GOTHIKA didn’t have much time for any spur of the moment activities as they were visiting Helsinki’s centrum only for a short while, yet regardless of the hectic atmosphere we managed to sit down with Yoshiki, andro and the new support member DeeLee at the same dining table. The authenticity of the Finnish restaurant Zetor impressed the Japanese artists right away, who expressed their delightedness with plenty of “oohs” and “ahhs.” The place seemed to make them forget their nervousness at the upcoming gig at least for a while - which was not a surprise considering the restaurant’s comforting furniture and tenderly dim lighting would impress even the regular Finns.

After ordering, the guys rather cheerfully - though tired from the flight - pondered in Japanese about their favorite subject recently: the band’s first full length album.

“Of course I’ve worked at studios before, yet I really wouldn’t have guessed album recordings were that rough,” GOTHIKA’s leader and keyboardist Yoshiki started, referring to both his general exhaustion and the fresh album.

“Nevertheless we’re very proud of what we managed to come up with. The recording of 10 songs in itself was already such a huge process that I might not do it again, at least for a while,” he said thoughtfully, but continued with a light laugh, “like I could keep my promise anyway. I love making music.”

GOTHIKA’s album, 120 Days of Sodom, came out September 9th, 2007 and was also for sale at the Finnish concert venue Gloria for the price of fifteen Euros.

The group had gone through a lot of trouble in order to get to the point where they were now. This included some regrettable backlashes, but even the departure of ex-guitarist n@o didn’t manage to discourage Yoshiki and andro.

“Naturally we weren’t prepared for losing our guitarist, so of course it made the two of us reconsider GOTHIKA’s possible future,” Yoshiki recollected.

“Certainly I was saddened about it, but life has the tendency to go on, in setbacks and worse setbacks,” the vocalist andro mentioned in a relaxed way. “Now we have got our support member DeeLee, and he has given us a whole new kind of a strength that I might not have believed we could even have,” the man continues.

What about DeeLee joining the band as an official member? GOTHIKA thought about the question for a while before answering.

“Nothing is impossible, but right now it doesn’t really seem like the most sensible option. We do always have plans,” Yoshiki said and nodded.

At first DeeLee seemed a little quiet, only smiling shyly while the two talked, but he decided to join the conversation when the subject turned to - what else - Finland.

“This is our second time in Finland. Last April we visited here in Helsinki and a small city…what was it called? Lahti? Right. I’m quite surprised how green and beautiful it is around here!” Yoshiki announced first, when we asked for some thoughts about Finland. He sounded very excited, even though Helsinki’s December landscape doesn’t immediately bring up those adjectives for us Finns.

“My own band has never even visited Europe, so I was very excited about coming here,” DeeLee slowly admitted as he tasted the food he ordered: roast reindeer with cranberries.

Also, andro had a comment about Finland: “Finland is an exotic place and I really enjoy being here. I’d just like us to have more free time, so that we could get to know better what it has to give. European’s everyday life has got something so different compared to the Japanese, and I’d like to experience it better.”

First, the black haired vocalist seemed a little suspicious towards his serving of salmon, but soon the fish disappeared from the plate, with the skin and all. “My favorite part of a fish,” andro smirked and took a sip of his sahti beer (one kind of traditional beer).

Yoshiki, on the other hand, ate the traditional side pork sauce with intense concentration, and ended up finishing his plate just like andro. Only the beetroots caused the Japanese group to be a little puzzled.

“Is this carrot?” the keyboardist asked with interest, but didn’t seem to be much in love with the vegetable.

GOTHIKA believes things will go forward on their own, but naturally they also have plans for the next few months, when they get back to work in Japan.

“We’re going to be filming our first real music video,” they revealed, and were visibly proud of what they will do - the Finns can do nothing but wait for the upcoming works with curiosity and excitement.

The band members, who arrived hungry, now say they’re becoming filled with food - yet andro would like a sophisticated raspberry sorbet for dessert. While waiting for it to arrive, the vocalist and the support member disappeared for a cigarette, leaving Yoshiki to explore the menu, which has creatively been made to look like an old-fashioned newspaper. He spotted the word for “huge oil companies” (öljyjättejä) and began to ask about its pronunciation, which caused some general amusement at our table, and the topic of discussion moved from GOTHIKA to analyzing and comparing the similarities of Japanese and Finnish.

“You’ve got some strange letters”, Yoshiki laughed, but admitted that Japanese can also give a headache, even to the ones who speak it natively. “Kanji is very difficult. That’s why I’m always amazed when bumping into foreigners who can read Japanese. Unbelievable!” he added.

The keyboardist was convinced of the Finnish language’s beauty and our talk shifted to the sentence voted to be one of the most beautiful ones in the world, “Aja hiljaa sillalla” (Drive quietly on the bridge), and how well it could be sung. We made a note of how the language is also filled with ugly words such as “perheterapia” (family therapy) and the way we end “r” sounds, so that Yoshiki once again burst into loud laughter. Once DeeLee and andro came back, he asked us to repeat some of the words we mentioned.

andro began to inquire about Finnish sayings that he could use on the gig, and so we continued our guidance to the complicated secrets of the language. The pronunciation was carefully spelled out in hiragana.

–

The time flew by, and soon we had to rush back to Gloria. The day had begun to cool as night approached, and the city lights were lit. The humorous GOTHIKA came up with delightful comments during the short walk, and everyone laughed when andro noticed the three smiths statue in front of the Stockmann department store.

“Why are they naked?” Yoshiki giggled, leaving everyone amused and lighthearted as we separated.

©Photos by Heikki Mitikka.

• JaME Artist File