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the waltari was born in the spring of 1986. at a time when there was nothing much going on in helsinki clubs. at least kärtsy, jari and sale, three helsinki buddies, thought so and started to toy with the idea of forming a band that would reflect the feelings and thoughts that occupied their minds. the idea became reality when the drummer-to-be sale announced that there was a gig to be played at the tirkkurila comprehensive school where sale's mom worked. my brother tote (now one of the crew) played the bass at the first rehearsal but it didn't really work out so tote suggested i ought to have a go at it. i haven't played any string instruments before, but said i'd do it - but not longer than two months - until a proper bassist could be found. that is why i had the strings like upside down - i'm lefthanded and didn't own the instrument i played. we even had to borrow a bass for our first gig, and by the way, the very first songs we played that particular night were liisterimies and nakki, both of which are featured on this compilation. to everybody's surprise the band remained a trio and i decided to stick with the bass. what set us apart from other bands was the fact that we never stopped gigging. the local evening newspaper ilta sanomat even printed on the front page: waltari plays in helsinki once a week.
in 1986, alibi club was one of the waltari regulars. we used to do a support slot there and usually no one would dig us. even one of the two bosses of the company that's putting out this CD pointed out to me that waltari was possibly the worst band in the world. well, we did play this really strange sounding indie pop that was like a combination of prog rock and punk and people accused us of not having a style of our own. as we couldn't get a deal, we recorded some songs on our own in the spring of 1987. and they were finally released as a 12-inch vinyl ep in january 1988. around that time we'd also got the idea of hosting a club of our own. the plan was to put out the records by ourselves and to play at our own w-club. it was fun even if we usually ended up in the red. mind you, we did meet lots of other musicians and club promotors. we ran the regular club night from 1987 to 1989.
we were totally awestruck by the budding speed metal sceneand heavily influenced by young guys who could play fast but yet with great skill we met for example our present pals, sami yli-sirniö and janne parviainen. the waltari were entering a new era.
right the first waltari EP was released in january 1988 and included six tracks: living in the cellars, F.U.C.K. RAP, sillanpää, having fun, pala leipää and tuttu juttu. after hearing the ep, the newly founded helsinki label sonic records showed interest in waltari. they liked the fact that we sounded so original and offered to put out a single by us. the record turned out alright - in fact, it bears listening even today. the tracks chosen for the 7 inch were rap your body beat and shout. it came out in a wonderful round sleeve ( as did the debut ) with three bald-headed yound men pictured on the front cover. we had shaved our heads because we wanted a new look, too. in february 1989, sonic records ceased to exist, so once again we were left without a record deal. a new label called stupido twins entered the picture the following summer and the guys promised to release the next four track waltari 12 inch EP that featured mut hei, days of distress, sad song and icebox. the record was meant to close the 80's for waltari. "let's make it better in the 90's", we declared on the sleeve ( a round one, of course, with another baldie pic!).
after hearing that jolly speed metal band called brainwash had suddenly split, we thought - ex tempore - that we'd try to combine their line-up with ours. in the end, guitarist sami was the only one to "forget" his amp in our rehearsal room. he was real good, too. while we had basically played at playing, sami knew stuff we'd never even dreamed of mastering. the line-up was almost complete... all of a sudden, sale, our long-standing drummer drummer announced he was leaving, so we had to find a replacement. we took in janne parviainen, 10 years sale's junior and a young man with some attitude. he didn't even have time to rehearse before being shoved into the studio to provide the new good god / hevosenkuva single with a mean, funky beat.
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the single sounded really good, considering the circumstances! it got a very positive response and waltari were sent to record their first proper album in the spring of 1991. the budget wasn't exactly big, but we were pretty satisfied with the outcome. waltari had, at last, also acquired a proper manager, pekka rahkonen. the early part of 1991 brought along one of the most significant turns in waltari's career. i called our record company only to hear the answering machince telling me that the guys had poped off to berlin. something snapped and and i too flew over t berlion the following day.
i'd been dreaming about it for a long time: how i'd take a pile of waltari records and how i'd sell them in some big city. we all realized that there simply simply wouldn't be enough gigs in finland for a fuzzy guitar band singing in english. so, i ran around in berlin for a week, spreading the word, and was surprised to find that finnish bands had a good reputation there. after returning home i heard that angry fish music, a small indie company, was keen to release waltari's debut album in germany. monk punk came out ( also in central europe ) in october 1991. the whole crew decided to pack their bags and relocate to berlin for the winter. for the start, our manager pekka rahkonen managed to get a gig for us at the ecstrasy club during the berlin independence days. to match the theme of the monk punk album, we used to go onstage wearing robes and carrying torches. we were happy with the gig and afterwards, backstage, one of the people to congratulate us, gianna possehl, explained that she was going to work for roadrunner records and would try to persuade thenm to sign us.
we were pretty sure that was the last we'd hear of her but the following week roadrunner had faxed the stupidos about us. only goes to prove that even wise men can be fooled!
the word about a hot finnish band started to spread in the berlin club scene and more gigs followed when we returned to finland. the deal with roadrunner had almost been cliched. we had achived more in one year than any of us could have imagined. after the deal had been made, even finnish gig promotors started to show interest in the band that had once been deemed a hopeless case. before the roadrunner deal was finalised, we agreed with the stupidos that they would put out another EP which would contain finnish language material.
we still considered ourselves a bilingual group and still do ( check out the lingos on this leaflet! ). aika tuulee EP was released in may 1992 as a kind of 5th anniversary record. after that we've become rock professionals ( hopefully in the good sense of the word ) - not least because of the fact that after torcha! album we toured regularly in europe.
in the summer of 1992 we played at two important events, the rheinkultur festival and popkomm. the latter had been regarded as the official "breakthrough" gig for waltari in germany. in december 1992 we did a german tour arranged by rock hard magazine with four american groups: screw, mordred, C.O.C. and prong. we did our first european club tour in early 1993; as a matter of fact we ended up crisscrossing the continent three times. these carry the torch! tours took us to france, england, holland, austria, switzerland, czech republic...
our new roadrunner album will be released early next year but in the meantime, here's a history packed record that contains all the waltari rarities.
see yo!
kärtsy
"waltari history in a nutshell" from "pala leipää - ein stückchen brot" album booklet
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