Lovex
No Need For Categories

03.12.2010

Even though they are not that big in Russia, Finland's Lovex are coming to this country for the second time. They play a style that lies somewhere in between pop rock and glam – actually, this alone poses a question. But there are a lot of other interesting things on the band’s account – starting from tricky names and ending with participation in the national finals of Eurovision. We managed to get in contact with the band shortly before their gig at Plan B club. Theon McInsane (vocals), Vivian SinAmor (guitar), Sammy Black (who is actually white as we found out, guitar), Christian (keyboards), Jason (bass guitar) and Julian Drain (drums) turned out very nice and talkative persons, so you won’t get bored reading the text below…

First of all I would like to ask you about your name, Lovex. What does it mean and why did you choose that name?

Vivian: Because it’s so baaaaad. (laughs) It doesn’t really mean anything.
Christian: It’s just our own word. It doesn’t mean anything but us.

Tell me how you started Lovex as a band.

Sammy: It was in 2001. I got together with the singer of a Finnish band called Uniklubi. We formed the band and then gather friends – Jason and Vivian.
Vivian: Because we have known each other since we were seven years old. We have been the best friends forever. Then we moved from a small town called Hameekyro to Tampere in 2004.
Sammy: In 2004 the last member, Julian, came along.
Christian: And then we become Lovex.
Vivian: We had the same name before, but I can’t imagine Lovex without Julian. And without these guys also.

Do you remember the day when you got your first record deal?

Everybody: Yes!
Jason: But not the whole day. (laughs) The evening was difficult to remember.
Julian: And the week after that.

And how did you manage to get that deal?

Vivian: We made a demo… There were 4 songs, including “Guardian Angel” on it.
Sammy: We were about to release it, but the demo just got into the right hands.
Vivian: It got into the hands of Jakke Lindberg from Bullhead Inc. and he said, “Oh my God”. It was very well done.
Jason: And we got some major labels interested in it as well.

Do you remember the process of recording the first album (“Divine Insanity”, 2006)? What was it like?

Theon: We did the whole record in Helsinki. We stayed the whole time in a small quite crappy hotel near studio. There was really cheap beer in a shop near the studio, so that was basically…
Vivian: Our day meal.
Christian: A six-pack of beer in the morning and a six-pack of beer in the evening.
Theon: Since then we’ve been a little calmer. (laughs)

And do you remember your first tour?

Sammy: First real tour… Maybe the German tour was the first one.
Jason: The big one we can remember.
Vivian: We did many shows in Finland, but not really as a tour, because we went home between the gigs. But when we were in Germany we were indeed on tour.
Christian: Yeah! First time we had these big night parties and stuff like that.

What do you prefer to do on tour apart from concerts and sounchecks?

Theon: I like to go sightseeing.
Vivian: Yeah, visiting new cities.

Why do you use your stage names instead of your real names?

Christian: What stage names? I don’t know what you talking about.
Vivian: I feel myself more Vivian Sin’amor than Risto Solopuro. And you can’t pronounce that name anyway.
Jason: The band name Lovex is something, you know, crappy. It doesn’t match with our real names.
Sammy: English names are easier for people to understand and to remember.

How do you characterize the style of music that you play?

Julian: It’s a hard one.
Christian: I don’t know. I think there shouldn’t be any categories.
Vivian: The new album that is coming out - we have just finished it - will be really much different to the first two albums.

Will you play some songs from your new album today?

Everybody: Yes! Two songs.
Jason (returning to the previous question): But I think we have always been melodic and we combine pop rock and metal. Maybe now we will have some dance music.
Vivian: Yes, on the new album there is some sort of disco.
Julian: And there won’t be any metal music.
Christian: More rock.

When I start to think about Lovex, the first association I have is glam rock. Can you comment on it, and which glam metal bands do you like?

Jason: No. (everybody laughs)
Theon: It depends on a band…

Motley Crue maybe?

Theon: Yeah, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper and bands like that… Some members of the band like them more than others but they were not like our idols.

Let’s now speak about your new album. You said it’s finished, right?

Everybody: Yeah!
Sammy: About a week ago.

When it will be released?

Vivian: We don’t know yet. We are in the middle of negotiations with different labels, and we are looking for a right label for it.

So, you haven’t found a label yet…

Jason: We haven’t got time!
Vivian: It’s only one week since we finished the album, so we are getting there.

You have more or less answered my next question, but anyway: Will we get something special on your upcoming album? You mentioned dance music, but maybe you have something else - experiments, special guests…

Christian: No special guests.
Jason: Just us finding ourselves.
Vivian: I think we found something fresh on the new album, something what we had been looking for the whole time that we are doing this.
Theon: And if you want to find something special about it – Christian recorded and mixed the album by himself.

You split up with EMI Finland. What did happen?

Vivian: We are not allowed to talk about it.
Theon: Generally EMI have been doing their work quite lousy for the past few years. There are only two people working there at the moment. It is not worth sticking around.

Why should a label want to sign Lovex?

Vivian: They’ve got to listen to our new album, and that’s the reason.

And what do you need from a label?

Jason: Cooperation, I think. And their full attention. Sometimes a label has too many different bands and it’s difficult to serve everyone properly.
Vivian: What is really important for us is taking our new album to new countries. I think it’s the most important thing.
Christian: For example, we have lots of fans in Germany, the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. We want to take our album to those countries.
Vivian: And Russia, too, because we haven’t released any album here.
Theon: That is one of the reasons why we didn’t like to be on EMI.

On “Divine Insanity” you have a song called “Bullet For The Pain”. The lyrics of this song are about suicide. Why are you interested in this topic?

Theon: It’s because suicide has become something that young girls find something romantic and somehow cool. Also many young people in Finland have a lot of mental issues. It is growing to a big problem and I just want to make a statement.

You took part in qualification stage of the Eurovision song contest in 2007. Can you tell me about this experience?

Jason: Fun, but fun only for the moment.
Christian: That’s something that you can do once in your life.
Vivian: At the moment it was really good for us, because after that we were in newspapers and on TV, so we became more popular.
Sammy: It’s good, but we didn’t win that competition. And if you win in Eurovision, people will associate you only with that stuff.
Theon: The guys from Lordi are still in such situation. (Lordi won the Eurovision contest in 2006 – ed.)
Christian: They said that it was the biggest mistake they ever made.
Vivian: Although they became millionaires because of that. But they were a bit too much on the frame after they won it.
Jason: People become tired of them.
Julian: At Eurovision there was also a lot of crappy music (laughs).

What do you think about the band Thunderstone won the Finnish finals that year?

Sammy: I am the one who is kind of fan of the band. But I think I am the only one.
Jason: The guys are really funny and crazy.
Vivian: By the way, guys from Lordi are also very nice.
Theon: They are very skilled, but it’s not exactly my kind of music.

Anyway, will you try in Eurovision again one day?

Everybody: No!!!
Christian: Never a second time!

Some Finnish bands use the Suomi language in their lyrics, but you don’t. Why?

Vivian: Cause Finnish isn’t the language of rock’n’roll.
Sammy: It doesn’t sound the right way.
Vivian: Who does listen to Finnish music? Only those who know the Finnish language.
Theon: Most of the Finnish bands’ releases are made in English. For every two records in Finnish, there is a couple of hundred records in English.
Vivian: If you want to become a really successful band in whole world you must sing in English.

You have a blog on the internet, but you gave it up about two years ago. Why?

Julian: Now we have a videoblog.
Vivian: We are also using such resources as MySpace and Facebook that have become very popular in Finland, too. We do it to connect with the fans, to be closer to them. We post something two or three times a week. And we are using Twitter, too.
Jason: And a videoblog is really much better, cause people can see all the stuff there. That’s much more fun to our listeners.

A question for Theon: Your website says that you are studying. What does it mean: do you study in a university?

Theon: Yeah, I am studying at the University of Tampere at the moment. I have been studying here since 2003. (everybody laughs) I am a quick learner. I don’t go there very often.

What do you study there?

Theon: Original science.
Sammy: A scientist (smiles).

A question for Vivian: I heard that you like movies very much. Which of the latest movies would you recommend seeing?

Vivian: I watch movies like one per day. I don’t know. The last really good movie was… It’s difficult to remember, because a lot of new films are crappy. “Iron Man 2” is pretty fun, because you don’t have to think about anything.

What about the other guys?  I heard you also like movies.

Everybody: Yes!
Christian: I have no time to watch movies.
Vivian: New “Resident Evil” sucks!
Sammy: Gran Torino is a good one.

A question for Sammy: Your hobbies are drawing and Photoshop. What about making the cover artwork for a Lovex album?

Sammy: These guys are such motherfuckers, so I don’t want to do anything for them. (laughs) I would have to do it for free and it’s very hard. But I did the artwork for a single cover. What was the name of it? (laughs)
Christian: “Don’t Let Me Fall”.

Lovex on the Internet: http://www.lovex.fi

Special thanks to FMI Corp. for arranging this interview

Interview by Sergei “BoBr” Bobrik
Photos by Natalia “Nuts” Reshetnikova
October 16, 2010
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