Interview with Stumm in Hard and Obscure #1/2006, by Pekka Perä-Takala
This interview took place on December 10th 2005 in Turku, in the Tinatuoppi bar (recommended if you ever happen to come here).
So, who are you guys?
Jukka: We are Stumm. I'm Jukka, I play guitar and
scream.
Heikki: I'm Heikki and I play drums - in a shitty way.
Helena: And I'm Helena and I play bass.
How did you form this band?
Heikki: Void (drummer of Reverend Bizarre -ed) told about
a guy he knew, a gentleman called Jukka as it turned out, who'd like to
form a sludge band. Then we met Jukka at TVO (a local bar/club with a
lot of punk and such gigs -ed).
Helena: Jukka came to talk to us, saying he had heard we would
be interested in playing this kind of stuff. We thought yes, and we went,
was it the next Sunday…
Jukka: It was probably… I think it was the same week when
I talked to Void about it. That weekend was the gig where we met.
Helena: Then we started playing.
When was it?
Heikki: I think it was August 2003.
Helena: I remember the weather was really crappy, it was sleeting
and raining shit.
Heikki: Autumn 2003 approximately.
Jukka: Yeah, the first rehearsal was after some Kuolleen Musiikin
Yhdistys (a local organization for industrial and related gigs -ed)
gig so I had a hangover from hell. Just like usually.
Helena: Of course we all felt pretty shy as we didn't know each
other.
Heikki: We were like "so what should we do, then?"
Helena: But it did start quite well at the next rehearsal.
Was the music style clear from the beginning? Also, what about
your influences… Eyehategod is quite obvious…
Heikki: Yeah, many people have brought it up although our music
doesn't sound like it at all…
But there's the same spirit…
Jukka: Yeah, I think it was the attitude more than the music.
Corrupted and Melvins as well…
Helena: I don't know… I listen to punk mostly…
Heikki: We all have our own personal influences, but the songs
we have been playing this far are written by Jukka mainly so I guess they're
Jukka's influences that affect. It's difficult to bring forth any specific
one.
So what about those individual influences, then?
Heikki: Too many to list.
Jukka: I listen to so many different things.
Helena: Me too.
Jukka: I guess it all influences somehow. But from these "slow
music" things Eyehategod was mentioned already, but also Grief,
Khanate, Burning Witch and such basic stuff. I think they
can be heard.
When you started playing, was it clear what you're going to play?
Helena: Yeah, we talked about what we like, and we found common
ground.
Heikki: It was sludge anyway, that was what we were going to do.
To not play in a hurry.
Helena: Yeah, I've often said that we're not in any kind of a
hurry.
Jukka: And that goes to playing as well as everything else we
do.
How did you all find sludge music? If you have found it?
Heikki: I heard doom records. Cathedral's debut and Saint
Vitus and such, but from actual sludge, I think it was Electric
Wizard's Come My Fanatics and Eyehategod's first album
in 1997 or so. It really hit me like "fuck this music is heavy, I've
never heard anything like this".
Helena: Black Sabbath have always been a very important
band for me. I guess it was also hearing Eyehategod for the first
time, feeling it's an all new thing to me, an interesting thing that I
should really check out. And I've done that.
Heikki: Eyehategod gets mentioned again and again…
Jukka: Should I also say "I heard Eyehategod for the
first time…" (laughter all around) But I think it started with
more metal side of things, but also noise and more experimental music.
Cathedral probably, if you don't count Black Sabbath that
I've listened to always.
Helena: They're great.
Heikki: Especially the Dio era.
Helena: Me and Heikki have family arguments about who's better
singer in Black Sabbath, Ozzy or Dio.
Heikki: You have a clear opinion and so do I. There's nothing
to argue about. (laughter all around)
You already told what instruments you play, but how you all started
to play music?
Heikki: I first played drums in upper level comprehensive school,
in a music class. The next time was in vocational school at friends' rehearsal
place. Then there was a break and then I played in different punk bands
and also sang. Here in Turku I've played with hippies and these guys and
punks. Can't give any dates or years how long I've played.
Helena: I started to play violin when I was 8. We had a music
class in school. The class was divided into two bands and we played children's
songs or pop songs. There I also played bass for the first time when I
was 12 years old. When I was 14 I had my first band. Then there was a
break when I played violin for 4 years in a folk music band. When I moved
to Turku there started to be more bands with bass.
Jukka: I don't remember exactly when I started to play. I played
drums for quite a long time. I think I still play drums better than guitar.
I played guitar for quite some time as well, but then I sold it and it
took many years until I got a guitar again. It was when I noticed that
you can play also other things than speed metal riffs, that you can abuse
the instrument, when I got interested in guitar again. It's kind of tossing
about still…
Helena: Yeah, we're not very professional…
Jukka: But that's just good.
So Jukka writes most of the songs…
Heikki: Jukka writes most of them and Helena often adds some things.
Helena: Last time we jammed a lot, but I can't remember those
riffs anymore.
Jukka: We have one new song coming up with a riff written by Helena…
Helena: Go Helena!
Jukka: She sometimes accidentally creates that kind of gems we
can use. It varies really… sometimes I come up with riffs or whole
songs at home and then they usually change when start to rehearse them.
Heikki: Jukka brings riffs and Stumm arrange them into
Stumm Mode.
Jukka: Sometimes riffs also come up at the rehearsal and then
I work on them at home. It's quite a vague process.
Is it easy? Do riffs and songs come easily or do you have to really
squeeze them out?
Jukka: I guess it might be easy if I worked more industriously,
really sit down to write songs…
Heikki: I'd like to jam more at the rehearsals, write songs that
way. I think that would be easier. But we jam too rarely. And we haven't
been able to rehearse much lately either, though.
Helena: I was in Palestine for a month, so there wasn't much playing.
Do you also write the lyrics, Jukka?
Jukka: Yeah. They're mostly written to fit into the songs and
riffs. They're more of an additional shitty instrument, those screams.
The lyrics are quite basic anguish stuff. They haven't been printed anywhere
and won't be either.
Could you comment on them otherwise? There seems to be certain
theme going on in the titles like "Choke To Die", "Chokehold
Narcosis", "Not Waving But Drowning"…
Jukka: How should I put it… They're kind of personal angst
mostly… but also fucking with Jesus. Anti-religiousness is maybe
the most political thing there.
Heikki: But perhaps all that angst originates in the modern fucked
up society.
Jukka: Then there's also things like how I drink too much and
abuse myself.
Heikki: We can also stand behind the lyrics well. "Oh you
wrote those anti-christian lyrics again - great!"
Helena: I always ask to see the new lyrics. But I have nothing
to add to them. Every now and then I threaten to bring some lyrics but
fuck if I ever manage to do anything.
Jukka: We're waiting for that.
Helena: I always tend to preach, I can't feel anxiety in the right
way, I start being political and that doesn't fit in with this band.
More about the band thematic… Nihilistic Sludge, Regressive
Sludge… what do you mean with that?
Heikki: I think it comes from the lyrics… I keep returning
to society issues, it pisses me off that everything's fucked up all the
time. A nihilist becomes cold towards all of it, I don't soon care much
about what's happening around, everything sucks ass.
Helena: I dunno, it's a kind of a roller-coaster for me. Sometimes
I'm very active and sometimes I'm just like "fuck it all", crouching
in some corner. But on the other hand I've kind of found my own way, a
balance. I don't have to go to the street carrying a sign. Or actually
I could well take a part in a demonstration…
Heikki: There goes our nihilism!
Helena: I'm talking for myself, I wouldn't be holding a sign that
says "Stumm is for this issue". (laughter all around)
We all have our own political opinions, but they don't affect the playing.
Jukka: Regression refers to our logo that shows the inverted evolution
which I think came partly by accident…
Heikki: By accident yeah, but when it came up we went instantly
"this is Stumm logo!"
Jukka: I think it describes our band well (laughter)… and
also the world around. The man is regressing… (Helena and Heikki
make ape sounds)… that's right. And we haven't progressed much musically
either. I don't know if we've actually regressed, but just stay in the
same place.
Heikki: And pot and beer degenerate our brain cells all the time!
Helena: You have to numb yourself sometimes. I like to stay really
sharp also, you have to be alert. I'm no hippie though!
Heikki: We all work and study.
Helena: Yeah, we're no decadents.
Jukka: We're actually damn respectable people.
Helena: We do things properly, I get good grades from exams…
Jukka: I don't! (laughter)
Helena: I do. I think you have to do things properly.
Jukka: It's no use whining if you don't do anything yourself to
make things better. It's no use being anguished either in that case.
Helena: Of course sometimes when you're really drowning in work
and studies it can feel like it's killing you, but then you just crouch
in the corner for a while and soon you're back in the battle. Alcohol
abuse for a while and then we pull our shit together again. (laughter)
I meant to ask about the band name already earlier… Stumm,
it's "numb" in German, right?
Jukka: Yeah, or "speechless". Also in Swedish I think.
Heikki: In Swedish it's "stum".
Jukka: It's also used in spoken English to some extent. It's like
"shut up".
Heikki: Helena summarized it well in the interview in Toinen
Vaihtoehto (the biggest Finnish punk zine -ed), I think it was excellent.
Do you remember how it went?
Helena: Yeah, it was "deaf, blind and stupid".
Heikki: I'm deaf cause I don't use earplugs, Jukka is blind because
he wears glasses and Helena is stupid because she plays bass. That's stumm.
(laughter)
Jukka: We thought about the band name though…
Helena: When you suggested the name, we weren't really sure about
it, but it just stuck somehow. I have nothing against it now.
Jukka: It's a heavy-sounding name. I wanted it to be in some other
language than English, so it's not something like…
Heikki: Bullets For My Valentine!
Jukka: Yeah, some fucking emo-name.
Helena: I can't understand those long band names. It has to be
short and pithy.
Heikki: All good band names have been taken already in the 70s
and 80s, until 93.
Jukka: We would be Iron Maiden if it hadn't been used already.
The interview in Toinen Vaihtoehto was mentioned, but there haven't
been any other interviews, right? What about the other feedback, the demo
got good reviews…
Jukka: We have wondered at that!
Heikki: You listen to your own things with a different ear than
the listener who doesn't know what kind of jerks we really are.
Jukka: People have liked the rehearsal demo that had all mistakes
and shit and very questionable sound quality.
Heikki: But it's music for such small circle both in Finland and
all over the world. Especially in Finland, but maybe it's gaining some
small attention.
Jukka: I think it's fucking cool that the new Finnish slow music
bands are all different. Loinen, Fleshpress, Sink,
all have their own sound. None of them are a carbon copy of some better
known band.
Do you think that sludge could gain same kind of attention as for
example black metal that became partly mainstream music?
Heikki: Sludge isn't melodic enough. There are more doom-type
bands like Swallow The Sun, but that's not sludge…
Jukka: The problem is - it's not a problem really but a fucking
good thing - that it's too punk for metal guys, although there are many
who listen to metal and sludge, but I think it's too harsh for most. There
are so many kinds of metal listeners that it's no wonder that black metal
got into mainstream at some point.
Heikki: I don't see sludge hitting the charts.
Helena: That would be the end of the world.
You have an album coming up, what kind of expectations you have
for it?
Heikki: Pretty excited. It's strange that these two great labels
would release that pile of crap. (laughter all around)
Jukka: How it all happened is so ridiculous. First Aesthetic
Death guy Stu was in Finland with Esoteric selling shirts and
stuff. And our gig was the fucking worst ever.
Helena: We meant to play a 15-20 minute song and after maybe 10
minutes Jukka's rig breaks.
Heikki: We continued playing with Helena, thinking Jukka broke
a string or something…
Helena: Yeah, he storms to backstage going "FUUUUCK!!!"
and he won't come back and we're wondering if we should stop or what.
Jukka: I was sitting there in the dark drinking beer and Helena
shouts at me, while playing, "get the fuck back here!"
Heikki: Based on that probably, and also the demo mentioned, they
wanted to release the album.
Jukka: There was a couple of years when the label wasn't working,
but then he wrote me telling that he's thought to activate the label again
and our demo sounds so good that he could release our album. Same goes
to Blind Date. I sent the demo to see if they'd like to distribute
it, but he wrote that it was the best thing he had heard for a long time
and would like to release something on vinyl. We went "fuck yeah",
vinyl was such a magic word. We haven't really been pushing ourselves
to anyone.
Heikki: It's a crazy world.
Jukka: Yeah, and the fact that they actually want to release what
we came up with in the studio.
Helena: I didn't listen to the recording for months. When we started
to mix it, it didn't sound that crappy.
Jukka: The quick mix we did right after the recording sounded
really fucking awful, and getting to the actual mixing was delayed for
months and we were thinking if can do anything with the recording at all.
In October we finally got to mix it, and when we had done the first track
we felt really relieved.
Heikki: I think the sounds are great, but we have played better
in the rehearsal.
Jukka: It was far from perfect, but we managed to turn that shit
to rather good. Perhaps you can hear the primitiveness. There were many
distractions in the studio - greetings to Kojo of Fleshpress.
What about your gigs. The great gig at Pelimies was mentioned and
on some of your gigs I've seen you have been more or less drunk and the
equipment have been breaking and things like that.
Heikki: You've seen just those gigs. We've played good gigs also.
Helena: One great gig was when Jukka was extremely drunk and we
were sober, so the foundation was firm and Jukka just fucked up on top
of it. It was fucking great, one of the best.
Heikki: We've played about 10 gigs I guess. The one at Karjaa
was the best one for me, as I don't remember anything about it, but I've
seen a couple of photos where I look as if I was sober.
Jukka: We played a song and a half. We started one for 3 times.
Heikki: Greger (of Loinen) said about the gig, and I think
that's all there's to say about it, that "this is sludge". (laughter)
I think the gig in Pori, the interviewer was there too, was good. Except
the last song maybe, but the others were excellent. And in TVO in March
when we played with Rytmihäiriö.
Jukka: It was a good gig. The funniest thing was when Forca
Macabra who were there as well had a Deep Purple cover in the
start of their set and so did we. We played first, and started with "Perfect
Stranglers", and they were a bit upset when we got to the backstage,
"so you played Deep Purple". Sometimes when you're suitably
drunk it's fun to play, but not too drunk.
Heikki: If we get to play more gigs again, I think it'll bring
routine to it. You're always a little nervous at the gigs, and that's
good, but you shouldn't be too nervous. The gigs have mostly been ok.
Jukka: There has been no bad feedback. That would be great too.
I hope there would be more gigs. We'll see if someone gets interested
when the album comes out.
What about a tour abroad?
Jukka: It would be fun to do, but there hasn't been any talk about
anything.
Heikki: You shouldn't print this, but I've been thinking that
maybe these European labels that release the album would like to promote
their investment, so maybe it would be possible.
Jukka: I've thought about that as well. Especially the Aesthetic
Death guy is a good organizer. He was going to fly to Finland to see
our gig…
Helena & Heikki: What?!?
Jukka: Yeah, he wanted to come to the studio, but he had some
family reunion or something like that at the same time.
Heikki: Good that he didn't come. He's welcome next time. Then
we know better what we're doing, unless we drink ourselves into coma again
and fuck shit up.
Related to the gig situation in Finland, is there a Finnish sludge
scene?
Heikki: I wouldn't talk about a real scene. There are the few
bands that Jukka mentioned earlier playing gigs together and small distros.
Jukka: All bands know of each other and are in good terms. It
would be nice to play more gigs with similar bands, especially to see
if there would be any audience. To me the Fleshpress guys are the
closest as I've known them already before Stumm.
Helena: They're more of friends.
Heikki: That's how the scenes form. To return to the earlier question,
sludge is not going to be nu-metal or anything. Although it would be great
to see Finnish Sludge Scene report in some mainstream pop music magazine.
(laughter)
Jukka: I think it's traditional doom metal that's going to be,
or is already to some extent, bigger. Like Reverend Bizarre.
Helena: But I think they're at the moment one of the best bands
in Finland, if not in the whole world. They're definitely in my top ten
list.
Jukka: Not mine. But they are really nice guys, and I appreciate
what they do and their attitude.
Now I would like to ask Helena what it's like to be a woman in
a band, I mean women are a minority in the rock circles…
Helena: I knew you were going to ask this! (laughter all around)
Fuck…
So, your comments about it? You often come across the attitude
that girls in a band is a "cute" thing or something like that…
Jukka: We took Helena in the band because she's cute.
Heikki: I think the women in the heavy music scene don't have
much history. There are some individual ones…
Helena: There are some great pioneers.
That's true, it seems that the heavy bands that have women members
are usually excellent.
Jukka: Especially in the sludge scene. Boris have a woman
guitarist, Dot(.) have woman guitarist or was it bassist, Earth
have woman drummer, 13 was an all-girl band…
Helena: (in high voice) Girl band!
Jukka: Come to think of it, there are many women in this music
scene, Electric Wizard, Sour Vein…
Heikki: Bolt Thrower.
Helena: Ohh, she's a wonderful lady. I dunno, I've had shit thrown
at me in the past and probably will have also in the future.
Heikki: In Pori they thought you can't work your equipment and
two or three MEN came to show where to plug in or something…
Helena: They didn't get the things working either. I don't think
it like there are two men and I'm a woman. Heikki is my boyfriend and
Jukka is my friend.
Heikki: We play in the same band and your sex doesn't matter.
Helena: It's not an issue anymore, like "there's a lady!"
I don't think it's a very current issue. No offence to the interviewer,
but it irritates me when people bring this thing up. It's normal to me.
Playing in bands has been an important thing in my life for so long that
I don't think I'm here as a woman, that I represent the women musicians.
That's it.
What's it like to be a couple in the same band?
Helena: I thought it sometimes what happens if we separate someday,
what happens to the bands. But it hasn't been a problem. Heikki plays
drums and I play bass, and as we have a kind of connection, it works pretty
fucking well.
Jukka: Especially when I'm in the bambi-on-a-thin-ice condition.
(laughter)
Heikki: That happened once. You got great stage moves and a broken
Harley Benton.
Helena: But Jukka, you haven't felt like we are a couple with
Heikki and you're an outsider, have you?
Jukka: I always go to home to cry after the rehearsal. Seriously
no, you're not like kissing all the time and stuff. Well, you are a little.
Heikki: We have agreed, or maybe not even agreed but it just is
that way that when we go to a rehearsal we go there to play and not to
be affectionate.
Jukka: Now that I'm friends with you, I don't really even think
about that.
You have other bands as well. Tell everything about them.
Jukka: AM is me and Mikko Aspa doing old Godflesh
meets Skullflower type guitar noise drone thing. Split LP with
Stabat Mater is coming up, as well as a tape on Kult Of Nihilow.
As Anon Plus I make ambient, noise, power electronics, whatever
I feel like. It's a very slow project. There's a CD-R coming in 2006 probably
when I have designed special enough covers. I run Kaos Kontrol
label and it should be more active again in 2006. It has changed also
a bit, there was only noise, industrial, ambient and power electronics
earlier, but now also sludge and such. Degenerate magazine, again
with Aspa. That's all.
Heikki: I play drums in Vauhtihirmu (Finnish for Speedster
or something like that -ed). It's shitty blasting, many say it's not punk
at all. Tongue in cheek Turku thrashcore. Another band is Kylmä
sota (Finnish for Cold War -ed), it's old school d-beat hardcore punk.
All the dis-bands are the biggest influences, Discharge and Disclose.
It's good punk.
Helena: I play also in Kylmä sota, bass, and I play
violin in a band called Transkaakko. There's a lot of Balkan folk
music in it and progressive rock as well. I don't really know where they
got the influence. There also a punk band Khatarina where I play
bass.
Jukka: Helena plays in three best Turku bands. And also in Stumm.
(laughter)
Helena: Khatarina will be touring Ireland, just for a week
though, and then we'll go to studio in the beginning of 2006. Kylmä
sota should also record something, and Transkaakko too. It's
good to keep up my violin chops, although sometimes it's terrible to play
as I'm not as good as I used to be. But I like to play it.
Heikki: And we have also a musical dog in our household who likes
it when you play a kazoo, or a tuning pipe or melodica or violin, he likes
to sing along (laughter)
And a record is coming up?
Heikki: Maybe some intro material some day. For Vauhtihirmu.
(more laughter)
In addition to music things, what else do you do?
Helena: I study to be a medianome, ie. unemployed in two years.
I was in Palestine teaching Flash and Photoshop and website administration
in Bethlehem University.
Heikki: I work in the post, live with Helena, have three bands
and a dog, so there's no time for much else. Listening to music is my
hobby, as well as keeping up with ice hockey scores. (laughter)
Helena: Yeah, the bands take a lot of time, there's not much time
for other hobbies.
Jukka: I work in a porn shop and that takes most of my time. I
also study English at the university, but not very meticulously lately.
Oh yeah, Anzalone. As an addition to other bands I should mention
Anzalone, a Danzig / Misfits / Samhain cover
band in which I sing. It's fun as the songs are so good you don't have
to think much. Idling about at home, drinking whenever possible, which
is quite often.
Favourite films, books and other things?
Helena: Favourite films are Full Metal Jacket, Blues Brothers…
fuck there are so many but those two are great. Breaking The Waves is
pretty fucking good. I like to watch documents on TV, historical documents
on Sundays are the best. Books… Hurriganes biography was really
good. The last book I read was about Israel and Palestine as the promised
land of two peoples, I don't remember who the author was. Kaari Utrio's
Eevan tyttäret is a book I've read a lot.
Heikki: One of my favourite films is Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
of course the original, not the remake. The Shining is a good film. All
other films suck. I can't praise Fletch enough, one of the finest 80s
films. (laughter) Good books are everything by H.P. Lovecraft.
Helena: And the black metal history Lords Of Chaos, it's very
interesting. We're also big Simpsons fans, we have 15 videotapes of them
and some season DVD box sets and we must get more all the time.
Heikki: Kalifornia was also a good film, although I don't care
much about Brad Pitt. And Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy.
Helena: Fight Club is good also, I like its mood. Seven is good
too!
Jukka: I like sleaze films most, Russ Meyer, Jess Franco and such.
Dancer In The Dark is one of my favourites, because of Björk.
You can add Björk to our list of influences. Björk
and Black Sabbath.
Helena: I forgot to mention Thelma & Louise, it's fucking
great!
Jukka: Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed In Ecstasy,
you can't easily achieve that mood in a movie. There are many.
Heikki: How about something related to your job?
Jukka: I watch a lot of porn in my work, and it's hard to find
anything good. I read regrettably little nowadays, but I guess my favourites
are De Sade's Justine, I liked the twisted morality in it. The Bible.
That's about it. Anything else?
Heikki: Buy our record, it should be available by the time this
zine is out.
Jukka: We'll be happy to play gigs. Thank you for the interview.