Profane Omen Interview

Artist: Profane Omen

Label: Spinefarm Records

Genre: Hardcore & many more

Band Members:

Vocals – Jules Näveri
Guitar – Williami Kurki
Guitar – Antti Kokkonen
Bass – Antti Seroff
Drums – Samuli Mikkonen

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
Hail Profane Omen! Thank you for participating in this interview. You really have a stressful schedule with all the upcoming gigs. How did you do the recordings beside all your past shows?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
And we hope the schedule will get even more “stressful” for the beginning of next year! Well, we’re working on it. We didn’t have any problems in placing the recording sessions in our schedule in between the shows. I think we were at least six months without playing shows so that gave us the perfect gap to practice the new songs and make the album. We’ve always been a live band and also this time we played couple of new songs also live before recording them just to try them out live. It was based on a principle; if the song works live, it ends up to the album.
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
After a lot of demos an EPs this is only your third whole album. And it’s really good! What’s your feeling about Destroy!?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
Thank you! We’re really proud of ”Destroy!”. The key idea was to make bunch of different songs with our sound and we would separate the goods from the hazard ones. There are also some bonus songs left our from the album and maybe we’ll use them somewhere in the future. It’s a different kind of metal album, not like the ones people are used to nowadays. It’s not a genre-faithful album. There are lots of different elements mixed and it’s very typical for us. We wanted to create an album that takes you to different places/mindset with every song and I think we succeeded. Still the album is not scattered around, it’s a compact package of great tunes to rock out with!
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
And what do you think about the review we wrote?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
My German is not good enough to understand it fully but what I got from it, I think you nailed the essence of the album pretty well! This album is for people whose metallic perversions vary in a wide scale. It has thrash, death, punk and melodies all combined, so it makes it very unpuristic, very Profane Omen!

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
What are your plans for the next year? You don’t have that many shows on your list yet.

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
We are planning an EU-tour for the beginning of next year. It’s not nailed yet but we’re very optimistic with it. This tour would take us to the most Central-European countries and it would be our first real EU-tour. This would happen somewhere between February and March. In January we’re planning to make some more shows in Finland. One of them is a supporting gig for Arch Enemy in Helsinki in the end of January which we’re very excited about!

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
If you look back in the past years, what do you think about your progress since your first demo at 2000 and your first label at 2005?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
It all went very naturally and the way we wanted. We had some offers from labels also in the beginning of 2000 but they didn’t seem too tempting for us. The craziest one being an offer where we would just master our older demos and put it out as our first album! I dunno why some labels would think this kind of deal would serve them since we would’ve had to combine the album from four different demos, all of them very different sound-wise from one another. It would’ve sounded like a compilation of four different bands so of course we didn’t see any point in it. I’m happy we waited so long for our first actual release to come out because by then we were ready as a band to make the next step. When we started the band in 1999 we played very different kind of music compared to the PO today. Within the first three years of the band we were still searching ourselves as a band and by the first release we found our ”receipt” for making music. And our current line-up is also very different from the line-up we had during the first years. We’ve had major changes in the line-up within the years and the current one has been around since 2005. I think that the formation of our current line-up was the culmination point where we felt that now we’re a real band that can make something great together. We did separate with our former bass player Tomppa Saarenketo in the end of last year but this has been the only change in our line-up since 2005. The bass on ”Destroy!” was played by Antti Seroff and he’s been also playing shows with us since we got out from the studio. He’s still fresh meat and a prospect but he being with us has really put some extra steam to the rest of the band. We’re seriously considering him to be our bass player for good.
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
How did you get the idea to make such groovy music? The mix you make is quite new, I think.

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
We’ve always based our music to the groove and the ground of the groove is the rhythm section with Samuli Mikkonen on drums and Antti Seroff on bass. We love metal and rock n’ roll so I guess the groove comes from this heritage. We’ve always been a live band so every song we make has to work live as well. Without groove the music comes out too angular and that is something that we don’t enjoy live. Of course there are bands who base their music on technique and there is nothing wrong in that but in our case we try to keep it simple so the groove really comes out. We want people to get their asses moving when we’re on stage and that’s one of the essence of rock n’ roll; dance motherfucker!
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452: :
How do you balance the recording, the touring and your private life?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
We’re lucky to have day jobs that don’t interfere with doing music and playing it live. Almost all of us have day jobs so the further we know what happens in the music front the better we can plan the day offs to make it happen. I guess we’ve never had real problems in combining these together. And, if a day would come that the boss would say, ”no, I can’t give you the day off to go out and play.” it would mean resigning for me. This band and music in general is way too important for me for giving up opportunities to go out and play. It keeps my head together, gives me experiences I would never get anywhere else. It’s a getaway from this world and the best way we know to express ourselves.

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452: :
A question I have to ask: What’s your favorite drink on stage? And in your free-time?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
Haha! I usually drink only water on stage but I guess the rest of the guys drink beer! On my freetime my favourite drink is beer. I like to try out different beers where ever I go, especially the local ones. For some reason I always forget the names of ’em, hah! The best beers I’ve drank in Germany, but there are also few good ones from Finland as well. Try Aura if you ever have the chance!
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
How do you prepare for concerts? Some do video games, others read a book or just relax, what are your (un-/)exciting activities?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
If there’s a lot of waiting to do before the show we try to come up with some activities. They always seem to vary though. There’s been board games, video games, wrestling, reading, doing pranks on each others, just regular bullshittin’, basically everything you can think of. Just before the show, we’re all warming up with our instruments. For example I always take at least 30 minutes to go through a voice opening mantra including doing different kinds of noise with my voice. It sounds fucking annoying but it helps me to work with my voice during the show. It also serves as some form of meditation and it helps me to focus on the show. Another example being our guitarist Antti Kokkonen who does joga always before going on stage. We have our little habits to help us concentrate better.

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
What do you do after a show? Party or chilling?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
It depends! If the next day’s schedule is not too hard core we chill out by partying or just drinking some beers to enjoy the time on the road. If there’s a show next day we try to keep the partying in good limits so we don’t end up puking on stage during the next show. We’re pretty social dudes so usually we end up somewhere having some afterparties with some members of the audience or the band we played with, or both! We’re happy to meet the fans on the shows and it’s fun to hang out with them. We want to keep close with our audience, they’re the ones who attend the shows and buy our music, we have much respect towards them.
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
If you had free choice, which one would be your favorite band to do a show with?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
I’ve been saying this in many interviews before but I have to say it again because if they google up their name and these interviews pop up and they see it, maybe if we’re lucky they take it in consideration. This is wishful thinking, of course. It would be fantastic to tour with a band like Kvelertak. I think that our band would fit perfectly with them music wise. They’re album is such a killer performance and a solid proof of how different things can work together. It would be a tour to remember. So Kvelertak, if you read this, please take us with you on your next tour?!

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
And what’s your favorite music to listen to in your free-time? As an inspiration or at BBQ, if you do that much in Finland?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
My music taste varies a lot. I listen to a lot of different stuff. Lately I’ve been listening the new Mastodon, Tornado, Mark Lanegan, FM2000, Karnivool, Kvelertak, Pendulum and Mad Season to mention a few. I tend to listen to whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes it’s attached with the mood I’m in. For example, I have to sit in a train for an hour always when I go to practise with the band. During that hour I’ve noticed that I tend to listen to something calm and mellow. When I’m walking, I move my boots in the rhythm of something more aggressive. Nowadays I’m spending time very little at home so I usually listen to music through my ipod. I have a collection of 60gb of music so I don’t run out of options. There’s always something! Oh, and most of the music that’s in my ipod, I also have at home on cds. I also love to have that experience with albums when I’m listening to them I can go through the booklet of the cds as well, makes it a more full experience. And, yes, summers are always planned in a way that gives the most opportunities to have BBQ! We also have an annual BBQ weekend every summer with our fans. We put up a competition and they get to participate it and usually we pick up 20 fans to join us for a weekend of BBQ at our practice room. They’ve been very special occasions and we want to keep this tradition going on.
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
Some nostalgic stuff: What’s your best memory in the band history?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
There are so many but I’ll choose the first time we played at Tuska Festival. It’s a metal festival located almost in the center of Helsinki and the atmosphere there is always something very unique. It was our dream to play that festival one day, and in 2007 it happened. We also played there in 2009 but the first time is always special. We were driving through the night from a little festival in the middle of Finland because we needed to get to Tuska early because of our slot. We were dead tired from the road and we didn’t have too much of sleep during the night. But when the crowd began to flow in the front of our stage all the tiredness went away. The crowd was so fucking loud already before the show, it was unreal. The whole show felt like I was in a state of flow where I’m just going out from my body watching us play and being one with every member in the audience. I’ll never forget that feeling. There are so many moments like this from some other shows as well but this one is still special.

 

Time For Metal / Ric1452:
So what’s the worst memory, if I may ask?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
There’s also quite a bunch of these too but one of the hazardious moments was in Tallinn, Estonia in 2007. We were supposed to play in Riga, Latvia so our plan was to first go with a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn where a van would pick us up and we’d drive to Riga. We had everything checked and it was supposed to be clear for everybody that we need our passports to get across the borders. Well, everyone else except Samuli had this clear. He sends me a message one day before our ferry trip that his passport has been expired. So, he ended up running the whole morning to different police stations trying to get a temporary passport to make it happen. In the end the effort payed up good but it was close. We went with a morning ferry to Tallinn and waited him to come there in the evening. Luckily the show was on the next day so we didn’t have to cancel. It was also one of the best shows we’ve played. Riga has always been kinda special in our books. A beautiful city with great people.
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
Last but not least: is there anything you want to tell our readers?

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
We’re looking forward to come out and play in Germany. It’s a fantastic country with crazy metalheads and extremely good bier! This combination together with Profane Omen will work like a charm. Can’t wait to come there next year!! Remember to check updates on our tour through our site www.profaneomen.net along with our facebook, twitter and youtube!
 
Time For Metal / Ric1452:
Thank you very much for taking part in this interview! I hope to enjoy another interview with you or review about a new album, etc. another time. We wish you all the best for the future!

Profane Omen / Jules Näveri:
Cheers!!!