Negative – 13-01-2011

Interview with: Negative
By: Elvira Visser & Sabine van Gameren

We were about to interview Negative at the Effenaar where they would play that evening. When we sat down we asked them about their day. They told us that this was the first day of their European Neon tour and that it was very early that morning around six o’clock in the morning. There were also some problems with their gear as the drum kit had left behind at the airport, so there was some stress if they were able to play tonight. Luckily for them and the fans they would play, but things could go a lot smoother.

Negative has quite some history and they had their first album released back in 2003. To discuss a little bit about that time we asked them to pick one song from their “War of Love” album that would represent Negative back in the days and to pick one song from “Neon” that represents Negative today. If Jonne Aaron had to pick a track from the first album “War of Love”, he had to pick ‘The Moment of Our Love’, “because with that song everything got started”, Jonne says. They were young and still had to learn a lot. But this track started it all. The beginning of Negative, as it was their first single and a good one as well. And it was also a difficult period because everything was new and exciting. ‘The Moment of Our Love’ clearly would describe the beginning period of Negative in a good way. To pick a track from their “Neon” album was not so easy. After some thinking, Jonne sights and says that he cannot really pick a track from the new album. He says: “I mean I would pick different tracks when I’m in different moods. My choice would differ from day to day. I really like the whole album, it is hard to pick just one” It seems to be hard to pick a favourite of his own products. The band has been growing and developing over the years as a band and as persons. The band still have the same passion for the music they make and that is something really important to him, Jonne tells. You learn in those years to become better musicians. Negative seems quite content with where they stand right now, slightly ambitious for the future. This immediately makes us wonder what the band sees as goals they would like to achieve. “Maybe some stadiums someday like here in Holland”, they mentioned, but soon they talk about how they love both small stages and big stadiums with many, many people. Jonne can not really chose between them because it is so different. However he thinks it is nice that they have both opportunities these days. “We are fortunate to play both, because if you would play in the same surrounding all the time it would get boring”. We discuss how it is to stand for a large crowd on a huge stage where you can run around and how it is to play in a small club where things get very intimate. “It is simple”, Jonne continues, “when you do things over and over it gets boring, change is good”.

Talking about different stages we bring up the position of support acts to discussion. Jonne does have quite some to share about this subject. Obviously the band has been a support themselves back in the days. “We sucked back then” he says and suddenly everyone in the room seem to pay attention to his story. Ipads get paused, another one sits up straight, it is clear that these few words of Jonne sharpened their attention. “Really, we were not so good back then and well, we survived and here we are today. We are the lucky ones that know how it is to play in front of thousands but also in smaller places. That has its charm as well” he continues. Jonne seems to remember a story of playing in a café which was far from alike the shows the band play nowadays. “Once we played somewhere in a café, and we were really bad and crappy on stage. Larry was doing something with his guitar and I am not sure what he did. I think he broke something, something did not work or something like that and he even looked at us awkward and then he just walked off the stage. Well the only one there, was the bartender and after a couple of songs he told us to – stop, please stop – so he could go home. So yeah that was a terrible performance, luckily no one saw.”When discussing the development of the band some more Antti Anatomia mentioned that on the DVD you can see a piece that resembles how they have grown over the years. “There is one really funny part where you see Larry Play the guitar and trying to get something done, you know to pull it off. But we were young and couldn’t really play that good so you see him struggle and practice. Then you hear someone saying that it will take ten years to get that song done. Then you switch over immediately and you see us playing the song 10 years later.” “still not perfect”, he mumbles, “but at least a lot better”. Recently the band has been nomination for best album of the year by a Finnish Newspaper. We asked Jonne what he thought about Negative’s chances to win. Jonne didn’t think he was going to win because Jenni Vartiainen had already won, she had sold so many records this year. He was thinking very hard to name the best Finnish album in his eyes, but he could not pick one album. Simply said Negative’s Neon was the best album of 2010, according to Jonne.

Let’s get back to how this one has been created. Jonne gets his inspiration from his everyday life, himself and his friends around him. Writing is a way of getting things off his chest. He starts telling about how he had a rough time after the second album. People had put a lot of pressure on him about the new album and he had to find a way to deal with all the fame. He tells us that it was hard back in those days to find a way to cope with that situation. “There was so much happening at the same time and I needed a way to deal with it, to get it off my chest. There were times when I was laying on my bed, sometimes a little drunk even, and I was surrounded by papers and things that came into my mind, scribblings and ideas. However I could not always read it, so since then I actually use my computer to write.” For Neon Rain, the idea came when they were in America. Jonne says: “When watching a movie you get the ending credits page, where everyone is mentioned who worked on the film. Neon Rain is something like that. Also we wanted to honour Pink Floyd somewhere on the album. Musically because his music is great.” Negative have recorded their album in the USA. The band talks all very positive about their trip there and it seems like they still look back on it with much pleasures as their eyes start shining when the subject comes to it. Jonne tells he went there first to write some lyrics. Soon the rest of the band would come too. “I knew I needed to get the guys over to be part of this as well” he tells. And Jonne and Antti continue about their experiences. It was great to be there and the area where we were was really nice. “You know when you feel good and you are with guys that have the same passion to make great music”, Jonne says, “well that is a great feeling.” They explain us how a positive surrounding can lead to great recording sessions. That it is very important to find a producer that understand what you want with the album, to share the same things that are important for a recording. When the guys seem to get very cheerful and enthusiastic about their experience during the recordings and they start the tell us how they experienced it the tour manager comes in to tell us that we have to end the interview. Something we both noticed is that the guys are very passionate about what they are doing and they seem to enjoy every aspect of it, whether they would play for 60 of 6000 fans.

Links:
Negative Facebook
Negative Official