Interview with MERCURY CIRCLE

«Lady Gaga and Madonna could be our backup singers»

Superband Mercury Circle from the musicians Swallow the Sun, Children of Bodom, TO/DIE/FOR will definitely please all fans of atmospheric "dark" music with their new album "Killing Moons". The project was put together in 2018 by the keyboard backing vocalist of the already legendary Swallow the Sun, Jaani Peuhu. Like true Finns - Mercury Circle is simultaneously melodic, sad, a bit of a kick and seasoned with old-school.
To make the interview more immersive it's important to note that the band represented by vocalist Jaani, drummer Jaski, guitarist Jussi and bassist Ande talked to me sitting on the lakeside, on the veranda of the sauna.

In order to make you dive deeper into the atmosphere of the interview let me say that the interview was happening while Mercury Circle members Jaani, Jaska, Jussi and Ande were chilling near sauna on the bank of a lake.

Hello, guys! Before we start I'd like to make a stetement - it`s officially the most Finnish interview that I've ever taken!

*Everyone laughs and shrugs shoulders*

OK, first of all wanna ask - how are you doing? How`s the mood? Health?

Ande: We`re fine, we`ve just finished rehearsing for our first big show, dedicated to the release of our debut album. Everyone`s healthy and feels good, everything is good, actually.

Tell me, how does it feel to be a complete newbie as a band, while being very famous and experienced musicians separately?

Jaska: Maybe, the main thing and the best thing about it is that we know how to play instruments and to perform. Also, we have a lot of useful connections with interesting people. As long as each of us knows what to do, all organizational moments work perfect. So it`s amazing that we are not a new band of teenagers who are completely lost and do not know what to do in the industry and how a band must function. So, to sum up - it`s cool to already be famous when you start a new band.

How did you, guys, start to play together? What`s the story behind Mercury Circle?

Ande: Question for Jaani, obviously.
Jaani: OK, I'll tell you! I didn`t plan to start a band, to be honest. But once I wrote music I couldn`t use under the name of any of my projects, it just didn`t suit anywhere. And that`s where I started thinking whith whom I'd like to work. So here are these people *points on the rest of the band* That`s when I wrote them, sent them demos, and they liked them. And I am sooo happy about that, as long as they are so amazing and talented people, everyone except Jussi *everyone laughs* Ok, I'm joking, he`s the only one who knows how to play, while we screw things up all the time! But I hope it`s okay, as long as these are our first rehearsals. In general - yeah, I'm the luckiest dude to work with these guys, it`s the major term - to feel comfortable with your bandmades, `cause we will be touring a lot and spend a lot of time in the bus. We can be ourselves, can fool around as if we are 15 year olds. In the industry it is also a normal thing to party a lot and we here all about work, first and foremost.

Finland is known for a huge amount of mindblowingly incredible rock and metal bands. I bet it`s a huge challenge for a new band, even a band that consists of such a mature musicians - to stand out of all that huge variety of awesome finnish bands?

Jaani: Jussi, you haven`t said a word yet! Answer this one!

Jussi: Is it difficult to stand out...Sure, it is! But, just like Jaska said, we are the band of well-known people in the music industry.

Jaani: And people, who write awesome songs!

Jussi: Exactly! All in all, we are not starting from scratch, we collaborate with professionals, we do very original music. Not pure metal, not pure rock, something in the middle, with addition of other influences. We truly have our own unique sound

Jaani: I'm a little annoyed by the term "superband", if there`s nothing behind it. I prefer to always start with the music, it must be original. We really worked pretty hard on creating our own unique, recognizable, sound. And that`s how, actually, all Finnish big band works, you know - recognizable sound, style, some personal thing.

Let`s speak more about inspirations and influences! Can you name major bands, which influenced Mercury Circle? For me, as a listener, the first band that comes to my mind is Depeche Mode in their "Songs of Faith and Devotion" period - the gloomiest, but so beautiful.

Jaani: Exactly! This album is very important, at least for me. Also, first two albums of The Gathering, they also have this beautiful gloomy atmosphere...Such bands as The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, New Order, Type O Negative, old Paradise Lost... Honorable mentioning:  IAMX and Nine Inch Nails. Something like that.

So, you have Mercury in the band`s title, Moons in the album`s title. Are you, guys, more into astronomy or astrology?

Jaska: I am ery much into NASA projects. Universe itself is super-interesting, I've been curious about it since my childhood. I got this interest from my father, I remember us talking a lot about stars and planets, about the first man in Space, about landing on the Moon, and I'm still very much into it!

Jaani: And I'm much more into astrology, esotherics and spiritualism. We have a perfect balance in the band, you see - Jaska is more about science, and I'm more about all that magical stuff.

Do you feel Retrograde Mercury?

Jaani: Oh, yes, it annoys as fuck, these periods are extremely exhausting to experience, to be honest.

Let`s now talk about your stage image - is it something thought through in advance or is it just you being you?

Ande: I think, it`s in between. We like being ourselves, but, in the meantime, we like to think through how we will look on stage, and also we come up with some visual ideas for our shows.

Tell about your videos! Having watched all of them I came to the conclusion that there might likely be some common idea in them, that unifies tem in one story. Is it so?

Jaska: I think, you`re about the helmet. Helmet is our symbol. In the first video it`s a little boy, who launches a rocket to space - he puts helmet on, and with the help of this helmet he travels to another reality, somewhere where he really wants to be, such, you know, world of dreams.

Jaani: This helmet symbolizes how we, actually, see our music. When you listen to our music - you can run away from your every day troubles, as if you can just fly away from this planet and find yourself in a place where it`s comfortable and safe. So if you are bullied or just hardly survive daily routine, our music is something that helps to cope with it, taking you to a place that feels best for you.

Jaska: So yeah, helmet is that leitmotif that will come through all our work!

Jaani: We hope that everyone who will come to our shows will wear such helmets. Otherwise they will not be allowed to attend the show.

*everyone laughs*

So, I guess, it would be cool, if helmet was a part of your merch, haven`t you ever thought about it?

Jaani: We thought, yeah, about this and some other ideas, a bit crazy, but whatever. We`re not going to reveal anything, you'll know everything in the right moment.

What`s the most unusual thing that inspired you to write a song?

Jaani: A lot of all that spiritual stuff, you know. It`s something I deal with every day, but it`s usually mixed with some daily activities stories. So our music and my lyrics in particular exist in two dimentions - in real and spiritual world. Funny thing is that, as a writer, I experience life differently: when something horrible happens in my life I usually go like "FUCK YES!" and run to the studio, having a burst of inspiration. When everything goes right there`s usually nothing to write about. But even in this case I'm lucky to know lots of people, who`s life is fucked up on a regular basis, so I can get inspired by their lives too.

By the way, coming back to the topic of spiritualism and mystical experiences- many things that I describe in my songs are very personal, and I won`t be surprised if these lyrics are understod only by those who share the same spiritual mindset.

So, as long as your motto is "it's awesome if something bad happens", the pandemic times might be extremely inspiring for you. It`s as bad as it can be now, you now...

Jaani: Haven`t written a single word about pandemic and coronavirus. Principally. I didn`t want to make myself or anyone else look like a victim in this situation. It`s just something that`s totally out of our control. Therefore, I tried to take the best out of the situation, focus on the positive and enjoy life somehow. I played football, hockey, did things for which I, normally, wouldn`t have time, relaxed...you know, looking back, I see I had a time of my life!

So if I started to write songs about covid, I would have to go deep into the dark and sad side of this theme, which means I would allow it all to come into my life, you know. While for Mercury Circle this pandemic and absence of touring situation became a true blessing, `cause we could dedicate all our free time to creating of our debut album

Is there a song on the album which you can call the central, major one?

Jussi: It`s hard to tell...

Ande: I`d name the first, opening song, which is even called "Gates WIde Open". It gives quite vivid idea of what to expect from the album in general.

Jussi: Speaking about "opening" songs I'd name "You Open Up The Earth", as long as there you can also feel the vibe of the album, it`s heavily concentrated there. So, having listened to both these songs you can get the idea both of the album and of what Mercury Circle, actually, is.

Jaani: There are some classic gothic-rock songs as well, like "Black Mirrors" and "Seven Archangels", for example. They differ a bit from others in vibe and in tempo. So, I guess, mentioning them would be right too.

The atmosphere of the album is extremely gloomy. How did you come to the dark side? Aren`t you afraid that your music will be too gloomy for the masses?

Jaani: We don`t listen to lots of happy music ourselves, you know. So it would be strange for us to suddenly start writing happy songs. Also, as you remember, I make my negative emotions into songs, so this album is like my trash-pit.

*everyone laughs*

Jaani:...so I could run around happily and be quite jolly and positive the rest of the time. 

Jaska: I think that after hearing our songs live people will start having emotions, dive into the atmosphere and forget about everything. Therefore I don`t see any reasons why our music can`t be music for the big masses.

Jaani: Yes, there songs on the album that would sound great on the stadiums! By the way, I am very happy that you`ve said that, `cause I was scared that album was too happy and positive.

Your music balances within several genres. Is there any chance that someday one genre will prevail?

Jaani: On our next album everything will be different, we will have absolutely different approach. We are already writing songs for the new album and we surely don`t want it to be another "Killing Moons". Some songs will be much heavier - and this will surely be something no one ever heared from us - while something can be, on contrary, a bit more poppy than people would expect from us. You`ll see!

With whom would you like to collab in future?

Jaani: Bjork! My major choice!

Jaska: Lady Gaga!

Jaani: Oh, yeah! Lady Gaga and Madonna can be on our back-vocals! Who else...Robert Smith! That would be incredible!

Jaska: Also on back vocals!

That`s when the chair under Jussi suddenly breaks, so he falls down. Thus the interview is interrupted by common laughter and shaming Jussi in finnish language.

Jaani: Unbelievable, this guy broke my chair! Whatever, anyway, Trent Reznor would be great too, Trent if you are reading this - call me! Tori Amos, Ande loves her so much, but keeps silent for some reason. All in all, it would be cool to collab with some awesome musicians, working in different genres. By the way, it would be unbelievably awesome to collab with Yana from Russian band Theodor Bastard! Do you know them?

Sure! And I totally approve your choice!

Jaani: My favorite band from Russia!

What would be your message to your fans in Russia?

Jasks: Don`t forget to wear the helmet!

Ande: Buy our album, it`s incredible!

Jaani: Love each other! And love yourselves, it`s important!

Jaska: Make Russia Great Again!

Jaani: We hope we will be able to perform in your amazing country as soon as possible!

Jussi: I like Saint-Petersburg so much!

Julia Suloinen