Интервю с Mr. Lordi

Mr. Lordi: We are the prettiest band on the planet

Lordi, the Finnish definition of horror and monster in the heavy metal, are coming to Sofia for Halloween to take their thrilling and freezing horror show to Bulgarian audience. The band started in 1992, when its lead singer, songwriter and costume maker started recording first demos under his current nick name Mr. Lordi, is well known for their monumental horror shows and monstrous consumes and masks. 

Only two weeks before Lordi’s show in Sopfia and one month after the release of their 8th studio album Monstereophonic (Theaterror vs. Demonarchy), Metal Hangar 18 had the chance to talk to the band’s master evil mind Mr. Lordi.  

MH18: Hello Mr. Lordi. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to your two weeks before your concert in Sofia on 30th of October.

How are you?

Mr. Lordi: Tired. I just woke up, one hour or so ago and I am still like… so, there might be interesting answers to your questions 🙂

MH18: Congratulations for your new album. How you decided to separate it into two parts? The second part is conceptually related, right? What is the story behind?

Mr. Lordi: The story is actually older than the band. This is a story I had in mind, I think it might be ’91 or ’92 – you know I started doing demos under the name of Lordi in 1992, so I think the story itself is older than the band. Originally I had the story line for a short movie or comic book and it was there for years. Once we decided to do a conceptual album I was thinking – OK, do I have any story ready? So Demonarchy was the one. It is a story about the last monsters of their breed. There is a werewolf, a vampire, a zombie and a witch. They are the last one of their breed and they live in co-existence. They live in the same town or village and they have these meetings. Everyone is allowed to share their territory and stuff like that. The story of Demonarchy is happening actually in 24 hours pretty much or even less – over one night and over one morning, and all hell breaks loose. They have their meeting and the people from the village, they attack the monsters. That is the story.

MH18: For each new album you release, you prepare new vision and costumes.  Your new costumes are divided into two parts, which represent each part of the album. Both parts are monstrous – what is the difference between the monsters?

Mr. Lordi: Well, this is more the way I see it. The right side of the monsters of these new costumes and masks is more like the classic Lordi look it has more like heavy metal and hard rock monsters look, but the other side of the costumes is more like a horror, not that much music influences into it. They still look like Lordi monsters, of course, but the idea was to show the two sides of the band also visually, not only musically. It is actually hard to design the new costumes because they are trademarks, you cannot change them too much. The characters need to be recognizable. On some of the members the whole split of the costumes works way better than on the others. But then again, if you think, my costume or the guitar player Amen’s costume is something like number 8 or number 9 of the costumes and it is getting harder and harder every time, whereas for Mona or Hella it is only the third costume and it is a lot easier to come along with the new ideas.

MH18: How long does it take to get ready for the stage? For example, how long it will take to put your makeup and wear your costumes for the concert in Sofia after two weeks?

Mr. Lordi: It will take 3 hours, it never takes faster. It is around two and a half hours for the face alone and the last half an hour is the costume itself. Well, some members can make it pretty fast within an hour or less than an hour if they are in a hurry, but for me it is the three hours and if the show is late that is usually my fault. It is usually the glue is not sticking or there is something wrong with the contact lenses, so usually if the show is late it is my fault, me personally and I have some malfunction with the makeup.

MH18: Hopefully everything will be fine in Sofia?

Mr. Lordi: Usually, it does.

Mr. Lordi, Sofia, 2009
Photographer: Nedko Ignatov

MH18: Have you ever appear on stage without costumes? How would you feel without them?

Mr. Lordi: Well, of course, I write the music and we rehearse without the costumes, but when we do public appearances we are with them. Let me put it this way – if you are police officer, you are not showing up for work without your uniform. I mean if you work at the NAVY you put your uniform on. It is not voluntary. We have not done any shows and we will do not do any shows without the costumes. It would not be the same. Of course, we could still do the records and we still could do the music, but for the live shows it ‘s not the same. My great idols KISS and Twisted Sisters, and WASP, they all took off their make up at some point of their carrier and even though if it sounds all the same, it was not the same band anymore. When it comes to rock, or let’s say – popular music in general, you never say you are going to “listen” to a band. When we are talking about popular music you are always going to “see” a band. There has to be something to be “seen”. So, it is half of the whole experience, when you go out and see a band to have something visual there. So, I am from that old school. I think that a rock band should look stars, they should look something bigger than life. I’ve never got the whole idea of bands getting up on stage in their t-shirts and jeans. They should look something different to your friends or a neighbours or yourself. That is how I feel it, this is the school I am coming from.

MH18: Let me take you back in time. How exactly did it all start? How did you decide to start with music and become rock monsters on stage?

Mr. Lordi: When I was at school at the early 90s, I started to make the demos under the name of Lordi. I was a singer in another band in my home town called Rovaniemi which is in the Arctic circle in Lapland, Finland and where I actually still live. I wanted to do demos on my own because the band that I was in started to change their musical style and they did not want to play my songs anymore. The band was getting more into speed metal and trash metal and then two years later into grunge, but I was still in there, so the band really did not like my stuff anymore. So, that is how I started doing my own demos under the name of Lordi, which is my nick name. So,I was doing Lordi demos and trying to approach a records company for few years and at the same time I started in the film school. When I was graduating from the film school in 1994 or 1995 I guess, I made my final exam with a music video for Lordi. Since I was a little kid I’ve been doing special effects and make up and I’ve been doing monster make up and costumes, so what I did for my music video was I had all my friends there and I put them in a monster makeup. I was the only person in the video who did not wear any mask and when I saw the final result I was like: “Fuck, it should be the other way around – everybody is looking so cool and I am the only one without a mask there.” Basically, that is how all that started.

MH18: What attracted you to horror genre? Who is your favourite horror movie or book? Those in which you still find your inspiration?

Mr. Lordi: Still and ever… I was fascinated by monsters and horror since I was a little kid, literally since I was seven years old. I remember the first thing I saw was the old Dracula movie and King Kong on TV. This was has to be something like 1979 or 1980 and ever since I’ve been crazy about the whole monster thing. My favourite horror book is Clive Walker’s “Book of Blood” and there was a series and I have a lot of favourite horror movies like Texas Chainsaw, Evil Dead, Evil Dead is my favourite movie of all times.

MH18: What or who inspired you to start doing it? Who are the groups or artists, albums that you would still listen after 20 years?

Mr. Lordi: This is easy because I still listen to the same albums I was listening when I was a kid. My first album was the Kiss’s “Destroyer” and it is still my favourite album. I like Alice Cooper, I like Twisted Sisters, I like Udo, King Diamond and I am still listening to those albums. I am really like 80s child and I am still living in the 80s in my head.

MH18: Let’s say you have the opportunity to choose one moment of human history which you could attend. When and where would you go?

Mr. Lordi: Oh, Oh! I would like to be in ’72 or ’73 to see KISS for the first time in New York. That would be awesome.

MH18: In your video greeting for Bulgarian fans you promise to shake Sofia for Halloween? On Halloween we all transform into monsters. What form will monsters take on Halloween? What you have prepared for us?

Mr. Lordi: What I can promise that it will be what I call “The prettiest band of the planet”. To put it simply, it will be monsters that are playing heavy rock – that is it for sure, that is what going to happen, that is what is happening and as I usually say: We are the prettiest band on the planet. That is how I feel.

MH18: Thank you for the interview. See you in Sofia.

Interview prepared by: Rhiannon и Wildchild

Interviewer: Rhiannon