Interview With Bad Valentines
Tell us about your latest release
́Last Days In The Sun ́ was released on 25th of january and is the second single from Bad Valentines ́ forthcoming EP ́Memory Tattoos ́, which will be released in the end of April 2025.
What was the recording process like? Was it in a studio or do you do it al
yourselves?
Pekko Mantzin : We had a pleasure to work with not just one but two great sound engineers / producers. Petri Majuri who has previously worked for example with Michael Monroe, Hanoi Rocks and Franz Ferdinand recorded all the instrument tracks for this forthcoming EP, ́Memory Tattoos ́. He also produced the tracks with us and had really good ideas for some arragements. Great chap. He ́s in charge of mixing and mastering as well. Sammy Aaltonen who ́s also been working with countless of bands,
including Private Line and Andy McCoy Band is in charge of recording and co-producing the vocal tracks.
How do you guys write the songs
Pekko Mantzin : I have written most of the songs for Bad Valentines. Kupe Wessman, my guitar partner has also written songs and our singer, Hon, wrote this brilliant tune called ́Carry Me Home ́ for this release. The process is always old school. I bring the lyrics, melody, chords and some ideas for the arragements and then we start playing the tune. A simple old fashioned way.
What were your main influences while writing
Pekko Mantzin : When it comes to lyrics it ́s all about the reality. The reality is inspiring in good and bad. I don ́t like fantasies or fairy tales in lyrics. Lyrics should be meaningful. Truthful. For example I do love to slack this Finnish shit nazi government off in the lyrics because it makes me feel good. Probably those cunts will never hear these tunes but this is our way to protest. And we make sure that the audience will know what the lyrics are about when we play live.
What is your favourite song on the new release and why
Pekko Mantzin : They all are favourite ones. Our first release was ́Mariia ́ which is a pacifist song. It took a long time to get the lyrics done so maybe that song is the closest.
How did you come up with the name of the release ́Memory Tattoos ́ is a very meaningful title. These songs are musical memory tattoos.
How did the band get together
Pekko Mantzin : Guitarist Kupe and ex-bassman Edu were on hiatus with their band Plastic Tears and the drummer Sirpa ́s and my band Daggerplay was on hiatus, too because covid was still going strong. So when sthing started to calm down a bit we felt like it would be good to start to play again so together we started to play covers like hanoi Rocks, Cheap Trick, New York Dolls and all that cool stuff. For some time it was cool but this idea to start to play originals instead felt very tempting. We wanted to find a
famele singer who ́s really good and we were fucking fortunate when we met Hon. She was exactly the person and the vocalist that we desired to find. So from that point we started to practise originals, play the gigs and the recorded the EP. Edu left in the Autumn and our mate Bryan Ugartechea, whom Sirpa and I have known for years, jumped in and we carried on practising and playing the gigs.
How did you come up with the name for the band
Pekko Mantzin : It was my suggestion. It sounded cool but not too serious at all.
Have you got any gigs or a tour coming up where people can hear the song
live?
Pekko Mantzin : We play all the gigs we can. There are three scheduled ones. Vantaa, Tampere and Helsinki. We do advertise about all the upcoming event on our socials so give us a follow on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok..
What are your plans for the next few months
Pekko Mantzin : We are mainly DIY so these nest two montths we ́ll be promoting `Last Days In The Sun ́ and straight after we ́ll be promoting our EP, ́Memory Tattoos ́. And those three gigs will happen within that period also plus of course we ́ll be rehearsing and palying the new songs. I believe it is very likely that we ́ll start to record next two EPs in the end of the Summer.
Comments