Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

The Finnish death / thrash metal oriented band, Curimus is maybe unknown for many of our readers, but deserves absolutely a better glance. Just listen what Jari Nieminen, the band’s drummer, told us last sunday (23 jan 2011)…

Hi Jari, welcome to Metal Shock Finland! How’re you doing today?

Hello Tarja, and thank you for having me. I’m doing good. It’s sunday and I feel rested.

To start, please introduce us your band and its members … let’s say, a short presentation would be nice… 🙂

Simply saying, Curimus is a death / thrash metal orientated band from western Finland. Band has been active since 2004. Members: Marko Silvennoinen – vocals, Juha-Matti Helmi – guitar, Juho Manninen – bass and me, Jari Nieminen – drums

Curimus is quite an interesting name. Where it’s coming from and what does it means?

It comes from an old finnish word kurimus. It’s from old legends and means a mystic vortex in the sea, that swallows ships and sailors to their eternal grave. We just decided to write it with the letter “c” to make sure, no one else has used it before and to give it just a small international touch.

From where are coming your influences? What are the bands that inspire you the most?

If the question is about the whole band, the influences are Sepultura, Pantera etc. Personally my favorite artists include Slayer, Rob Zombie, Mercyful Fate, The Kovenant, Manowar etc. I just love the horror stories and theatrics of Alice Cooper and King Diamond. Even if it takes away my credibility, I have to say I enjoy Michael Jackson’s music and shows very much. Also some 80’s electro pop kicks ass seriously, but those songs demand a certain mood to enjoy ’em.

Jari, you jumped into the band just recently. Can you tell me about how you found each others? And how it is to play with these guys?

Is it really that recently? I have been a member over 1 and a half year and have played nearly 30 shows with the band. I have known these guys for quite a while. We used to play some gigs together with Curimus and my former band. In 2009 Juha-Matti asked me to do the graphic design for “Humanity… for sale” -EP. So during that project we naturally were communicating a lot. Before they decided to kick the old drummer out, Juha-Matti asked me if I would be interested in filling in the band, in case of a scenario where band has scheduled gigs and has no drummer. And when it came official that Curimus is searching for a new drummer, I told that I’m interested. We jammed their old songs few times and rest is history…

Curimus has released 3 albums, the first ”Under My Skin” (2008), the second “Humanity… for Sale” (2009) and the newest one “ Values” last year. Can you describe the main differences between these albums?

Just to get the facts right, Curimus has released 4 EP’s. First one was simply called “Promo 2006”. You can probably hear a natural development between the first three cd’s. You know, four dudes learning to play together. With “Values” we have cut down the groove and boosted speed a little bit more. You can easily say Values is the tightest cd the band has released. The songs kick more ass, the playing is better, the sound is better…

Talking about “Values”, what are its values, concerning the lyrics and message?

I don’t really want to comment anything about our “values” and “message”. I think that experiencing any kind of art is a personal experience. The point always is to make you think and/or feel something. So everyone should make their own interpretations and take what they need from our music. That’s the only right way.

And why only 3 songs?

Recording is fu*#%ng expensive. We decided to do a promotional cd to show everyone how the band sounded after line-up chance. Maybe next time we’ll do a full length cd… maybe…

How was Values’ writing and recording process?

We kind of did the writing while we were practicing for gigs. Juha-Matti wrote the riffs and we all did the arrangements at the rehearsal place. Some of the lyrics got done almost literally “at the last hour”, but they turned out really good too. The recording was the easiest one ever. We all had practiced really good so we recorded fast. We got finished almost a day earlier from the original schedule.

I’ve heard that you are real stage animals and that you gig a lot… can you tell me the golden moments and memories?

We give our audience 100% of a rock show every night we play. Personally I love “show drummers”. I really appreciate a good showmanship over virtuosity. That’s why at our show you can see a lot of headbanging, drumstick twirls and serious abuse of instruments. Best memories for me are those, where the audience really participate. Even if there isn’t that big crowd, but if the people like your music and performance and they get into the flow, it’s really cool. Nothing’s better than group of metalheads headbanging together. And of course signing autographs and stuff is really fun too… ;-p

Besides Finland, in what other countries you’ve played?

We played in Estonia twice last year. Then Curimus has toured in Russia before I joined the band.

And what about the audience, in different countries, do you see some differences, on how they act in the concerts?

I really don’t have enough experience to answer that. Guys have told me that audience in Russia are really wild. But for my experience, audience in Estonia is pretty much like the audience in Finland.

So, this year you’re mainly going to tour? Or do you have some new plans already in mind, musically speaking?

We toured pretty much last year. Right now we are working on new songs. We have next booked show in april so we’ll try to have a bunch of new songs to play there. We haven’t done any locked schedules yet, but we’ll enter the studio again when we are ready.

So many times I hear people saying that Finland is the Land of Metal… but how the situation’s today? Is it difficult to enter into the business and to find venues where to play?

Everyone knows the big metal bands from Finland, but we also have a big underground scene. We have many talented bands and players who do it just for a hobby. It’s really difficult to get into the business and some people don’t even wish to be professional, although they’d have the talent for it. We have some pretty good gig venues here and it’s up to your own initiative to get the gigs. You really can’t do this for living in Finnish underground, but you can have lots of fun going crazy with your fellow metalheads.

How do you see the future and what do you expect from it?

We will continue writing and touring as we have done this far. Don’t really know if it’s even possible to get record deals nowadays, but some kind of co-operation with publisher or promoter etc. would be cool, but not necessary. We’ll keep working on new record and touring… maybe some new countries to conquer… maybe Italy?

Yep, hopefully also Italy! 🙂
Jari, ok you’re Curimus’ drummer… but tell me, years back, how you found out that the drums are YOUR instrument?

Ok… It was something like 1997-98 when I was hired to paint some tribal art for my friends wall. My friend had played the guitar for awhile and they just had their first band broke up. As I was painting the wall, my friend asked me to start a band with him. I asked what would I do ’cause I don’t know how to play anything. He just said “be the drummer”. We borrowed his big brothers old drums and started practicing in his parents garage. We played few years together and played couple of gigs  but then he moved to other side of Finland to study music. I started a new band and continued playing with other people… nowadays we play together again in a band called Veres.

What are you doing, as a band, while not playing?

The other guys live in Loimaa and I live in Raisio. The distance is about 70 kilometers, so I don’t meet the guys that much at free time. We talk a lot online and discuss about future plans. Juha-Matti and Juho also do demos of new songs with computers so they send those, too, online. I think they couldn’t handle my personality more than necessary, so it’s better I live in another city… Just kidding, they really love me!
I work as a professional graphic designer and I also do it as a hobby for my bands, so lot of my spare time goes with record covers and stuff.

Now the word is yours, what would you like to say to your fans, and to Metal Shock readers?

These are always the hardest parts of interviews. I just say that check out our music! if you like it, great, if you don’t, f#€k you! Hope to see you all at shows somewhere, sometime!

Thanks Jari for this chat. Hope to see you soon playing on some stage also in this part of the world (Italy)…

Interview by Tarja Virmakari – Photos: http://www.curimus.net

Curimus – Havoc Mind (Live)