mikko Blog and Journals

"The black carbon fiber cello. Yes, well," says Perttu Kivilaakso. "I no longer play that one."
Paavo Lötjönen chuckles. "It was..." he makes a V with his hands, "crushed by a large truck. It looked like this."

"It was in pieces," says Perttu.
"Where was that?" Paavo asks.
"Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam" says Perttu.
"We have bad luck at Schiphol," says Paavo.

I like cellos, I like carbon, and I like fibers, so my curiosity about carbon fiber cellos is preordained and I have been on a quest to get my hands on one and draw a bow across its strings and see what it feels like and how it sounds.

Being a fan, I already have Apocalyptica tickets. Then I notice on a website that Perttu plays a carbon fiber cello, so I ask his management whether I could meet him while he is in Vienna and interview his cello. I am honest, I tell them it is for a blog. I call it a website, but I give them the URL. I don't get my hopes up. To my surprise, they readily agree.

My next surprise comes when I arrive backstage on the afternoon before the concert and everyone is nice to me. It turns out Eicca Toppinen, the founder of the band, is a big fan of metamorphosism! "We of course all understand it, being intellectuals," he says, shaking my hand.

Actually, I just made that up. He is busy brushing his hair when I arrive. The guy is a walking Wella ad. Talk about hair. They ought to get a shampoo company to sponsor them. Both he and Perttu do the hair thing in concert, the headbanging hair whip thing?

Eicca is busy brushing his hair and the fourth man, the quiet one with dark glasses, the John Entwistle only with cello one, the one whose name isn't on the website, the one I have no pictures of, is practicing classical licks on a cello from the 1700s because, as they tell me later, he has an orchestral audition coming up.

That leaves Perttu Kivilaakso, who happens to be the one I wanted to see in the first place, and Paavo Lötjönen (pronounced "Paavo Lötjönen"). They march into an interview room with three or four of their cellos and a bunch of other shit and we get to work. If you ever happen to be someone who knows very little about rock music and equally little about cellos but have to interview someone about those subjects? I highly recommend these two. They practically interview themselves, in a nice way.

Perttu is a tall, slender young man with some fancy dye work in his hair, black fingernails on his left hand and a can of Red Bull connected to a vein in his arm by IV drip. When he pronounces the word "knife" he doesn't let the letter "K" go to waste.

Paavo is a bit shorter, stockier, athletic, with short black hair and a little thing growing on his chin. Maybe he's more hyper than Perttu, maybe he just got more sleep.

In great detail and in perfect English they tell me more about cellos and their use in heavy metal music than I could have hoped for. I am now an expert. They show me their cellos, they tell me which rosins they use, they explain their pickups and their earplugs and why they use new Chinese cellos.

Basically, new Chinese cellos are cheap. When a baggage truck runs over one at Schiphol Airport, they merely laugh derisively and say, "Schiphol is as hard on cellos as we are." They also use piezo pickups on the bridge of the cello, so the actual sound of the cello played acoustically is not that important, since they don't use microphones. "We use a wireless system so we can move around on stage without tripping over cords," Paavo explains. "We're sitting down at the beginning of the set, but then we start moving around quite a bit."

They display the cellos. "Look," Paavo says, opening the first hard case. "Eicca's is the oldest, it's a few years old." All the varnish is worn off the back, and every corner that can be broken off is. More varnish is worn off the front, where they use sandpaper to remove rosin. Paavo proudly shows me the sandpaper. "We are hard on cellos," he says. They are hard on everything. He showed me the carbon fiber spike on the otherwise wooden cello. "These are good. They are very light, and very strong, but Eicca broke one."

Many of the bows they use are also carbon fiber. "I broke one on stage once," Perttu says. "The luthiers back in Finland said that was impossible, but it wasn't."

They break a lot of strings too. Half the cello strings sold in Finland every year are sold to Apocalyptica. Paavo grins. "The luthiers love us. We give them a lot of business."

They unpack their bows. Perttu takes out a carbon fiber bow that is just shredded. "This is what they look like at the end of the set," he says. They use double bass rosin on their bows for rock songs, and cello rosin on different bows, sometimes wood, for the ballads they play. I get some double bass rosin on my hand somehow. That stuff is like glue. "It is good for the attack," Paavo says. He demonstrates, playing something on the cello. "Wow," I think. "That sounds just like Apocalyptica." Then, you know, duh. He hands me the cello and the bow. I play a little. I sound like shit, but the cello just roars with that sticky rosin. You can practically pluck the strings with it, the attack is just amazing. Sounds a bit rough on the "A" string, but the lower strings just growl.

Paavo opens another case. "We also have a blue cello." They had a sponsor on their German tour, who asked them to paint a cello blue and play a few numbers on it. "I asked all the luthiers I could find, but none of them would paint a cello blue," he says. "Then I asked all the guitar makers I knew, but they all refused. Finally one gave me a number to call." It turned out to be the number of an automotive paint shop. Paavo masked the cello and they sprayed it with car paint. He grinned as he told me the story. "It's a Chinese cello, too. This used to be yours, didn't it?"

Perttu nods. "Yes, the neck was broken off and when we had it repaired it was better than before."

"Where was it broken?" asks Paavo.

"Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam" Perttu says. "We've lost three there."

Paavo plays some more and talks about technique. "We play a lot of fifths," he said, demonstrating. "so it looks like we have bad technique, but for fifths you have to play like this." He holds his fingers flat across the strings and plays two at a time.

Their bowing technique is different, too, with a stiffer wrist. "if you have a relaxed wrist, your arm gets very tired by the end of a set."

Perttu shows me the bridge on one of the cellos. It has a slightly different shape than an average cello bridge. "The A string must be closer to the fingerboard, and the other strings a bit higher, because of how we play."

Paavo takes out some yellow foam things and explains how they work. They are ear plugs and earphones at the same time, allowing them to hear themselves and cutting out noise at the same time. "It is the only way to play in tune," he explains. "And I have no problem with tinnitus." The sound engineer can adjust the volume and "location" of all the musicians. "In the earphones, Eicca is on my right, Perttu is on my left, the drums are behind me and all the other stuff we have on tape is about here." He waves his hands above and behind his head.

They tell me they no longer take their cellos into the cabin when they fly. After spending about $100,000 buying tickets for their instruments, they decided it would be cheaper to put them in baggage and replace the ones that break. "It's a big savings," Paavo says.

"As long as we avoid Schiphol," Perttu says.

Finally my time runs out. As they pack everything up, Paavo and Perttu say they like to play classical music when they're not on tour. They're all classically trained. Perttu, the son of a cellist, plays in the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo, whose parents are both musicians, plays somewhere else.

When you're playing a cello, Perttu tells me, the most important thing, more important than the sound of the cello, he says, is the sound in your head you're trying to produce. He says he tries to replicate the human voice. He's a big opera fan.

 

April 12, 2005

 

 

 

Name: Mikko Heinrik Julius Paananen

Nickname: Mige

DOB: 19.12.1974

Born: Helsinki, Finland

Birth Sign: Sagittarius

Instrument: Gibson Thunderbird Bass

Siblings: Brother Helmut

Favourite Colour: Colour of Sarumans Robes

Favourite Film: Sleepy Hollow

Favourite Drink: Water, Nectars, Coffee

Favourite Song: Black Sabbath: War Pigs

Idols: Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop

Likes: Catholic churches, architecture, Charles Chaplin, exotic instruments, meditation, photography and pyramids.

Dislikes: Cruelty, hatred, aggression, ghosts, wicked spirits, envy and modern shopping malls.

Bands/Side Projects: Bullshit Ass - pre 1995
Daniel Lioneye

A brief history Mikko Heinrik Julius Paananen was born on the 19th of December 1974, in Finland. Mige lived in Olunkyla until the age of 13, when his parents divorced. This was the same place as where Linde lived as a child.
Mige’s father played the Oboe, and was a member of the Helsinki orchestra. Mige’s mother was an actress, named Riitta Elstela. She came from a family well known for its association with the theatre scene. Mige’s grandfather Ossi Elstela acted in various films of the 1950’s, as well as in theatre. Mige also has an older brother, who he named Helmut because of his moustache.
When Mige’s parents got divorced his father moved away and Mige chose to stay with his mother. They moved to Tuusula, about 30km north of Helsinki.
Mige grew up in a musical / artistic family. He was heavily influenced by music, and spent a lot of time with instruments as a child. His father liked Classical music, his mother opera and his brother hip-hop. Mige followed his brother’s lead.
At school Mige was a ‘basic bloke’ in his own words, and Ville described him as having bad taste in clothes and ‘monkey hair’.
Mige is known for his bad taste in humour also. He is especially well known for his humour containing bodily fluids.
After his first spree of education Mige went to Sibelius Academy {a music school}. Whilst at the academy Mige took some free time and moved in with his father, but Mige felt out of place, as his father had started a new family.
Mige then moved into his own apartment in Kallio, Helsinki with a friend, and life got crazy. Mige realised that Kallio was not the place for him and moved back to Olunkyla. After moving back Mige realised he had no friends to play music with, so he moved to Vanilla. Whilst in Vanilla Mige was jobless and the labour office forced him into employment at a gas station. Mige disliked his job and moved back in with his mother in Helsinki. Mige finally graduated from the academy and got his white hat, after all his moving around.
During his time in Kallio Mige discovered the consequences of misusing alcohol, but know he is more careful about his ‘crazy’ behaviour.
Mige also has many hobbies, his main one, photography. Mige took all the photos for the Daniel Lioneye album, and Mige and his Photography knowledge inspired the title of HIM’s album Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights.

Equipment
Fender Precision {Bass}
Ampeg SWT-II pro {{Amp}
Fuzz / Robot {pedal effects}
Ear-monitors

Relationships with other band members Mige met Ville at school at approximately age 12 yrs old.
Relationships with other band members developed as the band progressed.

Name: Mikko Viljami Lindstrom

Nickname: Linde/Lilly Lazer/Daniel Lioneye

DOB: 12.08.1976

Born: Helsinki, Finland

Birth Sign: Leo

Instrument: Gibson SG Guitar/Les Paul

Siblings: Brother Jude

Favourite Film: From Dusk Till Dawn

Favourite City: Luxor

Favourite Colour: Green

Favourite Food: Italian

Favourite Drink: Beer, Jack Daniels

Favourite Song: Sininen uni: Tapio Rautavaara

Idols: Steve Vai, Iggy Pop

Likes: Meditation

Dislikes: Strangers

Bands/Side Projects: Aurora - Guitar
Blood - Guitar 1986 - 1989
Kemoterapia -Guitar
1989 - 199?
Daniel Lioneye - Vocals, Guitar 2001

A brief history Linde’s History Mikko Viljami Lindstrom was born on the 12th of August 1976 in Klaukkala, Nurmijarva. His father worked as an engineer, and his mother for Finnair {a Finnish airline company}. Linde’s father was a big fan of Elvis, and in turn this music influenced little Linde.
When Linde was 10 his parents gave him an acoustic guitar as a Christmas present. The first song he learned to play on his guitar was ‘Heavens on Fire’ by Kiss. Kiss were one of his first main musical interests. Soon Linde started guitar lessons and his parents recognised his musical talent, and supported his playing. Linde joined the same school as Ville after comprehensive school, and unlike Ville remained there for a further 2 years. After school he began to play in HIM seriously. Unfortunately Linde began the bad habit of smoking at age 7, and thankfully quit in early 2001.
In Linde's younger years alcohol dragged him down and got him into trouble. But Linde has now learnt his lesson and calmed down. In his past Linde has been a member of several bands. The main one - Aurora, in the late 1980’s. Ville was also a member of Aurora, playing drums, while Linde played guitar. The band itself played their own songs, and were generally quite offensive. At one show the singer of the band was drunk, fell against the equipment for the lights, and broke the drum kit. The band planned to have parties in the school, until the principle lost his nerve and temper screaming, ‘you can’t have parties, you’ll only smoke joints’. The band and fellow pupils were furious, and their revenge was a song called ‘Martti Ilvonen Tunkee Kyrpaa Suoleeen’, {translated – ‘Martti Ilvonen put his dick in asshole’}. The band played the song in the school, and teachers as well as pupils found it hilarious. After that they tried to raise money for the band through selling donuts. The band finally made it to Amsterdam by driving through Sweden and Denmark, and played their music in local schools. They played 3-4 gigs over 10 days. In the summer of 1995 Linde worked in a computer store, and then later in a firm that sold air-conditioning units for large venues. On March 6th 2003 Linde’s partner Manna gave birth to their beautiful baby daughter Olivia.

Equipment used by Linde:
Gibson SG Laney VH100R {Amp} Laney 4x12’’ {Loudspeaker} Fuzz / Wah / Tremolo / Octave {Pedal effects} Ear-monitors

Relationships With Other Band Members:
Linde met Ville in upper school at age 13. All other relationships with other members developed as the band progressed.