Indica
My First Idol Was Mozart

11.04.2014

Genre-defying artists have always been critics’ darlings, but their way to the general public may sometimes be long and winding. Indeed, what kind of audience to you project for an all-female band that is produced by Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish and that puts together rock, pop, folk and gothic in a daring and totally unique mixture? Let us just assume that the wise men and Nuclear Blast Records know better, for they would never sign a band that they have no idea how to market. Strangely enough, Indica’s Nuclear Blast debut, “A Way Away” (2010) was welcomed the most by metalheads and hard rockers, who were fascinated by the album’s fairytale-like atmosphere and the charismatic voice of Jonsu, who is totally unlike a typical female vocalist in metal, but still fitting perfectly with the vibe that the record created. For this kind of audience, Indica’s new record “Shine” would be quite a challenge: preserving a fair share of the familiar vibe, the band dropped all of its folk and gothic overtones and came up with the sound that is dangerously close to pop music, or pop rock, if you will. We got in touch with Jonsu to find out what’s behind such dramatic changes.

I have read an interview for your fansite, which was made in December 2011, and you said that you were doing pre-production for the new album at that time. Why did it take two more years to complete the album? What made the process so lengthy?

There were some problems with making this album. First of all, we wanted to work with a German producer, Roland Spremberg, and it was not easy to get us together – he was in Germany, and we were in Finland. Another thing was that the album was ready more than a year ago, but we had to wait until all contracts are signed so that we could release the album.

Why did you choose Roland Spremberg to be the producer this time? As far as I understand, working with him was not easy…

(laughs) Yeah, it was actually a lot of fun. I like him, he’s really tough, but he’s really talented, and he was really nice to us. I’m joking that sometimes he was too tough, but now I think it was nice to work with him. The reason why we chose him was that we worked with him on the last album, “A Way Away”, and he was really good. Especially for this project, where we wanted to go to a bit more pop direction than the last time, we needed this kind of production.

This time the English album comes out first, and the Finnish version (titled “Akvaario” – ed.) will follow. Does it mean that you were also writing in English this time?

Well, both albums are coming out on the same day, 24th of January. This time I wrote the English lyrics first, then there was a one-year break when I didn’t write anything, and then I wrote the Finnish lyrics last summer. It was a bit weird because I used to be writing in Finnish at first, but now it’s the opposite way.

What language is easier for you to write and sing in?

Oh, that’s definitely Finnish! It’s so natural for me to write, and when I write lyrics in Finnish, I usually write alone, but when I write in English, I usually work together with somebody. I can speak English, but it’s not my mother language, so there’s always something to take care of when recording in English or writing in English. When I record in Finnish, I hardly think of any of the things such as pronunciation, etc.

How much are the English lyrics different from the Finnish versions of the same songs? Do you do close translation, or are there variations between the two?

Basically there are variations between those versions, because I wrote the English lyrics almost 1.5 or maybe even 2 years before the Finnish lyrics, and in 1.5 year-period many things happen in life. I felt like I really wanted to write new stories, and I didn’t see any reason why I would have to do translations.

The first single from “Shine” is “A Definite Maybe”. Why did you choose this particular song, and how much does it represent the rest of the album?

To be honest, I wouldn’t have chosen that song. We had discussions about it with the record label, because I think it doesn’t represent the album at all. It’s the most poppish song on the whole album, it’s not really my favorite song on the album, and I think it was a pretty strange thing after “A Way Away”, which is a far less pop album than this one, to take the most poppish song off it, but this time the label didn’t agree with me or with the band at all. They really wanted to have that kind of thing, and it was the decision of the record label. Of course, they know more about the market in Germany and the meaning of the album is to come out in Europe, and the Finnish label decided on the song to be the single off the Finnish album. But for the English album I disagreed, I would have chosen a different song.

Judging by “A Definite Maybe” and by the album cover, “Shine” seems to be more light-hearted than “A Way Away”. Is this a correct impression, or do you also have any darker and more melancholic songs on the new record?

There are definitely darker songs on the album, such as “Hush Now Baby” and “Lucid”. Of course, I like writing melancholic songs. Nevertheless, I do think that “Shine” is a happier album and a more poppish album than “A Way Away”. After “A Way Away”, there were many different things happening in my life, I felt pretty tired and I needed to write something more relaxing and something that would make me feel free.

Are your songs autobiographical? Do you mostly write about yourself or do you set your imagination free, so to say?

Well, it depends on the album. For the Finnish album I wrote a lot about the things that happened in my life at that time. But on the English album there are also some other characters. Anyway, I write on the subjects that I feel closely connected to or in some way interested in, but I wouldn’t say that all the songs are about me. Some of the songs are more personal, for instance, “Run Run” or “Missing”, maybe also “A Definite Maybe” - at some point in my life I was an example of that attitude, but by the time of releasing the album I felt that I was not that person anymore.

You mentioned in a few interviews that the song “Shine” started with a dream that you once had. Is it something that happens to you from time to time – I mean seeing dreams that you remember afterwards and that inspire you? Or was it a unique occasion?

Well, it was the only example when I would hear a whole song in my dream and then remember it. I use my dreams a lot in difficult times, because sometimes I need some kind of answers I try to address my subconsciousness through dreams, and it always works. When I encounter something that’s really bad I pretty often use dreaming. You just need to be aware of yourself all the time.

I’ve always wondered what inspired you to write “Lilja’s Lament” off “A Way Away”? A Russian classical writer, Maxim Gorky, once said, “I owe to the books all the good things that I have in me”, but in this song, as far as I understand, you argue that some of the books may not be so harmless…

The whole song is about the person who just reads and reads and she kind of drowns in her own imaginary world to the point where an illusion becomes her normal life. This is the same kind of situation that is happening pretty often in life nowadays. Kids are playing video games so much or just watching TV, and they start living in that fantasy world. That’s pretty scary.

‘Shine” is already your second release for Nuclear Blast Records. How much has your audience changed since you started working with them? Do you think they succeeded in bringing Indica to a new audience?

For sure, I think after we started working with Tuomas Holopainen and Nuclear Blast, we got a lot of new fans… I don’t know, that’s a little difficult situation, because I’m not a metal fan, and the album is more of a pop album, or pop rock, if you want to call it that, but Nuclear Blast is so concentrated on the heavy metal market, that most of my interviews are for heavy metal magazines. (laughs) That’s a weird situation! Of course, I love to do interviews for any magazines, but their target group might be pretty different from what we are.

I’m probably poorly informed, but I haven’t heard about any line-up changes in Indica. How do you manage to stay together for so long? Don’t you ever have arguments in the band?

Yes, we do. We had an argument at the last rehearsal, because they had a radio interview with Jenny (guitar) and they talked about some stories that the girls didn’t want to talk about. Pretty often there are some arguments, but usually we are arguing about minor things and somehow we are able to stay together. Some of the girls have had babies, and while they had their mom holidays, we had some other people to do their job for a while, but then they came back. It’s like a family, we have been together for more than 10 years, and it would be really weird if someone leaves the band and we get somebody else.

That’s probably a trivial question, but anyway: what were your influences in the early days? Who or what made you interested in music and singing?

Ah, that’s an interesting question! My first biggest idol was Mozart, because I only played classical music when I was younger. He was my idol and I was really pissed off because he was a very good composer already when he was 7 or 9 years old, and I thought, “Cool! What can I do? I should get better!” (laughs) Actually I didn’t hear much rock music or pop music until I was 12 years old, and then I fell in love with a Finnish band called… (due to poor connection, we were not able to decipher the band name – ed.) I would say that that one artist and that band were the biggest things that really came into my life. They made me hungry to have my own band.

Everybody knows that you play violin. But there was an interview for your fansite where you mentioned playing theremin. That’s a pretty unusual instrument, how did you manage to learn it? Do you play any other instruments?

My main instrument is piano/keyboards, then I’d say violin, I play guitar not so well. I was really passionate for theremin, and I started playing it just practicing myself, but in the end, I didn’t really have the time, and I think it’s an instrument that you have to play a lot to make it sound really good. I think I played it on some shows during our last tour, but I haven’t been playing it for a while, so let’s see… I love many instruments, and it’s really hard to find the time, because you always need a definite amount of time to play it really good.

Indica has a lot of videos, some are very funny, like the one where the band is driving an old minivan (“Valokeilojen Vampyyri”), and some are more serious. What’s your favorite video that the band has done so far?

Wow, I have to think! At the moment one of my favorite ones is the one that is probably going to be released in January, it’s for the second Finnish single called “Suunta on vain ylospain”. Talking about the old videos, maybe “Pahinta tanaan” is one of my favorites.

“A Way Away” had a very cool limited edition in an original digipack and with a bonus-DVD. Is anything like that planned this time?

Well, I have to say that Nuclear Blast has been responsible for these limited editions. I’m not sure about what’s going to happen with this album.

It seems like almost every Finnish band has played in Russia. Have you considered performing in Moscow or St. Petersburg? Have there been any invitations?

We would really love to come there, definitely. I want that to happen, too, and I hope it will happen with the “Shine” album.

As far as I understand, nothing has been discussed so far, right?

I haven’t heard about it. Our European gigs and German gigs are handled by Contra Promotions, they are in change of our touring.

Speaking about live shows, in October, you played a few gigs in duo with guitarist Emppu Suhonen. How did they go? What material did you play, was it Indica songs or some other songs?

It has been very nice to work with her and to perform with her. She has stood in with Indica for maybe five or six shows while Jenny was on her mom holiday, and we have continued our relationship since then and sometimes played together. We play whatever, sometimes we play Nirvana, Placebo, Green Day, Cranberries, bands of that kind, and we also throw in some Indica songs.

Earlier this year you were a judge at an event called Helsinki Hard Rock Rising. Can you say a few words about it?

Yeah, it was very interesting. I was a judge in a band competition, I heard many new bands and I was really surprised how good some of those people were. There are so many great bands out there and the good thing about those competitions is that you get to know the bands that you have probably never heard about.

Your new album is coming out next month, and this is naturally a big thing for any recording artist. But apart from making music and recording albums, do you set any major goals for Indica? Where do you want to take the band after the release of “Shine”? What else is out there for you to achieve?

At the moment, I really don’t know. I don’t know where the album will take Indica, I kind of live one thing at a time, so let’s see how the audience will like “Shine”, and we’ll continue from there. I would say that I do music as long as I survive off it. Let’s see, you never know with this industry. At the moment, I don’t set any big goals, I just want to stay longer. I enjoy doing music and I can do it as long as there is an audience for it.

Indica on the Internet: http://www.indica-music.com

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Roman Patrashov
December 19, 2013
© HeadBanger.ru