“BEATING DEAD MEAT” INTERVIEW by Santtu “Rebel” Kaskela
“EXTREME GROOVE FROM FINLAND”
Since it’s formation in 2013, Beating Dead Meat has offered everyone some fresh perspective when it comes to metal music, with their 2 albums “A Rude Awakening” and “With Full Force”… Mixing some groove, very heavy riffing and that uncompromising, straight forward “fuck You, we’re coming through”-attitude.. The time has come to find out a bit more… Let’s go, Ilkka Jääskeläinen is waiting !!!
So honored to have this chance to have a moment with You. How are You doing ?
No problem, man, anytime. I myself am, and I hope the rest of the band too, are doing quite well. We’ve had a couple of weeks of downtime, which I’ve devoted solely to relaxing. Have a few drinks here and there, enjoy the sun and all that kind of stuff. Which in Finland means that I went outside the one day it was sunny. So that was summer. It was fun.
I’ve always been so fucking curious about history… Would You tell us the story behind Beating Dead Meat ?
Well it all began when I met our drummer, Joona, in high school. We immediately started playing some Lamb of God and all that good shit together, and later on we recorded a couple of demos. Of course the name wasn’t Beating Dead Meat yet, since this very band formed when our guitarist, Niko, and our bassist, Anssi, came along couple of years ago. We did a few songs with different names and styles, and as you can see, eventually found our way.
Personally think You’ve created a pretty unique, Your own sound… Definitely not very mainstream… Was it a decision well planned to start mixing all those different elements (groove, death, heavy etc etc) to Your music or… ?
Thanks! It actually came quite effortlessly for us, since we all have our own tastes in music. Some of us enjoy heavier, some a tad lighter genres of music, so it all ends up neatly together in the end. I guess the thing is, that since we all want to have a part in composing the songs, it’s the compromises we make with each other that brings us our sound.
Your debut album, “A Rude Awakening”, was released in 2015… How was the reception & what kind of comments did You get ?
I think it received a pretty warm welcome. Some said it reminded them of Strapping Young Lad, so you can’t ask anything more than that. Then there were others who said that the vocals were almost the same as in Carcass, so I really don’t know how I feel about that. It might have something to do with the fact I’ve never heard a single song from them, so maybe I should give them a chance.
The metal scene in Finland is filled with old narrow minded know-it-alls who don’t care about, don’t want to know about new bands and their way of making music, listen to and love only what mainstream masses and media tells them to… How hard has it been to get noticed and get the attention You surely deserve ?
That’s exactly the way I would’ve described the current situation in here, so you’re goddamn right. I mean take the modern thrash metal we have, for example. I really, really can’t tell them apart. Same shit with a different name, that’s all it is to me. You know, with the music we make and the name we have, I can say we’ve done things the hard way. But, after all, that’s the only way. The right way.
*How do You relax and just take it easy and leave this fucked up world behind You every once and awhile… Or do You just eat, drink, shit metal 24/7 while murdering Your instruments and kicking every ones asses ?
I’ll let you in on a little secret, man. When you like the things you do, you don’t get worn out. Besides, we’re still on an early stage with our band, so things haven’t gotten too tough for us yet. I guess it’s a matter of the fact that if you do something, you gotta do it with full force. Otherwise you’re not doing it right.
Tell us a little about Your songwriting process ? Where do You get all the ideas, what inspires You… Or makes You mad and You want to shout it out ?
Most of the songs are about everyday life and what makes one frustrated, so basically sometimes all you have to do is read the news, and that’s it. If you read them enough, you tend to think that at least most of us could go straight to hell. Of course the riffs and other musical stuff comes to us quite naturally. We each have our own ideas, from which we combine the good parts and throw the rest for other bands to rip off, heheh.
Your second album “With Full Force” came out last year… Even more brutal, angrier, heavier, and if You ask me sounds like more frustrated… Is there any hope left for mankind ?
Well, the world is pretty much fucked. I mean what is the thing that we should have more than two genders, or the fact that everyone is entitled to be offended about everything. Or the whole black lives matter thingie, what a crock of shit. All lives matter equally little. But I gotta say that we still have some hope for us, at least for the few and the proud who can go through their lives without getting too worked up about things that, in the end, mean nothing.
After a couple of years of Your journey so far… What have been the most memorable, positive, rewarding moments and maybe some moments no one wants to remember anymore ?
I speak for myself now, but it’s pretty much the same for the rest of the band. The best moments, by far, are the ones when someone says he enjoys your work. It can be after a show, or after someone has listened to our songs and liked them. So yeah, I guess you could say that’s rewarding as it can be. Of course there are also the moments when you’re hungover as fuck, nothing’s working and you feel like you wanna curl up in your sheets and die, but they are luckily relatively few. I gotta give you dull answer, there really aren’t things we don’t want to remember. In the end, on the last day of your life, all you have is your memories, so I want to remember even the worst of them.
Haven’t seen You guys live… Yet… What can I expect to see and hear when coming to Your show ?
I guess it’s a combination of rage, power and also a touch of humor. I loath the bands who’re just standing there with a made up angry looks on their faces. Just because Phil Anselmo does it, doesn’t mean that every little runt should be copying him. You know what they say, life is too important to be taken seriously. Let us know if you happen to drop by, and we’ll have a couple of drinks, man!
Personally I suck in putting bands and music to different “genres” as You may have noticed… How would You describe Your band and music Yourself ?
We actually tried to define it as only “metal”, but clearly it isn’t an option nowadays. Most people tend to think that we’re a death or a death/thrash band, which is just wrong. If we have to describe our music, we describe it as a sort of groovy extreme metal. Defining a band is exactly the same as limiting it, so I’d prefer people would just refer to us as a metal band.
How does the future look like for Beating Dead Meat ?
The future is looking bright. We got a couple of shows coming and we’re gonna spend the rest of the summer making a new single. I’m not really sure that are we going to make something new, heavier, groovier or what kind of a single is it going to be. All I know that composing it will be fun as shit.
Any last words (not literally) to people who are reading this, the Family of MHF, Your fans and Your soon to be fans ?
I’ve always sucked at these, since I always try to come up with something else than “hope you like our music and we hope to see you in hell or wherever etc etc…”. For the people who listen to our music, I sincerely hope you get something out of it. And for those who don’t, I’ll say that put down that Slayer album and try something new for a change. It doesn’t have to be us, but it sure as cock doesn’t need to be Slayer.
”WITH FULL FORCE”-ALBUM
https://open.spotify.com/album/0hvzt00Jk15NLK9sAqRqew
BEATING DEAD MEAT:
Vocals Ilkka Jääskeläinen
Guitar Niko Junnilainen
Drums Joona Komulainen
Bass Anssi Saastamoinen
FB-page : https://www.facebook.com/Beatingdeadmeat
”NO COMPROMISE”
Santtu “Rebel” Kaskela / MHF Magazine
