Depressive diaries of ICONCRASH
group's soul Jaani Peuhu says, their music is much heavier
when played life

interview by: Audrius O.

Finnish band ICONCRASH will become one of most-awaited groups at this year's Kunigunda Lunaria 2005 festival. This year ICONCRASH released its debut album "Nude", and already has gained the success in their motherland. Now they prepare to conquer other countries, and Lithuania is on their way. In this interview the mastermind of ICONCRASH Jaani Peuhu talked about his passion for icons, inspiration of the songs, the recordings of the album and where the girls are the most beautiful.

- Before creating ICONCRASH You have played with many different bands – so, what has made You to create this new group – have You felt that You couldn’t express yourself in that earlier groups? What makes the biggest difference between Your earlier bands and ICONCRASH?

Jaani Peuhu: Yes, I have had many of bands in the past, but somehow ICONCRASH feels like my first band. It's like your first love. I wasn't creating a new group, I just started to write new music and it didn't feel right to give those songs to any of bands. I wanted to try to finish them by myself. I had a vision and I couldn't share it.

- It seems like ICONCRASH is Your own band, and other people here are left in the shadow. Is it truth – do You create all the music here?

- On the "Nude album" I am the ICONCRASH. It is my solo album, but next the album will be made by the band. I started to record the album more than two years ago and I found these guys to my band last summer, so I hope you can see the picture. All the time ICONCRASH is more and more like a real band. I still compose the music, but you never know what will happen in the future.

- Your debut full length was released some months ago, maybe you could tell more about it? Is it released only in Finland or maybe in some countries also?

- The album was like a vampire. I sucked me almost dry few times. I was a complete slave for two years. I had no social life whatsoever and I lived in some kind of ICONCRASH world, but somehow I survived and now the album is ready. Now it is released, only in Finland so far, but it will be released elsewhere in autumn. Don't know the countries, because I try to distance myself from the business side. At the moment I know we have some kind of deal in twelwe countries.

- It’s quite hard to describe Your music and to put it in one genre – it has something from indie rock, something from gothic, something even from popmusic, and mostly most of all something from so-called shoe-gazers bands. Which of these genres is the closest to you and which scene could You most easily categorize ICONCRASH to? What audience mostly come to Your shows?

- I just make music and I am sorry, but I am glad if you have problems categorizing it. Recently I've listened to a lot of classical music, and electronic stuff also. My record company calls it "pop noir", which is fine by me. We have all kind of fans. Of course we have gothic fans, because we have played so much in gothic happenings and I have played in gothic bands before IC, but we have played with metal bands also and metal audience have no problems with our live show. ICONCRASH is much harder on stage than on cd.

- The atmosphere of Your songs is quite dramatic. Do You look to life from the negative perspective, and what feelings do You like to awake in listeners?

- Rather than using my friend as trashcans where I dump my negative emotions, I make music. My lyrics are really personal, and I haven't been thinking what people might think about them. My lyrics are like diary entries. I prefer to talk about real matters in interviews rather than in my songs. I am not sure I could sing about politics, animal rights or about spiritual things.

- Not long ago You have played in New York – tell us more about it.

- It was a great visit, everything went perfect. We met some important people, played one show, bought shit loads of weird stuff. Of course we also checked out NY's clubs and we liked what we saw... We're going back to States in autumn. Thanks to ICONCRASH I've recently visited cities like London, Moscow, New York... I am living my dream.

- It seems that Your music could fit to the UK market mostly. Do You agree with that? And does ICONCRASH get the recognition in Finland also? It seems that You get the airplay quite often in Finland.

- We have an English manager and he will do everything he can for our future in UK market. We'll see what happens. All what is happening feels really unreal, but whatever happens I am happy already. Radios have been friendly to IC and everything is going great in Finland.

- Many gothic music fans probably would say that the most known band from Finland is H.I.M. – do You like them and do sometimes people try to compare ICONCRASH with H.I.M.?

- I don't have any HIM albums but I respect them a lot. My close friend played in HIM for few years so I've been very interested in them since he joined the band. I just watched the HIM-DVD and goddammit, they are good on stage. However, people don't compare us to HIM.

- Image is very important to musician, as we all know. What dress do You like; do You put on make-up?

- Sure it is. I have a dressmaker who makes me clothes and I also buy clothes from London. I don't use make-up. We have teenage gothic people everywhere in Finland and I don't want to look like that certain 10% of Finnish population who wears only black and does gothic make-up. Ok, I wear only black though, but I can't help myself, I just love black clothes. I've always been like that.

- You played with Deadbabes also – and we all have seen DEADBABES last year at Kungunda Lunaria. So, what has happened with DEADBABES?

- I guess there is nobody else left than the singer of the band, Lasse. I hope he can find new boys around him, and I am sure he will. I felt in love with ICONCRASH and everybody else except Lasse were my close friends and band mates from the past, so you can imagine what happened when I left the band. Deadbabes were Lasse's band in the beginning and I am sure he is much happier when he can do what ever he wants. I am not very easy band mate if I have a vision. Now we are both free...

- When answering the questions for one interview You have said that the girls influence You most. As You travel quite a lot, maybe You can tell where the girls are most beautiful? Your opinion about groupies? And, well, what are Your other inspiration besides girls?

- Russian girls are just amazing, but every time I return to Finland I almost die when I see these Finnish girls again. I would like to visit Japan, because I like Asian girls a lot. And Latinos!!!! My god! I am really interested to see Latvian and Lithuanian girls when we are coming around.

As far as inspiration goes, in the album I wrote a song about my grandparents, for example. Now I've been writing about religions and about my relationship with my father. I would like to write some lyrics for the second album in a monastery. I like spiritual atmosphere, but I don't like Christianity at all. As a person, I am really religious, but Christianity doesn’t really cut the mustard for me. I have my own religion.

- When You name Your favorite bands we can find that You are influenced by some "classic" (or retro, as some call them) groups – like NEW ORDER or SLOWDIVE. Do You prefer these "old-school" bands to modern groups? And maybe You could name more of Your favorites?

- Now I am listening to IAMX. It is a solo project of Sneaker Pimp’s Chris Corner. I feel some kind of connection with this guy. Last artists I've listened are IAMX, A PERFECT CIRCLE, MEW, THE CHURCH, MAJ KARMA, PLACEBO, Carlo Gesualdo, PORTISHEAD, KYLIE and NAPALM DEATH.

- The name of Your band ICONCRASH suggests that you like icons. Is that truth? Do You collect them?

- Yes, I do collect icons. I love religious images. At he same time, it is the greatest form of art, but It also shows how fucking stupid we are. Fans give me icons, and tome that is like thousand times cooler than these puppies they usually give.

- You play live quite a lot. What do You try to express during Your shows and what a show we can expect in Vilnius?

- For me, the stage is at he same time the holiest place there is and my home, no matter where we are. I have been playing gigs since I was 14 years old. Thank god we have this good booking agent. All the boys in the band love touring and I am sure you will see four happy guys on stage in Vilnius. I think we will play some really, really new songs there. We started to rehearse songs for the next album and we will try some new tracks on stage to see how the audience reacts.