UNIKLUBI - KEHÄ Promotional Videos
Let's take a few steps back into the past. Before Kehä was released in 2005, Teemu and Jussi commented on all the songs and told a little about the studio sessions and stuff. This used to be available on two videos, but those were lost somehow. - Which I hate, because this is how I got to know the band first.Anyways, Nightingale posted the translation to the videos back in 2005 in the official forum and I decided to do some timetravelling as a special from now on and over the next week [since I haven't done much myself lately] :)
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"Poikien mietteitä uudesta albumista"
Teemu and Jussi's comments on Kehä
J(USSI): Hey, we'll tell you... now... something about the songs off our new album
T(EEMU): Our feelings
J: Yep
T: Welcome [with a funny voice]
T: About the first song, which is 'Kiertää kehää'. I wrote the main riff playing acoustic guitar quite a long time ago while watching an 'Uuno' movie on TV at home ['Uuno' is a legendary Finnish comedy character] - and then I made the verses, which you'll hear. But the chorus didn't come (to me) then at all. I had many alternatives for the chorus... and finally we recorded the song in the studio and our producer, Jari Latomaa, familiar from TV and magazines, sent us the mp3-version. It was otherwise ready but the chorus parts had no vocals recorded, and because I hadn't been working on that song for a while I then wrote the chorus, which is now in the recorded version, in five minutes.
J: Yes. A good song. The final version of the chorus which we used really perfected this song.
T: And Jussi has sung it very nicely. The song is now very much like I thought it would be, when I (first) got the idea of the song.
J: The second song 'Haudattu', well... again one of these...well... again one of these that... we went to studio 'to do something', we didn't know what exactly. And I then demoed one chorus with a ballad-feeling so...
T: Yes, this was to be a sort of acoustic song.
J: Yes
T: A campfire song
J: The album was lacking this kind of campfire song and we decided to try this and the guitar heroes were there too and... thanks to them the song became heavier than that...so that it's no longer...that the song didn't become a campfire song and...
T: Quite the opposite
J: Yes. And in principle the whole song follows Janne's guitar theme
T: Yes, there the base is made by Janne and this, let's say main melody riff is written by Pasi so this is like...guitar rock. It's obvious that the so-called guitarists have been given a try.
J: A good song
J: The third song, 'Huomenna. It is...
T: The next single.
J: The song was written when I was really pissed off and everything failed... it's a song about that, I can't really comment more on that. We succeeded with the song, also in studio it worked very well.
T: Very huge and theatrical. Wide sounds and triple metre, which is like... they don't do too many songs like that nowadays.
T: Jussi also wrote a song called 'Uneen', which has heavy-styled riffs in the beginning. The riff is written by so-called guitarist Janne but the verses... About the verses, I want to say that firstly there was a demo version that was different from the album version and when I went to studio to listen to this song's next to final version, I was very positively surprised because Mr. Vocalist had changed the verses by himself and the current version is so much better.
J: Yeah. It was also like...that didn't work at all, it was, let's say, shitty.
T: And then the chords of the verses were different, but then at our rehearsal room I got a vision that it should be mere 'A'-chord because that's the only one that I can play. So it became like that. 'A' chords for a long time.
T: Song number five 'Lasinsirpaleilla' was composed in Tornio, at a hotel, I think Valtionhotelli. Our drum artist and I were in a very emotional mood, for example we started crying at the lobby when we heard the Christmas carol "A sparrow on Christmas morning" on the radio [The song is about a girl who feeds a sparrow, and then it turns out that the sparrow is in fact her dead baby brother] We were drinking coffee in the lobby and... the tears came. We'd been touring a lot, and feeling that we should tighten the belts around our heads to prevent them from exploding. About the song... the chorus part had been written earlier, but at that time Antti and I listened a lot to Alice in Chains, so that song is sort of my personal tribute to their song "Down in a hole". Very sad. Well, there's no laughing in any of these songs.
J: No, they are very...
T: But the riff is splendid... the theme changed in fact only at the studio. In principle Jussi invented such a little thing, which you'll hear, in the chorus there's a synthesizer sound, very nice, like an echo-sounding instrument. Like three sounds to that point of the chorus and then we realized the whole theme, which has been played with baritone guitar and then there are the strings on the background. This is too...some of the "Huomenna" feelings, half tempo. *cell phone rings* A bit slower than half tempo. I call you sometime...bye. And...
(Part 2)
T: [commercial voice] Uniklubi: in stores now. Did you already buy yours? 'Kehä' - the novelty you've been waiting for!
J: Song number six, 'Kaikki mitä mie annoin siulle' [he's using dialect to make the title sound funnier] It took a while before it found its current form.
T: Yep
J: That's one of the first songs that we started rehearsing for the new album, and in principle the only original thing is the chorus. The verses existed too, but they...
T: They changed too but then they were changed back
J: ...but here again, thanks to the guitar heroes. Again we needed some riffs and that's what we got
T: And they created them quickly
T: The seventh song 'Ei kukaan' - we've been playing this song live a lot, most probably those, who've been attending the gigs may have heard that. This a party song, in the party song spirit and... it's great to play live, it has a really old chorus part. I think it was around the year 2000 when I was listening to Apulanta's 'Heinola 10' album at 4 a.m., and was so damn inspired about it that I ended up writing this kind of stuff.
J: Song number eight, 'Tuhka'. Because 'Haudattu', which is song number two on the album didn't come out as a campfire song but as a heavyrock version, our album was still lacking a ballad that's dressed down, without distorted guitars.
T: It's the final song that we recorded for the album
J: It came almost accidentally
T: A beautiful refrain part, and in the spirit of schlagers
T: Number nine, 'Palvelija' [Jussi’s phone rings] Well, well... Jussi's... Jussi's heavysong
J: Number nine, 'Palvelija', it's like that...
T: Yes, the heavyspiritness of Jussi.
J: I call you later, bye.
T: Yes, one of Jussi's heavysongs. To me personally this song was just okay when we were rehearsing this, and then after hearing the finished version... the album version, and afterwards when I'm playing this song myself - I hear the album version in my ears. Briefly, this sounds very good. I've played this track to my friends and they like this (song) a lot, too.
T: The tenth track, called 'Menneisyys', the working title of which was "Teemu on paskaperse" [literal translation: "Teemu is a Shitass"]. In studio we had finished basically everything for that song. Then I came there, slightly drunk and told them that we'll start everything from scratch. The guitar artist J. Selo came to me with this great rock'n'roll riff, and I was immediately fully informed that his riff is better than the one I originally wrote, which was sort of straightforward, rhythmic stuff.
T: The last song - between these two songs you can hear Kekkosentie [a street] of Tampere, you'll hear then what I mean here - 'Kaksi kuvaa' is also a pretty old song, one of the first that we wrote and rehearsed for the new album. Around that time I listened a lot to Herr Doktor i.e. Marilyn Manson and being inspired by him, this song became quite dark melodically. Firstly the chorus was pretty much the same as it's now but now it has falsetto b-vocals, which it didn't have at first and it sounded somewhat empty. Then at rehearsals our producer, Juhla-Jari [literal translation: Party-Jari], who is known from TV, radio and everywhere was listening to that song and agreed that something's lacking and then, two minutes later I came up with the idea of falsetto vocals and it was a lot better right away. I'm the one who's singing the falsetto parts on gigs so it's worthwhile to come and hear if you want to laugh directly at my face. And in the end of the song there's again the sound of Kekkosentie.
J: As an entity the album is amazingly great.
T: We're feeling really good about it and our friends, to whom we've been playing the album in advance have liked it a lot and we hope that you'll like this creation as well.
T: Compared to the debut album this is... Like we've already said, the debut album is like a compilation put together of all the songs that we've ever written. Here the songs have been written within a shorter period of time, this package is more dynamic than the first and then it's obvious that the 100+ gigs that we made after the first album have improved our playing together as a band. Maybe. Jussi's voice has developed, he's gotten some whiskey roughness, he's been drinking that much whiskey.
J: It is...
Translated by: Nightingale | Uniklubi Ofiicial Forum
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"Poikien mietteitä uudesta albumista"
Teemu and Jussi's comments on Kehä
J(USSI): Hey, we'll tell you... now... something about the songs off our new album
T(EEMU): Our feelings
J: Yep
T: Welcome [with a funny voice]
T: About the first song, which is 'Kiertää kehää'. I wrote the main riff playing acoustic guitar quite a long time ago while watching an 'Uuno' movie on TV at home ['Uuno' is a legendary Finnish comedy character] - and then I made the verses, which you'll hear. But the chorus didn't come (to me) then at all. I had many alternatives for the chorus... and finally we recorded the song in the studio and our producer, Jari Latomaa, familiar from TV and magazines, sent us the mp3-version. It was otherwise ready but the chorus parts had no vocals recorded, and because I hadn't been working on that song for a while I then wrote the chorus, which is now in the recorded version, in five minutes.
J: Yes. A good song. The final version of the chorus which we used really perfected this song.
T: And Jussi has sung it very nicely. The song is now very much like I thought it would be, when I (first) got the idea of the song.
J: The second song 'Haudattu', well... again one of these...well... again one of these that... we went to studio 'to do something', we didn't know what exactly. And I then demoed one chorus with a ballad-feeling so...
T: Yes, this was to be a sort of acoustic song.
J: Yes
T: A campfire song
J: The album was lacking this kind of campfire song and we decided to try this and the guitar heroes were there too and... thanks to them the song became heavier than that...so that it's no longer...that the song didn't become a campfire song and...
T: Quite the opposite
J: Yes. And in principle the whole song follows Janne's guitar theme
T: Yes, there the base is made by Janne and this, let's say main melody riff is written by Pasi so this is like...guitar rock. It's obvious that the so-called guitarists have been given a try.
J: A good song
J: The third song, 'Huomenna. It is...
T: The next single.
J: The song was written when I was really pissed off and everything failed... it's a song about that, I can't really comment more on that. We succeeded with the song, also in studio it worked very well.
T: Very huge and theatrical. Wide sounds and triple metre, which is like... they don't do too many songs like that nowadays.
T: Jussi also wrote a song called 'Uneen', which has heavy-styled riffs in the beginning. The riff is written by so-called guitarist Janne but the verses... About the verses, I want to say that firstly there was a demo version that was different from the album version and when I went to studio to listen to this song's next to final version, I was very positively surprised because Mr. Vocalist had changed the verses by himself and the current version is so much better.
J: Yeah. It was also like...that didn't work at all, it was, let's say, shitty.
T: And then the chords of the verses were different, but then at our rehearsal room I got a vision that it should be mere 'A'-chord because that's the only one that I can play. So it became like that. 'A' chords for a long time.
T: Song number five 'Lasinsirpaleilla' was composed in Tornio, at a hotel, I think Valtionhotelli. Our drum artist and I were in a very emotional mood, for example we started crying at the lobby when we heard the Christmas carol "A sparrow on Christmas morning" on the radio [The song is about a girl who feeds a sparrow, and then it turns out that the sparrow is in fact her dead baby brother] We were drinking coffee in the lobby and... the tears came. We'd been touring a lot, and feeling that we should tighten the belts around our heads to prevent them from exploding. About the song... the chorus part had been written earlier, but at that time Antti and I listened a lot to Alice in Chains, so that song is sort of my personal tribute to their song "Down in a hole". Very sad. Well, there's no laughing in any of these songs.
J: No, they are very...
T: But the riff is splendid... the theme changed in fact only at the studio. In principle Jussi invented such a little thing, which you'll hear, in the chorus there's a synthesizer sound, very nice, like an echo-sounding instrument. Like three sounds to that point of the chorus and then we realized the whole theme, which has been played with baritone guitar and then there are the strings on the background. This is too...some of the "Huomenna" feelings, half tempo. *cell phone rings* A bit slower than half tempo. I call you sometime...bye. And...
(Part 2)
T: [commercial voice] Uniklubi: in stores now. Did you already buy yours? 'Kehä' - the novelty you've been waiting for!
J: Song number six, 'Kaikki mitä mie annoin siulle' [he's using dialect to make the title sound funnier] It took a while before it found its current form.
T: Yep
J: That's one of the first songs that we started rehearsing for the new album, and in principle the only original thing is the chorus. The verses existed too, but they...
T: They changed too but then they were changed back
J: ...but here again, thanks to the guitar heroes. Again we needed some riffs and that's what we got
T: And they created them quickly
T: The seventh song 'Ei kukaan' - we've been playing this song live a lot, most probably those, who've been attending the gigs may have heard that. This a party song, in the party song spirit and... it's great to play live, it has a really old chorus part. I think it was around the year 2000 when I was listening to Apulanta's 'Heinola 10' album at 4 a.m., and was so damn inspired about it that I ended up writing this kind of stuff.
J: Song number eight, 'Tuhka'. Because 'Haudattu', which is song number two on the album didn't come out as a campfire song but as a heavyrock version, our album was still lacking a ballad that's dressed down, without distorted guitars.
T: It's the final song that we recorded for the album
J: It came almost accidentally
T: A beautiful refrain part, and in the spirit of schlagers
T: Number nine, 'Palvelija' [Jussi’s phone rings] Well, well... Jussi's... Jussi's heavysong
J: Number nine, 'Palvelija', it's like that...
T: Yes, the heavyspiritness of Jussi.
J: I call you later, bye.
T: Yes, one of Jussi's heavysongs. To me personally this song was just okay when we were rehearsing this, and then after hearing the finished version... the album version, and afterwards when I'm playing this song myself - I hear the album version in my ears. Briefly, this sounds very good. I've played this track to my friends and they like this (song) a lot, too.
T: The tenth track, called 'Menneisyys', the working title of which was "Teemu on paskaperse" [literal translation: "Teemu is a Shitass"]. In studio we had finished basically everything for that song. Then I came there, slightly drunk and told them that we'll start everything from scratch. The guitar artist J. Selo came to me with this great rock'n'roll riff, and I was immediately fully informed that his riff is better than the one I originally wrote, which was sort of straightforward, rhythmic stuff.
T: The last song - between these two songs you can hear Kekkosentie [a street] of Tampere, you'll hear then what I mean here - 'Kaksi kuvaa' is also a pretty old song, one of the first that we wrote and rehearsed for the new album. Around that time I listened a lot to Herr Doktor i.e. Marilyn Manson and being inspired by him, this song became quite dark melodically. Firstly the chorus was pretty much the same as it's now but now it has falsetto b-vocals, which it didn't have at first and it sounded somewhat empty. Then at rehearsals our producer, Juhla-Jari [literal translation: Party-Jari], who is known from TV, radio and everywhere was listening to that song and agreed that something's lacking and then, two minutes later I came up with the idea of falsetto vocals and it was a lot better right away. I'm the one who's singing the falsetto parts on gigs so it's worthwhile to come and hear if you want to laugh directly at my face. And in the end of the song there's again the sound of Kekkosentie.
J: As an entity the album is amazingly great.
T: We're feeling really good about it and our friends, to whom we've been playing the album in advance have liked it a lot and we hope that you'll like this creation as well.
T: Compared to the debut album this is... Like we've already said, the debut album is like a compilation put together of all the songs that we've ever written. Here the songs have been written within a shorter period of time, this package is more dynamic than the first and then it's obvious that the 100+ gigs that we made after the first album have improved our playing together as a band. Maybe. Jussi's voice has developed, he's gotten some whiskey roughness, he's been drinking that much whiskey.
J: It is...
Translated by: Nightingale | Uniklubi Ofiicial Forum