INTERVIEW
with
PEKKA
On the latest release
HARMFUL CONTENT
WITHIN PUNK ZINE INTERVIEW WITH
PEKKA /VOCALS,GUITAR ONE HIDDEN FRAME
APRIL 03, 2017 BY EMAIL
COURTESY OF TONY SHRUM EARSHOT MEDIA J.B: So let’s talk about the meaning behind “One Hidden Frame” Is it those iconic gems you find hidden behind the frames of movies kind of like the controversy behind the hidden frames of Disney cartoons with the whole sexual imagery thing? PEKKA: Well, you’re quite on the right track there! Except giving the name back in 2002 it had nothing to do with Disney, but the movie Fight Club. It’s where the main character works at the movie theatre, gets bored and fucks up the system occasionally by inserting pornographic images between the frames. So, in this case they flash during the movie and people are not sure if they saw something, or if they did, they act like it was nothing. Anyways they get affected by it. Along this thought the second meaning relates to the advertisement world where a consumer starts wanting something when they just quickly see a logo. It’s fucked up! J.B: You guys are on your fifth studio release now following up from “The Water seems inviting” how would you view that progression to the newest one “Harmful Content” PEKKA: It definitely feels lot more aggressive, but on the other end it has more emotion to it as well. Kind of like sharpened at both ends. Thinking back now on “the Water” album in 2013, I personally would have kept it shorter and leave some songs out of it. I feel like some songs ended up on it for just the sake of existing. During making the songs for “Harmful Content” I probably had riffs for 18 songs but only 9 had the right energy to be worked on and ending up on the album. So this time we were more critical on the song writing; not just a good riff makes a good song. J.B: You have also have had a lot of lineup changes over the past couple of releases and working out the different sounds that they brought to the table
has really shined through being tighter on Harmful Content do you feel that everything has fallen into place finally? PEKKA: Yeah exactly. Though personally for me it’s also a normal progress from being 18 to being 33 now. But as to line-up changes, especially when Vesa joined the band in 2012 on second guitar and backing vocals it made a huge difference. He recorded/mixed about 4/5 of our albums and is an ace guy to produce my efforts to put riffs together, haha! And as he’s a couple of years older than us others, he was the local skate punk hero for us when were kids, hah! But the reason for line-up changes has only been because of the guys not having enough time for shows, so everything has fallen into place by accident, in a way. Though I started the band in 2002, it kinda was born again in 2012. J.B: Your sound is influential of the old Propagandhi meets the Satanic Surfers vocal ranges but has that metal influenced rhythm sections and leads with Melodic Hardcore. What are some of the influences behind the chords on this one? Anything that was listened to that made you come up the idea’s? PEKKA: Well you’ve done your homework! Propagandhi has been the number one band for me easily since “Today’s Empires…”. Before that, Satanic Surfers from our neighbor country Sweden was a big influence for us also, as well as Adhesive or No Fun At All. We all like old and new metal and hardcore, so it’s an obvious spice in the mix. What else, like Strike Anywhere and Ignite from the early 00’s are one of the favorites, but we also won’t deny we love records like for example AFI - Sing The Sorrow, Dredg – Catch Without Arms or Deftones - White Pony. J.B: You’re releasing on Bird Attack Records on this one on the North American side of things, what’s it like being part of the Bird Attack family? You guys were on Full house records on the last one? PEKKA: It’s been really great because they work hard for the smaller, not that known bands to get noticed. I think it’s the best thing to happen to a band like ours. We’ve got a lot of new listeners through them and met a lot of new friends. The support for each others’ bands in this genre is really heart-warming. Full House Records helped us to get our records to stores and being one step forward on our path. Check out their catalogue if you’re especially into metallic hardcore, Finland has really tight bands in that genre! J.B: What studio was “Harmful Content” produced at this time around? PEKKA: We recorded the drums at Red Five Studios in Vantaa, Finland. Everything else we did at our practice space in Lappeenranta (20 miles from the Russian border), where our guitarist Vesa also does some recording work. So it was pretty DIY project, again! Vesa could’ve also mixed the album but we wanted a different guy with fresh ears to do it as Vesa has mixed the earlier albums before he was in the band.
J.B: What’s your creative writing process? With songs like Maidan to Tahrir and 16 Hours? PEKKA: It really varies a lot. Sometimes everything just falls into place and you’ve got a finished song in like four hours. But usually it’s more of a struggle. Because we live in different cities, we have to send demos to each other and then practice them 1-2 times a month together. For “Maidan to Tahrir” it was basicly to keep it under one minute, just a fast burst so it would create an energetic feeling of “what happened?” in the end. “16 hours” is a good example of the things we like to mix. It has some older skate punk stuff in it, as well as some progressive rhythms and lighter atmospheric picking. J.B: You have been no strangers to touring around the world playing a lot of festivals and shows coming up your playing a pretty intense bill at the Manchester Punk Festival are you stoked for that? PEKKA: We’ve actually just played Europe in maybe 15 countries, but there has been lots of talk about going further abroad in the near future. It’s just pretty expensive to go anywhere from Finland, we’re pretty isolated, hah! Definitely stoked for Manchester Punk Festival, seems like an awesome event with lots of venues, it will be a huge party! J.B: So what’s next for One Hidden Frame and thoughts on a more diverse North American Tour?
PEKKA: Couple of really exciting shows coming this year. Playing with No Fun At All and After the Fall at the Brakrock Ecofest preshow in Belgium and we’re bringing Adhesive to Finland in November, it’s a big thing for us! For October, we’re gonna do some touring, but we’re just starting to plan that. North America will happen for sure at one point, but there are no dates set yet. J.B: We always finish with a famous book or quote that inspired your life anything come to mind? PEKKA: Gotta go with Greg Graffin on this one, as Bad Religion was the band that changed my life. Got the same thing tattooed on my leg, think it’s a good view on what the mankind shouldn’t forget.