NoiseForNoiseSake: Candy Cane (band) interview

I send an email to Candy Cane vocalist MN, asking for an interview. Answer i had from MN included three kind words "go fuck yourself". Don't worry, it was not insulting to me, because MN and Candy Cane does NOT give interviews anymore. It is cleary written in Candy Cane Myspace. But after sending a couple of emails telling about the purpose of this interview, i had an flashing YES from TI, bass player from Candy Cane, who agreed to an email interview. Thank you TI.

TI, Candy Cane

Why do you say NO to interviews?

There´s no point in explaining our every turn. Interviews can take the focus off the most important thing. We make music, that´s our thing and if people want to talk about it and analyze it, fine. We´re tired of talking about it as a band. Let the music do the talking. Might sound a bit smug, but we are. And i won´t even get to the industry side of media or music business, everybody knows how they are...

Why did you say YES to this interview?

Most of the interviews we have done are in finnish, for the finnish media. This isn´t. There are some people around the world that like our music and don´t know anything about the band so i thought it would be okay to answer a few things about CC since were not going to be speaking about it anymore. And because i´m a sellout. And you asked politely.

Fay-ra-Doowra

Fay-ra-Doowra was the opening timeline for new Candy Cane. When you think of old Candy Cane and the new Candy Cane, what kind of differents elements do you hear and see between them?

The attitude was pretty much the same, stubbornly going our own way and not caring about the musical trends that came and wen . But we didn´t have either the interest or courage to stray from our formula, we did the same kind of music (though MN and myself started making experimental music in 97 but that didn´t change CC in any way), getting better in songwriting but never really getting anywhere. I felt like the band was a beached whale in the end.

Leave Me Out (Old Candy Cane)

Old Candy Cane released only one full lenght, titled LEAVE ME OUT. How is the music different comparedto Fay-ra-Doowra?

Leave Me Out was the last wailing of a beached whale knowing somehow that the end is near. After the long wait was over it died and resurrected as a winged fire breathing shark with an attitude and an Ivan Reitman fetish.

Jaula

Jaula came out 2009. Avantgarde, black & deathmetal, grind, jazz and weird experimentations. Did you practice a lot before going to studio? I mean the songs in Jaula must be hard to play.

Many of the songs were made right after Fay-Ra-Doowra was recorded so we played them live and because performing is the best form of rehearsing we were ready to hit the studio. Drums and bass and MN´s guitars were recorded in total of two days. MS did his thing later. Jaula songs are easy to play compared to our new material.

MN doing vocals for Jaula

Comparing to Fay-ra-Doowra, Jaula is more heavier album. Why did you choose more heavier direction?

It came naturally . The songs got more weight and aggression on gigs since we´re always trying to top our last performance. And no use in making the same album twice, we didn´t want another Fay-Ra-Doowra. MN came up with the concept of the three parts and we pieced the album from those.

How did the finnish listeners react to Jaula? Was Jaula too metal to avantagarde people and too avantagarde to metal people?

Exactly. The more we played gigs after Fay-ra-Doowra the less avantgarde fans came to see us. I think more and more metal heads started showing up at our gigs but Jaula was a bit too weird for many. It definitely didn´t appeal to avantgarde people. We were never good in fitting in, maybe because we never tried it. Still, many seem to think it´s our best album.

Candy Cane logo 2009


Candy Cane logo 2010

Candy Cane logo 2011

Candy Cane & Oranssi Pazuzu split came out 2010. Candy Cane songs was the most heviest Candy Cane i've ever heard. Why did you choose to go EVEN MORE heavier direction?

We had these prog songs with some rock riffs and why not. It just turned out that our prog rock is something else than what that word usually means. We didn´t just decide ”this one goes to eleven”, it just did. It also fits the theme of our side of the split. We recorded the songs live in the studio and i recorded MN´s vocals back in Tampere. Probably our easiest album to record though hardest to play technically.

Oranssi Pazuzu

Why did you choose to record the split with Oranssi Pazuzu?

They are a similar band to us, attitude wise. We saw them play live and it was a wrap, they were awesome, just hypnotic. And this was before this latest hype surrounding that band, we weren´t expecting that us working together would cause such an uproar. Which is nice, we don´t need to make a fuss about the album because some people do it for us. It´s funny really, i´m not mad. Some seem to feel like we´ve sold ourselves by working with a great band we like and should be sorry about it. Excuse my french but Je me fous complètement de ce que tu penses. Opinions are like assholes and i´m not interested in yours.

MS recording guitar for Candy Cane & Oranssi Pazuzu Split

Candy Cane & Oranssi Pazuzu Split

Comparing to Fay-ra-Doowra and Jaula, split songs are more violent and without a doubt straightforward death & black metal, tasted with experimental twists. Will Candy Canes music involve to even more violent and metal directions in the future?

We shall see. I don´t see those elements disappearing from our live performance but we don´t think about genres when we create new music. We don´t want to end up as a one trick pony. We already did Fay-Ra-Doowra, Jaula and the split. Time for new things.

Candy Cane

RN left the band last year. What happened?

He moved to England, no drama. He´s the man.

RN, Candy Cane EX drummer

Do you have a new drummer now?

(c)DUELO(c) - lineup has a new drummer but we haven´t talked about a permanent drummer for Candy Cane.

I'm not sure what the lineup for (c)DUELO(c) is and i'm not sure what (c)DUELO(c) means. Is it the new Candy Cane line up? Is it somekind of side Candy Cane project? Who knows! But in Candy Cane Myspace the lineup is written like this: MN, TS, JV, MS, TI, JL, RK.

MN could be called as "the man with thousand voices". Where does all the different singing and screaming styles come from?

The old Candy Cane didn´t have many dimensions, vocal wise – mainly singing and screaming. We relied on MN´s unique voice so much i think he wanted to break the old formula. The human being makes strange noises daily, machines make noise, cars, slot machines...singing and growling get old fast, at least in our music and the vocals are used as an instrument rather than just a way to deliver lyrics. We create musical images and luckily we have a vocalist who likes to experiment with his vocal range and is capable of doing that. He´s taught me a few things about using my voice. Imitating animals and inanimate objects.

MN, Candy Cane

How long have you played ? Is it challenging to play bass in Candy Cane?

I started playing bass in 94, i had played violin since i was five years old and got bored with it. I got a bass and joined a band almost immediately. I need some kind of a band or a recording project to get me to grab my instrument , rehearsing scales gets boring pretty fast.
It´s not as challenging to play in CC as it seems, i learn fast. I´m not the most technical guy out there but who gives a shit really, i fill my spot in the band, we all have our different roles. It´s the chemistry of the group that matters. Sounding smug as fuck again, great...

One of MNs bands, Particle Separator

MN runs a record label known as Rabbit Illsn Records and does vocals in many, i mean in MANY different bands. Do you ever have schedule problems with MN?

Not when it comes to Candy Cane. And i have recorded vocals for the album of Particle Separator too so i get to work with him in other projects besides CC. We´ve made music together for so long we know what kind of crap the other one is thinking. Also, i´ve worked with Rabbit Ilsn Records and still am affiliated with them in many ways.

Lighthouse Project, one of the bands in Rabbit Ilsn Records

Raadelma, one of the bands in Rabbit Ilsn Records

JL and MS play in a band known as Plain Fade. Could you tell me about what kind of music Plain Fade plays?

Whoa, that´s a bad one. They change constantly too...so i guess i´ll be lazy and copy/paste their bio:
Plain Fade (Helsinki/Tampere, Finland) is mixture of colossal melodies, pompous grandeur, delicate minimalism and raw intensity. Influences range from ambient to hc punk rock and from baroque to postmodern.

Plain Fade

Do you have any other musical project or band, or is Candy Cane your only group at the moment?

I play guitar and sing lead vocals in a band that just started, psychedelic rhythm music. And i record some local artists, my expertise being vocals. I also play bass in two; here comes a curse word for many, rap artists´ live bands.We also got this drum group called La Murga , a few of us played on the drum song on Jaula (can´t remember the name of the song) and La Murga has also performed with CC. Rhythms mixed with some progressive stuff. My experimental project Vianhaku has showed some signs of life. I like to make all kinds of music with all kinds of people around the globe. I don´t care about scenes or genres. Basically, if someone asks and i got the time i´m willing to make music with anyone open minded enough.

La Murga

La Murga with Candy Cane

What is the relationship with MN and black metal, i mean in a personal level?

Well you can tell he knows his black metal. I know he doesn´t like me talking about his personal stuff so i won´t get too deep in there. But he really fucking likes black metal, i´ll tell you that. And metal in general but that guy isn´t as one dimensional as people think...

MN, Candy Cane

When asking from MN how i should describe Candy Canes music to this interview, would it be avantgatde black death metal or something else, he replied; "call it what ever you want, but don't call it black metal. CC is NOT a black metal band, period. If you call us black metal, then you don't know what black metal is, period". Do you agree with that statement?

Absolutely. Not that i can say what is true black metal but i do know CC is not black metal. There are definitely some musical influences on our latest recordings but that´s it.

MN, Candy Cane

Back to (c)DUELO(c).

(c)DUELO(c) seems to be the next thing (direction?) for Candy Cane, can you reveal anything?

We invited a couple of friends and... you shall see and hear. But don´t expect us to sound the same as we did before. We could but probably not.

(c)DUELO(c) - Candy Cane 2011 (?)

What does Candy Cane song titles mean in the Candy Cane Oranssi Pazuzu split? They seem to be dates am i right? What dates?

One is a birthday of a member of the band . I´m not saying more. Probably shouldn´t have revealed that one thing either.

Oranssi Pazuzu

I did a little investigator job in the net. I discovered MN is booking shows for Oranssi Pazuzu. Am i right? I noticed there is conversations about Oranssi Pazuzus motivation to black metal music. They are compared to bands such as Wolves In The Throne Room, "brethren black metal band" as some of the internet writers call it. It looks like MN has connections to finnish underground black metal bands through his blogsite and i know undergroudg black metallers hate fresh post rocking and psychedelic directions to black metal (example; Nachtmystium et cetera) and through an email coversation i understood MN is not a fan of the new post rocking black metal wave coming from USA. So this brings me to the question. Why is MN selling shows for Oranssi Pazuzu, if the music is so much compared to post rocking black metal (for example WITTR)? Just business?

I listened to WITTR and can´t understand why they´re being compared to OP. I don´t see Oranssi Pazuzu as a black metal band. They got that same attitude as CC musically. They do their own thing but the influences are there, though the only thing i see as a black metal influence is the vocalist and the dark atmosphere of the songs. But people hear things differently. Underground is always underground, no matter what genre, and they like to keep their music and scene ”pure” whatever that means and there´s nothing wrong with that. You do your thing and we do ours. And just business? I don´t think so, but that´s just my a...opinion and people will see what the relationship with those two entities are.


MNs Candy Cane custom


Candy Cane saw, used by live shows in MNs face (yes true! sick shit.)

When i listen to Candy Cane music in Jaula and the split album, there is some parts where i can hear old school death metal (Carnage, Grave, Morbid Angel) and also old school black metal (Emperor, Deathspell Omega, Bathroy). How big of influence is death metal and black metal to Candy Cane?

Sure they have influenced, especially the old bands, when it comes to metal i usually like the old stuff more. Of course there are some new great metal albums released every now and then.We grew up listening to music so everything we´ve ever heard is an influence. And silence is a huge influence too.

TI, Candy Cane

Naked City, Fantomas, Frank Zappa, Sun Ra, Circle. What about these acts. Any influences to Candy Cane?

At least some of us have listened to some of those bands but it´s not like we listen to music and decide to imitate. When Fay-Ra-Doowra was released all we heard was Fantomas this and that. They´re a great band but we´re not trying to be them. Zorn, Zappa and Sun Ra are awesome. I have to say i haven´t heard Circle since i last saw them live in ´97. Someone said they´re still good.

TI & MN, Candy Cane

I noticed in the internet that Candy Cane members has some punk hardcore roots? Can you clear me on that?

Yep, MN and myself grew up playing punk rock and hardcore in different bands here in Tampere. During that era many of the old local hardcore legends were alive and kicking ( R.I.P. Jakke & Nappi and all others who are gone). I liked the no rules-attitude but like every other underground scene it had it´s own set of strict rules, unfortunately. But punk is where my roots are, that´s where i started. And that´s still where i am mentally. Fuck the rules.

Interview by Filiberto Hernandez 18/2/2011