shoeless and clueless...

Anna (Magazine) 17/2007 (26.4.2007)

At this age - Jyrki Linnankivi 38

”I don’t know whether it is childishness or immaturity but I don’t even realize that I have become older. Playing rock music and drawing comics is associated to youth culture, it keeps mind fresh. I still dig same things than in teenager but from school mates I can tell that I’m not exactly young rebel anymore. Probably all kids think I’m old.”

”Fans don’t seem to mind about my age. It’s confusing to get letters that contain outburst of feelings from teenage girls saying ‘it doesn’t matter for me that you are 25 years older than I’. But maybe 70 years old Sean Connery gets similar letters from young women.”

”I have been hyperactive since kid; I have been talking and making observations a lot.
In a tour bus I usually sit at the front and talk about scenery all the time. Now days I can little bit control my enthusiasm. Some times I let other ones talk too or I even listen what they are saying. Or at least I pretend to listen.”

”My look is combination of my childhood heroes: Tarzan, Elvis and Price Valiant. I remember when I was little kid and my mom took me to a hairdresser. I asked her to cut Tarzan hair. I was so disappointed when she cut my hair too short. Later I let my hair grow all way to the hips, but keeping that long hair was too much trouble. I don’t have any big complexes of my looks, okay my beard really doesn’t grow and my eyes are sensitive to the light, so I have to keep sunglasses. So they are not just for posing.”

”I’m vain, of course. Going out takes sometimes way too much time. At the Christmas I usually travel somewhere with my mom and she is always laughing that how come you have so much luggage and how it can take so long to get out of the hotel room. It’s good that guys at the band are all same. Makeup is essential part of Glam Rock and putting it on takes time. I don’t think it’s vain to that you want to look good at the state and promo pictures. But it is vain to be late from movies because you can’t decide what shirt to wear. That has happened to me.”

”It is always funny when I go shopping somewhere near gig place on the other side of the world and from next to me someone says “Jyrki” perfectly pronounced. When I meet fans, it’s feels like meeting old friends and soul mates. Especially in foreign countries I meet fans that look answer to big questions from our music. At the gig place there might be bunch of hair or diary waiting. It is sort of fascinating that I can cause so strong feelings. And kind of scary too.
I still remember how it was to be young and wait your idols on the stage, and how great it felt when he was standing on the stage right front of you. I want pass same feeling for my fans.”

”Before tour I always think is this what I really want. At the night I stand couple of hours in the spotlight as a star, but all the other time I spend in crammed tour bus with ten other people and some times there is not even change to shower.”

”You have to be in good physical shape and be good sleeper to survive a tour. I have personal trainer that looks after my physical condition. I have never had any problems with sleeping. On the other hand, hyperactive person like me thinks sleeping is wasted time. Couple of years ago I sometimes forgot to go sleep which caused me to loose my voice. I had to learn to go to sleep also. At the tour weekdays lost their meaning and normal routines disappear quickly. Every day is Saturday or Sunday. Being back at home feels weird. It’s nice to bath in your own bathtub and sleep at the bed that doesn’t move. But still I feel restless. ”

”For me home is place where I stop by before next trip. But when there is longer pause in touring next time I have to move to bigger apartment because I need more space for my clothes.”

”I have never lived together with anyone. I have been in long relationships but no woman has really been right for me. All my women have been colorful and dominating ladies, center of attention in their own circles. It’s ok for me because I get so much attention that I don’t need to be star at private life. When I have got older I have learn to appreciate also other qualities at the woman than just good looks.”

”Woman has to be independent and strong nerved. My nights are long; if we are training I can’t promise that I’ll be at home at certain time. Last years I have been alone, I’m always gone so it’s feels wrong to keep anyone waiting.
Being alone feeds itself, longer you are alone more difficult it is to adjust to live with someone else. I’m not looking for relationship, but I’m not running away either. Family comes on time, age doesn’t limit guys same way than it limits women.”

”I won’t be middle aged just yet. Now I feel like at the forties I could start concentrate my energy also to something else than rock. I would like to study more, interest to learn didn’t go away after graduation. I would also like to try acting and writing. I’m really grateful that I have had change to realize myself without limits. I hope that enthusiasm to new things stays on in future. That way I don’t need to regret later that I didn’t even try.”

Take three frontmen whose bands are on tour together. Record a pre-gig conversation in a pub. And what do you get? Something just like this...

Sitting quietly in a West London pub are three men who, in the matter of hours, will be standing onstage in front of a baying, screaming and packed-to-capacity Wembley Arena. Lostprophets' Ian Watkins is looking calm, eating a Sunday roast with admirable aptite and doodling on a piece of paper. Nearby is Taking Back Sunday frontman Adam Lazzara, a burger infront of him, shades on, hood up, looking out of the window. wiL Francis, Aiden's singer, has hardly looked at the plate of food he's ordered. Instead he smokes constantly, eyes darting around the room. The three of them - and their bands - have been on tour with each other for a few days on Lostprophets' arena jaunt around Britain and, while there's camaraderie between them all, they don't know each other quite well enough to be spending this Sunday lunchtime bantering about the previous night's gigs just yet. Instead they chat cautiously, the odd joke here, a little comment there, before they move over to a deep, plush sofa and chair across the other side of the pub where, relaxing now, they talk easily about life on the road and Lostprophets' kinky tourmate welcoming techniques...

Has the tour been going well?

Adam: Really well. I didn't know that this many people came to shows here in the UK or that you had such hug arena gigs... Well, I knew they did for bands like the Rolling Stones but...

Ian: ...but not for a shitty band like us, is that what you're saying? (laughs)

Adam: No! I meant that I didn't think it was possible for bands of our genre to pull off shows as big as you guys do. This has been massive - it's insane. I walked off stage in Birmingham and thought, what the fuck is going on here!

Ian: Well, it's just as surprising for us, trust me. On this record, we've done two theatre tours, so we thought we'd do a small arena run at the end.

wiL: A small arena run! I love that.

Is going out onstage in an arena different to going onstage somewhere smaller?

wiL: Nah. It's crazy to look out at an arena, though. I never expected to play in front of that many people. It's weird, though - it seems that the bigger the venue, the less people you notice. I can't see very far past the kids in the front row. Everything else looks like a backdrop.

Ian: Well, it actually is a backdrop. We're using a lot of CGI to make it look like there's a big crowd. Everything you're looking at is a projection.

Have you had to change your acts?

wiL: Not really, but I can't get away with going into the crowd as much as normal. The kids seem even more insane in arenas. In Glasgow they took my shoe and my shirt! They just ripped them off.

Adam: Playing in arenas is very different from mind-set. It's hard to get your head around it. When you play an arena, people's perceptions of you automatically change. Suddenly there's a degree of celebrity involved. You seem a bigger band just because you're playing such a big stage.

Ian: Also, if someone's coming to an arena show, then they're paying a bit more for a ticket, more for travel and also for accommodation sometimes. It makes it a big night out so the bands have to deliver something. Coming from the background we're from, you have an instinct not to play up to that. You tend to think, I'm not larger than life, I shouldn't do this. But if you go onstage and don't bother, then it just comes across as though you're ripping people off. They've paid to see a show. If they wanted to see a stripped-down punk rock show, then they'd go around the corner to a little venue. You've also got to make sure that you don't look like a big rock star cock up there too, though.

Have you three toured together before?

Ian: We all played together before at Give It A Name and we also played with Taking Back Sunday before in Seattle.

wiL: I was actually at that show. I paid to go watch it.

Ian: It was us, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. MCR were opening that night. Oh, the irony!

Adam: I remember that because the bus MCR were on was the same bus that we had just been using. We were a little more rowdy back then and they had had to refit the bus after we left it. Mikey Way kept finding weird things of ours on there, too.

Ian: You were on tour with Fall Out Boy, weren't you?

Adam: If we were, then I've blocked it out of my memory for my own sanity.

What do you get up tp after shows?

Adam: I've been going to watch the Lostprophets show after we finish playing. It's fucking awesome; they've got dancing clowns and all sorts of things.

Ian: What dancing clowns?

Adam: I meant you!

Ian: Thanks a lot.

Adam: Not really - I was trying to make your show sound so awesome that, when people read this, they'll be really annoyed if they missed it.

Ian: Good idea - tell them about the dwarves.

wiL: And the unicorn that flies out onstage! I'll often wtach the show from out front by the sound desk. Or I walk around and see what's happening. Sometimes I get recognised - mostly in a good way, sometimes people tell me I suck and they spit on me. But most people in the venue have no idea who we are. Hopefully people are enjoying being introduced to us.

Ian: It's nice to be able to introduce bands to people. Although everyone knows who Taking Back Sunday are, of course.

Adam: They don't, man. The first couple of songs are rough because most of the crowd look at us angrily, like, they're not Lostprophets.

Does that mean that when you're a support band, you feel you have to prove yourselves?

wiL: I feel like we've got to go out and prove ourselves, for sure. Every show is like a fucking battle.

Ian: Our fans are pretty open.minded, though.

Adam: They are, actually. I've noticed that fans over here are much more broad.minded than fans in America. The crowds canbe really mean back home, so it's really refreshing to see the Lostprophets' fans, who all just seem really stoaked to be at the show. That's the way it should be. The only reason some people seem to go to shows in the US is in order to give the band shit. That's always fun.

wiL: How do you deal with that?

Adam: Well, Fred Mascherino licked a heckler on the last tour. He hopped down from the stage and just licked the guy's face! That's pretty out of character for Fred. I've never seen him lick a dude before!

Ian: But he looks like he'd have liked it. I bet hell do it more from now on. (laughs)

Are you all getting on offstage?

Ian: It's weird, people always ask us whether we've got any choice in the bands we take out with us. It's always been our choise. It's our show, so why would we take out bands that we're not friends with or who we don't like?

Adam: So does that mean we're friends? Aww.

Ian: What I was going to say was this tour is the exception! we're experimenting this time around by taking out two bands we hate to see what it's like.

Have you ever really toured with bands you hate?

Ian: The only guy who has ever been a dick was the singer from Taproot and where the fuck are they now? He was a complete douchebag. We were supporting them so I went up to say thanks to him and he just went, whatever. He was way too fucking cool to talk to anyone else. Everyone else has been great - Metallica were super-cool and if anyone's earned the right to be a dick, they have.

Adam: Have you seen 'Some Kind Of Monster'? Those guys are bitches. I was amazed by Lars Ulrich. There's no way could I deal with him. The whole band just seemed like an ego party. I'm glad they're nice in the flesh though.

Ian: Oh, I'm sure they're dicks to each other but they're very cool to other bands. They always treated us very well. That sort of thing teaches you how to be with other bands. If you're lucky enough to be taking other bands out, then you should try to be as cool as you can. Some bands we've supported have told us we can only play at half volume and that we're not allowed to eat with them. I dont' want to be in a band like that.

Adam: Actually, Lostprophets are very nice. After our first show, the whole band came into our dressing room with massage oils and started giving us a rub down. My back has never been so loose. It's quite a service.

Ian: It can go further too, if the need is there. I don't want to excite oyu but a happy ending isn't off the cards.

Will the three of you ever tour again?

Ian: I'd like to. We'll have to bug Taking Back Sunday to take us out in America. We'll be like, remember that huge tour we took you on in the UK? Do the same for us in America.

Adam: I don't think we're touring after the summer.

Ian: Oh, how convenient. Fuck it, we'll go out with Aiden then.

wiL: Shit, we've never even done a headline tour! Can we have you as a support band if we do? We might sell some more tickets then...