27 February 2003

D.H. = Don Hesus, percussions
E.T. = El Toro, gtr
O.S. = Orb Sirius, bass
J.L. = Johnny Libido, car driver

NB - How would you describe Mutants music to somebody who didn't hear it yet?
D.H. - Instrumental-Afro-Garage-Rock'n'roll
J.L. - You have no choice but to love The Mutants psychedelic rock'n'roll. It will make you move.
O.S. - '60 garage surf with Mexican soul funk flavours.

NB - Why Mutants? Is the name in some way connected to your music style?
J.L. - I think it is wrong to say that we are humans and because the Monkees already exists we decided to be the Mutants.
E.T. - Mister Abnormal came up with the name while they we're on tour in Germany with Isebel's Pain after throwing up several times. It was right after the Man actually had the vision of forming this band.
D.H. - Later we found out there is about 10 bands named The Mutants around the world but It was too late to change the name because we already tattooed it in our private parts.

NB - How did you guys meet and who came up with the idea to make this strange music mix?
J.L. - It was Abnormal who put us all together to carry out his wicked ideas. He is the main devil behind this.
E.T. - Mr. Abnormal formed this band with Burt Sibulanski. It was Burts job to find a guitar player and Mr. Abnormals job was the bass players finding. So bass was found fast at their hometown. Burt then discussed with Ski Williamson about joining the band. Ski was willing but too busy at the moment so Ski recommended me for Burt. Burt then came to rehearsals of Bomber and gave me a cassette of Abnormals original recordings of what was going to be The Mutants. After listening to the tape for less than 5 seconds I decided to join the band. When we were recording our very early stuff we needed horns on it. Orb-not-so-Sirious knew Jack Europa from this striptease bar in some wasteland up north. Mr. Europa was in a way forced to the band.
D.H. - I was sitting in local rock'n'roll joint called Pub Heinahattu drinking beer when Burt Sibulanski and El Toro walked in. They were looking at me smiling grinningly and first I thought they had taken some bad acid or something but soon I found out they were looking for a percussionist to The Mutants. I knew the guys before, especially El Toro because we both played in a band called Bomber before (along with Jeffrey Lee Burns and Ski Williamson from The Flaming Sideburns). At the time I had no idea how to play percussions but since I didn't figure out anything else to do I decided to join in.

NB - Your music is probably even better to listen live - so it's probably a big party on your gigs?
J.L. - Yes, BIG party. Those parties won't let anyone down. We all love rock n roll, and so do our audience. We also love alcohol, and audience as well. Alcohol + rock n roll = PARTEE-E-E!!
D.H. - The road goes on forever and the party never ends like they say on a country song. If it is not going to be a party it is not worth going at all. Main thing is to have fun. Big time!
O.S. - Yeah, always! The party usually starts on a way to the concert place.
E.T. - Playing live is what we want to do and sometimes things get pretty wild and strange on stage. Seeing people having a good time in the audience is what this shit is all about.

NB - Do you have lot of people on your gigs? What was the biggest gig you did?
D.H. - When we are playing alone in the small clubs there are usually 100-200 people depending on the size of the club. Festivals and other big parties is different thing. Last December we supported The Flaming Sideburns at Tavastia Club here in Helsinki and there was something like 1000 people on the house. Of course they came too see The Sideburns but they were forced to watch our show also.
O.S. - My all time favourite gig was when Finnish radio station "Radiomafia" broadcasted our gig live from Tavastia Club a year ago.
D.H. - Yeah, they also shoot it to the TV but when the program came out they only showed the nice and clean pop bands that played before us. I guess our beer drinking and burning cigarettes were too much for them. I have seen the tape and it's too bad they didn't show it. El Toro is giving his best out making dirty dance moves in the middle of the song "Mambo Mutant"
J.L. - Usually the place is full of people who love music. Biggest? Well, how much is there in Wembley ;).
D.H. - Wembley is a place for princes Diana fans. You should just concentrate driving and let us do the bookings.
E.T. - My favourite gigs are everytime when we are at our home club Semifinal in Helsinki. Good mood, not too big and sweaty asses.

NB - How long does the band exist and did members play in other bands before?
D.H. - The Mutants started in 1998. I guess I should mention Sweetheart and Isebel's Pain here. Both bands made pile of CDs and bunch of 7" singles + hundreds of gigs including few European tours. But that was a long time ago so who cares.

NB - Tell me about Finland and city where you live - what are your favorite places there?
D.H. - El Toro and me are living in the notorious Kallio neighbourhood of Helsinki City. This is part of town which have a long history of being home of all sort of artists and musicians along with all kind of people from the dark side of life. Whores, junkies, drunks, madmen and madwomen plus regular poor people. Man, I love this place. You don't need a TV here, just watch out from your window.
J.L. - Finland is land of beer and sauna. That tells you a lot. Some of us live in Helsinki and some in Kouvola and one lonely rider in Lahti. They re quite near of each other so there is no big problems about that.

NB - How do you like to spend your free time?
D.H. - I do not have that much free time but when I have I like to drink beer and talk shit with my friends. When all the money is gone I watch TV all night long and smoke cigarettes in a row.
O.S. - I do not have much of free time either but when I have I simply like to sleep. Drinking beer with friends and watching TV is also nice but generally I do not have enough time to spend with my friends. What time is it? I think I'm running out of my free time right now.
J.L. - We dig rock n roll. Music is our dearest hobby. We hang around in clubs and so on.
E.T. - I spend my free time chasing chicks in my local bars pub Heinahattu and Semifinal. That's all I wanna do for the rest of my life.

NB - You released records for many different labels. Is it hard to find label? Do you have contact them or they mostly contact you?
D.H. - Nope. When I'm not drinking beer and talking shit with my friends I often use my free time to talk shit with some people I do not know via Internet. That is how we made most of our contacts. Sometimes it is a bit of strange because we do not actually meet the people and most of the time we do not even know how they look a like. But it seems that rock'n'roll fans are the same everywhere so who cares.
E.T. - Yeah, the music we're playing seems to attract weirdos who want to put out this kind of music. They're music lovers like we are.

NB - You also released stuff for labels in different countries. Where is the biggest interest for your music - where do you have most fans?
D.H. - We get e-mails from all around the world. Obviously most of our fans are from Finland. So far we haven't been playing gigs outside of Finland except one gig in Estonia so people haven't had chance to see us live. But when it comes to records it seems that most interest comes from USA. We usually get our best record reviews from America so that might be the reason why we are putting our hopes there. Someday we'll have the money to go there and then we will be stinking rich rock stars the rest of our lives. We just need to get the first gig there and the rest will be history!
E.T. - I really love the way things have gone for us. Releasing records in other countries than where you are living is awesome. The more you get your music out is of course the better. It seems like for instrumental music The U.S is the biggest market place or there is at least lot of people who love it. So it's probably natural that most interest for our stuff comes from there. But you never know, maybe we'll be popular in Mars or something in the near future.

NB - Any funny tour stories to tell No Brains readers?
J.L. - Uh, like backstage full of puke or be banned from a certain club? We are so nice guys that nothing ever happens, eh.
D.H. - There certainly are times I choose not to recall but lets just say that our times on the road have been (and probably will be) like watching "Bad News On Tour" over and over again. I've met so many strange people and I've seen so many strange things that I guess nothing will surprise me anymore.
O.S. - Talking about Bad News On Tour, I remember this one time when 3 of our cars got broken before we even managed to get our equipment out of rehearsal place and there was minus 25 degrees frost outside.
E.T. - Funny?? Everything that happens to us except getting pussy is quite scaring and sometimes that is also. Personally probably the "funniest" thing that happened to me on the road was when I was almost raped by a chick who was high on speed and had just fucked with some other guy earlier on the floor while I was passed out because of too much alcohol.

NB - What is band doing at the moment?
D.H. - Right now we are recording new songs to our debut CD. We already got 5 songs recorded and we are waiting our turn to mix the songs at Kick Out The Jams Studio here in Helsinki. Meanwhile we are rehearsing more new songs.
J.L. - It has been quite quiet at the moment. Winter is for sleeping and staying in your nearest bar.

NB - When can we expect next album?
J.L. - Yeah, when?
D.H. - Nobody knows yet. Sometimes 2003 I hope. It's also possible that everybody will hate our new stuff and nobody want to release it and people will chase us with baseball bats before and after our gigs.
E.T. - We're getting on it. Made some funky shit and some not so funky shit that will be released sometime this year. But as usual maybe we'll do some 7 inchers while waiting for the album to come out.
D.H. - We also have our first US release coming out. K.R.E.E.P.Y. Records (Texas,USA) will release "MUTACALYPSO NOW!" compilation CD of our 7" singles + other stuff. Everybody knows that everything is bigger in Texas so there will be 15 songs on it. Complete lowdown 1999-2002.

NB - What can you say about 2002 and what are your wishes for 2003?
D.H. - 2002 was a blast! Thanks to all the people who came to our gigs and especially HUGE thanks to all the record labels that put our stuff out and our eternal respect to all the magazines who supported our mission to dominate the world! 2003? Who knows yet? I wish I will win a lotto so I can move to some tropical island to play mambo all day long with some hula girls dancing all around me.
J.L. - Year 2002 was good. Lot of good gigs and releases. The Mutants also have new drummer, Victor Stereo "tha wonderkidd", so there s some new blood in veins. Isn't it everyone dream to see tits? Maybe this is finally THE year. Let s hope so.
E.T. - My hopes lie on drinking exotic drinks of a coconut and getting as much blowjobs as I can. Musically I wish we get our album out and start dancing with hot girls and hot boys. I also wish for world peace and some understanding from my mother.