We are glad to introduce the world of Hannu Lepisto; Wonderful dark rock finnish songwriter...
Here’s what he say about himself..
LFdM: Hi Hannu, thank you very much for your time!
HL: Ciao Michela, thank you for asking, pleasure is all mine.
LFdM: I follow you on twitter from awhile and there was a song that captured my attention "I wanna walk all night". I'll be sincere with you (we are, me and my friend Alessia) are big fans of HIM.
HL: Thank you. Yeah, HIM rules! I’m very, very glad you have found my music too.. :-) Hope You liked the legendary fanzine Punk Globe’s April issue! A dream come through to be on the cover! Though a small feat. just on the upper left corner, but that don’t matter :-) and including another great interview with Jutta Gabriel... L'il plug for starters. :-)
LFdM: I love Helsinki especially during the winter’ nights... there is something to magical and mystical.
HL: I agree. I hope that I captured some of it on the video of the song ”I Wanna Walk All Night”, that captured your attention. Was filmed in various areas within a city, and most of ’em I’ve lived myself, like Kallio (hope You HIM-fans noticed something interesting there, in the video ;-), Sörnäinen and Töölö, and center, and Tuomiokirkko. Also the ”Cathedral”, which I find very cool, mystical and inspiring - well nothing compared to Rome and Vatican. I had the pleasure to spend a week in Trastevere, Rome a couple of years ago. And, to me, it was so inspiring to just walk all days and go to churches etc. and the amazing Vatican area… That history, whoa! But, in Finland, especially the winter nights in countryside where ain’t city lights - that’s very inspiring and mystical. if you let your imagination run wild, I suggest to try that too. :-)
LFdM: Tell us something about that song?
HL: Well, the song is a good rocker with whacky bridge part. The lyrics are about the story of a relationship - the arguments, existentialism, finding your own space, and also about being determined there will be a happy ending. Lol. But it's a good rocker that I like to play live. And like to vary it, sometimes play it more balladish, sometimes full steam-ahead rock. And in the recorded version there is so much going on. But in the mix down, feels that I found a place for every instrument from accordion to banjo so that the main focus is on vocals, and my acoustic guitar, and the bass-, -electric guitars, piano and drums are in balance.
I feel really happy that such a cool engineer mastered it - Matthew Agoglia. He has has mastered greats like Emmy-Lou Harris, James Taylor etc... and he put his magic in there and added the glue to hold ”Have A Beautiful Life”- album together. I’m satisfied with the result. And very satisfied also with the crazy video idea as well that I came up with my label.
LFdM: Where does your sound come from? Could you describe it?
HL: It took me awhile to find my own vocal sound, to realize it is naturally so low. So I fine-tuned and adjusted it with drinking lot of bourbon etc. and smoking like a chimney. LOL.
Well, I don’t drink anymore. But I’ve drunk my own share of the world’s swimming pools of booze. But honestly, my overall sound comes from hell of a mixture of influences! As a five year old kid I was hearing Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, Tom Petty, Elvis, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, J.J.Cale, Hanoi Rocks etc. And goddamn, then I knew what I was gonna do when I grew up! LOL.. And teen years added some heavy metal rock to my mix. Bands like Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Kiss, AC/DC and also some Old School hip-hop, plus Grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam!!) and punk and noise (Sonic Youth!!!) era to folk to AOR, like Leonard Cohen, Phil Collins to americana to alternative country like Steve Earle etc. And I love all those. And what I write depends, too, on the mood what kind of music I’m listening to. But my sound and music comes mostly from those great influences. Lyrically it's the Bible, existentialism, own and other people’s (mostly sad) stories to relate to, life threats, inequality in the world, love and death, survival, and also books from writers like Camus. Plus a few movies.. All with a good twist of (self)irony, good humor, and a die-hard rock’n’roll attitude thrown in for good measure.
LFdM: Finland is a greatest country, what do you think about the artists who were born in this land, there were or there are someone who inspired you in particular?
HL: Thank you.
Yes, this is a good and safe country to live in, and for a person who likes the four seasons and winter, this is heaven. But I rather would have more summer here. Lol..
Plenty of great artists here - and plenty still unfound in the underground. Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe, Andy McCoy, Dave Lindholm, Juice Leskinen, HIM ...and my godfather’s band Esko Nummisuutarit which were very popular here in Finland in late ’70’s -
(Here are two of their tunes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXHKY45NY2U-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWe0hPmX5I) their songwriting and his guitar playing inspired me the most from these great Finnish influences, maybe because I have had an honor to play and hang with him. But my main influences are from North-America and from U.K.
LFdM: Coming back on the first question - you composed a lot of songs ... special one in your heart?
HL: Well, right now I’m going through in my just upgraded studio my coming album’s tracks, so they tend to fill my mind. But every song that I’ve released is very important in a way or another, so it’s so hard to choose a favorite, and they vary. But from my ”Run Away With Me” - EP: ”Wild Girl” & "There Is An Angel For Everyone”. And from ”Have A Beautiful Life” album: ”Homebound”, ”Abuse Me To Soothe Me”, ”I Wanna Walk All Night”, ”Ugly Soul” and the title track, at the moment.
LFdM: What are you doing now?
HL: Other than doing this interview, I’m gearslutting, just adjusting my long time dream: a good, cool and robust pedalboard or ”Pedaltrain Grande” ... so that my dear pedals find a safe and right place in my signal chain. And I’m about to start some decent demoing of the new songs with my co-producers and players for the next album, bassist Tuomas Kuusniemi and fantastic Aqualyra. The core team of the forthcoming album.
LFdM: Any plans for next months? gigs or something like that?
HL: I have another interview to go and also concentrating on the forthcoming record and production stuff. Got a lot of new equipment in and now just learning how to use all the new microphones and preamplifiers. Like Coles 4038! Man, what a great sound when combined with Universal Audio 6176 and Neumann U87 Ai! to mention few.. I’m total gearslut and love all the gear and playing around with it to try to achieve the best possible results. And adjusting the final acoustics for my studio.
Thank You, Michela and Alessia - I had fun doing this. :-) Kiitos!
Much Love from Hellsinki!
Hannu
Interview by Michela
Interview by Michela
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