Interview: Jontte frontman of Finnish grunge-band Crumbland, September 2007
Crumbland is another one in a long line of great (new) Finnish bands and one with big potential to do well all over Europe if not the world. The band exists under this name since 2001 already but they have just released their debut album ´Should I Tell you?´ in June this year; you can read the album review here. Jontte, singer/guitarist/songwriter, was kind enough to take few minutes out of his busy schedule and answered a few questions for The Bullet Reviews. Big thank you to him again for doing this.
Romana: So, there isn’t much info (at least not in English) about your band on the net; your website is currently still in the making (a/n: it was at the time this interview took place, it´s nicely updated now), only providing us with some news and your MySpace site only gives out few facts. Tell us a bit more about the band, something we should know but isn’t written anywhere.
Jontte: If it isn’t written anywhere you probably shouldn’t know about it, he he... Well, I guess I could reveal that even though we are a band from Helsinki, none of us is originally from Helsinki. We have all followed our dreams and moved here to play rock ‘n’ roll.
Romana: You have just released your first album ´Should I Tell You?´ 2 months ago and it seems to be doing quite well on the (Finnish) charts. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole album yet, can you tell us something about it – about writing, recording, deciding what song makes it on the album, lyrics… anything album related?
Jontte: I write most of the songs at home on my acoustic guitar, and then we arrange them together with the band. That however seems to be changing and I think for the next album we will be writing more of the music together as a band. Basically we put those songs on the album that we felt worked the best at the time. Some songs are also quite old and it was important at least for me to put them on the record to sort off 'get them out of my system' and make way for new stuff.
Romana: First single ´In Your Head´ already indicated that the album has pretty good chances of success. I also like the video quite a lot – it’s very simple and very pure. I haven’t seen any news about your next single yet though. What song is it going to be? Any plans for that video yet?
Jontte: Little Town will be the next single. We don’t have any official plans for the video yet but one idea we have is to have a girl that would be my girlfriend, but then she would be flirting with all the other guys in the band every chance she gets. It could be quite funny and it would reflect the story of the song quite well.
Romana: The very first Crumbland song that was ever played on a radio was ´Slide´ in 2002 already. First official single ´Feel You´ was released in 2004 and also got some decent airplay and got labels interested in you. How come it took this long to finally have the album in stores now?
Jontte: Actually we won a band competition arranged by Radio Extreme with a song called “The Earth” in 2001, so I think that was the first song ever played on the radio. But anyway: It took us a while to get a record deal. We had some good negotiations going but for various reasons they fell through. We signed with Terra Recordings in 2005 and started looking for a producer. The idea was to try different producers hoping that this would help us find our sound. As it turned out it made the process very slow, and it took us a year and a half to finish the album. For most of that time we were just waiting for the next producer.
Romana: As much as I know about Finns and Finnish bands, you are workaholics. You never can do just one thing at the time; everyone is usually involved in 3 other projects besides the main one plus has a day job which keeps you busy day and night. Is it the same with you and guys in this band or is Crumbland a full time job that you are giving 100% of you attention to and want to take it as far as it can go?
Jontte: If we could we would do just one thing; Crumbland. Unfortunately we still have to go to day jobs once in a while, and some of the guys play in various cover bands to pay the bills. We are however all ready to drop everything else when things start rolling. This has been a dream for all of us and it’s finally about to come true.
Romana: How far do you want to go? You are playing mostly in Finland for now but I read you have also been in India twice already and you loved it. What are you future plans? Are you craving for big international success?
Jontte: Absolutely. The market for this kind of music is very limited in Finland, and there are only so many venues where you can play. The plan has always been to go abroad. We want to go all the way.
Romana: I didn’t find the list of gigs you have played so far, but I’m guessing you’ve played (and still will be playing) in small venues in Finland and you’ve also played some festivals. What do you like better, what makes each of it special if you like both?
Jontte: The energy coming from a huge crowd is obviously very intoxicating and addictive, but a small venue can give you a totally different feeling of intimacy. When you can look people in the eye you know that you can really touch them. So I would have to say I like both.
Romana: Bands that get big and famous and get to play in huge arenas sometimes wish they would be able to go back to playing in small few-hundred-people venues again (as do their fans), but there is usually no way back. Are you ready to cross that line? Do you even want to?
Jontte: I see what you mean, but I think there are actually very few bands that have that “problem”. It’s hard work to stay big, and most of the bands fall out of the arena category sooner or later. I bet they then wish they could get back up there again. So to answer your question; yes I think we are ready to take that chance.
Romana: You have bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Live, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kent, all these bands that I am a big fan of myself, listed as the influence on your music. Why would you say this music made such an impact on our generation?
Jontte: Well, I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I felt like shit when I was growing up, and for me this music was a soundtrack for my angst.
Romana: If you could put together a line-up of 4 or 5 bands for a festival that Crumbland would open, which would you put on the list and who would be headlining? Pearl Jam maybe?
Jontte: If we can have ANYONE I would say Nirvana and The Doors... But some doable ones would definitely be Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam, and I would actually love to have Sigur Rós there too. They are awesome.
Romana: Is there any already internationally known Finnish band that you would like to do a joined tour with as an opening act for their shows and maybe tour Europe with?
Jontte: Actually we were just talking about trying to join Sunrise Avenue for their German tour in October. We seem to be getting a lot of friend requests from SA fans in Germany, so I think it would be great for us to tour with them.
Romana: I like the idea of bigger bands taking small, unknown bands to a tour with them. Would you do that for some prospective new bands when you get big and famous?
Jontte: Absolutely. If there’s a band you like and think would deserve a break, a great way to help them is to take them on a tour. I hope we will be able to do that some day.
Romana: I’ve always loved live music; nothing beats a great live gig. What was your first concert and how old were you?
Jontte: My first real live gig was Atomic Swing in Turku. The thing I remember best is that the singer was looking himself in the mirror most of the gig. Oh the rock star ego... I must have been 18 since it was in a restaurant. There weren’t many rock gigs where I grew up...
Romana: My fist concert was Nirvana when I was 15. Today you see parents bring their 8 year olds or even younger kinds to gigs. What do you think about that? Too early, or is it never too early to get your kids into music? Maybe that inspires them to start their own bands some day?
Jontte: I think it’s great as long as they protect their ears. I can’t believe people still go to concerts without earplugs.
Romana: I guess that’s all for now, thank you very much for doing this interview with us. Any final words, messages for the readers of The Bullet Reviews maybe?
Jontte: If you’ve heard it it’s true – Crumbland is coming.
Official site: www.crumbland.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/crumbland