Jussi Lehtisalo
is the leader and the only constant of the seminal experimental rock
band Circle from Finland. Outside of this long running project
(almost forty albums under the moniker), he's in plenty of
interesting and oddly named bands like Krypt Axeripper, Steel
Mammoth, Motorspandex or Arkhamin Kirjasto and is also the man behind
the eclectic Ektro Records label. He's one of my favourite musicians
and interviewing him was an opportunity I couldn't ignore. I reviewed
some of his projects and I have so much ask to ask him! Tag along!
METANTOINE'S MAGICKAL REALM: I hope it's nice in
Pori right now? I have a friend who's visiting Helsinki at the moment
and he enjoys the Finnish sauna experience. I hope I'm not disturbing
you with these questions!
JUSSI LEHTISALO: Pori is a
quiet small town in Finland’s west coast. It’s active just for
ten days a year during the world-renowned jazz festivals. I’ve
witnessed for example Urban Sax and McCoy Tyner, so there’s
definitely great things going on in there. You’re not disturbing me
at all. I’m touched when someone is interested about things up here
in the north.
MMR: The recent
Circle situation is pretty confusing, the project changed its name to
Falcon (ex-Circle) and released an excellent AOR/hard rock album but
also kept the Circle name and released an album called Incantation
which was basically a doom/death metal record featuring the entire
lineup of Pori based death metal band Stench of Decay. But now, the
true Circle resurfaced with your usual experimental blend with
Leviathan. Care to explain all these lineup changes?
JUSSI: In short,
it’s a brand research. Which is more important, a work of art or
people behind it? Are artists free or slaves to their brand?
MMR: Circle is well
known for its constant experimentation and its huge discography. What
are for you the most important albums this project has created? Is
there some experimentation that you thought worked better than
others? I can think of the acoustic elements in the latest album
Leviathan, the drone of Mountain or the heavy metal/glam or the
psychedelic rock/proto metal of Sunrise.
If you were to meet
someone who never heard Circle, what would be the first album you'll
show to him/her?
JUSSI: Circle’s
records are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and the whole picture unfolds
only as the pieces don’t get together smoothly. I’m intrigued by
the sober plunge of Miljard and the shapelessness of Infektio, as
well as the versatility of Manner and the agility of Leviatan. I
recommend people attend Circle concerts in a happy frame of mind.
MMR: You worked with
Bruce Duff from Jesters of Destiny in Circle (Hollywood) and Pharaoh
Overlord (the excellent album Out of Darkness) and your label
recently re-released their cult classic album. Considering this, with
what other veteran musicians would you like to work with?
JUSSI: Here’s a
few of my favourite musicians: Mark Shelton (Manilla Road), Jimmy
Page, Christian Vander (Magma), Mark Lanegan, Kaija Saariaho, Läjä
Äijälä, Jaki Liebezeit, Robert Hampson... Circle is a dream group
for me, so things are looking very good.
MMR:-You released a
single with Chris Black (Dawnbringer, High Spirits, Pharaoh...) under
the name Aktor (I really liked it!) How did you manage to form a band
with him? It's mainly a long distance project, right? And also, can
you tell me about the upcoming album for this project. It will still
have the awesome Blue Öyster Cult influences, I hope? I met Black at
a High Spirits event and he said he's writing the lyrics so I guess
you compose the music?
JUSSI: It’s
been really great and easy to work with Chris. Aktor’s forthcoming
album is in the home stretch now, and it’s going to be brilliant.
On the other hand, I’ve always thought the records I’ve made have
been suberb, but that’s gone unnoticed by the wider audiences. The
riffs on the Aktor album are at times a bit weird, but I hope it
meanders somewhere between Jesters of Destiny, Molly Hatchet and
Angel Rat era Voivod.
MMR: I'm a big fan
of all your heavy metal projects such as Krypt Axeripper,
Motorspandex or Steel Mammoth. There are many similarities between
them, and I like the fact that they all have their own names, but why
is that so important to you? I mean Tractor Pulling is pretty damn
similar to Krypt!
JUSSI: I wanted
to build a whole NWOFHM scene, but I was pretty much the only one who
got excited by the idea, so I decided to start 10–20 different
bands. The bands sound alike to some extent because I’ve done all
the riffs at least for Krypt Axeripper, Mercedes Hell, Tractor
Pulling, and Motorspandex. I have in my drawer new EPs of almost all
of the abovementioned bands, but I’ve been wise enough not to
release them.
MMR:Arkhamin
Kirjasto explored a more extreme side of metal with its groovy death
metal sound. What influenced this project?
JUSSI:
Metallica’s Kill em´ All, Xysma, Morbid Angel, Kiss, Iron Maiden,
Slauter Xstroyes, Otis Reaper...
MMR: I always liked
the NWOFHM (New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal) tag, I believe it was
your idea, am I right? I like the tongue in cheek feel it has and
like the NWOBHM tag, it includes a wide variety of your ideas and
sounds. Can you talk a bit about that?
JUSSI: With
Tractor Pulling, I did my best to make music like Antiseen and
Accept. Krypt Axeripper was meant to sound like Manilla Road, Cirith
Ungol and Cloven Hoof. Motorspandex was influenced by Brocas Helm and
Rudimentary Peni. With Mercedes Hell, I dreamt of crossbreeding Satan
and newer Darkthrone, but as I’m such a helpless heavy guitarist
and singer the influences may not always be audible. But nowadays
I’ve developed into an outstanding riff machine, so it was
worthwhile to do these experiments.
FAST QUESTIONS
Favorite Finnish
meal that everyone should know about: reindeer meat, mashed
potatoes and lingonberry jam.
Favorite beer:
BrewDog Dead Pony Club.
 |
| A beer to try! |
Favorite movie(s):
Satantango (Bela Tar), Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky),
Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard).
Favorite rock album
of all time: Jesters of Destiny’s Fun at the Funeral.
Favorite metal album
of all time: Iron Maiden’s Powerslave.
Favorite Finnish
hockey player (Teemu Selänne!!!???): Tapio Levo, Veli-Pekka
Ketola, Mika Niemi.
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