"Rock Metal with Piano"

Suiciderock: Could you tell us a bit more about your band? When was it formed? Who came up with the idea? And where did you get to know each other?
Chris: Actually I`m the latest member. I joined the band in November 2005, but the rest of the band have been together since 3 years or something like that. They didn`t play any gigs before I came. After that we started to perform live.

Suiciderock: How comes that they didn`t play any gigs before?
Chris: Well, obviously they needed someone who kicks them in their asses. I arrange the gigs right now. They needed somebody to do that for them.

Suiciderock: So it was just a hobby for them? Or was it their intention to get something serious out of this band?
Chris: At least it was for me serious. Before I joined Renoise I played in another band. Actually Renoise had a gig before. They played here at Klubi and I arranged it for them. Than it suddenly happened that they asked me to play for Renoise.

Suiciderock: Why did you choose to change to Renoise?
Chris: The guys in Rock Royal are close friends of mine, but they are a little bit older than me and the music was like Led Zeppelin, but I wanted to play something harder than this. I was hanging out with the guys from Renoise the whole summer last year and they asked me if I want to join their band. That´s basically how it happened.

Suiciderock: Do you regret your decision?
Chris: No, not at all.

Suiciderock: Can you tell us something about the bandmembers? Describe each of them in one word.
Chris: Mikko our singer is calm and quiet. Eerik our drummer, he probably is the sense of reason in our band. He is calm as well, but he is also very strict. If he says we have to be somewhere at 4 o'clock we surely will be there at  4 o'clock. Pekka he is just happy. I have never seen him angry. He is always smiling. Tero, what can I say about him? I don't know. He is kind of goofy like. Saku our keyboard player he is quite reasonable. He wants to know everything in advance like where we gonna be, what we gonna do, what kind of instrument we are going to use. It's difficult to describe Saku in one word. He is accurate.
  
Suiciderock: Does your bandname have a special meaning for you and what is the story behind your band name?
Chris: Mikko invented the name. They tried other names like Toxicational. Than we changed it to Vintage, but it sounded stupid to us. So we made it into Renoise. Actually there is no story behind the name. Mikko just thought it's a cool bandname.

Suiciderock: How would you describe your own style?
Chris: Mainly as rock metal with a piano.

Suiciderock: Every band has his own music heroes. Who are your heroes and which band/singer do you want to make a song with?
Chris: Well, that's probably one of the best things in our band that everybody has their own heroes. I, for example, like black metal. Mikko likes it quite rough, Pekka likes Finnish pop rock, Eerik likes power metal, Saku likes progressive music. It's good to have so many different tastes, because if we combine it together it's a good mixture. We take pieces from there and there and than we turn it in good songs.

Suiciderock: Please be that kind and tell us how you made the decision to become a musician?
Chris: For me personally it was Kiss. Gene Simmons and the whole stage show impressed me.

Suiciderock: Do you still recall your first musical memory?
Chris: Yes, I was 4 years old. It was a Finnish lullaby. The songs tells about a small bear who was sick. I felt so sad, because of the song that I started to cry. And of course, my mum sang all of this kid songs for me when I was really really young, but I don`t remember it that much anymore.

Suiciderock: Who is responsible for the songwriting and where do you take your inspiration from?
Chris: Usually, Mikko is, but I`ve been helping him a lot. If somebody has a good idea, we try to discuss about what should we do with it, but basically it`s Mikko's job to write the songs.

Suiciderock: What can people expect from your live shows?
Chris: Energetic rock. Come and see by yourself!

Suiciderock: While talking about live shows. What was your best and your worst show so far?
Chris: Probably when we played a gig at Tero's sisters birthday party. People were so drunk that we had to stop the concert. We tried to finnish the show, but Tero was so drunk that he wasn`t able to play by his own. One of the best gigs we had was when one of my friend, who was in the army had a big party. He asked us to play over there. We were playing at a cottage in the middle of nowhere with about 100 guys. They all took their shirts off and they were rocking as hell. After that they started to beat each other, so we decided to leave as quick as possible. But the show was so good and the people liked it so much.

Suiciderock: If you had the chance to organise your own festival, which bands would rock the stage?
Chris: A huge amound of bands. First of all, all of our friends like White Flame, Heijaste, Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue, if they would still be existing, some of the bands from the 80's. I definately would invite WASP, Mötley Crue, Twisted Sister. We would have a great variaty of bands playing. From pop to hard metal. We probably would be playing over there, but we would not headline the festival.

Suiciderock: Your future plans for the band and yourselves?
Chris: I don`t know. We just keep it going. We will record a new cd. We are trying to get a record deal. We are gonna tour abroad, obviously to Germany. Well, we`ve had some discussions about that and it seems quite sure that we will play in Germany in April next year, but anything could happen. But if something goes wrong with that, I will organise something by myself. Maybe we will play in England, Sweden, gigs, gigs, gigs. That's what a band needs.