Wywiad, ktory jakis czas temu wyladowal na stonerrock.com. Mozna sie z niego dowiedziec na przyklad czemu #4 to taki go,wniany album.
Scrit: There is very little to no information about Pharaoh Overlord on the internet, so forgive me if I ask some very rudimentary questions. #1 came out in 2001, how much earlier before that did the band form?
Jussi: Pharaoh Overlord was formed after the recording session of #1. I think we didn`t have a name for the group or anything. It started as a Circle side project, our purpose was to maintain hypnotic and repetitive music, from which Circle started originally. When music is simple, the listener has space to think, and that’s why simple music can be much more versatile and psychedelic than music that is filled with "spacey" effects and symphonic guitar arrangements.
Scrit: Can we expect an official band website or MySpace page at some point? Or is this the way the band prefers to keep things?
Jussi: We haven`t thought about that yet, but yes, why not. I think we haven`t really discovered MySpace`s possibilities here in the sticks. On the other hand we operate very low-profile, we do a gig now and then and try to make a record every once in a while. We are happy with this situation.
Scrit: Looking at the Overlord’s albums, it’s really #4 that is the biggest departure from everything else you’ve done. A really big departure. Like it often times doesn’t even sound like Pharaoh Overlord. What brought on that direction?
Jussi: Back in the 1970`s, Amon Düül was split in two different bands. We took this interesting detail from rock history and adapted it to our world. Amon Düül had idealistic reasons for splitting but we branched in two directions only musically. Pharaoh Overlörd - whose first album is #4 - draws influence from 1980`s hard rock while Pharaoh Overlord keep on trucking in the seventies` monotonic kraut-landscapes. Pharaoh Overlord today is a five-man band (with three guitars) that has grown apart from its project-like nature and become a real rock band. We did a little tour in UK just recently and we were surprised of our genius ourselves! Pharaoh Overlörd is still in the project level, we have started to record an album but that hasn`t proceeded for a while. There`s a lot of work to be done before we can do gigs, the songs are much trickier than what we have used to.
Scrit: Can we expect the shift to keep going in this direction? Or will #5 be more a return to form? I ask because your set at Roadburn this year was awesome (got to hear the stream of it), and the new songs, like “Tutankharmony,” are great.
Jussi: Pharaoh Overlörd will put out a very hard rocking album, still not forgetting the little strange twist that was heard on #4. Pharaoh Overlord will produce one riff-based album and one drone-ish and dreamy album. I hope this will happen during the next six months.
Scrit: Tell us a bit about touring in Finland. Is it difficult to get shows playing the kind of music you play? Do you have to leave Finland in order to get gigs?
Jussi: Yes, that is pretty much the situation. There`s not much market for Pharaoh Overlord here. The band is so unknown that we can only perform in bigger towns, and there are only four or five of those in Finland. And we have seen those rock clubs dozens of times with our other bands. Outside Finland there`s been some interest towards PO, so most likely we will do gigs outside Finland too.
Scrit: Who spearheads the band’s artwork? I love your music but Pharaoh Overlord’s album art is some of the strangest and most bizarre stuff I’ve seen on an album…
Jussi: There`s been three different artists: Musta Kirahvi on #1, Paul Romano on II and Computer Boy 2 on the last two. We tend to include a hint of avant-garde in our graphics, and we try to avoid all the traditional "psychedelic" styling as much as possible. I don`t like the idea that cover art supports the music in all ways and by that guides the listener in certain direction. Artwork can expand music in many ways if it has nature of it`s own. Simple banalities of everyday life can be interesting if you put them in unexpected context.
Scrit: I often think the band is like the Philip Glass of stoner rock. I love Glass’s work too, so that’s a compliment (in terms of the minimalist, repetitive, and gradual shifting and building of a riff and a song). It’s very trance-inducing stuff. What kind of feedback do you get from people about the album experience versus the live experience of this kind of music?
Jussi: Our live shows are different from our albums, that`s obvious. When we are in studio, we never think how we can play the songs live. Our two live guitarists, Julius and Pekka Jääskeläinen, have never even played on our albums yet. So far we haven`t heard much feedback concerning the difference. It`s true that Pharaoh Overlord has drawn great deal of influence from minimalists, such as Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass - maybe much more than from Black Sabbath`s Vol. 4 for instance. I think our "stoner" image is much derived from our first album`s cover art. Our purpose is to make warm and heavy sounding rock music.
Scrit: You ever seen a film called Talvisota? Great movie…
Jussi: Yes, I have. Winter War (1939-1940) is a very important thing for Finnish people`s identity, even today and especially among older people. It is said that the war united us after the very embittering civil war (1918) and the aftermath. Speaking of war films, I must recommend Elem Klimov`s Come and See from 1985.
Scrit: Yes I have seen Come and See and its unbelievably brutal. It was finally available on DVD in this country in the last few years. Not something you just throw on at a party or to kick back to. Anyway, I could talk about Finnish history during the late 1930’s and obscure Russian cinema all day, but music must intrude. I understand you are about to embark on a US tour, is that correct?
Jussi: Yes, with Circle, the original mothership of Pharaoh Overlord.
Scrit: How many cities are you hitting?
Jussi: We have 18 gigs in a row - or almost, we have one day-off for driving. Here`s a link for our booking agent`s MySpace site.
Scrit: Is it just for Circle, or is Pharaoh Overlord playing live material as well?
Jussi: Circle is the band but sometimes we may play little bursts with Pharaoh Overlord style. Normally we have three guitarists in PO`s live line-up, so the overall sound is quite different from Circle.
Scrit: What kind of stuff are you listening to these days?
Jussi: I`ve been interested in 1970`s hard rock (Bang, Dust...) and 1980`s heavy metal (Manilla Road, Legend (UK)). Besides that my interest towards death metal has just waken. My favorite punk acts lately have been Fucked Up and Pissed Jeans.
Scrit: And finally, this is something I ask everyone: what would you consider to be the ideal live Iine-up if Pharaoh Overlord could play a show with any band(s) on the road?
Jussi: It would be very interesting to play with Manilla Road, or Thor for example. Spiritualized would be a fascinating idea too.
Scrit: Thank you Jussi very much. Here’s hoping the Overlord makes it out to Los Angeles…
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