Finnish post-punk legends Musta Paraati have just released their first new album in 34 years. The 'Black Parade' LP features 11 tracks in English. 10 of these are new and 'The Leader' is a new English rendition of their song 'Johtaja', which released as a single in 1983.
Tomatrax caught up with Saku Paasiniemi to ask a few questions.
You've just put out your first album as a band in 34 years, what have you been up to over this time?We all have been in the music business somehow during all these years Ykä's been playing in several bands all the time mostly with the band called 000 which was a big thing for Musta Paraati cuz both Ykä and Jore Vastelin is a founding members for it, Panda has done different things for the Finnish bands actually he was working as a manager for 69 Eyes in early years. After the Musta Paraati I played with several bands and then late 80's I started to work as a restaurant manager in Scandinavia's oldest rock club Tavastia also same time I was touring with different bands like Michael Monroe, Andy McCoy's solo bands and 2000 I joined with the Hanoi Rocks as a tour manager and guitar tech, after that I did also tours with Satyricon, Doctor Midnight and the Mercy Cult..... Etc.
What was it like to record together again after this time?Recording the album felt like nothing has changed during the years cuz we know each others so well and even if I write the songs it's us who make them sound as a Musta Paraati 👻
Where did the title The Black Parade come from?The title Black Parade came out cuz I wanted this project to be a bit different than the Finnish stuff but Cleo Recs wanted this called Musta Paraati so I made a kinda compromise with it and named the album as a Black Parade which is a straight translation of Musta Paraati 👻
What inspired you to use a picture from the same location and taken by the same photographer as your debut album?The album cover thingy was Jyrki69 's idea, we decided to do things like we did it back in the old days mostly with the same people whose we been working with 👻
Are there plans for another album?And me and Ykä had that nice chat last summer that cuz we have put so much effort for this now it's not going to stop so the heat is on and we actually have songs/demos for the next album ready and there's more to come...... 👻
You'll be starting an international tour this month, what can fans expect from your show?Doing music nowadays is somehow so much easier than before, we have lots of ideas and stuff but more than that I am waiting to get back on stage to play live
cuz I think it brings the real Musta Paraati things out cuz anyway we are more raw and Punk on stage but still have that dance beat with it which is really important for us Ykä's drums are the main thing for us he is like a pacemaker for the old machine 👻👻👻
What inspired you to write songs in English for this album?Doing songs in English has been on our mind quite long cuz we wanted to do something for the fans abroad and Jyrki was a best choice for us.... 👻
Where did the name Musta Paraati come from?I think name of the band became originally from Jore Vastelin the original singer of the band, he was reading books all the time and mostly scifi stuff and dystopia stories...... 👻
What music do you listen to?Last 12 months I've been listening the album soooo much so I am not goin to listen to it at home for a long time hahahahaaa, we all have totally different taste of music but I think there is lots of similarities as well cuz we have the same roots with the bands like the Clash, Sex Pistols, Lords of the New Church, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath.......... 👻
What do you have planned following your upcoming tour?We haven't planned things that much yet cuz we goin to do those Finnish gigs first and think that we goin to have more promo stuff like Live clips and etc. and let people know who we really are.... 👻👻👻👻👻
