Interview
Piritta Lumous, vocalist of Manzana answered some questions at Tampere 16.07.2008
By Frances Amelie Sin- www.northern-rockmusic.com / www.blackswan-promotions.de
I met Piritta in a bar for some beer and I nearly forgot to start
the tape to record the interview. After a lot of talking, laughing and
girls-stuff, we started to go through the questions that I planned to
ask :)
FAS: Tell me about the german Tour with Lovex last year. What kind of experience was it??
Piritta: It was great and so much fun, we are at the same booking
agency as Lovex, so we had this chance to go on tour with them!
Normally a lot of bands are doing these tours themselves,you know,
taking a car and driving fom gig to gig, that's quite hard! It was
really nice how well it was organized by the german agency of Lovex and
that so many people had been there. I think in Berlin we had the best
gig ever!!
FAS: Oh yes I remember that the people were very enthusiastic there!!
Piritta: Well yes, it was really nice to play there, a good feeling
cause people really wanted to hear us!! But we were really scared
before the show.
In Finland the crowd is very calm and cold and they show you what they
think of you, if you do a mistake on stage they leave or show it to you
in another way. Except at the summer festival, there the people are so
enthusiastic...
FAS: Yeah there are so many germans there ;) and alcohol and sun!!
Piritta: Maybe, maybe, so even Hamburg didn't seem cold to me even if it was not like Berlin!
But Hamburg was the first gig, maybe I didnt enjoy it so much, I was
concentrated on everything and to make a good show, but it was nice!
FAS: Will you come back to germany??
Pritta: Oh yes, hopefully after the release of the new album!
September, October, November, that time around! It's a matter of
the manager, the lable, you know they have to pay for that ;) But we
really wanna play there again!
( Then we start talking about the successful bands from Finland in
Germany and the Anette or Tarja discussion begins! End of the story:
both are great XD)
FAS: Well lets come to the next question, how far are you gone with the new album?
Piritta: It's ready! I got the covers yesterday and they will start to
press on Friday. It is coming out in September, 22nd I think. At that
date we will do a release gig!
FAS: Who writes the lyrics?
Piritta: I do, then we make the songs with the guitarist, you
know the melodies and harmonies, I do the lyrics and Henkka makes the
music then. After that the guys arrange the songs in the studio.
FAS: What kind of developement do you see from the last to the new album?
Piritta: I think it is a bit more rocking, the first album was more
pop-rock but there are still sad lyrics and stuff. I don't really know,
I heard the songs now about three times... There are more rough guitars
and it's metallic too!
FAS: You told me you played in other bands before, do we know them??
Piritta: Probably not! I played with Lumous, that's where my name is
from, and it's finnish alternative rock-stuff. I was writing the
lyrics and sometimes I still do and keep them for Lumous, but we
haven't done anything for a couple of years now! When I write songs I
sometimes think, oh this is Lumous and put it to the Lumous file and
the others to the Manzana file ;). I collect them and maybe one day we
will go on again with the band!
Before I was singing in a grunge band, I was very young there, and it
was unique, there were no girls - I haven't been a women in any kind at
that time ;), singing in bands here in Tampere.
FAS: What were you influences ?? And don't say Bon Jovi now ;)
Piritta: When I was a teenager I liked a lot of grunge bands like
Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and when I grew older there came Guano Apes
and Skunk Anansie, I tought, ow look a woman can sing in a way I like
to sing, I saw Sandra singing here in Tampere and all the people
were shocked that a girl is just screaming that much on stage an I was
like yeah great....!
FAS: I guessed you are kind of inspired by Anneke from The Gathering when I first heard you singing!
Piritta: Oh yes, a lot of people say that I sound a bit like Anneke. I
actually didn't know the band since a couple of month ago. I
picked the album from the library and thought ok this is The Gathering,
I have to hear that because all the people say that! They are really
good. I don't know if they are still existing?
FAS: I haven't heard anything of them for a long time, I don't know that! I hope they go on...
How do you were connected to music in your childhood? Did you just start singing or did you play any instruments?
Piritta: I play piano and I play guitar and I went to a music school
too. I was always into rockmusic but I was in a way too kind for it, a
good girl, ... I was not a good girl haha nobody will belive me, I was
a very bad girl when I was young, but insinde you know, so I went
to sing in a punkband. I could canalize my agressions there into the
music. Later on I felt that singing is the way to express myself that's
why I always write the songs, I don't want to sing somebodyelse's
songs, I need to sing about the stories I have to tell and the things I
have to get out of my system.
FAS: Can you describe your bandmates in 3 words??
Piritta: Henkka is very distant and strange and also very funny! That's
what nobody belives!! He didn't talk very much but he has a very strage
humor. And he has a good ear, he's mixing a lot of bands and he can
hear everything, he realizes things in music that I would never
realize!!
Klaus is very funny and full of love and he has so much energy, he' s
very young and lovely. He's better than all of us. He sometimes says oh
you did this and that wrong with the chord and I don't even know what
the chord is! He's a Jazzman, he plays a lot of Jazz . Well here are my
three words ;)
Heikki has a black humor he is very strange, you kill him if you tell
him: hey you have to come to an interview cause he's quite shy
actually. He is practicing a lot of hours very controlled, practicing
the most of all!
FAS: Tell me bad stories from gigs!!
Piritta: I fell off the stage... haha...that was the only time that I
went on stage drunk, it was years ago and after that I swore that I
never perform drunk again anymore, and I haven't. I also punched
my teeth with the microphone, that was nasty too.
At one gig I had a water bottle next to me on the bottom and in the
first row there was a very young girl, dressed up very much and then I
jumped on the bottle and it kind of exploded and all the water was on
that girl, she was completely wet and all her make up was running
through her face. And I looked at her like: poor girl I am
so sorry...
One day I had a naked man behind me on stage and I didn't realize it. I
was like: why are all the people laughing?? Are they so happy to
see us, yeah great ?? It was some guy from another band and he was
doing .. you know.. the helicopter XD
FAS: Do you remember the first gig with Manzana??
Piritta: Yes it was at Amadeus, on Henkkas birthday, it was a private
party and we played there with another band, it was like a reunion gig
of the first band we ever had. We played te old songs and realized how
shitty they were ;)
It felt very natural to play for all our friends. It was a big party for everyone.
FAS: Who would be your favourit singer for an duett??
Piritta: Hahaha Jon Bon Jovi... or maybe the Depeche Mode singer.
From the young finnish voices I really like Mika from Entwine, I always
sing on top of their album in the car so I think it would fit and then
I like Matthaus voice!! It's a manlike voice!! I also like Poisonblack
and Amorphis, all the guys with the big voices!
FAS: Do you sing under the shower????
Piritta: No hahaha not anymore! I had problems with all the singing at
a job once, I was working in an restaurant and singing while working
and so they told me I should better go wash the dishes cause I cannot
sing in front of the guests all the time. And then I told them I
am in a band and they : well that's a good place for you!! But I sing
in the car on top of Bon Jovi and Entwine ;)! And then the people are looking
stupid at me, I am always drumming in the car! Yeah I can imagine
the child in the car next to me saying: Look mummy, there is a crazy
women next to us! And mummy says: Yea yea!!
FAS: Give a good advice to your fans at last!
Piritta: Never give up, even though you should. Hang on your dreams, even though everybody is laughing about you .. hahaha
Thanks!!
(c) Frances Amelie Sin
www.northern-rockmusic.com
www.blackswan-promotions.de
visit:
www.manzana.fi
www.myspace.com/manzanaband
or in german:
www.myspace.com/mazanagermany
Pictures of the shooting after the Interview are in the Gallery