Beat a Go Go

"It just was the way things went. It is the course of natural development," explained the vocalist/lyricist of Mokoma, Marko Annala, when I asked him about the quite radical change Mokoma had made to their music. We were backstage at the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival on 16th of July 2004, a couple of hours before their gig. "Before, we did not have the skill to do this," he went on. "Now we have developed so much that we can make things like this." When I asked him how he would describe the music of Mokoma in five words to someone who has never heard of the band, he looked at me through his round spectacles with a puzzled stare. Then he shifted his gaze down to the left muttering something about five words. After a brief silence, he raised his eyes and replied: "Metal music with national roots."

Mokoma had a line-up change sometime ago and after that the band has been: Marko Annala (vocals), Tuomo Saikkonen (guitar/vocals), Janne Hyrkäs (drums), Kuisma Aalto (guitar/vocals) and Santtu Hämäläinen (bass). I have this theory that every band with an all-male line-up is a "boy band" and based on that, Mokoma is one too. I asked Annala about the boy band roles of the members of Mokoma. He started to grin. "Mokoma? A boy band? It can be, yeah. We all do have different roles and habits on a tour bus, but they can be left there."

I was not alone in being amazed by their transformation. Because they were always on tour back and forth throughout Finland, Mokoma developed power and precision like a Formula One engine and drew more and more fans. Even more than the follow-up to Kurimus, "Tämän Maailman Ruhtinaan Hovi" captured the audience and went right to the number 2 slot in the Finnish Top 40 chart. "That really made me humble - I might have even shed one tear because of that," Annala told me. "But I do not think that Mokoma can ever get platinum record sales. No matter what, we still are such a marginal music, so this is probably the most popular we will get. It really feels good to get this kind of success. But we have not gone to the EMI offices to laugh and point fingers at them. OK, we have done that a little. But then again, they have re-released [with new mixing and some bonus tracks] those two cds we made for them [called Valu and Mokoman 120 päivää]. Still, I really feel this was the right thing to do, us going independent. We have much better control of what we do, what comes in and what goes out. And besides, there is no pressure from 'upstairs'."

Annala added, "We in fact do have plans to release music from other bands besides Mokoma on our Sakara label. I do not want to give out any names yet, but early next year we will release something." Later it was revealed that the band he was talking about is Stam1na.

Running their own label, Annala has become more and more worried about the piracy in the Internet. "At the time of Kurimus, we gave out the 'Takatalvi' track freely on our site. It was downloaded incredibly many times. Then there was also available the video for 'Hiljaisuuden Julistaja' and mp3. But they were more like samples. No matter what, stealing is stealing and file sharing is stealing. We do get requests to give our music to some services that sell music, but I'm not too keen on that thought either, selling songs one by one. Metal records tend to be more solid packages. Tracks just don¹t work as well on their own." Now, due some legal shit with the law considering having music on the websites, those full tracks have been removed form the Mokoma site.

"I start to get a bit tired, that is true," Annala comments about the hectic times that followed the release of Tämän Maailman Ruhtinaan Hovi. "Yesterday we were playing in Tammerfest [in Tampere] and we just arrived here. But I'm not yet tired of touring, not at all fed up with it. We have worked hard to get here and finally all that hard work is starting to pay off. This is just great. Because I'm no Ismo Alanko, it has not got too stressful to get this success. I get to be quite in peace. We have very strict control of what we do when promoting our music. Everything that has something to do with music is OK, I will not do anything else. I won't go to Kokkisota [the now cancelled Finn version of Ready Steady Cook] or something like that."

"I do get recognized in some degree, but I do not think that is all that bad. I like to talk to different people," Annala continues. ²Before it used to be that we went to gigs to win the audience, to make them like us - now it is more like proving to them just how good we are, so in that way things are a bit more relaxed. Also, at least not yet, we do not have any pressures of making the follow-up record. It will come when the time is right, but I think it will be easier to make than this new one was. We now have the courage and self-confidence to present all ideas to each other and the other members of the band."

I have a strong belief that metal sung in Finnish has a very strong possibility to succeed outside the Finnish borders, because most of the metal bands that sing in English growl and shout their lyrics in a way that no matter what, the listener has a very hard time figuring out what the vocalist is saying. So, why wouldn¹t metal sung in Finnish work outside Finland too? On a small scale Mokoma has already had one success outside Finland.. They did a showcase kind of gig in St. Petersburg with Kotiteollisuus and Viikate. Annala recalls, "The crowd accepted us well. It really gave us some confidence that we might try to get our music to markets other than Finland. The biggest thing holding us back on that right now is the lack of good contacts. I could well imagine that music with vocals that work as a rhythmic element would work like a charm. More melodic songs could be left out."

Annala is responsible for all the lyrics to Mokoma's songs. When I asked about his lyricist heroes, he said, "I do not have anybody that I could consider as my hero. But there are people I really admire. Names like Tuomari Nurmio, Kauko Röyhkä, Jarkko Martikainen [from YUP], Hra. Ylppö [from Maj Karman Kauniit Kuvat], Jouni Hynynen [from Kotiteollisuus] and Tommi Liimatta [from Absoluuttinen Nollapiste] spring into my mind right now. I also read quite a lot, as should everyone who writes stuff. Writers should read a lot, and different kinds of stuff. It gives a good overall knowledge of things. Something always sticks to your mind. Also a writer should talk to lots of different kinds of people - it brings in thoughts and ideas that differ from yours. That is why metal music is quite restrictive. There are such tight boundaries on what can be said in that music. I have thought of writing a book. But in books, text is a bit too rambling. I like writing lyrics because they are so tight in their entirety. Something that is too rambling just isn't for me."

To wrap things up, I asked the artist to send a greeting to people in the USA. That was the second time I got a puzzled look from him. "I do not even like Americans," he muttered, and looked down left again. "I¹m not even sure if USA really exists, because I have not seen it myself."

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Mokoma official website, with song samples: http://www.mokoma.com/

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