Interview with Malja, Nordberg & Heikkonen at Ruisrock 2008 - English Version

(Lapko)

09.07.2008 von Melanie Schupp

At the Ruisrock festival in Finland we got the chance to ask the guys from Lapko some questions.

First I want to clear something… in our last interview you told me your bandname was some kind of nonsense. In another interview you said it’s a Russian name… so what does Lapko really mean?

Malja laughs

Nordberg: It’s a Polish surname.

Heikkonen: No it’s Russian.

Nordberg: …or Polish?

Malja: In the beginning it was some kind of nonsense but then we realised that it has some kind of meaning.

The sound on your new album „Young Desire“ seems to fit more than on „Scandal“. Do you think you just grew during the years or was it also the work of your producer Karo Broman?

Malja: I hope that we grew in a bit after releasing „Scandal“. Of course this was the very first time we had a pretty strong producer.

Heikkonen: We just have to remember that Karo wasn’t involved into the songwriting process. We were just for producing into the studio.

Malja: Karo was the one who made it happen after all.

Why did you choose Karo Broman to work with? …or did he chose you?

Malja: Kind of. We were searching for an interesting character who would be able to produce our album. There was some other guy we were actually looking for and we asked Karo for the number of this guy. And Karo told us „You should forget that guy cause I can do it better!“. So we were like „Okay if you can say it like that we will accept it and try it“. We did a few demos and they worked out well. So Karo produced our album. It was some kind of a fairytale story.

Nordberg: The point is that we’ve been playing together for so many years now and we had some other players in our band, too. But we never had a connection to these persons and then we found this connect with Karo. That was the point.

It sounds as if it all worked out well from the beginning…

Malja: Yes.

Nordberg: It was the first time someone else worked with us and it was really refreshing.

Heikkonen: For me the producing and recording process was almost like a stand up comedy show and we were a part of it.

Malja: Even if we laughed or not we were still there…

Heikkonen: And we had some responsibility in that show, too.

Malja: And I thought that we were extremely tight cause we have been doing music together for more than 10 years. I think we needed a really strong character to do the producing before we could accept that he’s worth it. And Karo’s producing methods were a bit more like kind of a mental way than a musical way. He said things like „Okay this is good but maybe you should try to behave different when you’re playing this song.“ Of course it’s not so black and white…

He wanted you to express the music.

Malja: Yes. Sometimes he was like „No no no no no! You sound like jerks. Do it in a different way! Find your attitude“. It wasn’t like you should play correctly and stay in tune. Or he could say something completely opposite. „It’s tone in tone you should do something more artistic!“

Heikkonen: I was recording drums and Karo was like „This is good but maybe you should drum some other style right now“.

Malja: Karo said „Just drink some more glasses of wine and then we will take another try.“

Nordberg: The whole recording process was like a… I don’t know…

Malja: Kind of „wine“-able.

Nordberg: We had a connection and Karo could fuck with us… like totally fuck with us.

Malja: And he got physical. If we were bad he was like „What the fuck!“ and went cried „noooo!“

Nordberg: The line between when we started to cry and like really not do anything…

Malja: Well you know the people we were working with before they had this silent rule that you can’t drink while a recording period. But Karo has a different way. He was like „I will not drink any Whiskey or strong alcohol but I do drink beer and wine. It makes me feel better and when I feel better I can do better producing and recording.“

Nordberg: And when we started we had to keep it up.

Malja: And I can tell you those guys (points at Nordberg and Heikkonen) they drank a lot of wine!

Nordberg: Yeah I remember those…

Malja (surpised): You remember something?!?

Nordberg: …those empty packages.

Malja: But maybe that was just some kind of a plus.

Nordberg: But I think we don’t have to do that on our next recording session.

Malja: No!

Heikkonen: No! We just felt like that we are doing this record called „Young Desire“. That was the whole idea of it. When we first met Karo we were really in love with that guy. But now we can’t repeat this experience.

Malja: I cannot underline that alcohol and kind of fucked thing anymore. But when we did it it belonged to this album called „Yound Desire“ full of passion without any compromises.

Heikkonen: Yes and now it’s perfect.

Are there any songs which didn’t make it on the record?

Nordberg: There are a few but I don’t remember those.

So there are no plans for releasing the dropped songs?

Heikkonen: No.

Malja: “Young Desire” was a conceptional album. That’s why we knew exactly which is the first song, which is the second and which is the last song on the record. And there wasn’t any space to put in any extra songs.
But maybe on the next album we’ll have the opportunity to change. Cause I can’t see us doing that kind of tight thing of a conceptional album all the time.

Heikkonen: I disagree. You know… I’d like to make ten good songs and not like twenty songs and ten of them are sh***. I mean where is the point? It’s more passion to do just a few good songs. And I don’t see any reason for doing any B-sides. They always suck.

Malja: And also it’s not so easy. The time in the studio is hard work in a mental way. So I think it’s better if you don’t have to spend too much time there. Because it’s not good for your health.

So how long have you been in the studio?

Heikkonen: It was a month.

Malja: Yes one month plus workouts.

Nordberg: But when we did “Scandal” we also spent the nights there. You couldn’t escape.

Malja: Yes the place was pretty isolated. We didn’t have any choice to go to a bar or do anything else. I slept near the base drum for six weeks. We were working for a few days and then we had a day off. And everytime we had a day off we went to the city.

How far was the next city?

Malja: It was like half an our drive. But we didn’t have our own car.

Heikkonen: Yes it was refreshing to take your clothes off and be really drunk and to swim in a fountain. But maybe when we are going to record the next album we will not sleep at the studio for another six weeks.

Malja: We are going to sleep at home... maybe.

Heikkonen: Maybe. And also six weeks of recording is too expensive. I think 4 weeks of recording should be enough.

Malja: and we are much better musicians today than we were one year ago.

Heikkonen: So hopefully we don’t need that much time anymore.

The cover of „Scandal“ shows a girl that keeps one eye shut. „Young Desire“ shows Nordberg who keeps both eyes shut. Is there any connection…?

Malja: In a way. When we started the idea of „Young Desire“ we tried to keep the connection between the covers of the albums. But still we tried to put in some new elements. „Scandal“ hasn’t had any colors in the booklet. And it also expresses that if you’re telling stories right away it’s not that interesting as if you’re hiding something. So we though it would make sense to put both hands on the eyes. And it’s a relation between the title and the cover. Cause when you are at the age of „Young Desire“ you don’t have to see the facts – you just enjoy it and it makes everything more fun.

Nordberg: But remember that it’s the worst cover of the month!

Is it? Who said that?

Nordberg: Vice magazine.

Malja: But maybe the next album cover will not show any hands.

Yes cause you just have two hands. So there is no more hand left to put on your mouth or so…

Laughter…

Malja: You don’t know what kind of hands we have… I guess you don’t WANT to know.

Nordberg: Cause we can’t handle the whole cover at all.

Heikkonen: We had a discussion about the new album and what kind of visual things we gonna put on it. But we haven’t found it yet. I think it should be something completely opposite than what we’ve done on our last records.
We started our demos and EPs with persons who wore our T-Shirts on the cover. And then we started this hand-thing.

Malja: But I see our next record will be more soft. Not so leather-like. Maybe that kind of Sting thing. Yoga and all that stuff.

Laughter…

Heikkonen: But I would also like to put in more punkrock.

Malja: Punkrock but not Emo.

Heikkonen: Maybe our next album cover will just be full of onions. They make you cry like all those Emo kids.

Nordberg: But I have this feeling that we are going to be more like Lemonheads.

Malja: Yes more artistic stuff.

Heikkonen: Like pictures and drawings.

Like such drawings (points at a paper with a tic tac toe game on it)

Heikkonen: Yes.

Nordberg (looks at the ‚X’ of the tic tac toe game): X is a symbol… I don’t know remember what it stands for…

For a hidden treasure on a map.

Nordberg: Yes, too but there’s something else…

Malja: But actually what does ‚Zero’ on your tattoo stand for? (points at Heikkonen’s tattoo)

Heikkonen: Zero is for… hmmm…

Endless.

Heikkonen: Well I’ve got my own meaning for it but what is the common meaning?

Zero… a new start.

Malja: I think zero is the number before one.

Heikkonen: I have the idea to a tattoo that shows an ‚X’, a triangle and a square. The next tattoo I’m gonna do is (mumbles something in Finish).

Malja laughs

Is what??

Heikkonen: Three years ago I was really drunk and we played this game where someone draws a picture and the other ones have to guess what it shows. So I drew a car and the mudguard was falling down. And it’s so cool I’ve still got the drawing. And I want to tattoo it.

This car…?

Heikkonen: Yes this picture means that you are really drunk.

Malja: But I guess you can’t get it when you’re not Finish. It’s a Finish expression.

Heikkonen: And it’s going to be a really cool tattoo.

Then the whole attetion is drawn to the gummy bears on the table. This discussion about which flavour is best will be left out here.

Who wrote that little story in your booklet and who wrote it?

Malja: Jonathan Mander wrote it down and it’s based on the stories we told him.

Nordberg: The idea was just to write this biography with stories which are too good to be true in a way. I read some stuff about Marc Bolan from T. Rex and it included so many cheesy stories. For example it said Marc Bolan used to be the coolest guy in London and we had that kind of attitude that we liked to present in our booklet story. And then this story was created.

Malja: In several ways bands have lots of not lies but over the top stories. We decided to try to put such a kind of story in a different way in our booklet.

Heikkonen: It’s really funny to read when you know the background. And there are no dark light just the bright lights.

Malja: The people who are listening to a band they are really into this band. And there is so much more behind the music in a mental way. That’s why it makes sense to build more Lapko world around our music. Cause it’s not just the music it’s our life.

Then Nordberg and Heikkonen leave to watch the show of their friends from Disco Ensemble. Malja stays to continue the interview.

You’ve already played some shows in Germany. How did you like it and how did the audience react?

Malja: Actually the German audience is more open to new bands. They are able to get into new things quickly. And Finish people are more like „Hm… what is this? They are crap!“. I don’t know if people in Germany are more open in general but it looks like from the stage.
We did a tour in Scandinavia… in Norway, Sweden and Denmark and our booking agency warned us about Swedish people. But for me I thought they were better than many other audiences. We have played so many show so far in Finland and everytime we play outside Finland it’s something new and fresh… it’s like the first weeks with a new girlfriend. Maybe that’s why it seems to be so much better.

But you are doing quite well in Finland don’t you?

Malja: Yes it’s okay. You know we are not playing at the main stage. Today we played at the tent.

Yes but there were so many people even though it was 12 am!

Malja: Yes we’ve got many fans in Finland. But it’s pretty hard to get the opportunity to play at a Finish festival. I don’t like to talk about business or money but there are so many new bands in Finland which can be booked for cheap. That’s why I was very honoured and happy to get the chance to open this day at Ruisrock. And even though we haven’t released anything new in a few month. It’s more than a year ago when we released „Young Desire“. We had a plan that we are not going to play more than five shows in Summer but then it just happened that we got some good opportunities. And it’s important for us to do those shows to get some money to go on tour in Europe.

Yes hopefully you’ll be back in Germany for some shows soon!

Malja: Actually we are planning to be back in Autumn.

On your own tour or as support act?

Malja: I don’t know yet. There was loads of talk about with whom we are going to play or if we are going to do our own tour. But I guess we are not going to do our own headliner tour because our reputation in Germany is not so big yet. But we already looked for bands to tour with cause it would be nice to go on tour with a German band.

Have there been any scandals on your „Scandal“ tour?

Malja (laughs): When we are moving there are always loads of little scandals behind the scenes. But I think back in the days we used to spend more times in bars and had like things as we talked about the „Young Desire“ sessions. I guess there were some… not really scandals. But now we took a more healthy direction. I mean Lapko and scandals is always about make yourself out of your mind.

Can you tell me what the special thing about Lapko is? You know I’ve got the record and there is something… but I don’t find words so express it…

Malja: I think for me… I often thought that it must much more easy to play in a band that just plays their music. But Lapko is so much more. We are not just playing in this band and that’s all… for example I had a broken family when I was young. And in a way I tried to built kind of a new family. And those guys… well I’m not comparing them to my parents but they have created a feeling that is familial. We have this connection… you know what I mean… we are kind of a family but not like parents. It’s like we are not just friends, we are more than friends. And that is something that I hope you can hear from our music. The „Lapko atmosphere“. And that is that particular feeling that we are proud of. And that’s one of the main challenges – to try to move that atmosphere for example to Germany. To people who don’t know us well yet. Because it’s something you can’t describe it’s mental and you can feel it when listening to our music.

Thanks, that helped me much!

Malja: Me too. Cause this was actually the first time I tried to put it in words… people asked me this question before but I couldn’t really tell them.

Cool that’s a big honour for me.

Last question: Is there any question you can’t here anymore?

Malja: Not questions in general. We’ve heard loads of like Lapko sounds like Placebo or Tool. Of course it makes sense to drop out a few names if you launch a new band. But those two names always follow us.

But don’t people ask about your bandname often?

Malja: Yes of course. But I guess if a band has a name like us it’s natural that they ask this.

Then it’s time to leave and let Malja follow his two friends to watch the Disco Ensemble show. We’d like to thank Lapko for giving us so much time for the interview. Also we’d like to thank Silke and Johannes from Fullsteam Records who made this interview happen!!