In English

The Junkkers: Ikäheimo - bass, Kajan - drums, Veteli - guitar & vocals

THE HISTORY OF THE JUNKKERS RECORDINGS
(as remembered by the vocalist/ guitar player in 2008) 

Something has to end for something new to arrive

Well, it went something like this: we had all tried our hands in various projects, the last of which were Ujo Piimä and Purgatory in my case. I didn’t want to appear in stockings in public any more, so I called it quits, and the very next day Jukka and I were going to Kuopio and I told him about my decision. He wanted to form a new band right away and proposed we buy some equipment as we were going to the music store Svengi anyway. We didn’t but the seed had already been planted. 
 
You have to go far to see what’s near and dear

We went to Antero’s parents’ place in Sotkamo, to be more exact we just went out camping there. This was in August 1985 and I had just turned 18. I hope I remember this right but the gang included myself, Jukka and Yrjö (the future Junkkers), of course, and then Ante, Late, Pekka and Jukka’s girlfriend at the time. This trip was a lot of fun. It seems like a week in retrospect but more likely it was just a long weekend. I remember we wanted to taste whether Johnny Walker’s Black Label was better than the Red Label. Drinking straight out of the bottle of course, the Black label won universally and I later wrestled with Yki to get some more of it. He won. I also remember we went to see a special accordion band at the local dance hall. The sound of a dozen or so accordions playing almost in unison was staggering to say the least. We walked there along the rail tracks but didn’t see any trains. All this feels like a distant dream to me now.

Going to sleep one night with Yy in the same tent I remember discussing what sort of music we would start to play. I think with all the best bands it’s always a question of playing music together, the songs and who wrote what are secondary. So, we had the music and the band together before we had played a single note. 

Satan is best

Don’t be fooled by the subtitle: that was the title of one of our first recordings together and I hope Yy still has a copy of the cassette (for our young readers, this was before MP3s). The title came after the music and it was instrumental music, no singing at this point. I think we just started playing Yy’s killer riffs and improvised around them, sometimes for a very long time. After the music was together, I guess we started thinking if we ever want to get any of this across to other people, we would need some words, too. By the way, this is what Frank Zappa thought as well (I just had to get my idol’s name in here somehow). As we didn’t have any good singers available (Marco was still busy with Purgatory-turning-into-Tarot), I became the only option. I was very uneasy about this right from the beginning and I feel this is what killed the band in the end.

But the music was/is great. We played our first gig at Karttula Youth Club on October 14th and I remember I broke a string after a couple of songs, so we had to play them again. Those new-at-the-time tuning systems would go monstrously out of tune if you broke a string and though I did have two guitars, I also wanted to use both of them during the gig, both of them having their specific roles. The gig went down surprisingly well and I think it helped that we played a few of the songs twice. After Ujo Piimä our music was more simple but not too simple. There aren’t any bootleg recordings of the gig, I’m afraid. 
 
Just once in a lifetime

I think our first studio date was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. On the morning of November 15th we left for Studio Sound in Kuopio. It is run by Mikko Tegelman who I had never met prior to that. And I almost never did. We had some problems with the car on the way and he told us he was just about to leave the place when we arrived late. I’m glad he didn’t. We finished nine songs during that single day; finished meaning recorded, overdubbed, mixed and mastered. Led Zeppelin, eat your heart out! (Another bunch of idols mentioned – they needed a few days to finish their first album!)

We started with St. Koskenkorva Dance whose name obviously derives from Black Sabbath’s St. Vitus Dance. The mood of the song is eerie and I guess that’s why Yy came up with the strange lyrics with A.P., P.P. and me. Under the Western Skies has a deceivingly simple verse and a hauntingly beautiful chorus with some middle sections to boot. I also like Yy’s lyrics a lot; it’s like a western in a way – in our way. We ain’t… has to be the first lyrics I ever wrote to Yy’s dynamic but strange riff. I’ve never been able to reproduce the solo I played in the studio. Actually I wonder who the fuck played it! Killer was also my story and I remember Jukka told me not to make it more complicated than that. He also thought we would overdub something over those long pauses but I kind of like them. There’s never too much silence in the world. The only shuffle on the first “album” is Screwdriver, Yy’s strange story of motorcycles and women with a nice slide solo. The only song remaining from Ujo Piimä days was Women Women which I had turned into English. In my opinion it was one of the least successful tracks. Still was the obligatory ballad, but not just any ballad. Again the chord changes are simple but the clue to the song lies in the strange middle section (I don’t want to call it a bridge) – and the lyrics. We were in the same class with Jukkis and we had to deal with poetry during our Finnish lesson. I basically just translated a poem (I’ve forgotten the author) into English and that was it. I hope there were a couple of original ideas as well but I’m not sure. I remember hearing a line or two were written on the wall of the ladies’ toilet in a bar in Tervo. I even remember the bar. Live for Today is pure Hendrix. Yy and me were/are great Hendrix fans, Jukkeli less so, and this was our tribute to Him (capital letter intended). Last but not least, Dave’s Explosion was inspired by Paavo, our road manager. I came up with the riff in his presence as he was urging us to play like his favorite band Metallica. I think it was a bit of a joke at first but after Yy wrote the story we just had to take it seriously. By the way, the blurb at the end is genuine.

I had never sung in a studio before, and after we went back to Karttula, I got a ride in an old black VW with some friends listening to our new recording, drinking beer and feeling like a rock star. I still feel this recording is our crowning achievement and something to marvel at.
 
Second helping

After something is easy and effective the first time, you think the second time will be even easier and more effective. Or not. Again Yy had come up with strong new material, probably some of the best songs he has ever written. I think it’s mostly the production values that changed with our second recording in April 1986. We tried to make it sound more modern and lost something in the process. For starters there’s too much reverb in the vocals. We started with Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode (with a bit of Train Kept a-rollin’ in the middle section) just to loosen up. Wednesday and Rosalie were later released as a single (our only official release) and they are both great songs. There’s something about these first versions that I really like. The basic riff of Junkkernaut! was actually written by Jukka, much like Roger Taylor wrote Sheer Heart Attack. I’m sure he could have played it as well. Fast Talkin’ Steel is a showcase for his double bass drums, and a good one, too. He never liked A Song from Yesterday’s Air, though, and I agree that the performance leaves something to be desired but it’s a wonderful song, nonetheless. 
 
Three of a perfect pair

With our third outing in September 1986 we wanted to create a huge sound. We had Tarot’s backline of Marshalls to make the whole building vibrate to our music. The shopkeeper upstairs told us later he was wondering what the fuck was happening below him. The trend of the day was to use something called gate echo on the snare drum and in my opinion this is what destroyed our good purposes in the end. We started with two re-recordings of old tunes Dave’s Explosion and Wednesday. I don’t think either turned out better than the original versions. The rest of the set is very strong, however. Our slightly AC/DC-inspired The Most Beautiful Ragdoll Ever (I had someone particular in mind when I wrote the lyrics) is one of our best straight rock’n’roll songs, but I still feel compelled to say our most radio-friendly recording would have to be The F-Story. It was originally (I think) in F# and it’s Yy’s dry humor again, which I only understood years later (if you don’t get it, ask me as it only works in Finnish ;). The story itself, on the other hand, is almost like a prophecy. Samantha’s Eyes (I happen to know the girl Yy had in mind) is a great combination of Ujo Piimä and Frank Marino, difficult to explain to those not in the know. It has some slowed down guitar parts that sound fabulous to me. 

On all fours

By the time we made our fourth recordings in March 1987 some things were getting out of control (see subtitle). Some of our “friends” were already waiting at the studio door with their booze even before we had arrived. Mikko wasn’t too pleased about this. He later told us he got more money from the recyclable empty bottles left after out visit than what we actually paid him. We didn’t care. We just had our fun. By this time I realized it wasn’t a good idea to do the vocals last after a few days of drinking. The drummer and bass player could take it easy and fool around in the studio while one still had his work cut out for him.

The first song West Company was written after listening to Judas Priest’s Living after Midnight backwards. It’s Yy’s lyrics. This was at the time when bands were accused of giving people subliminal messages in their songs to kill themselves. My mother believed it and gave me a book on the subject written by Leo Meller. I was devastated and was afraid she would destroy my record collection while I was away. To her credit she didn’t but we still argue about religion, which I actually enjoy in a way. Tuckson City is where Yy, Jukkis etc. would go “fishing” for a long weekend. I was never officially invited and I still feel offended. The song is Yy all the way. V-max is just a laugh really, we never took it seriously, and the same goes for Nightride, which was never even finished really. Stepping out, however, is a completely different story. I still feel it has the best lyrics I have ever written, influenced by a book of sociology I had read in university (probably the only one) and 1984 by Orwell. It has some tapping (a very popular guitar-playing technique at the time) in the solo, the only time apart from Dave’s Explosion, but I kind of like it. I would include the song in the top five of all the Junkkers’ songs. Power has one of the classic Yy riffs, which became something totally different when we started playing it. There’s a double guitar solo as we couldn’t decide which one was better. I wrote the lyrics on the train home from Jyväskylä. 
 

The only single

In late 1987 the music store Svengi wanted to make a single with us for some reason and we decided the best songs for that purpose would be Rosalie and Wednesday. They are good tunes and they turned out fine. I especially like the doubled solo on Wednesday (which Mikko thought couldn’t be doubled). This time we did the vocals on a separate date. Yy was present and he didn’t think the extravaganzas at the end of Wednesday were appropriate. I agree with him now. 
 
Fiver

It was another full year till we went into the studio for the next time in late 1988, and this was the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning if you like. Gas, Money & Time is a great song but this delivery leaves something to be desired. It’s Yy’s title and my story. The main riff is evidently by Pekka Vainikainen of Ujo Piimä fame. Vision is Yy’s Led Zeppelin -influenced riff and my lyrics with references to my three-month stay in America earlier that year. Then there’s a new version of West Company which is only justified by better vocals and a faster tempo, and possibly a better solo. Helen of Troy is Yy at his romantic best. A riff as if from Led Zep and lyrics from Homer, what a combination! Jukka thought I even overdid my Page influences on this one but I have no regrets. Natural, or “Natusan” as it was playfully called, is again in my top five, or three, or maybe the ultimate Junkkers song. Yy’s guitar riff and my bass riff combined with my environmentally friendly lyrics (which were true, by the way) and my all time favorite guitar solo make this a wonderful specimen of what The Junkkers were capable of. This recording session was finished by another passable version of Junkkernaut! I would still love to hear Jukkeli play his own riff some day, though.

No more singles

Our last session was in February and March 1990 and we chose two songs to be released as a single. They never were. Fast Talkin’ Steel is a drum showcase and this version is even more so. There’s no question of who’s the best drummer this side of John Bonham! The new version of Gas, Money & Time was meant to be our hit single and we really thought about the production. I like the funny vocal bits in French and the guitar solo. All in all, this was a decent way to finish the Junkkers’ recorded legacy.