Interview with Jonne Aaron & Larry Love / Negative

Our last interview with Negative is about 2 years ago, during this time a lot of things happend. We had the chance to talk with Jonne and Larry about Karma Killer, the DVD and many more, before their concert in Erfurt.
Find out, why Larry's exploding on stage and why we are old hippies!



finnbands: How was the tour so far?
Jonne: It has been really interesting, it's been really nice, best so far.
finnbands: Why interesting?
Jonne: I mean after all this back steps that we had while we were recording Karma Killer it's really nice to see that people are still coming to your concerts and they had a lot of patience for the band. And I don't know, it's always great to make shows here. It seems like people really appreciate it when we are around.
Larry: ........... like really positive atmosphere all the time, like with the last tour was more stressful, we had some problems and stuff like that. Personal problems, the shows were great, with the audience and everything, but now this is the best one of all.
Jonne: In Berlin I felt like I could break down and cry on stage. I don't know, I can say that I'm mentally fine. But it was a moment, you know? When I realized that we had such a good crowd and the band's working.
finnbands: Let's talk about the album. Do you believe in Karma?
Jonne: Hmmmm... yeah. We are here to bring some good karma for this people.
Larry: Especially I believe when you're doing good things, you are getting good things, it's like a circle.

finnbands: How come you covered Robbie Williams' Karma Killer?
Jonne: I'm a big fan of Robbie. I think it's one of his songs that could be also some song of Negative. And of course the title of our latest one is Karma Killer, there's a good connection between those two things as well. But it just felt fine.
There was this concept in Finland, they tried that in UK. There's a big TV station, Music channel and they take some smash hits, well known songs. Some Artists do some covers of those songs. And they're playing those songs in the radio and on TV and people have to make a guess which artist is playing that song and which was the original song. That was the main idea when we came up to the karma killer cover.


finnbands: Which emotion is best for song writing?
Jonne: I don't know a name for that.
Larry: Yeah, there's no name.
Jonne: Hey, that's a good question!
Larry: The first thing when we're doing it, you feel normal. Then, things are coming together and you reach this state of mind.
Jonne: You just need to be, I don't know - it doesn't take time or place when inspiration comes. You need to be open minded in a way. You can always call it spiritual atmosphere while you create something. You can't explain it.
Larry: In a way you have to hide and empty your mind first. If you're thinking about your laundry or something ....
Jonne: I do believe that I'm just a little piece in the universe and heavenly orchestra like Freddy Mercury and all these old heroes, they write some stuff right through me or god or whoever. I'm just a little part on the TV screen or the radio who brings it for the people. From my side, I see ...
Larry: Actually there's one believe that there is a god who's sending the creative stuff for more sensitive persons ...
Jonne: You can ruin that by taking too much drugs or drink some glue or whatever. You need to value those gifts.
Larry: You get frustrated if you don't use the gifts and stuff you are submitted to.
Jonne: Than you go straight to hell. Cos a man's got to do, what man's has got to do. We all have some missions here.

finnbands: Imagine your last concert ever - where should it take place and how should it be?
Jonne: At Wembley Stadion.
finnbands: And any special guests or something?
Jonne: Probably a few *smiles*
Larry: It would be great to die on stage, and that's like the last one. Explore on the stage like BOOOM! Negative is gone!
Jonne:Yeah, in another universe. Seriously, Wembley is like the home of Queen and I think it's some kind of footstep for a band when they ever sold out Wembley.
Larry: Have you seen the Foo Fighters at Wembley?
Jonne: It's quite impressive.
Larry: We saw it yesterday on the bus and it was incredible.

finnbands: Ok, let's talk about the DVD. It's called In the eye of the hurricane and as far as I read, the eye is the calmest part of the hurricane. So considering your music and your live shows it's quite an unusual name. Why did you choose that one?
Jonne: I think it represents and it's a figure for our life, where we are at the moment as a band. You know it's always calm here, as you see it's nice. Nice catering, just sitting down while there are a lot of things happening.
Larry: And sometimes it feels like all the things are happening around us, lots of things all the time. We're just like - yeah let's play this concert tonight, but there is lot of lots of things happening - it's hard to explain.
Jonne: At the same time in Finland...
Larry: It could feel like there are two ways, you can go outside of the eye of a hurricane also if you want, then you're fucked.
Jonne: I think the only way to survive from the storm is to stay in the eye of the hurricane. It's symbolic.

finnbands: The eye is surrounded by the eyewall which is the most violent part. So what is the eyewall by being a band? Which is the most hardest part?
Jonne: Hardest?
finnbands: Yes.
Jonne: You never know what future will bring for you and I think creating or giving a birth for a new album, that's the most exciting part of being a band. Stressful, most stressful. But being on a tour is one of the greatest parts. There's not such a thing like that, I see everything quite positive and I like to think that way. I remember when I used to have a job from 9 to 5. Back at school, I was thinking all the time "I hope I could be able to make living with the music. I would be writing new songs all the time and stuff like that. I'll spent time with my band on tour!" I hated to be in our DVD rental store. It was a nice job, easy job, but it wasn't my cup of tea, as I can say. There have never been moments when I wanted be someone else. Probably hardest thing is in the end to find balance between your private life and band life, people can see that on stage also when they come to your concerts.
Larry: It's hard to go to the stage if your personal life is like going down. You just have to push yourself a little bit.
Jonne: We had this problem in our band, you know with our former guitar player. And now it's part of our history and we're looking forward and everything seems quite rightful, nice.

finnbands: You get caught by a hurricane, where should it take you?
Jonne: Hopefully to some warm, sunny place. With a nice beach and nice people.
Larry: Jamaica!
Jonne: Jamaica or Miami or LA, or just Las Palmas. At some tourist village.

finnbands: How do you feel when you see all the old stuff ?
Jonne: It feels weird every time. Every time I see some pictures from our past - actually it fells like that. Especially when you're giving that to your audience and it's for everybody. It's a part of being in a band that your heart is like open book, like Vince Neils sings, for the whole world to read. It's weird to see how long we've been around as a band. As we started I was around 14 or 15, when I see some pix from early days I'm like "fuck, I'm 25, but I feel like I've been around for 50 years!" There happened so many things during these last years. It's like winning in a lottery, in the end.
Larry: With the old stuff do you mean the old records at the DVD stuff?
finnbands: Yes.
Larry: It doesn't feel bad. It's like you can't forget your history, those were those times and I think that was a great time. As almost every time. There were these certain points where everything was going in the wrong direction it was like fighting all the time. But mostly positive things from the past.


finnbands: Which time would you like to repeat?
Jonne: Which time? Tonight we can repeat the great show yesterday! *smiles* We can even make it better. Probably sometimes I have seen a lot of dreams where I'm back in my childhood, at my grandma's place it seems like it's some kind of a safety fortress for me. Cos every time I'm happy and relieved, in good mood, I see dreams about I'm just a little boy or whatever. It might be about these days. But I'm still in a place of my childhood.

finnbands: What's your definition of love?
Larry: It's a basic element of life.
Jonne: It's the stream of life. I think it's ...we're all some lovers. This sounds like an old crappy hippie song. But I believe it's true ..
Larry: I'm a hippie forever.
Jonne: Die, Hippies, die. Like Cartman says, on South Park.
Actually we're old quite hippies. Except Slammer. He listens a lot of really aggressive music like Sklipnot. I can't get a clue of that.
But yeah, I think it's like in Shakespeare, many hundred years ago, As long as there's love, there's justice and peace.

finnbands: How would you describe yourself to a blind person?
Jonne: At the moment you don't miss anything, be happy that you're blind! Seriously it's positive!

finnbands: When is it time to quit?
Jonne: Quit? I think after this question!

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