Beat a Go Go

Perttu Kivilaakso with Apocalyptica at the Webster Theater, Hartford Connecticut - photos by Heather-Rose Ryan

More photos from the concert.

It was late at night - or better, early in the morning.  Heather-Rose, her friend June and I were coming from the concert of a band called Origin in the metal club Rebel in NYC.  We were already in front of the doors of a blues club -next  door to the Bitter End where Bob Dylan spent many nights 'til the morning light...

Anyhow, Heather-Rose was wearing Apocalyptica's t-shirt, which she bought at her first Apocalyptica concert in the Worcester (Massachusetts) Palladium a few days before.  A tall guy with long blond hair stopped us and gave us a fanzine about ecology stuff, "how to save the Earth", and the CD he made with his friends. And then he started: "Well, you are wearing Apocalyptica's t-shirt -my girlfriend, she loves Apocalyptica. I haven't listened to their last CD yet, but they are a great band."  A brief enthusiastic and passionate discussion burst up about the four cello maestros and their hypnotic drummer from Finlandia.

Of course, Heather-Rose and me, we saved something extra for ourselves and didn't tell the guy that we had just interviewed Perttu Kivilaakso of the band, the third interview he has given to beat-a-go-go.com.... (the others are here and here)

Rob Wright in front of NoMeansNo and The Invasives, with crew in the Balkans - photo by Irena Povse

The Canadian progressive punk rock band Invasives were in the middle of their sound check when I entered the concert hall.  It was late autumn 2007 in Ljubljana.

Andrej Ruda, the guitarist of Slovenian jazz/rock fusion band Zmajev rep- which always reminds me of Weather Report - was coming in as well.

Both bands were going to support legendary alternative punk rock/punk jazz band NoMeansNo in their concert in Ljubljana.  It was simply a genius idea to choose those two extremely different bands as a support for such an open-minded and "no borders" band as NoMeansNo: Rob Wright on bass, vocals, guitar, John Wright on drums, vocals, keyboards and Tom Holliston on guitar and vocals.

NoMeansNo's philosophy and art are alive through their music for last 25 years through their live performances and rich collection of Lps ...it started with Mama in ancient 1982 (reissued in 2004 with extra tracks)... to today's promotion tour of All Roads Lead To Ausfahrt.

Perttu and Taisija in Ljubljana (photo by Jan)

This time I met Perttu Kivilaakso at The Devil's Courtyard, one of the smaller atriums in the festival complex of Križanke, a beautiful summer theater in Ljubljana.  Paavo Lötjönen was giving the interview to one Slovenian radio station on the other side of this interesting place ... Perttu checked my recorder to see if everything is OK, and laughing to me in an ally way remembering what happened in Graz nearly a year ago.  In Graz after a sound check of Apocalyptica (which was in the middle of our interview) my recorder didn't work any more. I couldn't figure out what was wrong -  it was like it was cursed! .....I have to admit that I was »walking a half meter over the floor« leaving the hall where the sound check of Apocalyptica was.  Of course, being alone in the concert hall, with maybe the most unique metal band on the Earth, and to see them playing was like finding myself in a magical dream, with the charismatic Eicca the conductor of the ceremony...Well, I think every lover of great music can understand these feelings.  I was at many soundchecks in my life but this one was very special.  I feel it was a beautiful gift for me.  And of course, it was hard to wake up from this dream ... So, Perttu, as a real gentleman (maybe even a knight),  was taking care of my recorder and somehow bewitched it to start working again. After that, he responded to the rest of my questions and literally recorded it as well.  I am still very grateful to him.

Perttu Kivilaakso

(photo: Taisija P. Štupar)

Apocalyptica has created miraculous, beautiful cello music. It goes from minimalistic repetitions to thundering darkness, heavy metal riffs and drive, to almost classical string parts and rock ballads. Wherever we try to place their music -- in "cello rock" or somewhere in the space where metal and the classical world meet -- they are in a space by themselves.

(photo: jon r. luini - thanks to www.foreverjoe.com)

What do you think is the answer to your question "Is There Love in Space"?  What about love on earth?

Still looking, still searching...

You are a "guitar god", but from what people say, you don't act like one - you seem very balanced and modest.  What helps you to maintain this attitude?

Family is the most important thing in my life - it keeps me in line.

Aleš Rendla

How did you and Nino start playing music?

When we were very young. I started to play violin when I was six, I think. I’m not sure about Nino, but I think he didn’t go to any music school when he was young. We were friends then and lived in the same house. When I moved out of the house with my family, I was still coming back to the place because my grandmother lived there. So Nino and I would play children’s games. Nino had a boat, and somebody destroyed his boat, and then gave him drums to replace it. So that’s how I got to play my first drums. Nino made his own bass guitar, completely of wood. And then we started playing. We practiced in Nino’s basement, under the café.

Bogo Pečnikar, playing with the Madleys at the Cerkno Jazz Festival

Tell me how you met Bratko for the first time.

How I met Bratko for the first time ... it was a long time ago, of course. Almost thirty years, I would say.

Marko Annala (photo: Mikko Hinkkanen)

Mokoma was relatively unknown to the majority of the record-buying audience when they were recording with the multinational EMI, even though the band itself was formed in 1996. Not until they left/were kicked out from EMI and after they had put together their own label, Sakara Records - and after they had recorded the first-ever thrash-metal record sung in Finnish, Kurimus - did the majority of record-buying people, me included, start to notice Mokoma. To me Mokoma was an oddity and their music did not open up to me at all. Maybe it was because of the artsy-fartsy songs they used to perform. Anyhoo, I was wrong, that image I had was based on one record I had heard and a bunch of gigs I had seen Mokoma perform as a warmup to other bands. Everything changed one night at the Tavastia club, right after Kurimus had been released, when I saw Mokoma on stage, opening for Kotiteollisuus. I listened to them with every hair on my body standing up. I was literally awestruck.

Bruno Subiotto on the cover of Manitu

What is your inspiration when you are writing texts for songs?

Life is of equal value for human beings like for other living creatures, animals and plants. No one has the right to take anybody's life. It's one of the, let's say, "cosmic rules" and breaking it means misfortune and misery. The scale of suffering is equal to the negligence of this rule. Don't we have the commandment: do not kill? This commandment is meant for people, not animals ­- they have other rules to follow. Sorrowfully, people proved not to match such a "high" standard.

Cheshire Agusta at the Nyabinghi in Youngstown, Ohio, May 2003
photo by Dan Beland of stonerrock.com

What you need to know about Cheshire Agusta is right there in her tattoos. Along the inside of one of her forearms is inscribed in script: "I Am Fine". The other arm reads: "I Am Time". Flying across one of her biceps is an action portrait of the cartoon character Wonder Woman, complete with bright red boots.

William Faith and Monica Richards

Music is mythic. Its powers are magical, its effect transformative. Often derided as "product" (or worse) in today's market, music has the capacity to awaken wonder, nostalgia, even sanctity. And while airwaves and magazines might be profaned by gross commerce, a handful of artists are working even now to restore the sacred power of music.

Enter Faith and the Muse.

Brought together a decade ago, Monica Richards and William Faith epitomize the restless spirit of transformation. Both products of the post-punk underground, they connected on an almost mystical level. Within a few months, their debut album Elyria had taken both musicians in a very different direction. Since then, a series of albums, tours, books and side projects have marked Faith and the Muse as an obscure but brilliant force in the musical realm.

left to right: Tapani Varis, Ruthie Dornfeld, John Miller, Petri Hakala of Helsinki Express

April 25, 1946: The Liberty Theater in Ridgefield, Washington showed its very first film, Bandits of Sherwood. April 25, 2003: The renamed Old Liberty Theater hosted a concert by a unique musical group, Helsinki Express, on their first US tour. What do these two facts have in common? Not much, except possibly the excitement that a new experience has to offer, and the anticipation that something good is about to happen.

Matjaž Sekne backstage at Siddharta's stadium concert

You were born in a small ironworks city in a valley in the Slovenian Alps. When you were nine years old, you started to learn violin in music school. Was it your decision or your parents'?

My parents enrolled me in music school. I didn't wish this very much because I was a child and of course kids don't like to go to any school and learn. But later I found out that I love to play violin.

Nino de Gleria, soundcheck at Cerkno, May 2003 (photo: Bogo Pečnikar)

How long have you and Aleš known each other?

I’ve known Aleš from birth. We were living in the same house. We were neighbors. We were together all the time as kids. We had a puppet-show together. Then after Aleš moved, he began to learn violin in music school. My first wish was to play cello. I asked my father to enter me in music school. But something had happened a few days before my request. At that time I was very young, six or seven years old. I went with one of my friends from home and we got lost. We were walking at the river Gradascica, very far away from home. Our parents went completely crazy, worrying about where we were. At last they found us in another quarter of Ljubljana. Then when I asked my father about going to music school and playing the cello, he said, “If you are independent like this” - he was thinking about my vagabonding – “you can go and enter yourself in music school alone.” This was a kind of pedagogical step. Of course I didn't go to school alone.

Siddharta

I went to Italy last summer to see the highly popular Slovenian band Siddharta performing at a small rock festival in a village called Praprot. The festival was arranged by young Slovenian people living in Italy near the Slovenian border. Slovenians are a national minority in that part of Italy.

It was a pleasant experience to get there. There were Slovenian and Italian people of all ages. The village was crowded with cars from everywhere, motorcycles and of course Vespas. When we came into the audience, an old woman with a walking stick, surrounded with a lot of kids, said hello nicely to us. On the other side was a biker with long blond hair, in leather jacket and pants, drinking his beer slowly from a plastic glass. Late at night, after the old lady and little kids had gone off to bed, and after we'd had a few glasses of local red wine, the stars were in the crystal sky and the other stars took the stage at the edge of the little village surrounded by dark forest.