Reckless Love are the leaders of the pack when it comes to the new breed of hair metal. The Finnish stars are returning to the UK to kick off a huge tour this week, but our Lisa caught up with frontman Olli Herman and drummer Hessu Maxx back in the Summer at Sonisphere to get the lowdown on the band.
This is Lisa Fox for Rock Sins, and I am here with Reckless Love.
H: Hi, I’m Hessu from Reckless Love.
O: Hi, it is Ollie.
Hi guys, so how is it going?
H: It is going good, really good yeah.
When did you get here?
H: We’ve been touring. Yesterday morning and we had a show in Bristol, a warm-up show for today.
How did that go?
H: It was great. The place was completely packed, and we had a really good time on stage.
Are you looking forward to playing today?
O: Absolutely yeah.
Is it your first time at Sonisphere?
H: Yes.
So what can we expect from a Reckless Love show?
H: Well it is a short, festival set list. It only lasts for 30 minutes or so, so we are going to concentrate on the singles, stuff that everybody knows, and just go with the flow.
O: We are going to hit you with a shovel every time.
Is it going to be a little bit of sex, little bit of drugs and a little bit of Reckless Love?
H: Could be.
Your music is about rock and roll excess, is that true to your life?
H: Sex, drugs and rock n roll.
O: Drugs only when you are sick I guess.
H: It is such a cliché thing, and we just wanted to pick that line and turn it around a little bit. But if you think that it is every day sex, drugs and reckless love, well reckless love every day but probably not sex and drugs every day… having sex with yourself every day. Let’s be honest here, it is a lot of work being in a band so.
O: But someone has to do it.
H: Every now and then you might get into some sex, drugs and reckless love.
How seriously do you take yourselves?
O: Really seriously. We are really into ourselves.
H: We joke around and fool around quite a lot, but it doesn’t make the music a joke. We incorporate jokes into our music, but there is always the tone underneath. But then again, in life you have got to joke a little bit. It is a tough job to live your life.
But your music is really good, and for all that it is rock n roll, it appeals across a wide spectrum. You are like a guilty pleasure.
H: We are the guilty pleasure of rock n roll.
O: Or the chocolate bars – which one is the best, Mars?
You’re the Mars of rock n roll. I like that. How do you guys stay positive as a band?
H: Well you don’t. I mean every time you are on stage you are really positive, but after that it is completely negative stuff. We are really grumpy all the time.
Are you divas?
H: Honestly, that is just the way we are, it is just like why take life so seriously?
O: Every time something bad happens for the band, on the road it happens all the time. You are supposed to have a dressing room – oops it got cancelled, you don’t have a dressing room here, you have got just a ten minute changeover. And we start joking about it because there is no point getting depressed over it, so we just say what is the next thing? You guys aren’t allowed to wear any pants on stage either – oh that’s fine with us because our bums are pretty beautiful.
You guys obviously have quite an image. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
H: It takes me like one minute when I get out of bed. That’s it, I’m ready.
O: I would say three minutes.
H: I’d say ten minutes, so seven minutes longer than you.
O: We are quick.
That’s not what a girl wants to hear.
O: That’s the only thing that we are quick at.
H: The only thing that I added to this was make-up, and I look pretty much the same even without the make-up.
I bet you he doesn’t really. You take the make-up off and you are like steal panther and nobody knows who you are.
O: We don’t have wigs.
Let me check *pulls his hair* yeah it is not a wig. It is definitely not a wig.
H: I wake up with this and it takes me ten minutes to get my make-up on. Usually in the mornings I do brush my teeth, so it takes me one minute longer, or two minutes because that is recommended. You have to do what the doctor ordered.
O: Usually when I am off duty, then we don’t use make-up all the time.
You always post about going to the sauna.
O: Yeah I do at least once a day.
You put it on Facebook all the time – off to the sauna.
O: Yeah I like it.
Tell me about your most recent album, Spirit?
H: We decided to do a classic rock album with an exclamation mark. Stick with rock, don’t fool around with pop influences. It is kind of like pop influenced anyway, so just stick with the classics and stay with the roots of the band. Dig into that.
O: I think it was really natural the first and second album. Spirit sort of combined everything. We were really happy about the third album.
What was the thinking behind the artwork for it? Its like Day of the Dead meets Neon.
H: Exactly. Because I wanted to incorporate the skull as a symbol to Reckless Love imagery. But then again a skull is much too dark and it doesn’t juts fit with our kind of band. Immediately I started thinking of how to make a skull happier. I thought maybe we should incorporate some colours and immediately I came up with this sugar skull idea. And the idea took off, and we started juggling with the idea, how about this and they said great. And how about adding this and this… and then we gave the idea to an artist who did the cover art for the album, and it ended up being crazy. Which is the way we like it.
So what are the plans for you guys for the rest of the year? Are you going to record again?
O: Yeah we are going to do some recordings. The guys are making songs, and we are all thinking about the fourth album already. We are also touring at the same time, so everything is happening all the time.
And are you going to be coming back to the UK?
H: Yes.
O: Later during the year.
Are you planning to do another residency? Because you did the residency at the Barfly in London….
H: Not this time around but maybe in the future. You never know.
O: We did Barfly, sort of like a tribute for the first venue we ever played in the UK.
H: And also for the whole scene, because back in the day that was pretty common. Our manager came up with the idea.
I’ve been asking everyone this; tell me what your biggest Rock Sin is?
O: Girls.
Well you’re pretty boys, so why not.
H: Yeah but that’s a big one. A lot of work.
You are so serious when you say it as well.
H: I’ve come to the conclusion lately that as a singer, for me it is alcohol because it is the worst for my voice, and then I just love it. I can’t quit drinking.
What do you drink?
H: I do Jack and Coke mostly, beer… but everything works that has alcohol in it.
Whisky is meant to be quite good for your voice so I’ve heard. I don’t know how true that is.
H: Urban legend.
O: Drinking and booze means partying and staying up all night…
H: When you lose your sleep it affects your voice. Then alcohol makes your body function in a way that you lose fluids from your body. When your throat dries up it is really bad for the voice. But when you are drunk you don’t notice that, and you keep screaming and shouting all the time, so you end up with a really worn out voice.
O: We are so loud even when we are sober. We are yelling all the time on the tour bus, we are laughing a lot, screaming, and doing funny voices and stuff like that. When we include alcohol it gets even worse.
Well you’re four young guys, why not.
H: We are not that young.
Young enough. So to close off the interview tell me what has been the best moment in Reckless Love’s time?
H: It is so hard to choose.
O: At the moment is always the best one.
H: Let’s go with that.
That’s a good answer, I like that.
H: Seize the moment, seize the day. That works.
Excellent, thank you very much indeed.
As mentioned at the start of this interview Reckless Love are returning to the UK this week for a tour kicking off on the 4th of December in Newcastle and playing seven shows across England, Scotland and Wales finishing up at The Garage in London. Full details of the tour dates follow below:
Reckless Love December 2014 UK Tour
4th – Newcastle – O2 Academy
5th – Glasgow – Cathouse
6th – Nottingham – Rock City
7th – Wolverhampton – Slade Rooms
9th – Manchester – Academy
10th – Cardiff – The Globe
11th – London – The Garage, Highbury & Islington
For ticket info please visit https://www.kililive.com/artists/reckless-love. Further updates from the Reckless Love camp will be brought to our readers here at Rock Sins when we have any.