God's
Lonely Men
This article originally appeared in NFH #22 in
the winter of 1992.
One of the first
Finnish singles I ever got was the God's Lonely Men record "Price I Have To Pay"
on Hiljaiset Levyt. It immediately caught my ear with the sort of heartfelt power pop
blended with punk that I just can't get enough of. At the end of 1991 they hit with a
whole lp of really great material, so I needed to find out more. So I dashed off a list of
questions to drummer Jarkko Jokelainen, a fellow who at 21 is already established as a
veteran of the Finnish scene, having played in bands since 1983. I expressed surprise at
all the things they had done already despite their age, and Jarkko replied, "Yeah, we
are all 21 years old except our bass player who is 22 now, and Vesa is going to be 22
soon, too. If you think that we were young when we started God's Lonely Men, just think
how young we were when we started to play together; we were about 13 or something. The
motto of my life has always been, the younger you start, the more you get done."
Right there, Jarkko!
I'd describe God's
Lonely Men as a combination of a rough power pop group with Stiff Little Fingers bass
lines. "There you're quite right", says Jarkko, "because we are a rough
power pop group, and Vesa who played bass on the album is a real Stiff Little Fingers fan,
and I think he's quite proud of this description. The reason the bass lines are so strong
is that we did play as a three piece for a while, and in the gigs our sound was very thin
and we had to fill it with something, and the bass was the answer in our case. Our guitar
sound is not so heavy and powerful as punk groups usually have."
In addition to the
band, Jarkko published his own very good fanzine called "Subterranean Jungle"
for years. Now he's dropped that and instead has started a much bigger and better fanzine
with the shortened name "Jungle" and which is co-written by friends from around
the Finnish music scene like Jukka Juntilla from Hilaiset Levyt and Miettinen from Gaga
Goodies. God's Lonely Men has been a constant struggle to keep going for Jarkko over their
entire existence because of problems with members drifting in and out and people moving to
other cities so that practices are sporadic and gigs even less regular. Still the band
keeps plugging, and why shouldn't they when they are capable of going into the studio and
coming out with an album as good as All This And More?
Let Jarkko tell how
the band got going: "Me and Teemu Horto were in the same class in 1983 and we decided
to form a group together with a third guy in our class and then with this other guy, they
could play some guitar, so they became guitarists, but I couldn't play anything, so I
began to play drums. A year later Vesa Vahtera joined us; he was in the same school as we
were, and he began to play bass. Around that time, we had gotten real instruments, where
before we had only bongo drums and acoustic drums, so you couldn't call us a real band in
the beginning. This band was called Ruin after the Ramones, and it broke up in 1985 after
just a few gigs, and we did some demos, but those are lost, and I'm sorry for that,
because I really want to hear some of them."
"After this band
broke up, Vesa started to play guitar and sing lead, and I started to play drums with him,
and we did have some bass players and some different names for the group but we didn't get
anything proper together. The only proper line up we got together was in 1986, when we
started to play as the God's Lonely Men. The bassist in the beginning was Teemu Horto, the
guitarist from the Ruin, Vesa was singing and playing guitar and I was drumming."
"In the spring
of 1987 we got a fourth member in our band when Tero Teranen joined and began to play bass
and Teemu switched to guitar. Quite soon after that Teemu left the band, and then he came
back and Tero left the band and so on; they were in and out of the band all the time. That
took about two years, and in the beginning of 1989 we got all four guys in the band again
and we played with this lineup in the summer of 1990 and after that we kicked Teranen out
and started to rehearse as a three piece band with Teemu playing guitar and Vesa playing
bass and singing and I drumming. We made the album with this lineup, and just before we
released the album we got a fourth member into the band, Esa Salokoski, playing bass. At
the moment the situation of the lineup is a bit confused and I don't really know what's
going to happen. It seems like there's going to be some changes in the lineup once again,
but I can't really say right now what's going to happen. We'll just have to wait and
see."
"About our
recordings; we have always made demos, but our first record, the ep "Days Of
Glory", was released in late 1988, and it was quite well received. The press gave out
great reviews and the pressing was sold out very quickly; it took only a month or two. I
don't know why we didn't make a second pressing of that ep, but maybe it was meant to be a
collectors item. Anyway, the first ep was like a cross between the Clash and these
Australian groups like the Eastern Dark, the Screaming Tribesmen, and the Stems, maybe the
best of them all. Those guys were quite good. It was only me, Vesa and Tero on that ep;
Teemu was out of the band."
"In 1989 we had
a song called "No More Songs About Having Fun" on a compilation album called
"Maanalainen Vuosikerta 1989", which means something like "Underground
Issue 1989" in English. It was a compilation of Finnish hardcore bands, pop rock and
roll, and noise groups. Our song was a bit different from what we usually do; it was very
fast but still melodic. Kind of pop hardcore like the Hard-Ons are doing these days. In
1989 we also released a cassette mini album called "Stolen Golden Greats" and we
played on it only our favorite punk classics like the "Garageland" originally by
the Clash, "Wasted Life" by Stiff Little Fingers, "First Time" by the
Boys, and "Didn't Tell The Man" by Radio Birdman (or the Hitmen). That was kind
of fun to do, but it's not so fun to listen to it, because I think we didn't really get
the spirit of the original ones in our versions."
"In 1990 we
released our single "Proud Of Being Myself" with "Price I Had To Pay"
in our opinion it's a real drop because of the sound which is poor and because of the
playing which could have been better. It's quite lazy or something. The songs are quite
good, especially "Proud Of Being Myself", but the single didn't get very good
reviews in our local papers. In spring of 1991 we recorded our first album "All This
And More", which was released in the fall. But more about that later."
The band got their
name from the title of the Lurker's second album. It was Vesa's suggestion and the rest of
the band agreed because they liked the sound of it. But the Lurkers aren't a special
influence or anything and in fact Jarkko says that he always thought of the Lurkers as a
second division punk band from the late 70s. "Much bigger influences for us have been
the punk rock groups like the Boys, Stiff Little Fingers, the Buzzcocks, the Ramones, the
Clash...this kind of groups. Also some Finnish punk groups that I bet you don't
know."
"Vesa and I were
about 9 or 10 when we started listening to this kind of music, so it's like we drank on
our mothers milk, this kind of music. So it's a heavy influence. We have always listened
to this kind of music. Later the Australian boom a few years ago was a really big thing
for us. We really liked things like the Hard Ons, Eastern Dark, Happy Hate Me Nots, Died
Pretty, Screaming Tribesmen, Trilobites and things like that. Vesa usually listens to only
melodic and powerful guitar music with lots of hooks. I personally listen to almost
everything from Subpop metal to jingle jangle pop. Teemu used to be a hardcore fan when he
was younger, but these days he's listening to everything from the Kinks to Elvis Costello
and Talking Heads and things like that. Esa our new bass player is a real metal fanatic,
but he's also listening to everything from Tom Petty to Bad Religion. So the main
influence is coming from power pop bands, but there is more, and we are not only power
pop. In the beginning with our first bands and with God's Lonely Men we did play much more
punk and straight rock and roll music. We didn't think so much about song structure and
things like that; we just played for fun. Then we heard about the Australian groups,
especially the Stems, and we thought that we should also have melodies in the songs. And
after that Vesa won't play any songs without melodies."
Jarkko seems unawed
by their lp and appraises it in a very even-handed way; probably a symptom of his years of
reviewing other people’s records. It has sold about as well as he expected for a
Finnish indie and has gotten some good reviews and some bad ones. His favorite was a five
star review in the great German fanzine Hartbeat! The lp probably would have helped them
get more gigs if it wasn't for the fact that Jarkko is presently living in Tampere about
120 miles away from the other band members. When they are gigging they usually play little
pubs around Finland; there are ten or fifteen towns where they can usually get such a
show. Sometimes they get lucky and get on a bill for a larger indoor festival. Strangely
enough they have played a number of hardcore gigs, though they don't play that style
themselves. "That's very fun because we are so different from the other groups",
says Jarkko. "Usually three or four noisy hardcore groups, and then after we get onto
the stage people are like "oh, this is different, this is something good", and
they really like it."
Despite the limited
number of venues to play in Finland and the fact that there are only about 5 million
people there, things are quite healthy for the independent scene. "I can't say how
many people are listening to this kind of music", says Jarkko, "but we are
talking about some thousands of people. I think the situation is getting better, because a
band which is playing Ramones kind of stuff was just the top band in our singles list.
That was a real surprise for everyone, and Nirvana has been the second one on the album
list."
"We do have lots
of great new rock and roll bands here in Finland at the moment. Especially Jalla Jalla;
their new album is great. Since punk we have always had great groups here. There were lots
of great punk and power pop bands here in the late 70s and the beginning of the 80s, but
those bands were not so suitable for foreign ears because they sang mostly in Finnish, and
they played a Finnish version of punk rock or pop. These days Finnish bands are mostly
singing in English and they do sound more like the American and Australian and English
ones. Maybe that's a bad thing, maybe not. So this is nothing new because we have always
had good bands here. It's just that foreign people have now found those bands here, and
you can thank for that Jukka Juntilla and Miettinen who are the forces of the two biggest
independent labels here in Finland, Hiljaiset Levyt and Gaga Goodies."
I asked Jarkko to
list his favorites from the Finnish scene today, and you'll have to forgive me if I get
the names wrong because Finnish names can be pretty hard to decipher for a Yank.
"This is a hard question because there are so many of them", he replied.
"At the moment, the biggest favorite is Jalla Jalla. I saw them live last week and
they were great once again, and their new album is going to be great, and I have always
loved them. They are a really great band and they are really funny guys, too. Then there's
another band from the Arctic Circle, Greenhouse. I saw them also last week, and they were
also great. I have never, ever heard such a great version of the Stooges song "Down
In The Street" as the one they played; it was really fucking great, I can say. One of
my biggest favorites is the Innerspacemen from Helsinki and their new single "Tall
Grass". It's really great. 22 Pistepirkko is another great ones. Then there are two
really fucking great power pop bands, Poverty Stinks and (another indecipherable name).
Then there is this band called Pojat, which means the Boys in English and you can guess
the rest. They started as a band that played only Boys songs, but nowadays they are
playing their own songs. They sing in Finnish but they are a very good band. They used to
play in punk rock bands as early as in the late 70s. Then there's Lowdown Shaking Chills
who are our best friends, and Hitmen 3 from Helsinki, Dead Allison, this Stooges-metal
band from Oulu in northern Finland, the all-female group Little Mary Mixup, Pennyless
People of Bulgaria, Barfly, the Nightengales, who are also from Rovaniemi, Amazing Tales,
Alice In Wasteland, Wannabees, 69 Eyes, Psychoplasma, and so on and so on. I just listened
to a bunch of new demos of Finnish bands and there were some great groups. There are
really a lot of good bands here."
"We have played
quite a lot of gigs with these other Finnish bands like Poverty Stinks and Jalla Jalla and
especially the Lowdown Shaking Chills; they are our close friends and we have played
dozens of gigs with them. Those gigs are always the funniest ones."
"The biggest
favorites of mine from foreign lands at the moment are the new album by the Velvet Crush,
the American band, the Loose Rails, from America, too, the Teenage Fanclub and their new
album, then die Totenhousen's new album Learning English which is full of this punk
rock covers; I bet you have heard of that, if not just get this album right now. Then the
Happy Hate Me Nots new mini album is really fucking great and there's many things coming
all around the world at the moment and these days I'm listening mostly to these new
powerful pop groups. Nirvana's new album Never Mind is a big thing for me too, as
for other people in this world; that came as a real surprise to me."
Jarkko is watching TV
as he answers the questions, and a ski-jumping program comes on and distracts him. (If you
read the Jalla Jalla feature last issue you'll remember that they were all nuts about ski
jumping as well...) "You might wonder why Finnish are so anxious about this
sport", says Jarkko, "but the reason is that there are only two sports that the
Finnish are good at and one is ski jumping. I like ski jumping; I haven't ever jumped,
because I think it's crazy man's work, and no one in our band has ever jumped, but I just
talked with the guys from Greenhouse about this and they said that it's quite usual to
jump in the northern parts of Finland; that almost all the youngsters jump at some time in
their life. But we come from the south of Finland, so maybe that's the reason. This guy
who's maybe the best ever ski jumper in the world...he comes from Finland, and he's a very
funny guy. The local press is writing very funny stories about him. He's always drunk in
some very funny places and he has done things like he stole a few boxes of cigarettes and
lollipops."
"Oh, there was a
Finnish guy jumping right now and he jumped very well! 170 meters! That's a great thing.
Anyway, this guy is now going to stop his career and he's maybe going to concentrate on
drinking."
With that the
interview deteriorates into a long story about some gig disasters with Jarkko's mates in
the Lowdown Shaking Chills in which God's Lonely Men missed the last bus to their next gig
and hung out instead in a red neck bar getting plastered while the promoter fumed on the
other end, and by the time he's through with that story the ski jumping has ended and the
Finns have dominated the competition. Not unlike they are doing in the music business
these days.
