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Lordi Interview! As Lordi hit the U.K. this week, we sat down with with Mr.Ox for a chat on the opening night of their U.K. tour in Exeter!
Hi, how are you?
“I’m very good.”
First night of the tour tonight in the UK. How was the trip over?
“In the UK yeah. Well..It was good, it was long. We had a long drive from Zaragoza, Spain. We drove to France and took the ferry and….It was long but okay.”
So you’re playing more dates in the UK on this tour are you looking forward to seeing and reaching more of your UK fans?
“Yes, Yes, definitely because, already last time we were here I was really amazed how many people came to the shows, and they were really good shows, so yes, I’m definitely looking forward to these shows.”
That’s brilliant to hear. The UK fans always look really forward to seeing you guys. Is it a lot different, compared to shows in Finland?
“Yeah, It’s different, because actually…when we did club shows in Finland, you know, there wouldn’t be so many people as in the UK which is weird, but you know, like, we don’t have as good following in Finland right now as we have pretty much everywhere else in Europe. I don’t know really why but, It just seems to be like that. There’re more people that come to the shows here.” (chuckles)
With new venues on the tour like here at Lemon Grove, Exeter today. Is there anywhere you’re really looking forward to visiting?
“Ugh…do you mean in the UK or anywhere?”
In the UK.
“Er…I’d have to see what….always London of course, and there are many, many dates. (Asks for dates list). Sorry, I just don’t remember them all. Yeah, there’s Manchester, Glasgow. Yeah…all this. I mean they’re all good.”
Anywhere else in the world in particular?
“Where we’d like to go especially? Yeah er….for example Czech Republic is always really, really good to us, places like this. Er…there are many, many places that are very good. Slovenia was good this time.”
Lordi are well known for putting on a show, what can we expect to see and hear tonight?
“Here tonight? It’s some good like er… theatrical things… and well you know, just good.”
Just good old Lordi (chuckles)
“Yeah good old Lordi (laughs), but the thing is, I don’t know how much of the stuff we have, we can have there because the stage is so small today, so I don’t know if we can have everything or not, we’ll see, but I hope….I hope as much as possible.”
Now, when anyone thinks of Lordi, the costumes have to be at the forefront of their mind. I understand your costume is an extension of your own personal character? What made you choose your costume, what is the reasoning behind your stage persona?
“When at first I joined the band in 2005 and we started thinking what would be like…what would I like and I said something like ‘Mad Max’ kind of style. Then when we started playing… Mr.Lordi just, you know said I look like a raging bull when I play bass, and that’s where it came from. Then we decided, yeah It’s going to be Ox!”
I’ve watched some of your live performances, and thought they were absolutely fantastic. So Mr.Lordi makes all the costumes?
“Yeah, he designs them and makes them, It takes a long, long time… takes a lot of work. Yeah he does it all. All by himself really.”
And they change with every album?
“Yeah, yeah. It’s the same character but, like, an updated character.”
What do you guys like to do off stage?
“When we’re off stage? Well Its the same as the touring thing you know…drink beer (chuckles) have some fun you know. Stuff like that.”
Always good to keep it lively.
“Yeah” (chuckles)
Mikko Karmila produced ‘Scare Force One’ after you worked with Michael Wagener on the previous two albums. How has that made a difference in terms of the recording process?
“I would say about the sound that, that the sound is heavier now with Mikko Karmila. We were looking for that, a little. Oh…of course, totally different coz with Michael Wagener we went to Nashville, and now we just stay in Finland and record. From the, production style, it’s different. It’s kind of, you know, heavier. We record the drums and bass for all the songs first, then I’m kind of done… I don’t really know what happens, it takes two to three days for me. So, it was the same for me this time, as it was with Michael Wagener.”
The ‘normal’ way of recording in Finland, is to lay down all tracks per instrument as opposed to completing a track at a time?
“Yeah we do like, like, first we do all the drums, then all the bass. Then we go song by song, for the rest. Take one song, Amen plays guitar, Hella plays keyboard, and Mr.Lordi sings and it’s done! Then we’ll do that next song, but with the bass and drums we just do it all. That has worked for us. That’s actually something that we have learnt from Michael Wagener, because he wanted to do it like that and we thought that ‘Hey this is a really good way for us to work’, so yeah.”
There’s a slight change in the over all sound between the albums ‘Scare Force One’ and ‘To Beast Or Not To Beast’. It sounds more ‘epic’, was it written that way or was it a result of Mikko’s production?
“Well, I think it was both… definitely both. I think it was written like that also, and then he’s like a really heavy metal producer, so he definitely brought that too.”
The Finnish rock and Metal scene is huge! Who should we be keeping an eye out for in the near future?
“In the near future? There’s a lot of bands coming. Well…The 69 Eyes, they’re already doing pretty good everywhere and that’s Michael Monroe’s new band. And then there’s the young guys, Santa Cruz, coming up really fast I think there’s a lot of bands coming you know? I don’t know why it happens, but it just seems to be like a Rock ‘n’ Roll factory!” (chuckles).
I’m a big fan of the whole Finnish rock and metal scene too (chuckles).
If Lordi were to feature in a video game, what would be the storyline? Who would be the hero and the villain of the band?
“In a video game? (chuckles) I think Mr.Lordi would be the hero and it would be pretty bloody. I don’t know…I don’t really know anything about video games. The bad guy? I don’t know…..I don’t wanna name them” (laughs).
That’s fair enough (chuckles)
What’s the weirdest thing you request on your rider?
“There’s nothing weird right now…I dunno..maybe… but…maybe some people might think like uh ‘What is this?’ when we have like a huge CO2 bottle in the rider and stuff like that, that’s for the show, so….maybe that’s one of them but we don’t have any…it’s pretty basic really..just what we need..so you know….towels (chuckles)…straws, we can’t drink without the straws!… stuff like that.”
Any final words for your fans and our readers?
“It’s just great to be back here in the UK and, and to see that there’s, more and more fans coming to us and that’s awesome. We’re happy to be back.”
Brilliant. Thank you very much for you time.
Interview By Cassandra Irving
Photography by Jamie Sweetlove
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