MAPLE
CROSS
Maple Cross is one of the
most interesting bands I had the chance to listen to lately! I think you
should all skip the prologue and carefully read the interview. Afterwards?
One move only... Go and order "Next Chapter". Believe me! It's an album
you will be proud to have in your collection even 20-30 years after, since
it has the ability to sound classic and modern at the same time in a very
well balanced and mature way!
1.FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATIONS
FOR THE "NEXT CHAPTER"! IT'S AN INCREDIBLE ALBUM!
Marco: Thank you! I don't really
know what else to say because comments like that make me really humble.
I have to say we are damn happy and proud about what we have created. We
set out to do an album we could enjoy for years to ome even though we don't
really think these things too much when we write music, but I think we
achieved everything we wanted. Reactions are also the way they should be,
people either love it or hate it! Thank you once again for your kind words!!!
2.SO, PLEASE POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE READERS.
Marco: Our history is quite long
and there's been several line up changes for various reasons, but there's
never been any bad disputes between band members, life just works that
way. Anyways, Our roots go all the way back to 1985. It wasn't until '88
that we started to use the name Maple Cross and we recorded our first actual
demo called "Thirteen Witches...But One Of Them" the same year. We released
our first album called "The Eighth Day Of Creation" in 1991 and that release
ended an era in our musical history. On that album we used lots of different
instruments to create this weird atmosphere and metal mayhem. We used instruments
like saxophone, trumpet, piano and mouth organ, but after the album was
released and it was time to tour we found out those guys weren't always
available to play with us and on top of that it was damn expensive to take
10 people on the road and we lost few gigs because clubs couldn?t afford
to pay us. In 1994 we recorded "Cool Maggots" demo and to me that was the
best release we ever recorded with the original line up and sadly the last,
because in 1996 we decided we needed a break, but instead of a short break
we never retutned to our rehearsal place. When Maple Cross returned in
2001 I was the only one left from the original line up, rest of the guys
weren't able to join the ranks and our bass player Nico had already moved
to Helsinki wich is some 700 km south from Oulu where are from. They wished
me luck and I just called Sami, Late and Ollari if they wanted to help
me out. They all wanted to do it and then couple of months later we found
Aki to take on the drummers job. Early 2003 we released our second album
called Next Chapter. After that we toured Finland and the UK and played
few summer festivals here in Finland. September 2003 we sat down and talked
about future and it just hit us that we couldn't continue with this line
up anymore and guys had already helped me more than I had asked for and
it was time for them to concentrate on their own things. So, it was me
and Aki left from the Next Chapter line up, but it took us only couple
of days to find the replacements and the new line up and hopefully permanent
is Marco R.J. vocals, Aki drums, Sami bass, Avather (from Thyrane) guitar
and J. Henttunen (from Sethery) guitar. We knew from the beginning that
the Next Chapter line up wouldn't last, but still it was a hard decision
for all of us since we had a very good chemistry in the band. We've known
each other for a long time, but it was time to move on and let the guys
concentrate on their other band Embraze. Embraze suffered a lot because
of Maple Cross because guys gave 100% to Maple Cross and Embraze was left
on the background. In a way things worked out a lot better in the end because
I still get to write music with my close friends because the new members
are my long time friends. Now we are in a situation where we can actually
co-operate with Embraze and tour together with them and that's just what
we are going to do at the end of this month. We are doing a mini tour with
Embraze and Lambs in 25th - 28th of February and in may we are doing another
tour with them. In april we'll tour UK so, we are busy putting our live
set together at the moment.
3.I WROTE IN MY REVIEW THAT YOU MANAGE
TO BLEND IN CONTRASTING ELEMENTS IN YOUR MUSIC AND YET THE FINAL RESULT
SOUNDS REALLY HOMOGENEOUS AND ORIGINAL. WHERE DOES THIS ORIGINALITY DERIVE
FROM? DO YOU HAVE DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS AND DIFFERENT MUSICAL TASTES? COULD
YOU NAME SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS?
Marco: It's a result of many different
things. I'm from the old days of metal and grew up listening to bands like
AC/DC, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and from there I went to bands
like Slayer, Metallica, Infernal Majesty and Onslaught and again moved
to more extreme bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Carcass, Deicide and after
that picked up black metal. So, you see I like all kinds of metal music
excluding power metal and not just one genre. I also listen to some good
old rock 'n' roll and I think if you are open minded about the music you
listen to you tend to be a better in writing your own shit. Aki's path
is quite similar to mine, but Sami, Late and Ollari are younger than us
and even though they grew up listening to all kinds of metal the difference
is still huge and they don't like the more extreme death and black metal.
They never saw the real underground metal scene so, they lack that certain
attitude I have and in our case that's only good, because we don't need
five like minded persons in the band, it would be fucking boring and so
would be the music. One major point is the fact that guys grew up listening
to Maple Cross and they were hanging around our rehearsal place back in
the early 90's so, they already knew what it was all about in this band.
Well, My all time favourite band is deffinately SLAYER and the very best
album ever is surprise, surprise, Reign In Blood. I already mentioned some
of my fave bands but I could add Possessed, Napalm Death, Faith No More,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and Cannibal Corpse to that list. There's more but it would
get boring to read my list.
4.WHERE WAS THE ALBUM RECORDED? WHO
WAS THE PRODUCER? DID IT TAKE YOU A LONG TIME TO COMPOSE AND RECORD THE
SONGS OR NOT? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL RESULT? IF YOU COULD CHANGE
SOMETHING NOW, WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
Marco: We went to a cabin up north
in Lappland and set up the studio there. I must say we made a wise decision
because at least I hate being in studio, but over there the atmosphere
was relaxed and there was more to do than just sit around and wait for
your own turn. I think we're going to do the same time next time too and
since we produced it ourselves and had as much time as we needed it didn't
matter where we worked as long as we were happy. I don't remember exactly
how long we recorded, but all in all it took us something like four weeks
to finish it. We wrote the material in a year and a half, I think. We actually
wrote fourteen songs, but we left out three of them. Not because they were
bad, but because they just didn't fit the mood of the album. In the end
I'm really happy how it turned out and I wouldn't change a thing!
5.YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLE SINGER WITH
VOCALS SOUNDING LIKE THE ANGRY VERSION OF ROB HALFORD WITH A SLIGHT UDO
TINGE. HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IS THE RIGHT SELECTION OF A VOCALIST?
WHERE DOES HE FOCUS ON OR WHAT DOES HE THINK WHEN HE SINGS AND MAKES HIMSLEF
SOUND SO FULL OF RAGE AND PASSION?
Marco: Well, thank you. Once again
I don't know what else to say. I can only speak for myself, but vocalist
can ruin a band. There's been many promising albums musically, but I've
hated the vocals so, I haven't listened the album ever again. Usually I
throw them to carbage or give them away to someone who can tolerate it.
That's how it's always been with me and I'm afraid I won't change, but
why should I change? I don't know how other bands work, but we write the
music first. Everyone contributes as much as possible and when we've finished
the song we tape it. I'll take it home and listen to it carefully and if
I feel something needs to be changed I?ll take the tape back to next session
and we'll work more on the song. After it's complete I'll just listen to
it as much as possible and write down topics about possible subjects for
lyrics. Usually I just know what kind of lyrics the song needs to make
it complete and after I've decided the topic I'll try to find the way I
sing and the melody (believe it or not, but every single scream has a melody
in my head, heh heh) before I write the lyrics. When I know what I want
I start to write the lyrics verse by verse and produce the whole vocal
department in my head so, I'm ready to shout next time we have a rehearsal
session and I can already work with different moods at home. To me that
works, because that way I can make sure everything I do with my voice has
a meaning and reperesents my lyrics the way I want it to. Usually I write
about things that have happened to me or to people I know or things that
I care about and that makes it easier for me to express different emotions
through my vocals.
6.COULD YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS
THE MAIN SUBJECTS THIS ALBUM DEALS WITH? WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE LYRICS?
Marco: Most of them are very personal
and basically are taken from different periods of my life and on Next Chapter
I just wanted to release my anger and say fuck off to few things from my
past. I also wrote about some shitty things that happened to my friends
and their families, because some of those stories are fucking ugly and
to be honest made me hate religious bastards even more. Couple of songs
were inspired by newspaper articles. I read about a man who died in a hospital
here in Finland and nobody in his family was informed. He was still conscious
right before he died and he even knew he would die and no one showed up
so, imagine what he went through and what his family went through after
all that shit. Another newspaper inspired song is about serial killers
and how they twist everything on their head and really think they are the
victims, fuckers! Most of the songs are very antireligious because I just
hate those fuckers and how they want to dictate a persons life and take
advantage of a sorrow in a family. All different religions get their fair
share of shit from me. One song is about a football club I support and
that's basically my way of saying that after all this negative shit there
is happiness in my life. There's couple of songs about stupidity and mediocrity
too. So, I wrote about things I despise and turned them into something
positive. I don't want to tell you what certain song is about, it's up
to a listener to find out, but to put it short you could say Next Chapter
is about celebration of life without religions and stupidity in a football
chant, heh heh.
7.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY YOUR LABEL?
WITH WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU SELECT THE LABEL? WHICH ARE YOUR GOALS AS A
BAND?
Marco: Next Chapter is distributed
by Firebox and I must say we have a great working relationship with them.
They've done everything possible to promote the album and I couldn't ask
for more. Verikauha Records is our own label so there's never any problems
with us, heh heh. We had many options how to release Next Chapter, but
in the end we decided to start up our own label and sign a distribution
deal with Firebox because this way we have more control over all aspects
of promoting and how everything is conducted. We haven't decided how we'll
do it with the next album, but that's not even important yet.
8.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK
YOU GOT THIS FAR? WHICH IS THE BEST AND WHICH THE WORST REVIEW YOU HAVE
RECEIVED? IS THERE A COMMON ELEMENT YOU SEE REPEATED IN ALMOST ALL THE
REVIEWS YOU RECEIVE?
Marco: There's is a certain pattern,
either people love it or they hate it and I think that's great!! The way
it should be! I don't want to receive comments like "this is ok, nothing
great, but nothing bad either". I would just hate it if we were just another
metal band who doesn't even wake up any ideas or reactions in a listener.
Love or hate us, it's all great with me. There's been lots of great reviews
and I can't remember them all, but there was one review in midnightmetal.com
that made me smile, one thing especially; "I’d be willing to go so far
as to say, fuck In Flames, give me Maple Cross." In my mind we are not
even in a same genre as In Flames and here he is telling people we are
better. Don't get me wrong, it's flattering, but I think you shouldn't
put two bands in a same line to compete especially if they have so little
in common like we have with In Flames. I can't remember the worst ones,
because I usually read them through, smile and move on, but I do remember
few reviews where my vocals were critisized, but hey, everyone's entitled
to their own opinion and that hardly really surprised me because there?s
no way in hell everyone likes the way I shout. That's just impossible and
I'm totally cool with that, but yeah, the feedback has been great in general.
9.NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ARTWORK.
I LIKE IT! IT IS PLAIN AND SIMPLE. MINIMALISTIC AND I LIKE IT BECAUSE OF
THIS! IT'S A BIT TIRING WATCHING ALL THE METAL RELEASES WITH OVERLOADED
ARTWORKS. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO DO THAT?
Marco: We wanted to keep the artwork
simple. We wanted the whole thing; music, lyrics, artwork and basically
everything with the album to be this whole complete piece of work. We think
that our music is pretty damn interesting and there's lot of things going
on. You add my sometimes not so obvious lyrics in to that and you have
a great piece of metal in your hands. Why the hell would the art work be
something out of proportion? We wanted to keep it simple so the focus would
be on music and lyrics, because those are the things that really matter
and not the image or shit like that.
10.YOUR SOUND IS A MIXTURE OF THE CLASSIC
OLD SCHOOL HEAVY METAL WITH THE MODERN HEAVY METAL SOUND. WHAT WOULD YOU
ANSWER TO SOMEONE THAT MIGHT TELL YOU THAT YOU DO THIS BECAUSE YOU WANT
TO EARN AS MORE FANS AS POSSIBLE?
Marco: In a real life I wouldn?t
say a thing, because it's not my place to tell people what to think, but
since this is a interview I'd say they are wrong and right! Go to our website
and download the music we recorded in the early 90's and you can hear we've
done this shit for years. We've just become more aggressive than back then.
We are definitely not trying to fish more fans with different gimmicks,
but I would be a liar if I told you we don't want more people to enjoy
our music. There wouldn't be a point to tour or release albums if we didn't
care about our fans. Don't get me wrong, we will always write music we
like, but at the same time we want to make people understand what our music
is all about and to fall in love with Maple Cross.
11.YOU COME FROM FINLAND. A COUNTRY
THAT MOST OF ITS BANDS ARE STRATOVARIUS AND MALMSTEEN REPLICAS. HOWEVER,
YOU MANAGED TO ESCAPE FROM THAT LOOP. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO DO THAT AND
WHY DO YOU THINK MOST OF THE BANDS OVER THERE SOUND THE SAME?
Marco: Heavy metal has always been
a big thing over here and children from 6 years old to 50 years old grown
ups listen to metal and to me it seems more and more people are into 80's
metal with highpitch vocals. Even people who like death or black metal
listen to that shit too. I've never been a fan of power metal and bands
like Stratovarious are really boring. The fact that we hate that kind of
music is the only reason how we don't sound the same like those bands you
mentioned. We've got lots of great bands in Finland that sound nothing
like Stratovarius. Bands like Deathbound, Wounds, Thyrane, Thy Serpent,
Deathchain, Sethery, Wengele and Lambs absolutely murder that flower metal
shit! Try some of those bands and you'll hear what I mean.
12.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
SHARE SOME OF YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US. WHAT SHOULD THE FANS EXPECT FROM
A MAPLE CROSS LIVE SHOW?
Marco: Our live show is just five
guys giving everything they've got in the name of metal. Nothing fancy
just sweat and metal mayhem!! We've confirmed 6-8 dates here in Finland
so far and around 10 dates in the UK and on top of that few festivals in
the summer. So, we are set up for great spring and summer. After that it's
time to think about the new album....
13.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Marco: Emotion? Hmmm... it would
have to be positive hate! If it were a painting it would show a drunken
football fan enjoying his day out and life in general while watching football
and cutting up a pope's throat with a smile in his face in a sunny day,
heh heh.
14.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE
BEST AND WHICH THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHICH DO YOU THINK IS YOUR
TRADEMARK?
Marco: I'm propably the number
1 fan of Maple Cross and to me we are the best, heh heh. Seriously though,
to me everything about Maple Cross is great and I can only come up with
one thing that I find boring. We've combined couple of songs from Next
Chapter and play them together live, but when we've written new material
and add few songs from the past to our set list we'll drop those songs
from our live set. On the album they sound great, but playing them live
is fucking boring. I don't know how the rest of the guys feel about those
two fuckers, but when I told them we'd drop them in the future they aggreed
with me and as you can see I'm not gonna reveal those songs to you, it's
for you to find out. You could say our trademark is metal without boundaries!!
15.WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK COULD BEST
DESCRIBE YOUR ALBUM AND YOUR MUSIC IN GENERAL?
Marco: Beautiful aggression or
melodic mayhem. I don?t know, I tend not to think these things too much.
16.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
Marco: Thank you for your support
and great questions that covered propably everything there is to know about
Maple Cross. Take care and greetings to metal fans all over the world!!!
Check us out www.maplecross.net
and get your copy of Next Chapter from us or from www.firebox.fi.
Christine Parastatidou
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