Rock and roll music: interview with the band The Flaming Sideburns

The Flaming Sideburns is a historic Finnish garage-rock and punk band, which released the new single Soulshaking that anticipates the album. Among the albums are Hallelujah Rock'n'Rollah (2001), Sky Pilots (2004), Keys to the Highway (2007).

Look at the Gallery: Band The Flaming Sideburns album and tour - images

Q. Your song Soulshaking alternates rock and garage music. pop style with a more narrated one. How did this combination come about?

A. With the Sideburns things just happen rather naturally. Basically we can take any kind of a song and it always turns out sounding like us. We can’t help it and haven’t even tried to turn the ship! Soulshaking is a classic song for us, and a good way to reintroduce the band. Straight forward rock and roll with a bit of swagger and a catchy chorus. I guess it’s a mixture of music we’ve always been listening to: bit of garage rock, bit of Slade, some of that 60s soul. Apart from the very beginning, when we started out covering 60s punk, we’ve never been interested in cornering us in just one music style. There will be some surprises on the next album!

Q. Why didn't you produce albums from Keys to the Highway (2007)?

A. We tried but nothing came out of it. I still got tons of demos from that time but hardly any of the songs got finished. I guess they just weren’t good enough. There had been a period of 15 years when not a day went by without us thinking about a band. All of sudden we had much more important stuff to take care of as most of us had young kids. They’re all standing on their own feet now so we have more time for the band again. Getting the original line-up back together was a real boost: all of sudden the songs started to come out again! Great songs, I’d like to emphasise.

Q. Where did the recordings take place? 

A. A very small studio in the suburbs of Helsinki. These days you can make a record pretty much anywhere so getting the right producer was more important. We managed to lure Jürgen Hendlmeier out of the hibernation so we had all original players back in the ring. Jürgen did Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah and Sky Pilots with us, as well as a lot of touring, but since then he has retreated to a small island in Northern Finland and started his own brewery. We are the only band he ever wants to work with again!

Q. Which artists and styles do you draw inspiration from?

A. The Sonics was the starting point, we must’ve covered half of their catalogue, but when we started writing our own songs, our style just started evolving. We’re all huge music fans to begin with, always exploring music old and new, anything from early blues to afrobeat and so on. But since we only can play rock and roll we’ll never stray too far from that. There are some common names we dig. Anything Roky Erickson, bless his soul, has ever done. The Stooges, Slade, Thee Hypnotics, Ebbot Lundberg with Union Carbide and Soundtrack of Our Lives, Little Richard, MC5… I could go on for a while!

Q. What is the musical situation in Scandinavia? 

A. I’ve been living in the UK more or less for six years now so I have to say I’m a bit out of touch with the scene up in the North, especially when it comes to new bands — haven’t been able to see many of them live. It seems like rock and roll is gaining speed again after a rather quiet period. There are bunch of new bands and all of a sudden many of the essential bands seem to be active again. The Hives and us are back in the studio, The Hellacopters and Union Carbide Productions are touring again. Now we just need a bunch of young kids who will kick us up in the arse and start a new revolution! Viagra Boys from Stockholm is one new band I really like since they’ve got their own style and plenty of attitude to boot. They are the talk of the town here in London now.

Q. What is your next project?

A. We’ll do a bit of touring later this year but our first and foremost priority is finishing the new album. It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree? We cut ten tracks in the spring and are working on more songs as we speak. They will be recorded in the fall and I’m rather confident that we’ll have enough of top-notch material for an album by the end of the year. 2020 will be a big one for us, I hope. It’s our 25th anniversary and what would be a better way to celebrate it than a new album!

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