mika Erkillä, organizer of Helsinki
Sexhibition, remembers: “Once a Czech stripper fell from the stage during a
performance. It was a 2 meters fall and we were quite worried he could have got
inured. Fortunately, no serious damage happened”

And well, if you feel like testing your wild
side, and are not shy of performing some hot games in front of the crowd, in
next Sexhibition they prepare a lot of interactive games with the visitors in
their “Corridor of Activities”, such as “New Twister” and “New Poker”…

Radical Production, settled in Tampere, is another
company that has gained reputation very fast for their amateur videos, even
exporting outside Finland.
As lead actor, they feature Jeppe, a guy who looks more like the fellow
sitting close to you at University classrooms than a “sex machine”.

For many of you, these names were already
well known, and for many others who will go directly after reading this article
to Google and Internet pages, we can just say: Enjoy yourselves with the
national product!

Categories
Interviews Misc

Like Alice in Wonderland wearing a new pair of shoes

Is success coming
too fast, Minna?

All kind of
attention is good and it is nice. I enjoy it and it is good for my business,
but my goal has been to move forward very quickly. It is exactly what I wanted.
I did not want to start with a small thing, I wanted to start with a big thing
and move fast because also financially, it is my company and I founded it
myself

Is it hard to
take full responsibility of the company?

Yeah, because I
studied design, and I suddenly had to be “business woman”. I learnt a lot in
1.5 years. I am kind of very proud myself that I have managed to do as well as
I have, without any kind of selling or business experience before, so it’s just
matter of finding out, and asking questions, and learning through mistakes.
Luckily there have not been huge mistakes so far…

You have said
that you wanted to be a designer since you were 15. Were you the typical
teenager burning time and money at the clothing shops?

Yeah, I have
been traveling with my family on holidays since I was tiny, all over Europe, Japan,
Australia,
all kind of places, and I got used to be in all kind of shops and seeing all
kind of designs, things that we did not have in Finland. In the 90´s we still did
not have so many great shops here.
 

 

Getting experience in England

When you were 19
you moved to Leicester, England, to study Footwear Design
in Demontfort University. Why?

I wanted to go
somewhere else than staying in Finland,
I wanted to go and try out a new place and experience a new culture, and learn
the language perfectly. There were only 2 design schools in England, the other
one in London and the other one in Leicester, and when I was 19, London sounded
quite of quite scary…too big… and I just decided to go to Leicester, even when
I had never visited the place.

Tell me a bit
more about this prize you got: Young British Glove Designer?

Well, it is given
by the British Glove Association , the main glove thing in the U.K. there were
400 people taking part in that competition, so in that way it was quite a big
thing to win it.  I got the title of  Young British Glove Designer, even if
I am not British, which it was quite funny, and they had this way of doing it
in the center of London, in this mansion house , so they were quite “proper
English”, old men and old women with their hats and their gloves exclaiming “oh
yeah marvelous!”, “well done!”

After 6 years
abroad, why to settle again in Helsinki
and not somewhere else?

Well, it had been
easier to have started abroad, like in England, Italy or Spain, it is much bigger, you get
the producers there, and in England
you get the British Footwear Association that does support the designers. They
apply for big fairs where I cannot get in because I have a small company and I
am from Finland.
But I miss home. I miss my friends, after being out for such a long time it is
good to return. It is peaceful and calm here and there is a lot of space to do
new things. The environment allows new things and people here are very excited
about new things as well, so I thought that this would be a very good base to
create my own things in peace, and then travel a lot around the world.

 

{mosimage}{mosimage}

 
 

Girlie designs
and summer fantasies

What makes Minna
Parikka´s designs different from others?

They are very
girlie, girlie shoes with girlie details, very feminine, like high curvy heels,
lots of inspiration from the 30s, 40s, 50s, when the woman was true woman and
they dressed up head to toe perfectly, with fun and quality. I always try to
offer something that is amusing, wearable and still doesn’t go over the top.
The shoes have a lot of details but people can still imagine that they can wear
them. Color is very important, colors suitable for the season, I m not a big
fan of browns and blacks. The buyers always say like “Hum, lovely colors, but I
will take the browns and the blacks instead”

Do people take
care of their style in Finland?

In general people
still do not spend much money on clothes. But I think that Helsinki is great, you get all kind of styles
here, people like to be quite individual, and not everybody is from “the same
mall”.

Can you explain a
bit more about your new Spring/Summer collection?

It is a very candy
collection. It has candy colors, pastels, bright reds and it has very cake
shapes, hearts…very romantic. The collection is called holiday romance, so it s
everything that you could expect from a holiday romance to be like:
lighthearted and  fun and playful.

How many pairs of
shoes have u bought lately?

Nowadays I do not
have to buy shoes since I get them for myself. I got 50 pairs of shoes just for
this summer just for myself. For Finnish summer, 50 days, one for every day…
Maybe I have 150 pairs in total, I always go to fly market to sell my stuff
later, I don’t keep things, I do not have the space to keep things.

What are the
future plans for Minna Parikka?

Sell a lot and
design a new collection!!!

 

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

And with the spring…the 3rd issue of FREE!

I still have the feeling that many people don´t know about the existance of FREE! Well, for those who are missing the fun, now it is about to know about us. And with the new cover in our 3rd issue, I am sure that loving it or hating it, it is going to create some impact, because it is definitely a catchy illustration (…and a catchy cover story, although I must say that I think we have treated the topic of sex with a lot of respect, although as well with sense of humour).

By the way, if you see any day a dark haired guy refilling one of the stands-teline of FREE! Magazine with newspapers, salutate me. We are not all day long sitting in front of our computers, quite the opposite. We, the editors, do a bit of everything.

I was a couple of hours ago in Bar Loose, one of my favourite places in Helsinki. Not only for the rock music, that is good, but also because it gives me a good vibe, it reminds me to a typical rock bar in Spain, and there are not many bars in Finland that can remind me to my homeland bars. The clients there go often, so at the end everybody knows everybody, and hours seem to pass by without noticing it. Today there was a concert by a band called Ceesar, where one of the waiters play, and actually they were quite good, I enjoyed the concert pretty much.

Some of you must have realized that FREE! is moving around, trying to spread our name. This month, we  appear with and ad in Clubland leaflet, and we will have a stand-teline in the Sexhibition, for all those who apart from "sexy time", would feel like having something to read in English. We were also last month in Tampere Film Festival, delivering copies and making some promotion. It was nice to assist, the quality of the projections is very high, and apart from that, I personally got impressed with the energy of Jonas Mekas, the 84 years old Lithuanian director. The man conserves all his lucidity and a great joy of life. It was 11:30 at night and he could appear in a club ordering some drinks  and chatting with audience, instead of being sleeping at his hotel room. Frankly impressive!

And some recomendations before ending up today. Last films I saw recently and enjoyed pretty much: Little Miss Sunshine and Capote (Seymour Hoffman is great in whatever role he plays. And if you still have not read In Cold Blood, I don´t know what you are waiting for…). In music, pay attention to the new Finnish band The Jade, I was positively delighted with the discovery. And please, be FREE! with us! Send us your pictures or your questions without answers in Tell me Why section for the next paper edition, sign our guestbook, or just simply write a couple of lines to feedback@freemagazine.fi but always remember (remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot…)  that this magazine is overall planned for your joy.

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

February is gone… and my blog misses me

For those readers who expect that I have changed my mind and become a serious keeper of a blog in Internet…well…maybe they expect too much… By the way, are there readers there??? Eh come on guys, most of the articles in the website have not received a comment at all, and the same applies to the guestbook, with only few visits every week. If you consider that something is marvelous or just simply a shit, we will be glad that you dedicate a couple of sentences to let us know, but please write!!!
It is becoming very frustrating to have the feeling that we are alone here writing the newspaper for the reindeers…

In any case, I am going to try my best and keep the blog more updated than I have done these first couple of months, although it is not easy with this hectic life. During last weeks, we have assisted to some interesting events, and I did not want to let more time pass by before commenting them.

We were on the 20th of February watching Anna Karenina at the National Opera. I must say that I enjoyed it very much. Maybe my background has more to do with being in the middle of small clubs in rock concerts than assisting to ballet, but I must say that I really liked the performance. It was dynamic, full of plasticity, and the decoration was astonishing. That week was actually pretty much of not resting at all: On Wednesday, it was time to have an interview and assist to the later concert of The Yayhoos. You will be able to read more about them in the next issue of FREE! , but well, the concert ended up having quite a cold atmosphere due to the lack of spectators, the same that the weather outside that I am pretty sure made a lot of people stay at home instead of daring to come to Tavastia to enjoy the good music of the American band. In any case, there is nothing as good against the coldness as finishing the night with some good beers and a nice talk with the Tour Manager, who was by chance from Madrid, the same than me. “Pieni Mailmaa”, as the Finnish would say.

Two days later, it was the turn of watching Apulanta in Nosturi. I find actually the place a very cozy one for concerts, although the acoustic is not the most brilliant one, I must say. The guys from Heinola really came there to make business, and provided with another good show to the delighted audience. Many young people there, almost teenagers. And my FREE! Magazine red and yellow t shirt causing amazement and shocking the masses. Goddamn, if we wanted to cause an impression when making the T shirt, we really got it.

This is all for today from this absent minded editor who must be one of the worst in the world to promote his own magazine. In Apulanta concert, I did not bring a single copy of the magazine to the entrance of Nosturi, even when we had a three page cover story about the band… well, word to mouth must work for the moment. As again Finnish say: Elämä on!

Categories
Interviews Music

Releasing a violent storm of music

Tell
us about your new project, Violent Storm. What is the story behind it?

I have been writing music all my
life, since I was a kid and lived in Argentina. Then I moved to the UK and continued
composing. I did not have much chance to put my composition into performance in
live bands in the UK or the States, because basically I was playing
professionally; backing up other singers, rock bands, then with Ritchie Balckmore,
Malmsteem, and with these two guys you cannot show your own songs much, you
have to play what they tell you to play. So I was accumulating songs all this
time. And I felt it was about time to make my own CD, so I invited some guests
musicians like KK Downing and Malmsteem, and they were happy to collaborate. KK
became more involved producing the album.

Have you worked before with KK?

No. He came to see Yngwee Malmsteem
when we played in Barcelona,
and we met there for the first time. Then we kept in touch, I went to see him
playing with Judas Priest in Miami
and Las Vegas,
and I mentioned to him that I was in this project. I showed him some songs. I
told him that Malmsteem was going to play a couple of songs, and if he would
fancy to play a couple more. He said “sure”, and that is how the thing kicked off.
Then, he wanted to have a little more of input in the project. He has a lot of
suggestions and I welcomed most of them, so he became a producer in the
project. 

-Was it a problem not to be often
at the same place, working sending material via the InternetNo, not really. With many bands you
work on distance. You send ideas in MP3 and so on; it is not the old fashion
way of gathering with the band. Of course it is nicer when it is like that, but
logistics have improved, and sometimes schedules are busy. KK was busy with Judas Priest
project, I was busy touring with Malmsteem, and so it had to be done at everybody’s
convenient time.

{mosimage}
And the story behind the band’s name? Who came
up with it?

It is a funny story. I liked the violet colour, maybe it also has to do
with the colour purple, since I am a great Deep Purple fan. I figured
out that maybe I could call the project “Violet Storm” but KK told me that he
was not going to be involved in any way in a band with the word Violet in its
name…

So then I called it Violent Storm, that sounds similar, and I think that
sounds great.

Which are your favourite songs in the album?

For me it is difficult to choose because I like all the tracks. I
intended to have quite a lot of diversity. I listen to most of the band's cds,
and then after 2-3 tracks it becomes monotonous, so I tried not to have the
same feeling with my album. I think that all the tracks in the album are very
different. I enjoyed playing and composing all the songs, so I cannot say
“Track number 5 is the one”.  They all
have their own “thing” that I like.

And then it is a funny thing that people who have listened to the album
and critics mention different tracks as favourite ones. For Yngwee, “Empty
Hope” is the favourite because it is the one with more classical stuff, but
some DJs have different ones as favourite.

You did a solo album years ago, Ostinato, and now Violet
Storm. Which one do you feel most satisfied with?

Well, they both come from my creativity. Ostinato was a challenge, to
play classical things with an electric bass, music that was more meant to be
played with a keyboard, so I wanted to see what happened when playing it with
the bass. I had a very nostalgic feeling with that album, and I think that when
I retire, that is the thing I want to do, just to sit in my studio and record
classical stuff.

Any ideas about touring dates for Violent Storm?

We are working on that just at same time we speak. Things will be
confirmed soon, in the next few days. We intend to play all over Europe, including Scandinavia,
Spain, the UK, etc. We are
really eager to take this project on the road.

Are KK Downing and Malmsteem going to appear as guests in some
concerts?

It would be great if they have time to join us in some of the shows, but
well, we are going to have our own band standing on their own feet. We have to prove
ourselves that we can work as a valid band.

You were recently in Finland
playing three gigs with Malmsteem. How was the experience?

Oh, it was great. Finland
became one of my favourite places in the world. I love the people very much; I
think they are very straightforward, very honest. I do not mind the cold
weather, so I enjoyed it. Although it was not so cold, I was looking forward to
lots of snow… and there was not.

Some people think that a Finnish audience can be a bit cold. Did you
notice anything like that?

Not at all. I really enjoyed the concert and the people’s attitude.

Tell me about this G3 project. How was to be in a project involving,
apart from Malmsteem, Satriani and Vai?

Doing the G3 was an amazing project! You can imagine, with these three guitar
monsters! The musicians in each band were amazing as well, for example Billy
Sheehan was with Steve Vai´s band. Everybody was as good as it gets, so I felt
really privileged to be in a situation like that. You know you have to do your
best every night; you have to do well and perform well. I really learnt a lot
at that experience.

Malmsteem said literally in the Helsinki press conference that on
stage, he does “whatever the fuck he wants”, meaning that he can change the
song, he can play the way he likes. Is it difficult for you to follow the
performance, or do you enjoy with this way of working, this improvisation?

It is challenging, but well, I was “trained” with Ritchie Blackmore
because I played with him before, and he does similar things. Before you have
time to realise, he plays something that is not even in the set list and you
have not even rehearsed and on the spot, you have to play it! Maybe that is the
reason why Malmsteem likes to get “ex-Blackmore musicians”, because we are all
“well trained”

So after working with Blackmore, there are no big surprises for you
anymore on stage.

Being honest, it keeps the show from being boring. It keeps you on your
toes, because you don’t know what comes up next. I have done gigs when it was
the same list every night, and I almost fell asleep in the middle of the show,
so this is quite different.

I saw some pictures where you are dressed up
in these curious medieval clothes while playing with Blackmore. How was that?
Is it not strange to play, disguised like that?

In the Blackmore experience, he and Candy loved the medieval
things. They tried to put the show in medieval times, so a part is to work with
that kind of clothes…Well, I had never worn tights before, so it was a little
bit different. But well, everybody was in the same boat. Blackmore liked to put
this funny Austrian hat on himself. Sometimes we were hanging out, going to a
pub, and he would put one of those ridiculous hats on me. And people were
watching at me like “what is wrong with this guy???”But well, it is part of the
fantasy of working with Blackmore!

So the fantasy is everywhere, it can be on
stage or even in a pub.

Yeah, he really liked that! In his house, all the decoration is medieval
type! He has an old abandoned park nears his house… He owns lots of medieval
stuff, nothing too dark, but just funny stuff owned by him. So he really enjoys
that.

And in the future, what is going to be next after Violent Storm? Any
possibility of having a second album?

Well, I have sort of being planning this project for a long time, so I'm
going to give this a lot of attention. The next step is touring, and not just
in Europe. The album is going to be released
in America
too, so I am going to be touring in America, and hopefully also in South America, Australia… and everywhere else.
Depending on the response, there would be the possibility of planning a second
album – let’s see.

Do you know how long the tour is going to be?

I expect it to be for a long time. Probably it will be starting in May
through the rest of the years. It could be having gigs for 3-4 weeks, and then
resting for a couple of weeks, and then back on the road. So hopefully it will
be a very extended tour, we need to spread the word and show it in many
different places. So you must come and see it!

Categories
Interviews Music

Metal God’s predictions

“I love
Finland. I was there recently, a couple of weeks ago. I visited to some Finnish
friends who are helping me to put my future website together,“ KK says.

{mosimage}Let us know more
about Violent Storm project, where you recently got pretty involved.

We were on
tour in America,
with Judas Priest, and we had a couple of tours in Miami. We met Mick Cervino there.
Later I met him again in Barcelona.
We went there to see Yngwie Malmsteem´s show. He asked me to play a
couple of songs in his album. Nobody has offered me that before. I said
“maybe”, and when he sent me the record I thought it was pretty cool. So I
played the solo guitars guitar solos and then slowly I got more and more
involved

Did you
enjoy the experience?

Yeah, it was
very interesting to see the whole process. I was not there from the very
beginning, otherwise I could have had even more input. It was a lot of hard
work in the end but I think that for a first album, it sounds good.

They are
going to be touring pretty soon. Any chance you can appear as guest musician in
any gig?

I suppose
that at some point we are going to be on stage with them at a festival or big
concert, so anything can happen.

It would be nice
to see you on stage with them.

Yeah, maybe
they could even open for Judas Priest. You never know what is going to happen. I
think that they would work very well as a support band for Judas or for others
like Black Sabbath.

It was
recently confirmed that they will play at the Sauna Open Air festival next
summer in Tampere, where Black Sabbath guys will play as well.

I am looking
forward to seeing the band live. After delivering a good record, you have to be
able to show that you can deliver a good live show too.

Focusing on
Judas Priest, the launching of the new album about Nostradamus is coming
closer. Why this turn toward a conceptual album?

It is a very
good challenge for us. In Judas Priest, we have never been too afraid of
pushing the boundaries and trying new things. We always thought that if we can
bring a wider audience to metal, that's a good thing, because it makes this
kind of music stronger, and this is good for other bands as well. People
complain that heavy metal is boring, but it is funny that every year, the same
classic metal bands are the ones that have the biggest headlines in the festivals.
All in all, Judas Priest are very proud of what we have achieved, and not only
from our band, but also from other bands.

Do you have
any information about the releasing date of the album?

Not yet. For
the moment it is going exceptionally well. We are working very hard on it and
hopefully it will be released soon.

What is the
story behind your first guitar and Michael Schenker?

U.F.O. was playing on a Saturday night,
this was years and years ago, and I think that Michael saw the flying guitar
that I had, in a little shop window, and the shop was obviously closed because it
was at week end. He went back to London,
and came back to Birmingham
to buy the guitar, but I had bought the same guitar that morning on Monday. So
later when I saw him in Los Angeles,
he told me “That's the guitar that should have been mine!” I said: "too
bad, it's mine now!" That particular guitar… Gibson only made 117
worldwide in 1969, so they were quite rare.

So Michael
has kept reminding you about this every time you met later?

Yes, of
course, yeah. I said: "if I go to my grave first, Michael, I will leave it
to you in my will!"

You also
like collecting cars. If they offer you a choice between a nice guitar and a
nice car, what would you take?

The car! I
can play a cheap guitar, that's fine, but I would take the nice car!

Is true that
Julio Iglesias, the legendary Spanish singer, and Judas Priest
collaborated together once?

Yeah, it is
true. We were recording in Miami,
and Julio came to the studio where we were rehearsing. I think that we released
the song in the bonus track of the Remasters.

He was a
very nice guy indeed. One day a big truck arrived outside the studio, and then
a brand new Ferrari come out of the vehicle: a present for “Mr Iglesias”, sent
by the record company for selling so many records. He got in the car, drove around
the block, and said “too fast for me, I will give it to my son”. I said: "I
will take it, Julio, that's fine for me!"

I want to
see one day that I am in the studio and a truck comes with a Ferrari for me!

We work hard
for it.

 

You only
need to sell some more million albums, KK…

Categories
Books Interviews

Running to the limit

Where were
you born?

In Oulu. I
moved to the capital some years ago to study.

Do you like
living here in Helsinki?

Yeah. The
first months I missed my home city a lot. I was even visiting the Railway
Station just to watch at the trains departing to Oulu. But after some months, I
started to work in Linnänmäki amusement park and it became more fun.

What do you
like doing in the capital when you have free time?

I like
running around, especially on summer. When I was younger I trained hard in
athletics, but now I can just open my eyes and enjoy the landscape. I have
recently discovered the Punavuori area, which is really nice.

How do you
deal with your studies at Helsinki University?

I am a bit
ashamed because I still have to finish my thesis and I have not talked to my
supervisor… I am so busy that I don’t know when I am going to have time to
complete it…

What is the
thesis topic about?

It has to do
with the devil.

What book
have you read lately?

Markku
Pääskynen´s Vihan Päivä

What place
in Finland would you recommend to visit?

{quotes}Oulu, of
course!{/quotes}

Do you feel
nervous about the critiques?

It is the scariest part of being a writer
for me. I have read three bad critiques, and three good ones.

Your reaction about the bad ones?

They were right on some points. I tried to
read them from that angle, but it was hard for me as well.

In your book, how can you imagine being
under the skin of a man who makes love to a woman?

I have only one answer, it is a cryptic
answer, I said that I know my own parts because he is “me” at that time in the
process of writing, so everything feels right and natural.

What is the future for Riikka Pulkkinen?

There are different kinds of projects. I am
going to be on TV for the whole spring. It is kind of a talk show called Kuka, mitä, häh.

Categories
Books Interviews

Pedro Juan’s dirty Havana

FREE! Magazine had the honour to get an exclusive interview with one of the hottest contemporary authors in Latin American: Pedro Juan Gutierrez. A writer whose style, full of passion, sex, visceral, raw, harsh but also hugely beautiful, creates equally love and hate among his readers.

Pedro Juan kindly answered our questions while staying in Colombia for some days, out of his beloved city. "I always have a nice relationship with journalists. I was one for 26 years, and I know how agonizing this job can be, but also how rewarding in other occasions", he recalls.

When you published Dirty Havana Trilogy, in 1998, you recognised that it was a very hard
time in your life, very depressing, almost with suicidal tendencies. What do you feel now when you look back on that period?

I try to forget the past and not to be afraid of what the future will bring. I just try to enjoy the moment, be calmer.

Pedro Juan Gutierrez

That book has a high degree of autobiography, hasn’t it?

Yes, it is almost an autobiography, but not totally. I think that many readers, after the second time they go through my works, start to understand that the real “leit motiv” of my books is poverty more than sex.

Your books have a very aggressive style. There are ideas poured against almost everything in politics, philosophy, religion… How are they received in Cuba?

Well, they are not received well, nor badly. The point is actually that they are not published here. There are only some selected titles that circulate with a small number of copies. But I think that the new generation, young people with no prejudices, like them very much. Many times they circulate from hand to hand.

I see some features in your work that reminds me of Guillermo Cabrera Infante´s masterpiece Infante's Inferno. Have you read that book?

No, I have never read that book. In Cuba you cannot find his works. As simple as that. If he would have won the Nobel Prize, no Cuban would have known about it. When he died, nobody even published a short article in the press. But I like very much his book Three Trapped Tigers.

“I have had sex with more than 2.000 women in my life”

What contemporary authors do you read?

I am interested in Richard Ford, Carver, Houllebeck, Guillermo Arriaga, Fernando Vallejo and some others.

You have worked in many different jobs, met many people and gone through many experiences. How do you face life when you get up every morning?

I learn new things every day, I am like a child. I still get amazed about many things and I try to understand them better. Now for example in Colombia I was carrying out a poll about silicone implants. It has become very popular here among women, they do it everywhere, in their tits, lips, ass, and cheeks. It is fascinating to hear
what they have to tell.

Going through your work, we can appreciate that you must have had many experiences and success with women. Have you found often real love, or has it been more about frantic sex like in your books?

I have had sex with more than two thousand women in my life. A bit excessive maybe. Real love…only with five or six… and I feel very bad when everything is over. A female Finnish journalist, whose name I do not remember now, interviewed me in La Havana not long time ago. She was very friendly. She tried to link all this behaviour to former psychological problems with my mother and father.

Pedro Juan

Would you be able to live in another place, different from Havana?

Moving to somewhere else? No, never! Well, maybe Spain. I would not like to live in a place with a different language.

Have you ever been in Finland? What do you know about this country?

Yes, I was invited to Helsinki and Lahti some years ago. I gave a speech for two minutes, and the other five days I was walking around the beautiful lakes and forests. I had a very nice romance with a sweet Finnish woman who cultivated aromatic herbs, and I enjoyed sauna. Lahti was an unforgettable experience. I would love to go back, but I suppose that warm woman does not live there anymore, because the world is not a perfect place.

“I suffer from censorship in Sweden. Publishing houses do not want to publish my books there”

In your book Tropical Animal (Etelän Peto), the main character also had a romance with a Swedish woman: Agneta. Is the inspiration coming also from a real story?

Yes. Agneta, with another real name, really exists. She is a real woman. I lived in Sweden in 1999
for three months, and everything happened just as it is told in the book. She felt betrayed at the beginning, but later, she understood that a writer is always a bit of a “son of a bitch”, not always a nice human being, and she accepts me the way I am. Publishing houses in Sweden, in revenge, do not publish my books. I suffer from censorship in Sweden, and I think that they are really stupid because they are missing very good books that are already published in twenty other countries.

What are the future perspectives for Pedro Juan?

Like everybody else: projects. The first one is to live a relaxed life, and have fun whenever I am able to. Life is a great crazy adventure, funny, unpredictable…  Time flies, and without realising about it, we have become old, and we cannot fuck anymore, or drink, or smoke, and the women look at us like if we were old grandpas. Shit, what a horror!