Suiciderock: You`ve just done some shows in Germany on your "Pain in the
right Place" tour. What was it like for you so far?
Reinaldo: It's
always fun to be on tour with the band. And there is more and more Skreppers
fans in Germany everytime we come over. Everything went always fine for us,
there's booze and good food at the backstage of every venue and good Hotels
(or least "interesting" places). Really really nice people everywhere, and
good looking girls. What more do you want. Can't wait for the next tour.
Suiciderock: A new guitarplayer joined your band, Pax. How did he find
his way into the band?
Reinaldo: We were looking for a new bandmember,
we were searching for the "person" or more like "brother" for the family
which is almost 20 years old. So what we needed was a good but personal
player. A crazy person. The one gotta be A REAL MAN, gotta be a good drinker
(means: you need to drink a lot but don't get too drunk to handle your stage
act.) He should be good looking, he should have a driving licens that allows to
drive a truck, money, he had to be in the army (Finnish) Army.).Furhtermore he
had to be open minded for new ideas in every level. And that's exactly what we
got in PAX AMERICA.
Suiciderock: How is he doing so far?
Reinaldo:
He's just what was missing in our band, if you can say it that way. First time
we'll feel as a whole BAND. He`s absolutely a great guy for The Skreppers. And
accidentaly he shows to be a good guitarplayer, too, which is always a plus.
Suiciderock: Let`s talk a bit about your new album. "Pain in the right
Place" has recently hit the stores. Can you tell us what the recordingprocess
was like?
Reinaldo: Quite normal as we have done lately. First we made lots
of demos from 50 to 100, not all songs were ready but we had the riffs, ideas
and A and B parts. Maybe some lyrics. And the names. Or we might have just a
name for a song. And then, we just check out a good name for it, and I the
lyrics for it in addition. We will always do one or two punk songs, one or two
slow ones, one or two psychobillystyle songs, few middle fast rock songs and
maybe two weird ones. And then we have the material for the new album. We`ve
found out that it's good compilation to listen, different kind of songs, just
the opposite what band is doing today. We usually record the songs as live as we
can to make it sound more "rough and real”.
Suiciderock: Your album
titles are always "very special". You had "Hedonist Hellcats" in 2002 and "Call
of the Trash" back in 2004. Now your new record bears the title "Pain in the
right Place" as already mentoined above. Who had the ideas for this titles and
who is responsible for the lyrics?
Reinaldo: I have done most of the lyrics,
but we all check them out or got the ideas for and Hiili always does the lyrics
for one or two songs as well or fix few of mine to fit in to his mouth. Those
"very special" -album or song titles are just normal to us. We make songs about
something different than other bands. I have always wondered why those other
band's make SOOOO boring titles??? Do they have a boring life? If we have two
years in between every album, so we have 700 days were usually something
happens, something "special" to make at least the 14 songs to for the newalbum,
so...am I right or am I right?
Suiciderock: Where do you get the
inspiration for songs like "I`ll be someone else tonight" or He`s my sister"
from?
Reinaldo: As I said, I noticed when my idea is little bit strange or
different that I have done usually, then I know I'm quite close to a new
Skreppers song. "Someone else" was the tune first and song title separate. I
liked a lot one old Finnish song about lost love where its said: "I loved her
much, sometimes I loved you more, but can you be her to me a while" or something
like that. That line fascinated me for the last 30 years. The main idea was to
be on the opposite of the singer and tell to him/her the "I love you so much,
that I can be someone else to you tonight". BUT what always happened, the
content change when I start working, somewhere come some new ideas and old ones
start to look a like crappy or boring. So I create the idea of the future (which
we also have one futuristic/space/science fiction - song on every album) were a
guy don't know is he the robot or human or maybe a hybrid of both. But he wants
to love someone and is ready to do anything to get love tonight. So it's not so
futuristic anymore, isn`t it?
“He's my sister” was Hiili`s idea. Perfect name to
cause confusion and a paradox mixing feeling, And like this songtitle could be a
teaser, like: "What the fuck is this?" "I wanna listen to this, what does it
mean?". That's what makes ME listen to the song. "Sister" is about loyality
and friendship. You can't trust anybody, but you have to trust somebody to be a
whole human, you know. Lyrics are quite surrealistic (cause Hiili has cut-out
every second line).
Suiciderock: The new single will be "Psychoschitzo".
When is it supposed to be released and why this song as first single?
Reinaldo: You know that there are "single" songs, and we thought that this
is the one from this album. Fast and strange melody and rythym. The lyrics were
first more about psychopaths, cause I just read the book about those "funny
guys". Robert D. Hare: Without concience. I can recommend that book, it`s the
most frightening book I've ever read and that's says a lot. But when I start
writing the lyrics, my schitzo mind came on the stage, so the Psycho-Schitzo
-song, came about. It`s the western society, which is Psychopathic (no one care
about but themselves) and you gonna be schitzofrenic 'cause you cant trust
anybody and you feel lonely. That was the main content of the album lyrics.
Actually our first single were really close to be a cover song of Falco's “Rock
me Amadeus”, but when we tryed to play it we noticed that it is so crappy that
it didn't work out. We thought that could be a good "joke" but luckily it didn't
work.
Suiciderock: There is also a song with a German title called "El
Bimbo ist ein Mann". where did this idea came from?
Reinaldo: This was
once again Hiilis idea, but what I know about this is: the Song was first named:
Arthur", about an old "friend" of Hiili who was called "El Bimbo" which means
"stupid" somehow, but it was also a old German Eurovision song contest song.
They made a finnish cover version out of it in the 60's which was a hit, that
all people of my age remember. And of course we like to lick German asses cause
they have been so friendly to us.
Suiciderock: "Don`t feed the Evil" is
actually a cover from a Finnish band, called Bendover. Is there a special story
why you covered this song or did you simply like it?
Reinaldo: Bendover's
guitarist Mehdam was our substitute guitarist during our second tour though
Germany ('cause Kalle was in hospital), and we liked the song (Bendover was in
same record company with us, UDAI RECORDS) and so we made it slower, and this
time it worked somehow. This is our first cover song we have put on the album.
On the gigs we have played fews: Cramps: I can't find my mind, Madonnas: Like a
Virgin and Eddie Cochran's; Something Else with different lyrics, called
Something Smells. This (Don't Feed the Evil) was a good "End" for the album.
Don't you know that good albums have the "end songs"...hey this Canadian whisky
is good, I recommend. Crown Royal 1.75 litre, 40%...whoo iii...next question.
Suiciderock: What do you think about bands who get famous because of a
coverversion?
Reinaldo: I don't give shit about other bands, unless they are
my friends. Anyway The Skreppers are about ENTERTAINING, we try to give
something special to the people, others usually gives something usual and easy
middle of the road stuff...ha? We are artists and we do what we want, other
bands have to do what they must do. It's more about honesty, if you do it honest
it's ok. Don't worry be happy, and who cares. If your life is just and only full
of rock or pop music, have a break and go on living your normal life. This is
not a competition or sports. This is just one and little part of
entertaining...so just laugh all the way to the Bank...and pay your bills.
Suiciderock: I read that the original idea for The Skreppers came
already in 1988. Who had the idea to form the band?
Reinaldo: I think it
was Hiili or Disney (our first drummer). They (I was not in the band at this
time) had a lot of different "serious" bands you know. And so they needed one
"therapic" –band (it's amazing how much we need therapy today, in the old days
people only needed one bottle of "Koskenkorva" -Finnish vodka. Did you ever
happen to taste it?, it has really got therapic effects) were they can play what
they REALLY want, so they created The Skreppers were everybody plays instruments
which they can`t handle. So that was the beginning. So here's a free tip for all
you rockers to make your life easier : Make your first therapic band and play
what you want, and everythig starts to work. Okay?
Suiciderock: Your
music is defined as "Trash Rock". How would you define it and what makes the
sound of The Skreppers?
Reinaldo: Hiili has chosen the artists for this
band, from his point of view. And I don't know if he knew the result that comes
out, but I can tell you it works. When you have fun and at the same time you
appreciate what you are doing and your bandmates show some professionalism, you
can do something different than all the others, and that's our point... or am I
too drunk?
Suiciderock: The beginning of the bands musical direction was
grounded on glam rock and rockabilly. Why did you change this style?
Reinaldo: We didn`t change anything... we just play what we can. Glam..are
we like Glitterband, Sweet or Slade??..NO. 'cause that's glam. Okay New York
Dolls were glam but punk before. And we were never a Rockabilly band, we maybe
were a little bit of Psychobilly or something like that. We always like to use
different styles and maybe mix them together. If someone say: Don't touch this,
we'll touch it.
Suiciderock: I read some critics for your elder albums
and also for the new one. What I found out is that people love or hate what
you do but nothing in between. There have been some really hard sentences.
How do you cope with this?
Reinaldo: I LOVE IT. It's gives you the feeling
that everything you do has a meaning. It's like life, it's gotta have bad smell
and then you know you are really alive. I feel common of those people who like
us, we think the same, we are like brothers, and that's much nowadays.
Suiciderock: On your page it says that the new album contains "13 killer
songs, about this cold, unhuman and psychopath society." Is it really
that bad?
Reinaldo: Yes it is. Look outside...or is it inside...if we are
outsiders??? The right of the artists is that they can say and they have to say
FUCK YOU to the powers that are around. That's what it was about punks and other
rebels, but most of the people have forgotten about that.
Suiciderock:
What would you change if you had the possibility?
Reinaldo: My pink
underpants.
Suiciderock: There is something else on your official site
which you can`t find on every band site in the net: you select a "pussy of the
week"... and your lyrics are handling the sextheme quite often, too. Would you
say it is fun or ment in a serious way?
Reinaldo: Yes, it is fun and it's
serious. Sex is the thing that rules the world. Some people try to say that it's
dirty. Is it, I don't think so. It's up to you what kind of sex you like. It's
like your brekfast eggs, how you wanna eat them. Today I like hard boiled ones,
tomorrow maybe scrambled. And who cares, it`s about my brekfast eggs, it's about
my sex, why you worry? If I don't hurt anybody, it's my bussines.
And anyway
we are all interested about it...aren`t we? It's the easiest way to do songs.
And most of the best songs in the world are about it. AND...it's somekind of
tabu theme STILL, so that's why we use it a lot. We also tell about it in our
songs about those who use sex wrongly, so there also could be some
missunderstandings too. And we have fun with this kind of songs...or do anybody
care about Skreppers who make songs about Finnish paper mills...hey that's a
good idea. Paper mills make toilet paper...give me more of this good whiskey...
Suiciderock: Lordi just won the European songcontest in Greece. What do
you think about this victory?
Reinaldo: As I said, it's more good for
the Europen metal scene than for the Finnish music scene. I have just heard the
names for next year`s competiton here in Finnland... we are back in zero point
section, that`s my opinion. But who cares about the European song contents
anyway, our fans don`t and I think. Let's say it this way: Lordi is a different
artist in competition with average artists, it`s the same with us, we feel
common.
Suiciderock: Your opinion about the music industry in general
and what is the main difference between the German and the Finnish music
szene?
Reinaldo: I'm sorry but I don't know that much about the German music
scene. But what I know is the size. You are worlds third biggest music
commercial area. In Finland ....whoo III ... give me one beer now, I'm thirsty.
Suiciderock: About your style on stage... Who had the idea for
Hiilis dress? Do you have a designer for this stuff?
Reinaldo: We are a punk
band and we are DIY. So we made them by ourselves...okay we have stolen
something from there and something from there and put something individual
spices there so...it's not such a “THINKIN' thing”. Accidentally we have now a
designer for us who is a big fan of The Skreppers and a famous designer who
wants to work with us. So let's see what happens. And that's the point
here...you make good and funny music and good people come to you, you don't have
to call them.
Suiciderock: You always wear this highheels on stage.
Where did you learn to walk in them or is it still quite painfull?
Hiili: It's still quite painfull as you said, but you have to learn to love
the pain. I use them in my home now and then, especially before the tours, that
my legs learn to love the pain. But it's the high heels that make Dr. Skrepper
out of me, Special K. my alter ego. I think it would be good for everybody to be
the killer in the nightime now and then.
Suiciderock: You work as a
producer back home in Finland. What`s better, producing or performing?
Hiili: Both are good of course. With one I get money to pay the bills, with
the other thing I can be myself.
Suiciderock: Is there something you all
do besides being a member of The Skreppers?
Reinaldo: Yes, we sell our asses
in Amsterdam. And sometimes in Forssa too.
Suiciderock: Where did you
get your artist names from?
Reinaldo: We put different letters one after
another.
Suiciderock: Your future plans for the band? You`ll do some
festivals in summer and after them?
Reinaldo: Whoooo IIIIII...I like to
be drunk. We will do a compilation album in spring and have gigs then in Finland
and hope in Germany too...see ya there.
Suiciderock: Some last words for
your fans and Suiciderock readers out there?
Reinaldo: Come inside, it's
cold out there.
