At XXXapada na Tromba 2016, we had the opportunity to interview G, vocals from Rotten Sound, one of the headliners of the festival before the show. Here’s what he had to say to your The Black Planet zine.
TBP: First of all guys, thank you for this time with us and welcome to Portugal. Back when you started in 93, didn’t you thought you would get this far?
No, it was a project band. We never really thought about anything when we started. During 7,8 years we never thought what to do with the band. When we started touring, we realized that there was a demanding for the band, so we started to promote it.
TBP: Back in 2000 some band members decided to drop their names and be called by one letter nicknames. Why was that?
It would be easier for us because Finnish names are difficult to say. It was just an idea to go more into the mystery.
TBP: The band earned a reputation for being one of the most intense bands on the Scandinavian grindcore scene. What are your thoughts about that?
That’s good to hear that people think that we are intense. We spend a lot of time practicing and touring to get where to play, and it becomes more natural to put more energy on stage, because I remember that the sound was a bit sloppy in the 90’s, but after the first tour we started to have a vibe and a more relentless sound, also started to play faster. It’s good to know that people found us intense.
TBP: How do you see the grind scene nowadays? Do you follow any bands in particular?
I know that new bands are coming all the time, new music coming from every country. I just listen to new music coming up, it’s a constant process of getting new music. I don’t really follow anything that much. I don’t have any kind of boxes for grind, death metal, crust, hardcore… it’s whatever I like.
TBP: Did you knew any of the bands that played in the festival before?
Not really. Gronibard are friends from past gigs, and Dead Infection. That’s about it. There’s so many bands and it’s impossible to follow everybody.
TBP: What is your opinion about the growing popularity that Finnish bands are getting outside Finland? Did this band felt it also?
No, not for grind or Rotten Sound. People don’t recognize us has a Finnish band, actually people think that we are Swedish because of the guitar sound. We made 3 albums in Sweden, because we like more Swedish production than Finnish. Finnish production is more kind of “clear” and more close to American production. Swedish production is more close to UK production and we are more into that, because of our influences.
TBP: You’re going to release a new album this year. What can we expect from it?
It’s a really strong one, also in terms of mixing and mastering too. The first impression after the release of the first song “Lazy Asses” 2 days ago was really good, but it’s impossible to do an album that pleases everybody. I feel it’s a really good album again, but it’s hard to say it for now because it’s so fresh to us, but I think people won’t be disappointed.
TBP: Can you reveal some details about it?
We went more into the groovy side and it was more laid back, but it’s still more “in your face”.
TBP: You said that you like a lot of Swedish production. Did you record the album in Sweden?
Not this time. We stole their ideas and it was recorded in Finland, mostly by ourselves. We got some help recording the drums, and then the rest of the process was done at Sound Supreme Studios.
TBP: How did the writing and recording process went?
The writing process was going for 2 years already, although some songs exist from 2011 or so… But the band kept writing and writing until we got more songs and we felt that we need to record everything. After recording some 35 songs, we picked the ones that fit really well on the album, and we felt how strong those songs are all together. There’s a lot of songs that didn’t went to the album that we like, but they’re not just ready. We probably will finish them next year or by the end of this year. The writing was done by the guys who did the guitars, and I did the lyrics after they showed the songs to me. The recording process took a long time. We started recording the drums in January, a couple of months later we recorded all the guitars, then the whole drums part, and vocals. Then we had 2 more months for mixing. We decided this time that we didn’t want to push the time at all, we waited to talk to the label about the release. It was a good move because last time we had to postpone the release and missed US tour with the release. It was a bummer… Now we managed do everything on time.
TBP: It’s always hard for a band like you guys to miss a tour in a country like USA.
Well… we did a tour afterwards back in 2013, so it wasn’t a big problem. But it was a bummer at the time we really wanted to do it. We don’t feel now that we need to release every year in a hurry. People can wait so we could make sure that the quality is there, the highest that we can do, and make sure that we made our best in the end.
TBP: There’s a lot of expectation for your show, since you’re one of the headliners of XXXapada. What can we expect from it?
The setlist is one of my favorites in a long time. We change some songs comparing to other setlists that we did in the last 2 years, and we’re going to do 3 new songs today.
TBP: Would you like to leave a message for our readers?
We hope that you like the new album and we hope that we could tour in the southern European countries next year, because this year is getting already booked for everything else. We always have liked Portugal and Portugal had greeted us as well.
Interview by: Daniel Lemminkainen
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