Tomorrow night, Lordi hit London’s Islington Assembly Hall, bringing their elaborate monster costumes, theatrical stage shows, and a catchy blend of shock rock and melodic Metal in support of their excellent new album, Limited Deadition.
“It’s a typical audio album in a way,” Mr Lordi told MetaLTalk in this second part of an extensive interview. “We didn’t do any weird direction changes in the music or anything. We basically did a follow-up to the previous album, Screen Writers Guild, that we released two years ago.
“The new album is like a follow-up brother or sister album to that, because we enjoyed the style. The whole band was enjoying what we did there. We enjoyed the sound and we enjoyed playing those songs live. So we decided, what the heck? Let’s continue on this path.
“I think it’s a pretty standard Lordi album in a way. It’s very melodic, and it’s heavily ’80s oriented heavy rock or Heavy Metal. A lot of AOR vibes in it and a lot of ’80s vibes in it.”
Sticking with the ’80s, in his autobiography, Ronnie James Dio said that it had always been his ambition to play Madison Square Garden in New York, even though he could have played bigger venues at that time.
“Yeah, Madison Square Garden, same thing for me,” Mr Lordi says. “It has always been for me too. Twenty years ago, I could see it as a possibility. Nowadays? Well, anything is possible, but now, I’ve just turned fifty-one, and the band has been around for thirty years. I know that the chances are getting thinner for Lordi to play Madison Square Garden, but the possibility still exists.
“I mean, there are artists that actually become huge in their older days. But Madison Square Garden is something that I really wanted because that was probably the first venue that I knew by name because of Kiss. It was such a legendary iconic fucking thing. I’ve been there, watching Kiss. So, yeah, that place abso-fucking-lutely would be the king’s crown for me. But then again, I’m realistic, but I can still fantasize.”
Lordi have been around now for over thirty years. Does Mr Lordi feel like one of the elder statesmen of Heavy Metal?
“Do you think that I’m one of the fucking elders?”
You’re a man of experience, shall we say.Â
“Well, I feel like I just started,” Mr Lordi smiles. “I feel like I’m a green fucking youngster fucking spring chicken here. That’s how I feel. But then again, like I said, I just turned fifty-one a few weeks ago, but I still think that I’m fucking twenty-one, that’s the thing.
“If I look at my own idols, if I look at Alice, if I look at these guys, if I look at Twisted Sister, they are in their seventies. They’re pushing eighty. So yeah, time has flown. I’m not twenty-one anymore, but it feels weird to be the elder statesman.
“But for younger bands, nowadays, it seems to be so fucking difficult for the bands to get out. I’m not entirely sure if it is because I’m stuck in the goddamn ’80s or ’90s in a way. I hate the digitality, I hate the internet, I hate the whole fucking digitalization of the world, especially in the music and entertainment business. I fucking hate it.
“I would think that it’s harder now for bands to break through, but I would just say that the main thing is that once you get your own thing, just fucking stick to it. And don’t try to please anyone else. Always try to do your own thing, even though people will be telling you that, oh yeah, you’re just copying this or copying that.
“Because here’s the thing, pretty much ninety-nine per cent of artists on this planet, no matter what the genre, are the product of their own fucking influences and their own fucking idols. Nobody is really creating anything truly original anymore.
“What you’re doing as an artist, you are just like a blender of everything that you have consumed. You are a product of your own idols pretty much, and your own influences. But no matter what anyone tells you, you are still unique. You are still original when you put it out there.
“Whatever you heard from your favourite band or favourite artist, even if you’re doing something in the same vein, it’s your own interpretation of the thing. So I would say to any new artist, any new bands, just stick with what you like to do. Don’t try to please anyone else other than yourself.
“My motto has always been: ‘And the target audience for Lordi is one person, myself.’ I’m doing every single thing in Lordi artistically just to please myself. If I dig this, if I dig that, if I think that sounds cool, or that looks cool, or that is a cool fucking idea, I dig it. Then, if anybody else likes it, it’s just a plus thing.
“It’s a plus, but it’s not something that I need to have approval from Lordi fans. I don’t need their approval, but it is good to have their approval. When I’m creating something new, the person I need to please is myself.
“I need to get the approval from myself and not from anyone else. You need to be true to yourself. That’s what I would say.”
The elaborate monster costumes are on show again on this tour and this is something the band are very well known for. Mr Lordi has the final say in designing each band member’s outfit.
“I make the costumes,” he says. “I mean, I have some help, but mainly I would say ninety per cent of the costumes are made by me. There was a time when I made a hundred per cent of every costume. But nowadays, luckily, over the decades, some of the fans have grown up to be really good makeup artists and costume makers, and then they contact me.
“Over the years, you get to be friends, and then I invite them to the Lordi slave camp, as I call it. So, for example, this time around, I had some help from a guy called Kurt from Australia. We flew him over to Rovaniemi in Finland for a few weeks to help me out with the costumes because he had some expertise that I don’t have.
“It was awesome. So he created the Kone costume, the guitar player costume, kind of like Star Wars armour shit, and that was great because I couldn’t do that. I don’t have expertise in that precise field of doing a costume like armour like that.
“Over the years, there have been quite a few people who have gone from fandom to friends, and then they’re actually working for us. So I don’t have to do everything alone anymore, which is awesome. And those people that have been working for us on the costumes or makeup are people who, when they were kids, were inspired by Lordi, and that’s how they got into the whole makeup and costume making business in the first place, and it feels fucking good.
“It would be the same for me if Gene Simmons would have asked me to do a costume for him. Fuck, yeah, that would have been the ultimate fucking achievement for me as a Kiss fan. So I do realize the weight of the whole thing when a fanboy or a fangirl can get to do something for their idol. It’s awesome.
“But then again, they always say that you should never meet your idols, and I think that goes well with a lot of fans. That’s because the reality might be different. Pretty soon, it will become clear that I’m not a god, and I’m actually a human being. I’m not a monster, and I don’t eat babies for breakfast or drink blood of bats or anything like that.
“I’m a normal person. I take a shit like any other dude, I get cranky, and I go to sleep way too late, and I sleep in too late. I forget things, and I might be difficult. I might be nice. I also fart. So in that way, I might run into a disagreement with you. But even so, I’ve still had lifelong friends from the fans.”
Are the costumes in any way a reflection of the band member’s personality?
“Yes, absolutely they are,” Mr Lodi says. “There was a time in the beginning of the band when I was dictating everything because I had the characters in mind. I just decided that, OK, you’re going to look like this. I’m going to make you a costume, then you’re going to look like that. And there were a few occasions where the person inside the costume did not match the fucking character he or she was portraying, and that became a problem.
“There’s Kita, our first drummer, who I wanted to act a certain way with his character, but he didn’t because he wasn’t like that. The other one was our first keyboard player, who thought that her costume was too sexy, and she wanted to be more like a tough and big warrior, whereas I just wanted to underline more of the sexiness and femininity of her character.
“It didn’t work, because if you try to push somebody into a box that they are not comfortable in, it’s not going to work. Either I’m going to be disappointed because the person is not acting the character in the way I would want them to act, or it’s the other way around, and they get miserable because they are forced or something.
“I think our current drummer, Mana, said it the best. When we were creating his character and his costume, he said please don’t make me a raging werewolf because that’s not how I am. And that was cool. That’s why Mana is called the pale pastor, minister of sinister.
“He’s a quiet person. He keeps it to himself. He thinks before he talks. He’s a very thoughtful person and he doesn’t want to make a big number out of himself. He’s much more of a thinker than a talker. So the character we created is like an expression of his own personality, and after that, pretty much every single member/character in Lordi has been like that.
“So, when there were new people joining the band, I would say to them, OK, when it comes to the whole gory character thing, what is your favourite monster? What kind of a monster would you like to be? What kind of a character would you like to be? By that time you know what kind of a person they are, physically as well as how he or she moves on stage or while playing an instrument.
“It needs to reflect your personality a lot; otherwise, it doesn’t work. Nowadays, for example, we have Hiisi on the bass, and his character came out of his love for South American folklore. When he was at the first rehearsals, the way he plays the bass when he really gets into the music, he squirms like a goddamn snake or a lizard. It’s really like he’s squirming, you know, so he looks like a fucking snake or a lizard and that’s where it can go.”
Lordi always seemed to have a female keyboard player. Was that always the plan?Â
“That’s exactly how it is,” Mr Lordi says. “It started because I met Enary, the first keyboard player, and I just wanted her to join the band. That’s how it started. From then on, I thought it was pretty cool to have a female in the band. It looks cool, and it was good chemistry to have one girl in the band, so it’s not just a bunch of guys scratching their balls and, you know, jerking off.
“It kind of keeps things civilized in a way. But then later on, of course, I found out that a female in a band can also create clashes. I know that it’s not easy being a woman in a band, but then again, nowadays, like with Hella, she’s one of the guys.
“But, that said, every single keyboard player or female member in the band has always been one of the guys, and that’s how we treat them, and that’s how they want to be treated because we really don’t take any princesses. That’s not going to work. You don’t get to be a princess in a rock band, that’s for sure.
“But, originally, it started as a coincidence because she happened to be a woman when I asked her to join the band, and afterwards, it was selfish from the image point of view. I thought it was cool to have a female in the band. That being said, on this next tour, and also on some of the previous tours, we have had a substitute for Hella, who is a guy, the character Nalle, and there is a guy substituting for Hella every once in a while.
“It’s also going to happen on this tour because Hella has some other contractual things that she needs to do while we are on tour. So yeah, there is a substitute for Hella, and he’s a guy.”
Limited Deadition was released on 21 March 2025 via RPM. For more details, visit lordi.rpm.link/limiteddeaditionPR.
