MUEN: SO WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO SHOWS IN ITALY?

Juha Bandit: An Italian promotion agency asked us to come over. They had the proper connections to get our debut album "On your Skin" released in Italy. Therefore we are going to do four shows over there to promote the album. And to have a lot of fun since being together and on the road is what we enjoy the most.

MUEN: IN YOUR OPINION HOW HAS THE BAND MATURED OR GROWN SINCE THE FIRST EP IN 2004, "ROADKILLS!", AND BEING "ON YOUR SKIN" WAS JUST RELEASED IN JANUARY 2007, WHAT DIRECTION WILL YOU BE GOING IN WITH THE NEXT ALBUM?

Juha Bandit: First of all we have found the perfect line up which all of us have been looking for and dreaming of all our lives. There's five of us again since we will make Jussi, our rhythm guitar player on tour, a permanent member of Vanity Ink. I know this sounds corny but we have definitely become a family. We do and enjoy doing everything completely together. And that can be seen at our shows, five best friends having one party night after another. Or actually it can be seen wherever we are, when we talk one inker starts the line and the others finish it. One buys a beer and the others drink it up. I hope it can be heard as well on "On Your Skin" and on the albums to come. When we released our first ep "Roadkills" we weren't ready and we knew that. We just wanted something out there to sell at the gigs and to get better gigs so we released our demos as an ep. But I am still proud of that baby though. And now, we have just started to rehearse new riffs and stuff and it's amazing how fun it is to rehearse new songs again at the rehearsal pit. But it's too early to talk about any directions at this point. Let's write more songs first.

MUEN: JUAH, WHAT DO YOU USE AS FAR AS GUITARS AND AMPS, WE REALLY LIKE YOUR LOUD AND "IN YOUR FACE" STYLE OF PLAYING!

Juha Bandit: Thank you very much! I play Epiphone Les Pauls through a Marshall JCM 900 amp. I like to keep things simple and I don't really like effects, that's why I have only a couple of pedals in between. I could manage with only a Cry-Baby. But what comes to the guitar sounds on "On Your Skin" I also have to thank our drummer, Sam who played the second guitars on almost every song. And our sound engineer Kimmo Perkkio who is a good friend of ours knew exactly what kind of sounds we wanted so he created some secret tricks for us.

MUEN: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE LOCAL MUSIC IN AND AROUND HELSINKI, FINLAND? WHAT'S GOOD, AND WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD?

Juha Bandit: There's always been hundreds of great rock n roll bands in Finland and there still are. But I am a bit fed up with the million melancholic metal bands. Stop whining, have a drink!

MUEN: WHAT DOES THE BAND DO ON THEIR OFF-TIME, OTHER THAN MUSIC?

Vanity is a full-time job!

Interview by G. Cataline