Featuring Seppo |from Oldschool Union Interview by Ruud Dreessen aka ebm-industrial.nl | 20-8-2009 20:33
Q: Thanks Seppo (Mac Hine) that you have found time to give answers to these questions,For the first question will be - do you know the netherlands
A: I know the summer darkness festival and we have thought to go there in some year and see a little bit netherlands aswell.
Q: Greetings Seppo (Mac Hine) could you please shortly introduce our readers your music project Oldschool Union?
A: Oldschool union is a one man oldschool ebm band from Finland which sings in Finnish.
Q: Please fill also a biographical resume about how,when and where... Oldschool Union was founded in ..... give us a more background information?
A: Oldschool union was formed couple years ago. I had this project in mind for a long time and I tried to gather a punch of people behind it but unfortunetly things did not go forward. Finally I realized that easiest thing is to do everything by myself.
Q: How did you start to make EBM music and what is EBM for you ?
A: Back in the days I did music with trackers and Amiga 500 just for me and for torturing my friends. I did not believe that I could make "real" music or that in Finland we could do good electronic music. One's in my old friend house I heard Finnish band called Advanced art and I could not believe that this came from Finland.... That was a wake up call and I started to do EBM. It still took years before I started to do music that I could publish but that is a different story.
What is EBM for me? Back in the days I was passioned music freak, I constantly seeked for fresh music. I listened dance, techno but I was seeking something more aggressive and something more harder and finally pumped to 242 and Front line assembly. With those bands I was hooked on EBM and industrial. With those band i find local magazine which told me about finnish industrilial/goth clubs and visit on those was last nail to my coffin. EBM is for me the hard edge of electronic music which is just made for me!
Q: How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
A: Well, I just put the first album together so I cant say that there has been much evolving. :D I think I will do little more melodic pieces in future and will concentrate to get more aggressive punching oldschool sound.
Q: What and who are some of your influences in EBM
A: Well, most influencal band in past where Front 242, Nitzer ebb and front line assembly. Now for the oldschool influences I would say: Kommando xy, Spetsnaz, Sturm cafe, Ionic vision and Spark.
Q: What are your top ten favorite EBM Club Songs of all time?
A: :D I really cant just name 10 of them....there are so lot of them and they keep changing. Propably most fafourite tracks are those which have been played way too much.I could propably say that anything from And one, 242, Dance or die, FLA, Nitzer ebb, DAF, Dive, Absolute body control and so on....
Q: By the way do you like my questions? ;-)
A: There are lot of them :D And quite difficult. :)
Q: What is the main idea, the message you want to leave to people who listens to you? What is your motto?
A: Some songs are just for fun and some songs are about things thats are on my mind. I have no direct message for people but the songs can be about anything which I have something to say. However, the main idea behing Oldschool union was to make oldschool ebm with finnish language as there has never been and finnish singing oldschool ebm band. I think my motto would be "Do it yourself." If you dont like something or something is not happening, make it happen, do it yourself! Why settle to wait that someone else would do it for you!
Q: I know the first question is always boring but could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the stuff that you do?
A: Well, I am Seppo, maby better known in Finland with my nick name Mac Hine. I am 37 years old music lover who run's couple bands, Machine Park and Oldschool union. Machine park is for more modern ebm with some punk influencies and Oldscool union is for love of good old oldschool ebm and old synth sounds. Besides bands I do some dj'ng and I am part of local registered accosiation called Schatten. www.clubschatten.net With Schatten we organise club events and happening to promote gothin industrial subculture.
Q:What’s the name of your band? What’s the origin of that name? Have you changed the band’s name before?
A:Oldschool union. I tried to gather bunch of people behind oldschool band and thought that it would be somekind of union of talented people. That propably did not succeeded as I was the only passioned for oldschool music. Later with little help from my friend when thinking about name , the Oldschool union came naturally... it says everything what is this band about.
Q: where did the concept come from? and whats planned now that your album is finished? or anything else you're working on?
A: It was years on back of my head as the swedish oldschool ebm is really close to my heart. I tried to do this earlier but the some of the friends that I tried to do this, did not like the idea to do this in Finnish. I however, thought that this was the main idea for a band as with Finnish I could express myself very differently than in English. Besides I think that it has been very nice to hear lot of oldschool ebm bands from different countries to sing with their native languages. Language is different by the feeling is same everywhere. It is so fantastic! Next I will release the album, hopefully in two weeks. Then I have couple tracks released in diffrent compilations. These will be in English but I will continue with Finnish also. I have lot of new songs allready planned so I start to prepare new album quite soon after the album release. Plan is to take it a step forward ofcourse.
Q: Tell me about your other project: Machine Park?
A: Machine Park is for more modern EBM. It is often said to be harch or dark electro EBM but I would not say so. Machine park was a band I started to do modern EBM. I did songs and tried to sing them 3-4 years before I realised that my voice is not good enough. After several singer attemts my friend introduced me to Jusa who is an old Hardcore/punk singer. With him everything started to proceed. I like lot of different music. With Machine park I can concetrate to program modern sounds, soudscapes and to do some modern agressive music.... then again Oldschool union ismore about letting yourself free and just to do the old sounding stuff that I love also so much. Machine park ofcourse is also influenced by Jusa and it is more of an combination of our musical tastes.
Q: How is the current promotional tour going for supporting this Demo?
A: So far I have not gone for live shows... Future will tell if that happens. Main problem for me is that I really am not a singer but I did it because I did not found anybody who would fit in that role. I am not picky but I want certain vocal sound and a guy who could perform live. I will keep practising and let see if I will be ready for live during next year, if not I will have to found a singer.
Q: What do you think of a modern EBM and about EBM scene ?
I am not a puritanist :) I listen darkwave, goth, oldschool ebm, Dark electro, futurepop, synthpop and so on.... I find lot of good things in different music. Oldschool ebm is some kind of passion to me but I also like new stuff. When I go to clubs, the perfect night is when I hear little bit of everything. Most boring clubs are when certain style is played all night long... I need variation. If I dont like I can alway crab a beer and enjoy to talk with people.Only thing which sometimes irrates me in modern EBM is the overall approach to what they have to say. Back in the days the ebm was like a scifi from the future. Songs about how things will go wrong if we dont change our habbits or about evolwing yourself and your surroundings. Nowdays the morern ebm seems to be whining or they try to be rediggilously "evil". When modern ebm band sings about how depressed they are or song is filled with curse words, I just cant take it seriously. The additude towards world seems to be different... Now they just want to destroy the world instead of trying to save it.... But anyway, I like when i hear a good 4/4 floor banging aswell!
Then I have to say something about EBM scene in Finland. EBM scene has been always tied to Goth scene in Finland and I thing it is very nice. In same clubs we hear good goth music, modern and oldschool ebm. Ofcourse there are always puritanist who dont like this but I would say that concentrate to have some fun! Grab a beer and wait for next good song!
Q: Please list the name, age, school, and respective instrument of each band member
A: Mac Hine, 37, synths, programming and vocals.
Q: What are your views on the current state of this EBM scene in Pirkanmaa Finland .in terms of creativity and audiences? And the scene in other countries?
A: Maby I should just talk about Finland as a whole as here the scene concetrates to cities of Tampere, Helsinki and Turku. Scene is quite small but very active. There are different kind of happening all the time. Clubs, meetings and even Sauna's for ebm/goth people. :) Unfortunetly small scene means that there are very few bands but lately situation seems to be improving. In Finland if you come to a club, most of people look like goths and half of them are as the these music styles really goes hand in hand here. Oldschool ebm is propably not very popular here but I am here to change that :D I think scene in other countries is stronger than ever. I see people complaining in some forums that scene is dying but at same time there are more good releases than ever. It is even hard to keep track about good records nowdays. Sometimes I notice some good records year after it's release. Ofcourse lot of mediocore stuff is also released but it dont change a fact that there are lot of talented people doing lot of good music both in modern and oldschool scene. Oldschool scene seems to have get a new "rise" or atleast it has united and is more visible. It has been very nice to find so many new bands lately.
Q: tell me about lyrical compositions what you can tell about the done work? How does your music creation process work? How do you create a song?
A: It is different everytime. Sometimes I create a song then lyrics, sometimes lyrics, then song. Usual approach is to first seek a proper sound and make a bassline and get in to mood.Sometimes I just play for 2 days and it is the 3 day when I start writing. I use lot of time to experiment everything...2-3 hours in a day. I just try to diffent stuff and store them to future use. Then when I am writing a track I just let it go... I dont care about sound and mixing, I just let the song go and do whats feels natural.... After this I have a struckture for a song gathered. Then start the hardest part, to tune the mixing and arragements. Sometimes it it is fun and sometimes it feels like a hell if I just cant get it to work as I wanted.
Q: What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?
A: I think all my current projects are more or less EBM, however in future I may do also an darkwave projekt.
Q:What do you do to chill out?
A: Play computer/console games, watch movies or go to Sauna.
Q: What is currently inspiring your material as an artist?
A: Many things. Ofcourse I love synths so programming/using them gets me inspired....just a single sound can burst in to an inpiration. Then ofcourse the movies, books and good music and the things that I have something to say. Sometimes it is nice to do songs about friendship and songs that are not so serious but I also have a need to say from things that sucks from my opinion. Many times the inpiration cames from whatching the news and wondering how the hell these kind of things can happen in modern world and how far can peoples greedines go. But it is not good to complain all the time so it is good to do songs about having fun also.
Q: Do you think that people from the music press didn't expect you to grow up musically?
A: I do music because I like doing it. I learn every day more and that is more important to me than what others say. It is so nice to notice that you can do these things better than last year. I have no experinces with any press so I dont have to worry about that. I believe that this music is so marginal that any press will ever be interested.
Q: How do you see the future of download / Copyright in area of EBM music? What are the best ways to develop it in your mind ?
A: I have grown with lp:s and CD's and want something to concrete in to my hands. It has been quite difficult to me to accept the idea that music would only be downloadable or streamable. But I have to accept the fact that this seems to be the way that we are going. Young ones like the idea to carry their collections in their ipods or listening their collections through some sreaming services. Delivery of music is changing but in the end it is the music that counts. If things go well, this new way of listening music will serve expecially smaller artist who can publish and deliver their music more easily. I still think and hope that people who love music will support the bands their like, if they have the opportunity. So I hope that systems like a spotify will in future have an option to buy and download the music if you like it. I am just a fraid that those giant record companies will ruin these kind of services.
But in the end, I still love my record collection :D I want some physical!
Q: How long have you been in the music industry and how has it changed over time?
A: I dont see myself as a part of music industry as I have not been signed. So far I have released everyting byself. I am very lazy to send demos to record companies. But if I look around I have noticed that the music industry in this scene has evolved to be more professional. I think that has it's good and bad sides. It is good when they provide the help for marketing and offer help for bands to evolve but ofcourse bad if they just start to look only the profits. I still think that scene has few good record companies who had done amazing job.
Q: Now I have to ask,what's the inspiration for the Oldschool Union story?.
A: Just a love for oldschool!
Q: How and why did you begin to make music?
A: I started to make music with Amiga 500 and tracked. I had no musical backround and I spend every second of my freetime for 3 months to make my first song. As I had no knowledge about music I just writed a note to tracker, then listened, then erased it and tried again. So, I learned with a trial and error. First track is bloody afful but it was a start... after 20 years I have hopefully evolved a bit :D Anyway, I just loved to do that and step by step things evolved to a point when first it was time to put a band together.
Q: Why various electronic styles?
A: I love lot of music. There is something good in every genre even I love some of them more than others. When you are composing, those musical influences from genres that you are listening start to affect your music. It is better to do an modern EBM project to get all modern stuff in there so that you dont notice to write trance leads in oldschool song. I have nothing against trance leads but they just dont belong to an oldschool :)
Q: Awesome! Tell me, are there any new bands out there lately that you're into, any tips for the future?
A: I think that I mentioned them allready earlier but I have to name couple of them again as they have been huge influece for me!
1. Kommando xy - couple of my tracks are tributes to this swedish finest! Basicly a pastisses!
2. Sturm cafe - They're neo ebm sound is just awesome
3. Ionic vision - Neumaschine record was from my opinion first new oldschool ebm which presented the good old sound with updated to this day without turning it in to something else.
4. Spesnaz. - They have perfect combination to sound very fresh
5. Spark - They combine the "pop-singing" elements so perfectly to EBM.
Then I have mention that K-bereit's full lenght is exellent.
From other genres I would say Spiritual front and Ordo, Aesthatic perfection and Grendel.
Q: Are you working on any current or future projects?What is the future for your music?
A: Yes I am but I dont want to say nothing about them untill something is ready to be released. My main projects will be Oldschool union and Machine park. For both of them I try to make a new full lengt little more faster than before. Ofcourse I hope I could go live with Oldshool union but I have to test first if that is possible or do I have to find a singer for me. So far my seek for singer has not succeeded.
Q: How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?
A: CD should be out on couple of weeks and you can order it then though Oldschool unions myspace site.
Q: It has been a pleasure to interview you on your musical activity,Well,any last words to your ebm-industrial fans?
A: Yes, HAVE SOME FUN!!!
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