Anton: Nowadays you always have to make up something...Some kind of like musical word for your band or genre typo. I think weīre dark pop. Thatīs maybe the best it would describe it. Dark pop or dark rock.
Finnbands: When you thought about the name of the band. Do you still think you failed in anything with the band that the name "Feiled" is suitable in this case?
Anton: Well, now more then ever *laughes* Hmm, yeah...It kind of haunts me...the name. In my personal life it haunts me. You know...but thatīs why I do songs...a living at pain existence. Finnbands: But you donīt think that the band failed in anything?
Anton: No, no actually itīs been great. Weīve grown a lot. The Band has been working under the name Feiled from the year 2000. So itīs seven years and now...so it hasnīt failed in any way.
Finnbands: It seems that every guy in Finland is a member in a band or a musician. So what were your reasons to start playing in a band and can you still remember your first contact with music?
Anton: My dad played drums and he played in different bands in Finland. I remember he bought me my first drumkit, so drums were my first love. So I started playing when I was ten or eleven...something like that. Sitting there and playing drums and after that I started studying drums. I studied...well I still study drums, but I also study piano and guitar. I play different instruments, because I want to be a good writer. It doesnīt matter, for example when you make songs, it doesnīt matter where the actual idea comes from...is it the drums or the guitar before or the piano melody. I used to be different ways...but i started with drums.
Finnbands: I know that you have been the drummer in L-60 before.
Anton: Yes.
Finnbands: So how does it come that you are a singer now?
Anton: Well, it was kind of the...I went through changes in my life. The kind of this big change in personal level and in any level. I wanted to express MY feelings and MY ideas. I started making songs and I realised that I wanna talk as more in my own band and do my own stuff than always play drums. I like it. I just finnished...there is this singer called Astrid Swan in Finland and two weeks ago I played drums of her upcoming record. So I still go play drums and I like some stuff and they ask me, but...this is my love, my heart is always been in Feiled for the last seven years.
Finnbands: When we look back in the days: Your debut album "Midnight Poems" was often compared to HIM -...from the music...
Anton: We still are.
Finnbands: ...and from your style. There was a change and when I listened to "Testify" I was surprised about the different sound. So how does it come that you changed your sound?
Anton: Iīve always loved the idea that...you know...we tend to grow as human beings. You know youīre not the same person, you were with fifteen and youīre not the same person when you are thirtyfive or fourty. So itīs kind a like...if I have some kind of feeling, I write the song and thatīs it. Thatīs gonna go in the album and the next....I think "Midnight Poems" was...`cause I made the first demos in the year 2000 and the album came out 2005 so itīs five years of songs! And it had a lot to do with the pressure that we also felt from the record company and from the industry. You know, they were looking for a band that kind a like fits in this "love metal" genre. And we want to play rock!
I only have one HIM record and itīs the first. I donīt want to make the same record always. You know, that you know whatīs coming...for example weīre going into the studio in January next year and I can tell you that the next Feiled record is completely different than "Testify" or "Midnight poems"!
Finnbands: We will check this out.
Anton: You better...itīs going to be really good.
Finnbands: Today will be your first gig in Germany.
Anton: Yeah.
Finnbands: Are you excited?
Anton: I`m really exited and Iīm a bit nervous. But itīs...actually when we came in the airplane I talked to Miika - the guitar player - that this has been kind of my dream when I started the band - to come here and to go to different places. And Iīm for feeling it. So, that`s one of the reasons why it hasnīt failed. Iīm here!
Finnbands: Have you ever been to our country before?
Anton: Yeah we did touring Czech Republic . Now weīre going to...I think it was in Oktober or March...weīre planning to go to Latvia and Mexico and Russia. And next year...hopefully we get the record released in here so we can go touring here.
Finnbands: When you are on stage is there anything that scares you?
Anton: Well, I donīt care about stage sound or anything like that. What scares me is...I have this sickness called epilepsy. So what scares me is, that i could have a fit...an attack when iīm on stage and singing. That kind of scares me. I was five days in a hospital, because I had five epileptic fits in a row. So you know that affect in my mood. So now when Iīm on stage and there are fans and stuff...I know you shouldnīt think this way, but think about yourself if you have something like that. You would feel embarrassed or something, because you donīt actually remember anything when you had it. So thatīs one and than if I donīt have the connection to Jeff Buckleyīs spirit...then I fucked *laughes*
Finnbands: Do you have any funny stage story to tell?
Anton: *laughes* There is plenty...there is plenty! Actually, yeah...ehm...this isnīt a gig actually, but we were starting our first tour in Finland to "Testify" and we had this kind a like, that we rented this big hall and played there our songs so that the mixing guy can check the sound and stuff. And Miika *laughes* was so wasted and hangovered - he drunk too much - he was playing and drop up off the stage and his leg went completely broken *laughes* And the next day we had the first gig! So you know it was funny. *giggles* They put this bone that keeps the leg straight...and itīs swollen from here... from the low leg body *shows his own leg* or how you called this...well and his shoe didnīt fit so he had to do different experimental stuff with his shoeīs. That was really funny.
Finnbands: The girl from "feiled - Mexico" - Mariana - asked us to ask you a question
Anton: Yeah...
Finnbands: She asked: I know that Feiled songs are personal experiences and at the same time I think that they work as a kind of heart freedom, is there any special song that is hard to sing on stage?
Anton: Yeah, there is actually many. One is "Great Excape" from "Midnight Poems" 'cause I made this song for my best friend who killed himself. It was a drug overdose... So thatīs pretty hard, because you always remember. And then, there is one new song that actually...I havenīt give any name, yet. Because I donīt know how to express. Actually you heard this kind of ballad song. Thatīs about when I have the epileptic thing. Itīs about the depressions after that, because your brain goes into the none feeling, then you stop to feel. Nothing matters, I can jump from the window to the street and kill myself, nothing matters. And itīs pretty scary, because Iīm not that kind of person who commits suicide, you know and then your are in the state and you canīt get out of it. You are there and you try to 'think positive, think positive' and it doesnīt happend. So that song for me...try to tell that to the audience.
Finnbands: What about your future plans? What is the band doing right now and what will happen within the next time?
Anton: Oh, Iīve named. Weīre going to do the next record release soon and...what else...do gigs. Many, many, many gigs.
Finnbands: Can you please describe your band members in one word?
Anton: Iīve done this in an interview. Have you done an interview earlier?
Finnbands: No!
Anton: Oh, okay...Someone asked this. Okay, I will try it. Well Janne is called 'rock dwarf' - the drummer. I think he looks like a dwarf. Have you seen Lord of the Rings?
Finnbands: Yes.
Anton: Okay, and there are this little peoples, the Hobbits! Heīs like that you know, actually hobbit...thatīs good. He is a hobbit! And Jacob...ehm...*thinks* there are so many words I can use. I say artistic. Artistic! He could be a painter or writer or what ever, he is artistic. He is in his own world sometimes. Itīs like "come here, come here, lets going to play" and donīt go there...and Miika *laughes* ehm...controversal, thatīs a good one.
Finnbands: And you?
Anton: Melancholic.
Finnbands: If you know that tomorrow will be the end of the world: What would you do?
Anton: I would try my best. Maybe I would took my bandmembers and some of my friends into one room and every instruments that weīre playing and have a great jam and just have a good time. What else can we do? Thatīs one thing. If you have an illness or sickness or whatever you start to think about that. Maybe after the next fit, after the next time Iīll have the attack, maybe I canīt walk...For me, if I couldnīt write music my world break...otherwise everything is good.
Finnbands: A little game before itīs over: Your dreaming Finnish superband - you can choose a band between all musicians from Finland. Whom would you take?
Anton: There is one. They gonna play tonight - Von Hertzen Brothers. Thatīs it. I love them. Iīm a hippie.
pictures
www.feiled.com
19.09.2007
Interview by Niina, Puschel, Anna Đ finnbands.com