What was
the evolution of Regina? How/where did the three of you meet and how/when did
the band form?
It all
started when we (Iisa & Mikko P.) did a couple of demo tracks in our living
room a few years ago. To our surprise, our music found friends really quickly –
with the help of the Internet – and soon we were asked to play live. We wanted
to try it even though we had no plans to become a real band. It was the
beginning of 2005 when Mikko R. and his drums joined us, and in March we played
the very first gig at Club Limousine in Helsinki.
Regina most
distinguishes itself from other bands with its vocals. Many bands choose to
sing in English in order to reach a wider audience (I assume), but you sing in
Finnish. As it turns out, this in no way hinders your appeal. So, was singing
in Finnish a conscious decision?
I love our
language and choosing Finnish was the only solution for me. It's nice to be
able to use a language as funny and beautiful as Finnish and it's even more fun
when people tell you that they enjoy the language – even though they don't
understand it. We have heard stories of people who have started to learn
Finnish with our music.
{mosimage}Your music
is best described as electro-pop, but there's clearly a different sound coming
through on your new album. Less electronic, more organic, lighter but with more
layering. Can you talk about the differences between the way you approached
your first and second albums?
The new
Regina is definitely more organic and lighter but still electronic. We simply
wanted to get a totally new approach to our music with this album. We put a lot
effort into it. The vocals were also something we wanted to concentrate on more
this time.
What other
bands have an influence on Regina's sound? Any bands you can't get enough of?
This is
always really hard… We love electronic and guitar pop: many amazing solo
artists like Prince, Björk, Stina Nordenstam, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush;
bands like !!!, Final Fantasy and Hey Willpower; Finnish indie music such as
Cats On Fire and some Fonal's bands for example; 60s and 70s pop, etc. All the
music that we love and enjoy listening to probably has some kind of an
influence on our music; but for us it is quite hard to recognize.
Regina's
debut album (originally released in Finland in 2005) was released in Japan in
August 2006. Do you hope to continue reaching beyond Finland's borders with
your music? What's the next step for the band?
Our music
has some friends for example in Sweden and in Russia, probably in Japan and
some other countries too. And MySpace is spreading our music all over the world
and that's really nice. We would love to have some kind of audience in
different countries, so
that every now and then we could visit for example Stockholm or Berlin and play for the people that have
found us. But we have no serious plans about how to get big beyond Finland's
borders.
What are
your thoughts on Eurovision?
The whole
thing is pretty confusing. But fun at the same time! We enjoy watching the
weird performances. The music is the most confusing part of the show. Sometimes
you want to laugh, sometimes you feel like crying.
Regina’s new album, Oi miten suuria voimia!
was released on 21st March. More info
at http://www.myspace.com/reginaxxx