Negative
Melancholy Symphony

05.04.2012

Our meeting with Jonne Aaron, frontman of Finnish rockers Negative, occurred 1.5 hours before their Moscow gig which put an end to nearly two years of touring in support of the band’s latest album “Neon”. When a tour ends, it’s time to do some sort of summing up and think about the future. In this particular case, the future was more obscure than ever: just late last year nobody, including Jonne, was convinced that Negative has any future. But already in early 2012, to our common delight, Jonne got better and once again started building massive plans, which he was eager to share with us in this interview. Having completed the soundcheck with the band, he came to a special room assigned for us (many thanks to the organizers, as a one-on-one interview with an artist in a quiet setting and nearly complete silence is an extremely rare thing to happen), opened windows, sat comfortably on a sofa and started speaking about… a brick wall of the hall which we could see from the room. As Jonne said, he has a very similar wall at home, and he personally removed the plaster so that bricks could be seen. An unusual beginning of an interview, isn’t it? Honestly, I got an impression that Jonne wasn’t included to do a formal interview where an artist provides specific answers to specific questions while also making sure that a reporter does not exceed his/her time slot. It was more like he took the interview as an opportunity to speak his heart out about the things that happened to him over the past year. He personally requested that we get twice more time than was assigned to us originally and told us much more than we expected to hear…

Well, first of all, looking at you I want to ask you, what happened to that glam-boy we used to know? Seems like you’re trying to look older and more masculine now.

Oh, maybe it’s because of my mustache. I don’t know… Actually, I was pretty sure that I’m gonna die at 27. This old cliché, you know. Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and so on, they all died at the age of 27. But I survived. I passed it, I’m 28. But the last year was pretty rough to me personally. My whole life went upside down. I had a few losses. My grandma was one of the most important people in my life and she passed away. That was the first “step”. After that my long relationship… after nine years, I was for nine years with this gorgeous beautiful lady… she is a lovely person and she’s still in my life… but she dumped me. (laughs) I mean, our ways were separated and our relationship ended. And then Larry (Love, former guitarist) took off from the band. There were many things during 2011. And then I had this surgery. (shows a scar on his belly) I almost died because of it. Everybody has that… I don’t know the name…

Appendix.

Yes, exactly. I was supposed to have this show with Negative in Mexico and just a few days before that, when I was staying at home for one week, I had a terrible pain in my tummy. I was like, “It’s gonna go away, it’s nothing serious”, I just tried to bear it. But then I couldn’t stand it, I went to the hospital and they sent me back home. They were like, “Go home and take some pills”… And they did it three times. It was the third time when they took me in and they were like, “Oh my God”. I was taken to the surgery immediately… But anyway, after I got to the hospital, I stayed there for two weeks and I didn’t have any shaving things with me. I got used to it, because for one week I was so weak that I had to wear these… like “Pampers”, you know what I mean. (laughs) I went to the toilet in the hospital and I was so weak after the surgery… It was so painful, the wound, and I was lying in bed and I had this, you know, remote control. When I had to go to the toilet, I was like… (shows how the bed slowly moves him from a lying to a seating position and imitates the sound it makes) - it took like forever. And when I was in this position I had to get myself up and it took like… I even don’t know how long. Then I had to walk by myself and the nearest toilet in the hospital was like behind that corner and 12 meters that way and it felt like it was the longest road ever to walk. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m gonna shit my pants”. And when I got back I had to go there again almost immediately because of the hard medicine… I did it five times in a row – I went to the bed and was like “zzzzz” again and then “oh my God” – zzzzz! – “I need to go back”. After that I stepped out of the toilet and I saw this little box on the wall and it was saying like “Pampers”. And I was like, “hmmmm”… Thinking like Homer Jay Simpson with this know, cartoon idea: me lying in a bed wearing a diaper. (laughs) And I didn’t care! But anyhow, after that kind of experience, my mustache is just a tiny thing in my universum. (smiles)  I’m kind of proud of it. You know, it’s growing so fast, and for the last two years I had to shave it before every show. If we had a show each day, five days in a row, I had to shave it every day, and my skin got dry and stuff like that. Even though I shaved it the crew members of Negative were like, “Oh, you’re having a mustache” and I was like, “No, I’ve just shaved it”, but it didn’t help. If I’m shaving it in the morning, then next morning I have it right there again. My inner Freddie Mercury is coming out. (smiles)

Oh, men have so many troubles!

Yeah… And you were asking about that glam thing. We started out as a grunge band, there were just three of us, me, Jay (Slammer, drums) and this ex-bass player. We were playing Nirvana and that kind of things. Of course when Larry and Chris (Sir Christus, former guitarist) came in the band, the whole setup changed. It was more like Hanoi Rocks kind of thing, but… We’re still a rock band, but we don’t have these Christmas tree decorations with us. (smiles) You know, your fashion style is changing, you’re not wearing the same dress that you were wearing back in 2003 or 2004.

Sure. Maybe it’s just because you’re becoming older…

Yes. And I’m proud of that. I think I’m gonna have some kind of midlife crisis soon, I’m gonna be 30 in two years… one and a half actually. So why should I look like a 15-year-old teenage girl forever? If you think about Freddie Mercury, he started out with the glam outfit. With all these… gorgeous things. And in the end, at the age of… how old was he at Wembley… around forty he had this yellow and white outfit with red stripes on his trousers. That was a bit different than back in days… You know, the most important things are my health and my voice. And people come to see us even though I have a mustache. (smiles)

Yeah, and there are a lot of them coming tonight.

Which is nice, because it’s Women’s Day. Happy Women’s Day to you by the way.

Thank you… You know, let’s change the subject to something less pleasant. I wanted to ask you about Larry…

Yeah.

I think a lot of your fans still wonder what happened. It was so unexpected, in the middle of your tour…

It was after Mexico. It was a kind of kindergarten type of a thing. We had a fight, we were arguing about… I’m not gonna tell the details, but that was a very childish thing. And we solved it, we made peace and after that when we left him alone for a few hours when we came from the airport he put that message (announcing his departure – ed.) on the Internet.

So you didn’t know anything about it, did you?

No, none of us. We were as surprised as everybody else.

And didn’t you try to make things right?

Why should we? The next day I called the other guys and I told them that we had to see each other and sit down and think about it, and afterwards there were so many things… That wasn’t the only thing… You know, most of the people only see the stage, but it was… If we begged him, “Please come back, please come back”, it wouldn’t work if he really doesn’t want it.

It feels like an epidemic among your guitar players. Christus left your band, then Larry left your band too…

We have a curse. A guitar player curse. But with Chris it was a whole different situation. And nowadays we’re having a great time together.

And what about Larry? Do you communicate somehow now?

I just called him five days ago.

And is it okay, like nothing ever happened?

Of course. It’s like the show must go on. We have to move on. He’s okay and I’m fine, he has his new band and things like that.

And what about your new guitar player?

Hata (Salmi). He’s like a gift from the skies.

Will he stay in the band?

He will stay. We will go to the studio with him and start recording the sixth Negative album. He’s gonna be a permanent Negative member.

There are many bands that keep on going even when there is only original member left in the band. Is this situation possible for Negative?

You mean like I’m the only one in the end? Well, you see, I respect my bandmates very much… If you think about us, there are still four members. There are Antti (Anatomy, bass), Jay, me and Snack (keyboards). I’ve been with Jay since we started back in 1997. I was his classmate. And if Jay and Antti and Snack would come to me and say that they wanna have a break, they want to do something else, for example somebody’s having a child, I would have a break, because I respect them and I can understand. But if somebody is fucking up his things, this train won’t stop because of that. Because in a community – when you’re working together, when you’re traveling together – you have to respect other people. You can’t behave like an idiot. That’s how it goes. I used to work in a kindergarten. I know these are bad words and you have to understand me correctly. I’ve been working in a kindergarten and I don’t want that with Negative. I’m done with that shit. I don’t need that. I’m almost 30 and I don’t want to drag any babies behind me. I want to make music and enjoy it. When I want to sleep, I want to sleep and when I want to eat I want to eat. That’s my thing. Of course, in the end, you never know, but if you’re asking if we’re gonna have this Guns N’ Roses scenario – then the answer is no, because this is Negative from Tampere Finland, this is not Guns N’ Roses. Maybe somebody has forgotten that.

You said that you’re going to enter the studio and record some new songs…

Yeah, we have a lot of ideas.

You know, it’s a nice thing to hear, because not long ago you said in an interview in Finnish that you’re not sure if Negative would exist in future or not…

Yeah… Maybe I was tired. I was tired, because I’ve been working like hell. You know, I write a lot of stuff for other artists as well. It’s just my hobby, but I feel like it’s a kind of “mission” of my life…

Doesn’t it bring you money?

Of course it brings. Yeah, I make my living with that. But that’s not the main reason why I do it. I just feel like I’m blessed with a gift, you know what I mean. I feel like that’s my mission to bring those songs to people.

Do you only write for Finnish artists?

Yeah… All kind of artists…

Do people know that it’s you writing those songs or do you try to keep it a secret?

Well, in Finland they probably know it. It’s not a secret. But it’s like a hobby. Negative is my passion and my love.

But you know, it may feel the opposite, like Negative is your hobby and your “passion” and songwriting is your job, because, as you said, you make your living out of that.

Hmmm… No. Actually no, I don’t agree, because music itself is my hobby. I just love to play on that playground, because I like breaking limits, that’s why I write music for other artists as well.

Okay, so what are your future plans with Negative?

Well, hopefully we will record… Recently we filmed this video for “Love That I Lost”. It’s not a typical music video, it’s like an image of the song. So we just thought that it’s a good thing to put on Youtube for example. For our fans.

Yeah, not long ago you posted your new “Fucking Worthless” video and it doesn’t look like a very expansive video, it’s just like “hey, we’re still here, don’t forget!”

Exactly! It’s just as you said. For example if someone in the South America discovers Negative, it’s just because of the Internet. It’s because of the Internet that we have so many fans all over the world. When you find an interesting artist, you start to click his or her videos. You need these videos, because it brings the artist closer to the fan, to the listener. And that’s what we’re doing.

At the same time, your “End Of The Line” video is very expressive and impressive. How much does the band contribute to the concept of the video?

Usually it comes from the director. He or she has some kind of idea and then we give our comments and start working on it together. But I’m that kind of person who believes that the whole society and the whole world keeps turning because for each area there’s a professional. I’m not a video director, I’m not a script writer, so I count on them. As Negative we usually let them to do their thing.

And what happens if you don’t like the concept?

We usually take four or five directors and then we choose the best script and then we start to work.

As you said you’ve been going through many changes in your life recently. Can these experiences affect your music? Don’t you think about changing your music style a bit?

That’s why I write for other artists – I feel like I develop my skills as a songwriter when I’m able to work in different kind of territories in music. I helps me keep it interesting for myself. And talking about those ideas we have so far, I think it’s gonna be more melodic… But we’ve already discovered this recognizable Negative sound, so people won’t be disappointed if they like the band. When you do something creative - at this point we’re talking about music and writing songs, but that doesn’t matter - when your personal life is wrecked, you’re able to make your masterpieces, you know what I mean? When everything is in balance, you only write… Well, you know, somehow I’ve always been very good at using my imagination. When my life was in balance and I had great relationship and so on and everything was in harmony in my life, I was using my imagination, somehow I was using this inner melancholy that I have as a Finn, as a Scandinavian in me. Because of the long dark winters. Now, when I had these… (makes a gesture as if cracking something in half)… you know, when I had these kicks in my life, I think it’s gonna be an amazing album. I’ve cried my heart out in those songs. That’s the only thing that keeps me here.

It feels like it was pretty the same when you described your “Neon” album…

I know. That tells me that I’m still excited about music. (smiles) But actually I’m spying my friends’ lives as well. So it’s not all about me and my private life. For example when we were recording “Sweet and Deceitful”, I was drinking like hell, because I tried to find some misery. Yeah, I was drinking “Southern Comfort” a lot back then. But that’s boring, that sucks. It’s all about writing about yourself and how you feel and how you see things. That’s why I like to write about my friends’ lives and what I see. I meet you, her and others… You’re constantly registering things. And then suddenly you have to put them out. And then somehow you have something that is more like fiction and something that is from your own life there. You mix those things to get a great song.

How many songs are ready and when can we expect your new album to come out?

Hmm, that’s a hard question, because we had a meeting with Warner people last fall, in October, and we were planning to put in out right after the summer, and now we have only tried one song with the band. Three days ago… But we have plenty of ideas. I can already tell you the name of the album. It’s gonna be “Melancholy Symphony”.

Oh! It’s very Finnish…

It is. But I love it, if you ask me. But if you ask people from the music industry they’ll say “no-no, you can’t name it like that, it’s too Finnish, it won’t work, it’s not a selling name”. But to me,  would love to do that, I would love to release maybe that kind of “Holy Trinity”, which will include three albums. In the future. We’ll see… That’s just a working title for the album, I don’t know what happens then. I’ve already told the other guys that I have this idea of “Melancholy Symphony” and they were like, “Let’s see”…

Is it you writing all the songs for the upcoming album?

Yeah, me and Snack, we’ve done some things… But I think everybody brings something at some point, because it’s gonna be a hell of a process to put it all together. Yes, I’ve always been a very creative person, since I discovered guitar. And that’s the main reason why I write for other artists as well, because I’ve got a lot of ideas and they don’t fit Negative. They’re more like pop songs and - how can I say - traditional Finnish music. You know, we’ve got this (sings) “la-la-la-la-la”… How can you name this? Americans have this country music, and Finns have this kind of music to dance, you know.

I see. It’s the second time you’re playing in Moscow during your “Neon” tour. The first time was in 2010. Aren’t you yourself tired of playing the same songs and don’t you want to put something new in your setlist?

Oh, 2010 was two years ago! Time runs so fast… Yes, we’re going to play some older stuff for our fans to hear. You know, when we built our setlist, there has to be a drama. It’s like a script for a movie. That’s how we build it up and that’s the most difficult part of being in a band – to build up a great setlist that pleases everybody. You have to have those highlights, like for example we have “In My Heaven”, “The Moment Of Our Love”, “Frozen To Lose It All” and all those big video-songs, the biggest from the band and the most recognizable, and then you can play those album tracks. It’s a kind of mixture of what we wanna play and what the audience wants to hear.

But it’s always nice when in the end of the tour a band is able to play, for example, one new track. You are not ready to let the audience hear something new yet, are you?

No. Maybe we’ll be able to put something new out during this year. In the end of the year – that’s the earliest time. And now I’m gonna have this big TV production in Finland. A lot of things going on… It relates to Negative and what I do as a musician. And we’re gonna perform on Finnish “Idol”. They have these finals on April 1, and we’re gonna perform on TV. We’re gonna play “Believe”, which is a secret. And I’m gonna be a judge. There gonna be some finalists.

Oh, they respect you so much if they let you judge other artists…

Yes, that’s nice. But I’m nervous, because I haven’t done that before. But I think I’m gonna enjoy it.

You’re currently running a kind of contest – people are putting cover versions of Negative songs on Youtube, and you’re posting the best ones on your website. Do you have any plans to maybe release a cover album of Negative songs?

It’s a good idea… You mean performed by other people?

Sure!

Yeah, that’s a good idea, but it needs a lot of paperwork from the label. But I like it.

Do you really like those cover versions?

I love them! I usually check them out and pick up the best ones. It’s not about being the best, it’s about being the most interesting. Somebody might be a little bit out of tune, but if it’s entertaining enough, that’s good.

Does it seem touching when you hear other people singing your songs?

It is. It’s nice to see. It warms my heart, because it proves that music makes people come together. That’s how I see it. That’s what music means to me. When I listen to it, I get a lot of strength when I’m down. By for example listening to Tom Petty or Johnny Cash or Aerosmith. Oh my, I love that band. I lived through that music. That’s how we humans live our lives.

As far as I remember you once said (I guess that you quoted Ville Valo then, but I’m not sure) that it’s very difficult to live a life of a musician, because you have to release an album and go on tour almost immediately and after it’s over you’re releasing a new album and so on. So what do you think about that kind of lifestyle now? Are you ready to do it all over again?

I am. I’ve already got into it again. I’ve given it my little finger and now it’s sucking me all in. (smiles) That’s the circle of my life. I was so exhausted, I was so frustrated… Somehow you should understand that it takes a lot of time and work, but you need to have that passion and you can’t fake it. When you are in a touring mood, you can’t think about new ideas that much. And we’ve been releasing an album every two years. Our first album was in 2003, the second in 2004, then 2006, 2008, 2010. That’s quite hectic. So at that point of the tour when I said that, I was a bit exhausted, but now I’m already exited about what the future will bring us.

Negative on the Internet: http://www.negative.fi

Special thanks to Vera Dmitrieva (Spika Concert Agency) for arranging this interview

Interview by Ksenia Artamonova (with some input by Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova)
Photos by Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
March 8, 2012
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