Block Buster – Fresh Act July 2013
This indeed young band from Kuopio, Finland, made quite a good impression as warm-up for Los Bastardos Finlandeses in Helsinki. As labels have not discovered this talent yet, we decided to present those guys to you…
Who are you – could you introduce yourself and all of the band members?
Hello! My name´s Jaakko and I play drums for Block Buster, my brother Aarni (Metsäpelto) sings and plays guitar, Elias (Salo) is the lead guitarist, and on the photo Mikko (Tiirikainen) our old bass player. Mikko left the band a couple of weeks ago. No hard feelings or anything were involved. I guess he just felt like moving on to other things. We´re still good friends.
The new guy on bass is Joonas Arppe. We have known him couple of years already and he seemed to be the only logical choice for us! We have now played two shows with him and he´s been fucking great! He´s definitely the right guy for us with right attitude.
How did you – the original line-up – meet each other?
Well, obviously I met Aarni when he was born and Mikko is a longtime friend of ours. We met Elias at school. Aarni and I noticed his skills when he was rocking out to some AC/DC tunes with his guitar during a recess or something, and we thought instantly that he was the guy we had been looking for.
When and why did you form this band?
The band was formed in 2008. We just wanted to rock hard, show people what rock ´n´ roll is all about and stick it to the man. I can´t think of any other reasons behind forming this band.
How would you describe your musical style, and how did this style develop? what are your musical roots and influences?
I guess the best way of describing this style of music is straight-ahead-good-time-rock ´n´ roll, and basically it was born when Robert Johnson hooked up with the devil in the crossroads, and the rest is history! Haha!
Our influences are bands like Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, Motörhead, Airbourne, Rhino Bucket, Guns n´ Roses, The Darkness… even Extreme! Every band that rocks.
In which bands have you played before?
This is the first band for all of us, pretty much!
How do you write your music and lyrics, is it teamwork?
The songwriting process usually starts with a riff that somone comes up with, and we make it to become a complete song pretty much together as a band at rehearsals. Me and Aarni write the lyrics.
Is there a particular philosophy behind your works, or where do you get your inspiration from?
Not really any particular philosophies, the song just has to rock. We just want to play hard and have a good time and all that, so I guess that´s where the inspiration comes from.
How did you come up with the band name – is there a story behind it?
Actually I came up with it. I don´t remember it very clearly but I just figured out “Block Buster or Blockbuster” was a nickname for this massive bomb during the World War II and we all thought it was cool, so it kind of stuck. Despite the fact that I´m a big movie fan, in our case the name has nothing to do with movies or that video renting company! Haha!
What are your goals, dreams, what do you want to achieve with your music?
Our goal and dream is to play the rest of our lives and make a living out of it while touring the world.
You have one EP „Feel the Heat“ out – so where did you record it, how long did it take?
We sort of have recorded few demos here and there in the past but we think the first EP for us is “Feel The Heat” EP that we released last year. We recorded it in 2011 and the recording process itself didn´t take much more than just maybe two days because we always record live as a band. Solos and vocals get done seperately tough.
Are you looking for a record company or would you prefer to stay in the DoItYourself mode?
Yeah, we are looking for a record label to work with.
What are your live shows like? What´s the perfect venue/show for you?
Our live shows are full of energy and sweat. We give 100% of ourselves every time and every show is a great show as long as the crowd gets into it. I mean it´s needless to say that everybody wants to play bigger shows, but when the crowd is wild and really is into it, the actual size of the venue or the crowd doesn´t really matter, you know? The smaller and the bigger shows both have their own good sides. We haven´t done so many of the really big ones yet, tough.
Do you have a weird /absurd story to tell, e.g. about mishaps at a gig/tour?
Something weird and other little accidents happen all the time… There was one time when some of the band and the crew ended up hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere when the van broke down. It was like -25 celsius outside… That was pretty rough but funny at the same time. Atleast we made it to the gig. Thanks to those who gave us a ride and helped us out!
If you could freely choose a band to tour with, who would it be, and why?
I don´t know.. There are so many bands out there that would be fucking awesome to tour with! I thing I´ll go with Motörhead this time because they rock like hell and are still touring non-stop! Lemmy is the master.
What are your plans in the (near) future?
Our plan for the near future is to release another EP which will be called “Hammered & Smashed”. We recorded it in March with Joonas Parkkonen from the band Santa Cruz and he did great job as a producer also. The tracks are really soon ready for release and we are all excited. We also shot our very first music video just a while ago and it´s also going to be revealed soon!
Check out our Facebook page for upcoming shows and other updates!
www.facebook.com/blockbusterrocks
Block Buster Feel the Heat EP available at:
http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/block_buster/feel_the_heat/
