Feb. 2006
After their gig in Nosturi, Helsinki Antony and J-V answeared some questions to our editor Nathalie Mohr.
Would you mind to introduce the band, because you are not sooo famous in Germany?!
Antony: Yeah, I'm Antony from Machine Men, I'm singer...
J-V: Yeah, I'm J-V, I'm guitarplayer, we are Machine Men, we play Heavy Metal...
I don't know if you played other festivals than Earthshaker Fest and Wacken Open Air, but how was it in general?
Antony: Last summer? ...yeah in Spain there was Metalway... we played
in Spain actually one week after Wacken and I think it was good
J-V: I love the festivals you know you are playing there and you can
see other bands too and there's some festival feeling together with all
the people and hang around... and drink...
Oh, no finnish people don't drink any alcohol...
J-V: no, no, we never drink..
Well how was the tour with Sonata Arctica for you?
Antony: It was really great, it was out first tour. I loved it, it was
really great to be on stage, to play on stage, hang around, drink
*whistles* and I loved it and I want to do it as much as I have
possibility to do it.
J-V:It was great to see new places it was great, because when we
played, all venues were sold out and the time when we started to play
there were lots of people so it was great...
And good promotion...?!
J-V: Yeah, absolutely
Well how did the fans like the new album?
Antony: In Finland?
Yeah, and how was the press reaction and so on?
Antony: hmmm
J-V: The press was really good for us, we had only good reviews.
Antony: I haven't seen any bad review on this album, it was all, you
know 9 out of 10, 4 out of 5, very good reviews. I think that hopefully
people have liked this album cause I don't follow them, you know I font
follow internet or something so much, how people like our album. When
we play live it's very good cause there are always atleast three people
who like it. Sometimes more sometimes less, but it's good always.
J-V: We used to play places where are just few people in Finland. It's
normal for a small band so we have to do it because if you want to grow
bigger...
...you have to play live...
J-V: Yeah, yeah, yeah
What's the meaning of the album-artwork?
Antony: There's not really a meaning. I think it fits to the lyrics you
get the kind of feelings from the cover, which you get from the lyrics.
I think it fit's to the lyrics very good. It's good, I love the cover.
But there's not a theme.
Yes, but it's very different to the first cover and reminds me a little bit of the artwork of Rammstein's "Mutter"-album.
Antony: Yes, I think you can see the suffering and dark things in the
cover and those things are in the lyrics also. I think it's the right
cover for the album.
How do you approach songwriting in general?
Antony: Our drummer is our main songwriter actually and I write the lyrics and J-V writes songs.
J-V: so mainly it's our drummer, him (Antony) and me, more or less, our
bassplayer and the other guitarplayer they don't write anything, they
just play.
Why did you choose the bandname Machine Men?
Antony: Eh, I don't remember I have no idea where it came from. I think
it mind have came from the song of Bruce Dickingson's solo album, but I
think it was, you know we had many names what to choose, then Machine
Men was the name ... and it fits to us, to out music well so it was
good choise and I dont regred it. It's a greate name.
J-V: You have to google the name Machine Men, you find lots of gay porn
pictures where are really muscled guys..
Did you know it before or after?
Antony: After. (Don't try to, you will only find pages related to the band by now..., comment of the editor)
What do you expect from your career?
Antony: few beers...
You can drink without career also...
J-V: I hope that our future is that we can play gigs and make albums
that's all. I don't think about beeing a really big rock star selling
millions of albums, but I really hope that we can, you know, have the
chance to play the music which we want and make songs, that's all I
want.
Antony: I think it's... eh... oh... nothing, I don't remember, I say later...
Are there ideas for the new album already?
Antony: I think we will enter the studio for the next fall.
J-V: At the end of summer hopefully we will make new album. At the
moment we are writing new songs, we are playing shows and at the same
time we are writing new songs...
What do you think of your homecountry?
J-V. I love it... Well what I think about Finland?
Yes, because if you ask a German one you would get a different answear...
J-V: I love Finland, of course, it's a good country to live, it's very small country...
Antony: I think in Finland we are far away from these nature desasters there's no tsunami or earthquakes...
What about idols?
Antoy: Eh... I like to watch it...
No I didn't mean the TV-show, I meant idols in general, your idols!
Antony: My idols? Ah, I thought the TV-program. Ehm... my mom... I don't know... Bruce Dickinson...
J-V: Your dog
Antony: Yeah, my dog, he's crazy sex-maniac dog. It's a small Jack-Russel, he's really wild his name is "Randy"...
What do you think about internetmagazines?
J-V: I really like it.
Antony: Yeah, they are good thing.
J-V: It's really good thing especially for the smaller bands, you have,
you know publicity because internet is a good place. It's good because
if you make a page everybody can see it. Everybody can see: "oh there's
a new band, I haven't heard it but..".
Antoy: And you dont have to buy magazines it's also quite hard to get
an interview with bigger magazines, if you are a smaller band.
J-V: The internet is a good thing...
Well some Brainstorming:
Koskenkorva: Antony: It's good, I think it's eh... I like it... one of my favorite drinks
Football: J-V: He's a football-player
Antony: Yeah, I used to.
J-V: You are really fast, you can really run like hell.
Antony: Yeah, but I'm too fat now, I'm slow...
But I wasn't in the main league, I think it was forth division...
Yeah.. I like to play.
Do you like to watch it too?
Antony: It depends on which teams are playing. I like english football,
it's quite fast and straight football. They aren't passing all the time
like italian these f**king... you know it's like spanish football, it's
like acting. When you hit them a little bit like this, they are: "ohh
no, I'm hurt!". This kind of thing so... and finnish football sucks
it's... I don't like it, they are not good.
They aren't at worldcup...
Antony: No, no, no.
What about your Fazer chocolate?
That is it that is very good that is best chocolate that is best. Do you like it?
It's a bit different, but I really like it (meanwhile I'm addicted
to it ^^, comment of editor). But you don't get Fazer in Germany.
Oh OK... What a shame...
Yes, you have so much german stuff in supermarkets, but we don't have finnish stuff.
J-V: But you can buy strong alcohol in supermarkets in Germany. We
cannot buy itÄs illegal to sell. Only in special stores, but in
Germany you can buy whiskey everywhere...
Hmm I don't really care about it as I don't drink alcohol ;).
Well some final words?
J-V: Drink beer, drink beer, drink beer...
Antony: Oh god I'm bad in this final words. The same thing I'm always saying: wine is fine, but vodka is quicker...
J-V: I have one too: Ich möchte Fotze (no comment needed ^^, comment of editor)
interview: Nathalie Mohr
photos: Tommi Anttonen / Machine Men
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