Impaled Nazarene Interview (2005)

Originally wrote & published on September 6th, 2005

JJM: Greetings Mika. Impaled Nazarene has been around for fifteen years now. Can you summarize Impaled Nazarene's career in fifteen words or less?
Mika: Chaos, alcohol, hot women, great crowds and superb extreme metal!

J: Imp Naz was one of, if not the first black metal band to come out of Finland back in 1990. How has the scene changed since then and do you prefer things the way they are now with the genre or do you prefer the old days better?
M: We were one of the first. Black metal became kinda popular after 1993-95, mainly thanks to Norwegian scene. Of course the scene was very different back then; there were fanzines, flyers, tape trading, and all the shit that seems to have gone away after the internet became the thing. Old times were good times, no doubt but I still prefer today’s situation. Why look back when you can look forward. As for Finnish black metal scene, never followed it closely back then, and I don’t follow it now either. There are good bands like Horna or Satanic Warmaster.

J: I could be mistaken but I believe that Impaled Nazarene has never toured the USA. Are there any plans to get a bunch of Finnish bands together, bring them over here, and do a big USA tour someday?
M: We have done one-off shows in States. We have done S.F., L.A., N.Y., Milwaukee Metal fest, March Metal Meltdown in N.J. and Philadelphia. We would love to tour North America but unfortunately all the offers we have been getting are pay to play kind. And I can tell you that it ain´t gonna happen that we pay to play. After 9/11 things got much harder, we need bloody work visas and shit whereas before that crap, we could just enter without any visas. As for touring with other Finnish bands, I would rather tour with foreign acts than Finnish ones.

J: After listening to the new live album several times I could really tell that Impaled Nazarene puts on one hell of a show. Are there any plans to ever release a live DVD?
M: Sure but not in the near future. I wanna do at least two more studio albums before even thinking of putting out DVD. We could have easily filmed the Tavastia gig and put it out at the same time as the live CD. I just think that it is rip-off shit to release same gig on CD and on DVD. Besides we need to film much more extra shit for the DVD, we have some killer material but we need more. Who the fuck wants to see live shit when you can see the madness behind stuff, that is much more interesting for me. When we will do it, I wanna do it totally pro. I have been watching lots of metal DVD’s lately and whereas picture quality is nice and all, sound quality is usually fucking awful, taken directly from mixing desk.

J: A lot of black metal bands have been formed when the members were still in their teen years. How old were you and the original members of Impaled Nazarene when you formed the band?
M: Between 17 and 19.

J: Using a name like Impaled Nazarene would indicate that you loathe Christianity and your lyrics throughout the years certainly confirm that. What led you to hating Christianity so strongly and what do you find appealing about Satanism?
M: Common sense. Questioning things. I bought the Satanic Bible by LaVey and realized like fuck, this is what I think. I use Satan a lot but it is mainly a metaphor for me. I see myself as a nihilist much more than as a Satanist. I believe in pussy and alcohol and that’s it.

J: I've noticed that over the years you haven't written many songs with Finnish lyrics. Wouldn't it be more natural to write your words in Finnish or do you just write them in English so everyone can understand them?
M: Maybe it would be more natural but quite frankly; doing Finnish lyrics is much, much harder than doing them in English. I prefer doing them in English, and then I don’t have to explain to everyfuckingbody what the fuck I am singing about. Besides, it seems that most people don’t really read lyrics that closely. Which is a shame because there is a strong message on the songs; sometimes it is hidden but can be figured out.

J: What the hell does Suomi Finland Perkele mean?
M: Finland - Finland - Devil.

J: What would you say is your favorite Impaled Nazarene song and album?
M: Fave album is definitely the live album as it turned out to be exactly the way I wanted it to be. Fave song, well, I have not composed it yet...

J: Over the years you've played in many other bands besides Impaled Nazarene and also done some session work for a few bands. One thing I noticed though is that you have always stuck to just doing the vocals. Do you know how to play any instruments?
M: I started as a drummer, moved on to guitar and ended up being a vocalist because I sucked as drummer and guitarist. I still do play guitar and I have composed songs to all of our albums from Latex Cult on. We all write material so that is one of the things that makes Impaled Nazarene unique. We all have different influences and you can easily hear that on our CD´s. All the punkier songs are mine.

J: What was your initial reaction to Teemu Raimoranta's unfortunate death a few years ago?
M: Shock and sadness.

J: If you had the power to destroy anything or anyone in this world what would it be?
M: Even though I should answer something clever like I would burn the Vatican down, I have to say that I would blow up my workplace and ejaculate in rapture while my co-workers would be dying in pain.

J: Back in the early days Impaled Nazarene had a close friendship with another Finnish black metal band called Beherit. But of course after sometime Beherit broke up and the members went their separate ways. I've always enjoyed Beherit and was wondering if by any chance you were still friends with those guys? If so, do you know what they're doing these days?
M: I have not seen them since 2000 and I must say I am happy with that as I have learned some things about them that I most certainly would NOT like to know. It is clear that drugs and rave music fucks you up but that badly. If people just fucking knew...

J: What bands are you currently listening to, and what type of bands did you listen to while growing up? Do you mostly listen to metal or do you have interest in other genres?
M: I grew up with Venom, Sodom, Kreator, Violent Force, Napalm Death, The Exploited, Ripcord, Extreme Noise Terror, Sarcofago, and so on. And still prefer to listen to my old records, on vinyl of course. There is one new band that really blew my mind, Municipal Waste. Man, for a dude like me who grew up with D.R.I. and Agnostic Front and Carnivore, this is real shit. I listen to mostly metal and punk; sometimes I listen to shit like Front242, Laibach, bands like that.

J: I'd imagine over the years of touring the world some crazy stuff has happened to you guys. Any wild drunken tales you can tell us about?
M: We were on tour in Mexico, I cannot remember in which city this happened at. Anyway, we finished our show, and we walking back to backstage (which was in another building) when this mega-hot-sex-bomb walks to me and smiles. She did not speak any English so I went for the throat and said: YOU? ME? SEX? HOTEL? SI? She smiled and said SI. I must say it was the easiest pick-up ever for me. We went to hotel and fucked the whole night. I was one happy little puppy. Mexico is always the best adventure, hehe.

J: If Impaled Nazarene were asked to endorse a beer or alcoholic beverage of some sort, which would it be?
M: Jack Daniels, thank you Satan.

J: Which of the seven deadly sins would you say you are the guiltiest of?
M: Lust and Wrath go hand in hand.

J: What activities do you do in your spare time?
M: Surf internet porn and wonder why I don’t get laid more.

J: A friend of mine is convinced that you're really Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies. I say no, but he seems quite convinced. Any truth to this issue sir, hehe
M: Your friend should be glad I live on the other side of the globe.

J: Looking back at the past fifteen years, what would you say is your proudest musical achievement?
M: The fact that a small ug band like us has actually managed to tour the world, we have done and seen things your average Joe can only dream of. We are still here and we are still kicking ass. The best is yet to come.

J: Finally what are Impaled Nazarene's plans for the near future and when can we expect to see the next studio album?
M: We are busy writing material for our 9th studio album. We will enter Sonic Pump studio in November. We will record and mix the album with our soundman Tapio Pennanen. He did our live CD as well and because it turned out to be so good, we decided to use him for the studio album as well. At the moment it seems that the album should be out around mid-March 2006. These things can of course change. After that we will tour as much as possible. Don’t count on seeing us in the States though, unfortunately.

J: Mika I thank you for taking the time to do this interview. The final words are all yours.
M: Check out our live album, it is licensed to The End records so it should be available everywhere there. Hail Satan, Drink Vodka and Be Free!!!!