Tuomo von Cause For Effect mailte uns kürzlich an, und fragte, ob wir nicht Lust hätten, ein Interview mit ihm zu führen. Also packte ich meine Englischkenntnisse aus und mailte ihm ein paar Fragen zu. Ach ja: Dass keiner von uns die Lust hat, das in's Deutsche zu übersetzen, versteht sich von selbst. So - here we go:
Let's begin with a small history including a discography of the band:
Cause For Effect was founded in 1992. We played as trio till 1996 when session guitarist came to help us till 1999. Since then we have played as a duo. In the beginning our style was totally different but we changed a lot during the years to this nowadays to style.
Discography:
Cause For Effect - Album CD (Bucho Discos, Brasil 2002)
Cause For Effect - PQ-2 MCD (Ubble-Gubble Records, Sweden 2001)
Cause For Effect - Fast Material CD (Ecocentric Records, Germany 2000)
Cause For Effect / Onanizer split 7" EP (Machismo Prod., Australia 1999)
Cause For Effect / Utter Bastard split 3" MCD (Tylyt Levyt Records, Finland 1998)
Cause For Effect - Nuclear Blues TAPE (Upground Records, Spain 1997)
Cause For Effect / Noise Waste split 7" (Merwi Records + 2 other finnish labels Finland 1995)
+ tracks on various compilations on Vinyl, CD, TAPE, ...
Why and how have you started listening to Punk music? Was it the rebellious touch or/and the powerful sound? Or/and is it that you felt you have to say and do something about/for this world and the shit that is going on here?
The punk attitude mostly agrees with my own personal opinions. Also I have always wanted to do lyrics about this world. I don't want to preach nor tell the truth. But I want to tell certain things and there is also a hope that our listener also would read the lyrics. They are not the main thing, music comes first but lyrics are also very important part of our expression.
Can you tell me what music you were listening to when you got into that thing and what where your biggest musical influences?
Grindcore. Napalm Death totally blew my mind away when I first time heard them somewhere 1987. I also found Slayer and stuff like that a bit earlier. Back in those days the main thing was it had to be fast and brutal. I didn't care if it was hardcore or metal. Actually I didn't even know the difference. Cryptic Slaughter, DRI, Sodom, Metallica, Kreator all sounded great.
What fascinated you on these bands? The bass riffs? Or the protest within the lyrics for example?
The music itself. Fast, furious and full of energy. I became interested about lyrics later and back in the days of the 80's many metal bands had some sort of "message" in their lyrics so in that way I interested about those topics. If I want to listen some bass oriented music then I listen to jazz or progressive rock/metal.
The first song I ever heard from you was the song called "Fuse". I was totally amazed by the bass lines. For how long now have you been playing the bass guitar?
Thank you! I have played since 1988.
You are playing "Jazzgrind", or should I say: Jazz/Grind fusion? This sound is totally new to most people (for me too!). Who had the idea to do such a sound? And who got the idea to create the term "Jazz/Grind fusion"?
Actually we are not the first ones who have mixed technical Jazz into Grindcore. There was saxophone player John Zorn and his band Naked City who released a Jazzgrind album somewhere in 1990. But the biggest influence about this kind of music is Le Scrawl (http://go.to/scrawl). A german band who has played jazzy Grind for years. They use keyboards, horns etc... really great stuff!
When we started to play faster in the Grindcore way, we wanted at the same time to do something different. At the same time I have always liked good riffs and I think best riffs comes from 70's riffrock bands. So we started to mix them together with Grindcore and started to play some sort of Rock/Grind. Then riffs started to become more complex and technical and we felt it was more jazzy than rockish so we decided to call our music Fusion-Grind.
Most lyrics in the band are very political and have a obviously social message. I would say you are a very political band. Do you see yourself as a person with a strong political attitude? Are you involved in any political activities or groups?
I'm interested in politics and I have also been interested in history. So those two things mix together. I have strong sense of justice and some political groups share some of my thoughts but I don't want to take part of them. I'm just a individual who wants to express things thru my lyrics.
Do you see a context in being political and being a "Punk"? Do you have to be political or "anarchist" to be punk?
I think they are related. Within the punk scene it is strong anti-fascist and left wing attitude and I share it but not completely. There are also non-political punks but I don't see it as a problem at all. Some people are just not interested in social things and they have a right to be like that.
There is war on our earth all the time. The media mainly focuses on the war in Iraq. But there are much more wars going on in the world, mostly in African or South American countries. How do you feel about humans (especially children) bleeding and dying in senseless wars?
Sad, frustrated and angry. I'm a human being with emotions and every time when I see innocent people suffer, it hurts. Just want to hope that someday we learn and stop behave like a madman to each other.
What does the word "anarchy" mean for you? Is it worth fighting for this style of life or is it just a dream for you? I mean, you can create anarchy yourself, but do you think you can change today's society into an anarchist society? Is there some kind of possibility to create an anarchist society?
I'm not sure have I understood anarchy correctly but for what I have learned it sounds too theoretical for my taste. You can build a small group but in state scale the whole idea seems to be impossible. Humans always find the leader among themselves and there is always somebody who doesn't agree. I like the strong anti-fascist view and also many things including human rights, environmental thinking, animal rights, etc... but all in all I don't believe in anarchy as a real opinion.
Ok, let's go back to the sound/lyrics: Who writes the stuff? Where do you get your inspiration from?
I write the bass riffs but together we build up the song structure. The best moment to create a new song is a normal weekday after the daily job. Going to rehearsal place and start to jam together and then pick up some idea and start to collect pieces together. It doesn't work by force. It just has to let come.
You have done split releases with Noise Waste, Utter Bastard and Onanizer. If you could choose a band to do another split release with you - which one would it be? Why?
Le Scrawl, Sabot, Zu, Deep Turtle, Napalm Death, Rotten Sound. We love those bands and it would be really cool to do a split with them.
Can you write a top 5 list of albums? If yes, do so please. ;-)
November 2003:
Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines
Sabot - Go There Do That
Opeth - Blackwater Park
King Crimson - The Power To Believe
Napalm Death - Order Of The Leech
In television for example you get a completely fucked up picture of what is the meaning of "Punk". Is the commercial trend getting too big?
I don't care about commercialism. I believe that if somebody is truly interested in the Punk movement, s/he finds the scene for example from internet. Yep, the picture of "Punk" for example in MTV is irritating a bit but think it in this way: Even being a trendy Punk is better than to take part with right wing hate groups.
What do you like/dislike concerning to the Finnish punk scene?
Finnish punk scene is strong and there are lot of good bands covering all kinds of "Punk" music. Lots of concerts and nice people. I don't have anything to complain.
If somebody in Austria wants to do a show with Cause For Effect: What has he got to do?
Build up a tour and try to come to Finland and ask local promoter to ask us to join or then offer our "manager" (http://www.noisepoint.net) to change to play in Austria during our next tour in Europe in autumn 2004.
Last question: Any things you wanna say? New releases? Thank you!
Thank you for this interview! All the best for you and your zine! Our website: http://www.saunalahti.fi/cfe - you can read latest news, info and download our mp3's.
(Öltsch)
Let's begin with a small history including a discography of the band:
Cause For Effect was founded in 1992. We played as trio till 1996 when session guitarist came to help us till 1999. Since then we have played as a duo. In the beginning our style was totally different but we changed a lot during the years to this nowadays to style.
Discography:
Cause For Effect - Album CD (Bucho Discos, Brasil 2002)
Cause For Effect - PQ-2 MCD (Ubble-Gubble Records, Sweden 2001)
Cause For Effect - Fast Material CD (Ecocentric Records, Germany 2000)
Cause For Effect / Onanizer split 7" EP (Machismo Prod., Australia 1999)
Cause For Effect / Utter Bastard split 3" MCD (Tylyt Levyt Records, Finland 1998)
Cause For Effect - Nuclear Blues TAPE (Upground Records, Spain 1997)
Cause For Effect / Noise Waste split 7" (Merwi Records + 2 other finnish labels Finland 1995)
+ tracks on various compilations on Vinyl, CD, TAPE, ...
Why and how have you started listening to Punk music? Was it the rebellious touch or/and the powerful sound? Or/and is it that you felt you have to say and do something about/for this world and the shit that is going on here?
The punk attitude mostly agrees with my own personal opinions. Also I have always wanted to do lyrics about this world. I don't want to preach nor tell the truth. But I want to tell certain things and there is also a hope that our listener also would read the lyrics. They are not the main thing, music comes first but lyrics are also very important part of our expression.
Can you tell me what music you were listening to when you got into that thing and what where your biggest musical influences?
Grindcore. Napalm Death totally blew my mind away when I first time heard them somewhere 1987. I also found Slayer and stuff like that a bit earlier. Back in those days the main thing was it had to be fast and brutal. I didn't care if it was hardcore or metal. Actually I didn't even know the difference. Cryptic Slaughter, DRI, Sodom, Metallica, Kreator all sounded great.
What fascinated you on these bands? The bass riffs? Or the protest within the lyrics for example?
The music itself. Fast, furious and full of energy. I became interested about lyrics later and back in the days of the 80's many metal bands had some sort of "message" in their lyrics so in that way I interested about those topics. If I want to listen some bass oriented music then I listen to jazz or progressive rock/metal.
The first song I ever heard from you was the song called "Fuse". I was totally amazed by the bass lines. For how long now have you been playing the bass guitar?
Thank you! I have played since 1988.
You are playing "Jazzgrind", or should I say: Jazz/Grind fusion? This sound is totally new to most people (for me too!). Who had the idea to do such a sound? And who got the idea to create the term "Jazz/Grind fusion"?
Actually we are not the first ones who have mixed technical Jazz into Grindcore. There was saxophone player John Zorn and his band Naked City who released a Jazzgrind album somewhere in 1990. But the biggest influence about this kind of music is Le Scrawl (http://go.to/scrawl). A german band who has played jazzy Grind for years. They use keyboards, horns etc... really great stuff!
When we started to play faster in the Grindcore way, we wanted at the same time to do something different. At the same time I have always liked good riffs and I think best riffs comes from 70's riffrock bands. So we started to mix them together with Grindcore and started to play some sort of Rock/Grind. Then riffs started to become more complex and technical and we felt it was more jazzy than rockish so we decided to call our music Fusion-Grind.
Most lyrics in the band are very political and have a obviously social message. I would say you are a very political band. Do you see yourself as a person with a strong political attitude? Are you involved in any political activities or groups?
I'm interested in politics and I have also been interested in history. So those two things mix together. I have strong sense of justice and some political groups share some of my thoughts but I don't want to take part of them. I'm just a individual who wants to express things thru my lyrics.
Do you see a context in being political and being a "Punk"? Do you have to be political or "anarchist" to be punk?
I think they are related. Within the punk scene it is strong anti-fascist and left wing attitude and I share it but not completely. There are also non-political punks but I don't see it as a problem at all. Some people are just not interested in social things and they have a right to be like that.
There is war on our earth all the time. The media mainly focuses on the war in Iraq. But there are much more wars going on in the world, mostly in African or South American countries. How do you feel about humans (especially children) bleeding and dying in senseless wars?
Sad, frustrated and angry. I'm a human being with emotions and every time when I see innocent people suffer, it hurts. Just want to hope that someday we learn and stop behave like a madman to each other.
What does the word "anarchy" mean for you? Is it worth fighting for this style of life or is it just a dream for you? I mean, you can create anarchy yourself, but do you think you can change today's society into an anarchist society? Is there some kind of possibility to create an anarchist society?
I'm not sure have I understood anarchy correctly but for what I have learned it sounds too theoretical for my taste. You can build a small group but in state scale the whole idea seems to be impossible. Humans always find the leader among themselves and there is always somebody who doesn't agree. I like the strong anti-fascist view and also many things including human rights, environmental thinking, animal rights, etc... but all in all I don't believe in anarchy as a real opinion.
Ok, let's go back to the sound/lyrics: Who writes the stuff? Where do you get your inspiration from?
I write the bass riffs but together we build up the song structure. The best moment to create a new song is a normal weekday after the daily job. Going to rehearsal place and start to jam together and then pick up some idea and start to collect pieces together. It doesn't work by force. It just has to let come.
You have done split releases with Noise Waste, Utter Bastard and Onanizer. If you could choose a band to do another split release with you - which one would it be? Why?
Le Scrawl, Sabot, Zu, Deep Turtle, Napalm Death, Rotten Sound. We love those bands and it would be really cool to do a split with them.
Can you write a top 5 list of albums? If yes, do so please. ;-)
November 2003:
Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines
Sabot - Go There Do That
Opeth - Blackwater Park
King Crimson - The Power To Believe
Napalm Death - Order Of The Leech
In television for example you get a completely fucked up picture of what is the meaning of "Punk". Is the commercial trend getting too big?
I don't care about commercialism. I believe that if somebody is truly interested in the Punk movement, s/he finds the scene for example from internet. Yep, the picture of "Punk" for example in MTV is irritating a bit but think it in this way: Even being a trendy Punk is better than to take part with right wing hate groups.
What do you like/dislike concerning to the Finnish punk scene?
Finnish punk scene is strong and there are lot of good bands covering all kinds of "Punk" music. Lots of concerts and nice people. I don't have anything to complain.
If somebody in Austria wants to do a show with Cause For Effect: What has he got to do?
Build up a tour and try to come to Finland and ask local promoter to ask us to join or then offer our "manager" (http://www.noisepoint.net) to change to play in Austria during our next tour in Europe in autumn 2004.
Last question: Any things you wanna say? New releases? Thank you!
Thank you for this interview! All the best for you and your zine! Our website: http://www.saunalahti.fi/cfe - you can read latest news, info and download our mp3's.