On A Solid Rock is "the only straightXedge band" in Finland these days. But their singer, Tume, wouldn't call them a "sXe-band", they are more of a hardcore band with sXe-members. I had an interesting discussion with Tume, I hope you like the interview as much as I do.
Tuomas: Your record should come out in January. What kind of feelings you have about it?
Tume: Good feelings. Actually it should come out in December. The label will send the records this week so it's in Finland next week. I'm waiting for this one more than any record before. I have really awesome feelings.
Tuomas: When did you start and were there any changes in the line up?
Tume: First I did the songs alone. It's been two and half years of that. Last summer our drummer Pete came back from England. From then on we started practicing with this line up. There have been no changes in the line-up. When I got the idea that this won't be just a solo project, I started gathering guys for the band. First I asked Tapsa to play the guitar, then Jussi to play the bass, and Pete came to play drums.
Tuomas: How would've you done this as a solo project?
Tume: It would've been that Tapsa would play guitar and I would've played the rest of the instruments. That's how I first thought it, that I'd just play on a record. But then it started to roll so well and of course it's so much cooler to play with a real band.
Tuomas: How would you describe On A Solid Rock?
Tume: It's hardcore punk, but there are so many different influences. It's hardcore punk with emo and metal in it and vocals are partially melodic. If you ask what band On A Solid Rock can be compared to, no one can compare to it only to one band. It's not copied just from one thing.
Tuomas: Three of you guys were in a band called Defend and played almost same instruments (Tapsa played bass in Defend). Do you think that On A Solid Rock is kind of a sequel to Defend?
Tume: It's not a sequel because Jani (Defend's guitar player who now plays guitar in Endstand) made all the songs in Defend and he's not in this band. And I hadn't made any songs before this band. I'm doing the majority of these songs. And that kind of way is a totally different system. The feeling is kind of the same, but still kind of different. So this is totally a different project. And the songs are also totally different. Vocals are� I think someone who would hear Defend will not recognize that it's the same singer because the vocals in Defend don't have melody much at all.
Tuomas: You have and have had before other bands. In which one do you like to play the most?
Tume: Absolutely in this band. Now I'm doing exactly the kind of music that I would want to listen to, the kind of stuff I'd like to see being played in Finland. And now I've developed as mush as a musician and a songwriter and my concept of style has developed, it's exactly what I've always wanted to do, so absolutely this band.
Tuomas: Before it was probably not enough skills or something.
Tume: Maybe in Defend and Rebound� When I joined Defend, that band was already in existence. Then they asked me to be the singer. In a way, I didn't feel it so much was my own band. And I wasn't able to influence the song writing because back then I didn't know I could write songs. And in Rebound I only played drums.
Tuomas: Do all of you write lyrics?
Tume: No, I write 'em all. Actually I've said that I won't sing anybody else's lyrics. It's because I try to make 'em exactly what I want to say and it feels like I can't get the same power into the vocals if I'm singing someone elses' words. And because I'm writing the majority of the songs, I think that the words fit straight to the song too. That way it's a lot easier.
Tuomas: So the melody supports the lyrics better?
Tume: Exactly. And all those parts and everything. I'm writing all lyrics. I probably will not sing anybody elses' lyrics. Might sound like I'm a prick but maybe I am...
Tuomas: When I interviewed Mikko from Armageddon Clock, it came up that you have a band called Delta Force. What's that?
Tume: I've understood that it's a having fun band. It's damn fast trashcore stuff. There plays Ville Angervuori (from Rebound (RIP), Palokka zine and Pics From The Pit) guitar, and Marko plays bass. It's just like Chuck Norris hardcore stuff. I don't know how I always find myself in these joke bands almost without really wanting it. Once again I didn't know it was some kind of Chuck Norris praise. I just joined so I could play fast, and oh damn, once again some kind of joke.
Tuomas: How did you get into hardcore/punk?
Tume: Somehow when I was 12 or 13 years old it was like I wasn't interested in the so-called "normal life". First it was Pelle Miljoona and that kind of Finnish punk and then I started finding things out. Then I bought records from Sami S�rkk� and got to know some underground punk. Actually then I bought my first US hardcore records, Youth of Today, Sick of It All, and 7 Seconds from a second hand store. Actually it started from drunk punk stuff. When I was 13 years old, we formed a punk band called Trauma. We did our first demo at 13 years old and it was a good band, really. Tapsa played guitar and Presley Bastards' singer, Masa, was the vocalist. We listened to Misfits and everything. We practiced in a small outdoor sauna. We just hung there summers and winters and didn't do anything, just smoked cigarettes and sometimes drank booze. That kind of stuff because we couldn't get into other towns for punk gigs so it was little kind of "redneck" punk stuff, but we knew those Jyv�skyl� punks. When I was 15 years old it died out somehow. I never really did go back to the normal way of life, but there was some kind of searching going on. And when I was 17 they asked me to sing in Defend and after that I got into hardcore again and I started listening to records again and going to shows and that's how it's been from when I was 17 'til these days.
Tuomas: On A Solid Rock is "advertised" as the only sXe band in Finland. Are you more of a sXe band or just a band in which the members are straight edgers?
Tume: It's little bit incorrect thing, because actually we're not a straight edge band in that way�
Tuomas: Because you have never brought it forward?
Tume: Yeah, because this is not a thing that we're doing just to push straight edge to the masses or something. We are four guys and every one of us are living a drug-free-life. And to me that is a straight edge band. And to someone else it's not, because we're not outspoken about it and I'm the only one who X's up at times. Blaaah, who cares. Maybe when we started it was more important because there was no straight edge stuff in Finland.
Tuomas: So it's not impossible for someone who is not sXe could be in On A Solid Rock? Or is it?
Tume: It's a little bit complicated. I like very much that no one's doing controlled substances in our band. Actually I'd like to keep it that way. But it's not so important to the rest of the guys. To some of us it doesn't matter at all.
Tuomas: How did you find the edge?
Tume: When we were small punks I used to get drunk. I have such a bad boozehead (can't drink much booze) so I drank maybe three bottle of beer, passed out at 10 p.m., puked and passed out. Every time it was the same. I've been drunk maybe only two times when I didn't pass out or puke. So it was really mindless. I started to think very much that that was mindless. Just a little before when I turned to 17 I decided that I wouldn't drink anymore, that it's mindless to me. First it wasn't a straight edge thing, it started like the straight edge ideology was originally. It wasn't just a thing like...
Tuomas: Drawing X's on hands and not drinking.
Tume: Yeah, it really wasn't like a friend thing to me at all. I didn't see any sense in drinking and I quit it and maybe a year or two before that I started call myself sXe. Actually, the label doesn't matter that much. It just a cool hardcore thing. And don't get me wrong, there's not absolutely anything bad in it. I really don't mean that Xing up is stupid or something. But there's no need to over highlight, like...
Tuomas: "I'm straight edge and I'm more hardcore than you."
Tume: Exactly and "straight edge in your face." At least right now there's no social need for it. But in the 80's you'd get beaten up if you were straight edge, so it was understandable back then to be "in your face". Back then the social situation was so different, you got beaten up if you had an X on your hand, and now it's almost the contrary. At least right now I don't see a need to over highlight. But then again, I think there's nothing bad in representing something that you believe in. There's nothing bad if someone has a sXe shirt and X's in hands if it's not done with a "better than you" mentality.
Tuomas: On A Solid Rock has a commercial on Moon-TV (cable-channel in Finland)?
Tume: Yeah� We played on Moon TV's 5 year birthday gig, organized by Janne Tamminen (Endstand's singer) where there was a club called Revolution Rock, that's a kind of a club so it was just a punk gig. It was same at the time as Moon TV. Then Moon TV wanted to give us free commercial time with gas money. There was one guy from Palokka who is an editor for Moon TV and he told the camera operator to film our gig. After that the editor made it like commercial and it's been on TV ever since last Saturday. Of course I wouldn't have ever gotten into it if we had to pay for it. We didn't have to do anything for that. If someone calls it selling out, the commercial is that kind of publicity that we're not really interested in. Actually, it's a funny joke. I absolutely do not want to do anything with any mainstream stuff. The records we're selling are vinyls. Every basic dude can't buy the record. First, it's vinyl so he doesn't have a player. Second, you can't get those records only from distros so he doesn't know where to search for them. That kind of thing. Some people may call it selling out, but I don't really care because I know we haven't sold ourselves out in any way.
Tuomas: What do you think if some punk/hardcore bands sign to some big record label like EMI?
Tume: It's a really complicated thing. Essentially, I think that it's important in hardcore and punk that the profits are in the DIY scene and that it stays in the scene. It's really essential in my opinion. What kind of hardcore or punk would we have anymore if the bands are on Universal or in EMI or any other big label? DIY scene is the thing. Otherwise, you can see what's left from that thing. Then again, if we think about Social Distortion, we all know that Mike Ness is a genuine guy. If we think it, it's pointless if I, a 20-year-old middle class kid, start telling him that "you can't go to EMI", considering all the shit he's been through. In their case, I can see it's kind of cool. In that sell out thing it is that it's not necessarily selling out on their ideology if someone goes to a big label and they haven't ever preached against it. This whole subject is very complicated and I don't really have any good answer for it. But if I play in a non-punk band I think it makes sense to go to big label because what's the difference between working for a big company? On the other hand, I've heard so many stories about big labels that have cheated bands, left the bands in big debts and everything. I think the DIY scene is important so everyone doesn't jump in big labels, and that the punk and hardcore scene stays as an alternative. If it's considered OK that everyone goes to a big label, the big labels will take all the good bands and then the DIY scene's standard of music drops lower and lower and that's idiotic. I think it's fucking important that we have an opportunity to participate in a scene that is not based on greed because almost everything seems to be driven by greed and the marketing forces. We're doing this because we like it so much and for nothing else. It's so much more pure that way.
Tuomas: How about if the band sends demos to record companies and the only one who wants to release the record is a big label?
Tume: I think that if some hardcore/punk band releases their first publication from some big label, it's suspicious. Hell, for a hardcore/punk band it's almost always suspicious! I would never sign to any major label with On A Solid Rock. It should absolutely stay in the DIY-scene. I think it's important, that the DIY scene has at least as good bands as big record companies do so it could show an example that grass root level scene could have as good or better bands than those fucking big ones, who have a big market behind them.
Tuomas: Janne from Endstand said that at one gig in Jyv�skyl� in southern Finland that racism is rearing it's ugly head in the scene. Do you think that racism is a problem even at gigs?
Tume: I can't see it as a problem at least yet, but especially when some good foreign Oi! bands come to Finland there will be some nazis, but it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that it's a problem in the punk/hardcore scene. We should keep it so that it will not become a problem. So we don't have to be afraid of getting beaten up by some White Power guys at gigs. But you can't forbid WP guys from coming to gig, like you can come in. But if he starts fighting or heiling or some shit like that, he should be thrown out.
Tuomas: Any comments to end?
Tume: It would be cool if we got more bands in Finland that do their own thing from the bottom of their hearts. There are a lot of good bands here, but I miss being totally blown away by an upcoming, unknown band! Form bands and play your fucking hearts out.
Band's homepage: www.onasolidrock.cjb.net
Jussi - Bass
Pete - Drums
Tapsa - Guitar