Suiciderock:
Can you tell us something about the band and it`s members?
Tommi: United
Underworld has existed since the summer of 1999. Since then we've gone
through a lot of changes. The most popular member is our vocalist Ville,
because he is well known from another band, called SubUrban Tribe and he
also sang in Kyyria which was a very famous band from Finland. I`m Tommi, I
play the guitar, Matti plays the drums, our bass player is named Ilu, we
really made it through a lot of line-up changes in the past and since that we've been doing gigs around Finland.
Matti: Yeah and we`ve been touring
in Norway last spring.
Tommi: That`s true we did a little tour in Southern
Norway last spring.
Suiciderock: Can you describe what`s typical for the
sound of United Underworld?
Tommi: You can find a lot of metal
influences as well as a lot of rock `n roll influences in our style. We
don`t refuse any kind of style. We are very open for everything that has to
do with music. It is a great variety of styles. It`s energetic rock.
Suiciderock: Who takes the responsibility for the lyrics?
Tommi:
It`s been a shared process. The songs come out in different ways. I've
written most of the music and our vocalist has done some of the lyrics and
has a lot to say about the final arrangements. Some time ago we had two
singers, Ville and Maiha Maapallo. He wrote a song or two as well. But you
could say that the vocalist and me are sharing this work now.
Suiciderock: What inspires you for the songwriting?
Tommi: Music in
general. Everything we hear and of course everyday life. We just need to
meet up for a jam session and then the flow of inspiration comes.
Relationships are also a great inspiration, all this normal stuff that
happens to you in life. I just write down whatever comes to my mind.
Suiciderock: What can people expect from your shows?
Matti: Lots of
energy, a blast.
Tommi: Hopefully we can take the audience away into another
world at least for one hour.
Matti: The last show was sold-out so…
Suiciderock: So it must have been good…
Matti: Yeah *smiles*
Suiciderock: Where did you play?
Matti: At Semifinal here in Helsinki,
it`s like Tavastia's little sister. You know it?
Tommi: We did some gigs
with Defuse. About the shows… we never do the same show twice. We always try
to make every show a little bit different. We are not into playing cover
songs, we play our own stuff. There's a lot of spontaneous energy.
Suiciderock: Who made up your band name?
Tommi: The bandname came
about at the time when we had finished our first demo. The singer and I
travelled to South East Asia and Thailand for three months and when we came
back everything was fixed. We played with a lot of different names in the
beginning. I guess I have to give the credit to our former guitar player
Hyge. He actually invented the name together with the
other former guitar
player Sami, who nowadays plays in a band called Blake. The idea comes from
the comics out of the 60`s, from Batman actually.
Suiciderock: The new
year is just a few days old. Did you happen to make any stupid new year`s
resolutions for 2007?
Tommi: Oh I better think about this before I say
something now.
Matti: Oh actually we did…
Tommi: Yes, we have to focus
on our mission. Now we just try to gather more energy. There are lots of
things waiting to be done.
Suiciderock: So these are your future plans?
Tommi: Absolutely. We finished the recordings of twelve songs last summer
and we still have to find a label for it. It`s just a matter of arranging
things. I just celebrated my birthday yesterday. I won`t tell you how old
I`m now…
Suiciderock: Happy birthday.
Tommi: Oh thank you. Let`s say
I just turned 17.
Suiciderock: Ok that`s it. Thank you very much.
Tommi and Matti: Thank you.
