Jasmina Schreck talks to Marco Järvenpää, promoter for Teatria, Oulu´s heavy metal venue, about the music scene; why metal is so popular up north; and how he expects to see things change in the next decade.
BEFORE TEATRIA BECAME A VENUE FOR CONCERTS IN 2005, WHAT WAS IT USED FOR? It was a meat packing factory. I don’t think it was a slaughter house like everybody is saying nowadays. After that the city theatre was here for a couple of years because they were renovating the actual old city theatre, and after that it’s been us.
BEFORE TEATRIA, WHERE DID METAL BANDS PLAY IN OULU? Nowhere. There wasn’t any place in Oulu where bands could play this regularly. There were concerts in the ice hockey arena maybe once a year, or once in two years, and obviously that was only the bigger names. Apart from that there were a couple of clubs that could maybe hold concerts for national acts. Back in the day Amorphis,Sonata Arctica or Sentenced could play there but obviously those bands have grown much bigger nowadays. There was a huge hole in Oulu regarding gigs but overall it’s getting better because nowadays we have festivals here, for example Qstock and Jalometalli, that bring international acts, and especially Qstock brings bigger national acts to Oulu.
WHY IS HEAVY METAL SO POPULAR IN OULU? Overall it is weird because we should be some sort of hillbillies because we live so up north. I’m only 38 years old so I don’t have all the answers, I don’t know how the city was in the 60s or even early 70s. All I remember is when I was six years old my neighbour’s friend who was also five or six years old introduced me to metal music. And it just fell naturally,I wasn’t force fed or anything like that, he just told me, listen to this album… I can’t really remember if it was AC/DC or Deep Purple. The same guy taped me the first Iron Maiden album and after that I was gone with heavy metal. It seemed to me that when I was a young guy everybody listened to metal. It was just something that we did, it was never questioned. We just listened to it, it was good music. It wasn’t a big deal, it was just natural. I don’t really have any kind of answer but that it must be in our nature to accept heavy metal or some sort of rock as a natural thing.
SO WHICH METAL GENRES ARE THE MOST POPULAR IN OULU? It’s obvious that it’s the metal that has some kind of rock influences. Bands like Volbeat seem to be really huge over here nowadays, and actually everywhere.And Finnish metal in general is huge, like Sonata Arctica, Children of Bodom, Amorphis, Mokoma,Stam1na, Kotiteollisuus, bands like that. You could say that in a way mainstream metal is a big thing. I think it has to do with the way bands have been over here, like Sentenced, Embraze or Charon. They are more rock-orientated, not necessarily pure metal.
WHAT HAS CHANGED IN RECENT YEARS IN OULU’S METAL SCENE? From my perspective, death metal and thrash metal used to be huge in the late 80s and early 90s. You could have local bands playing in front of 400 people.Today you will not see that. Thrash and death metal aren’t that huge over here. For example if you go down South, to the Tampere-Helsinki-Turku region,those scenes are really huge there compared to Oulu.The main stream metal is bigger over here nowadays, while it used to be just the opposite. In my metal lifetime that’s been the biggest change. But in general,the whole metal scene is getting stronger. It’s just that the more aggressive styles are left behind so to speak.I mean there are people who are really really into those styles and they are promoting the thrash/death/black metal scene but they have a huge task in their hands to make it as popular as it used to be. As for me, I’m trying to play my part with the Jalometalli festival.Luckily we are getting people from all over Finland and even from Russia, Europe, basically everywhere, who come to Jalometalli. Somehow Jalometalli has become some sort of a cool festival togo to for certain types of metal heads so that’s our strong point. If we organised Jalometalli just for people from Oulu I don’t think we would have lasted more than five or six years.
THERE ARE QUITE A FEW BANDS FROM CANADA OR THE US ON THIS YEAR’S JALOMETALLI BILLING. IS IT HARD TO GET THOSE BANDS TO SUCH A FAR-OFF PLACE AS OULU? Actually no. You have to look at the billing in a bigger picture. Those bands have been doing this for years and they are not doing it just for money. They aren’t expensive, they aren’t hard to deal with, actually they are really easy to work with. They understand where I am coming from budget-wise, they understand that I don’t have a huge amount of money. I’m always so early with the bookings that the bands have time to build up a tour around Jalometalli, and that way they can afford to come to Oulu. For example I booked Agent Steele and Whiplash. They probably didn’t know that they were both coming before I announced them and now they are suddenly playing one day earlier in Norway. I think that those kind of bands are easier to work with because they are willing to do more to be able to play in Finland.
DO YOU EXPECT THE MARKET TO CHANGE IN THE FUTURE, AND HOW? It depends on how the younger generation will react.I was actually quite worried a few years ago about the way metal was improving music-wise.Some people call it “improvement”, I wouldn’t. The standard just declined in a way. It’s just my opinion but I’m definitely not into nu metal, I’m definitely not into metalcore, even though I should be because I love hardcore and I love metal. But the way they approach music is just rhythms, there are no riffs, it’s just yelling, there’s no real vocal talent. I mean I like a brutal way of singing, using your voice like David Vincent from Morbid Angel or George“Corpsegrinder“ Fisher from Cannibal Corpse. But the way they do the vocals it’s no shouting or yelling, it’s still more singing even though it’s brutal. But in the whole metalcore scene it’s just shouting and I just hate it. Not everybody needs to have solos but I still think if you play heavy metal you should have solos and you should have riffs. Riffs are the whole essence of heavy metal, not just rhythms.
Then the technicality nowadays, bands are more technical– but are they as good song writers as the bands in the 80s or 90s? I don’t think so. I think you shouldn’t look too much in the future but rather take a look back in the history and take what was good back then and then invent something new. I still believe that the young generation can -and actually will make or break heavy metal. But I can’t predict how it’s going to be, I just have to work in the environment there is. I have to be able to react. Obviously with Teatria we’re able to do different things, not justmetal but anything that is good and people enjoy, but with Jalometalli I think I might have a problem within the next five years.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BEST GIGS/BANDS/HIGHLIGHTS IN OULU IN RECENT YEARS? Plenty. Volbeat was great because it was absolutely magnificent to see how the people reacted for the band. Then obviously Sentenced’s funeral gig for various reasons. Again the reactions from the audience,the mood swings during the gig, everybody was excited,everybody was sad, you could really feel those mood swings. Plus I’ve known the Sentenced guys for years, all the way from the start when they were a demo band, so at the same time it reminded me that I’m about to become an old fart as well! And as a promoter I was happy for the band that the whole place was sold out and that it was a great evening all around.Then we’ve had Danko Jones, it wasn’t sold out but nearly, there were only few tickets left, and the band was unbelievable even though I’m not into that kind of music. One of the better gigs has been Dio three or four years ago with Uriah Heep and Asia. Unbelievable. Dio is one of my all-time favourite singers so it was great to see him. Oh, and there was Twisted Sister,the opening act. Emotionally it was more a relief that we actually made it, that we had the place ready for the gig. 15 minutes before the doors opened we were still hammering and doing stuff, it was THAT close. Plus Twisted Sister was a huge favorite of mine as a 15-year old guy, so that has to be one of the favourite gigs for many reasons.pl
WHO MAKES UP FOR LOSSES IF TOO FEW PEOPLE COME TO A GIG?We do. We have to cover the losses. This is run as a pure business even though your heart is in it. If we lose money we lose money but in a way it balances itself out. Some nights will be absolutely magnificent, we will make a profit, and maybe the week after we will lose as much money as we made a profit the week before. It’s like balancing on the wire, just budgeting everything really well. But I can tell you, you will always lose money with some gigs.Always. Even though you believe that this will be a great thing to do, you still will lose money with some of the gigs. I mean I would be a rich man if I knew everybody’s reactions music-wise! I would only book bands that would sell every show out. But obviously I can’t do that.
WHILE METAL IS PRETTY BIG IN OULU, DO YOU THINK IT IS MORE DIFFICULT OR BANDS FROM THIS PLACE TO BECOME KNOWN IN FINLAND BECAUSE IT’S FAR FROM ANY OTHER, BIGGER TOWNS? I think it used to be more difficult but nowadays it should be up to the bands to make themselves known. If you are willing to do anything for your band and promote it, you should just gig, forget about the money, just go and play, release your demos in the internet, on myspace or on your own website. Sell the demo for really cheap at the gigs. If you’re a band member and you go to see other bands, just take your demos with you and try to sell them. If you are a good band you will definitely get at least some sort of recognition down south.
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BEFORE TEATRIA BECAME A VENUE 