Formed in 2017, Jo Below are a four-piece melodic hard rock group based in Helsinki, Finland
Interview conducted on July 31, 2020
By Dan Locke
Jo Below will release their debut EP” By The Rules” via Inverse Records in September 2020.
Line-up:Johanna Kari – vox
Roni Seppänen – gtr
Jonne Lindqvist – bass
Olli Vartiainen – drs
What is your upbringing?
Roni (gtr): I had a quite normal upbringing in a Helsinki suburb. My family wasn’t part of a witch cult or anything cool like that.
Johanna (vocals): I had a quite normal upbringing too but in Kokkola, west side of Finland. I moved to Helsinki about 5 years ago.
How did you discover music?
Roni: I remember listening to old rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly records at a really young age. Eddie Cochran was my favorite, but I also liked Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. I really got into music at the age of 8 or 9 when I discovered bands like Deep Purple, KISS and Iron Maiden. There was no coming back after that.
Johanna: I wanted to have a band when I was 8 years old. So, we started “playing” with my friends, but we didn’t know how to play anything. We were just practicing with kid’s instruments with no clue of what we were doing. Later we had a band with a group of girls and actually played the instruments, and that’s when I started singing.
How did you start to write music?
Roni: I’ve always written little riffs and melodies, but I don’t think I had tried to write any actual songs before I started playing in bands.
Johanna: It started at the same time when we started to play actual instruments. We wanted to play our own songs so our guitarist and I did the writing together.
What was your first performance at like?
Roni: I can’t remember my first performance, but I remember the first time I played in a rock club. I was fourteen, the club was half-empty and we were paid in beer.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Roni: I’m afraid I don’t remember the title or even the song. It probably wasn’t that good.
How did you start the band?
Roni: Jo Below was founded in 2017 after our previous band Devil I Know disbanded. Jonne, Olli and I – who all played in Devil I Know – were looking for a singer and after a few weeks of search found Johanna with whom we instantly hit it off both musically and personally.
There was another band by the name Jo Below back in 2012. Did you have any problems using the name for your band?
Roni: There was another band called Jo Below? I had no idea.
What is your favorite track on the album?
Roni: My favorite track on our EP is ‘All That Is’. It’s a really heavy track with a nice melodic chorus.
Johanna: My favorite track is ‘Bet On’.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Roni: It’s difficult to stay healthy in a tour bus packed with people if there’s a flu or something going on. Whatever it is, you’re probably going to get it. If you’re doing a longer tour, I think it’s equally important to take care of your mental well-being. For me the easiest way to do this is to find some time for myself, do a little bit of sightseeing in every city and stay connected with the family.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Roni: I’ve been discovering lot of great music just by randomly going through songs on YouTube. Especially some of the late 60’s and early 70’s proto metal is just amazing… I would have never found bands like Lucifer’s Friend, Coven and such without these streaming services.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Roni: I like them both, but since I don’t own a vinyl player I’d go with digital.
Finland were one of the first countries to confirmed about the Covid-19 virus. It found that male-led countries had nearly six times more Covid-19 deaths. Even when analyzing data per capita, female-led countries still came out better, with 1.6 times less fatalities.
The average excess mortality per million population was 4.8 in countries led by women and 21 in countries led by men.
Nations with women at the helm were also quicker to go into lockdown because, the experts say, they “prioritized public health over the economy”. How do you think Finland did against the virus?
Roni: So far, the virus has been quite easy on us. As we speak there has been less than 8 000 cases and 329 deaths. So right now, it looks like our strategy works. But it’s also commonly accepted that it is not possible to close the society in a way that it was done in the spring if the second wave hits us – and it’s more likely than not to hit us later this year.
What is the mental health situation of the Finland? How can public help the doctors and nurses on the front line?
Roni: I think the best advice in general is to listen to the experts and act according to their instructions.
Finland Minister of Education Li Andersson tweeted that to extend the school closures, the government would have to prove that opening schools would be unavoidable in the current situation and was “a matter of weighing basic rights.” Given the country had contained the spread of COVID-19, the message was that children’s right to education outweighed the health risk of going back to school. Finland’s decision to gradually reopen included staggering by age, with schools for the youngest children reopening first. The main factor underlying the decision was the emerging evidence indicating that children play a small role in spreading the virus. How do you think this will affect the children in the upcoming years?
Johanna: I think the head of the country knows best what to do in these situations. I trust decision-makers in Finland.
Roni: The schools were reopened in mid-May and it didn’t raise the number of Covid-19 cases. I think similar results have been found in many other European countries. Locking kids in their homes might result in all kinds of problems – especially in families that have problems already.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Roni: I’ve been listening to a band called Redbone lately. I hadn’t heard the song “Maggie” in about 15 years and now I can’t get it out of my head. It doesn’t have any special meaning other than that it’s a real badass song.
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Johanna: Hard to say, but right now there are no concerts or gigs for the bands so we just have to wait for this to pass.
Roni: Now that everybody has been spending their time watching films on Netflix and listening to music on Spotify, I’m sure people have learned to value the work of artists a bit more. So, who knows, it might even have some positive effects on the music business.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Roni: Like Jon Bon Jovi said: “when you can’t do what you do, you do what you can”. I’ve been working on new song ideas, reading books, and learning new things on guitar.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Johanna: I have started to knit very much again.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. What are you planning to do?
Roni: At the moment, we don’t have plans to do live stream concerts on YouTube or any other media. But it’s been interesting to follow how other bands do it. I recently watched one of my favorite bands The Sounds play a live stream gig at an empty venue. It was actually pretty cool even though there was no interaction between the band and an audience.
Live Nations just started Live Nation from Home. Which are concerts from artist homes. An all-new virtual music hub keeping fans connected to their favorite artists featuring daily live streams, performances, new music and more. Do you think it will be possible to make a living doing concerts this way?
Roni: I’m sure someone will find a way how to make a living doing concerts like this. But I think for most artists it’s just a great way to stay in touch with their audience.
Live Nation is starting to do the first ever U.S. drive-in concert series — LIVE FROM THE DRIVE-IN — which started on July 10, 2020. Now there are many other Drive-in concerts popping up. Do you think this is something you would be willing to do?
Roni: A drive-in concert doesn’t sound very rock ‘n’ roll. I’ve read that people honk their horns instead of applauding. That’s just… too weird.
For smaller bands who do not play large crowds, this is not really an issue. How do you see bands going back to smaller venues and doing things like play for the door, with no guarantees?
Roni: In our case, I don’t think this is an issue. It is what it is and I think it’s something everybody needs to adapt to.
In addition, at the present time for a band to go on tour from one state to another they may need to self-quarantine for 14 days. How is that going to work? With Social Distance being the norm. Do you feel that it maybe the end of music fest for the next couple of years?
Roni: It’s a bit different here. You can travel to a few European countries without having to stay in self-quarantine for two weeks. And you can travel all around Finland freely. Most of the big Finnish festivals were canceled earlier in the summer, but it’s now allowed to organize outdoor events with more than 500 participants. So, there are a bunch of festivals happening in August.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Roni: I know holographic concerts are a big thing in some parts of the world, but I’m not a big fan of the idea.
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
Roni: Rocking in a Covid-19 free world.
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Roni: Make sure to mark September 18th on your calendar. Our EP “By The Rules” is out then and we can’t wait to hear what you think about it!
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