{"id":14462,"date":"2015-03-16T01:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T05:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14462"},"modified":"2015-03-09T15:44:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T19:44:43","slug":"content-needed-blowin-wind-with-santa-cruzs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14462","title":{"rendered":"Blowin\u2019 Wind with Santa Cruz\u2019s Joonas \u201cJohnny\u201d Parkkonen : \u201cSo many modern metal bands have so many angry songs. Young people like those angry songs because they feel the same way but you can turn it around and have some fun if you want.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Santa Cruz is a band that is making a lot of waves in the hard rock\/metal world right now and rightfully so. With their catchy, melodic, and downright infectious songs, Santa Cruz is this generations answer glam metal and they do it right. While wearing their influences such as Hanoi Rocks, Guns N\u2019 Roses, and Skid Row on their sleeves, Santa Cruz still manages to infuse a modern sound to keep it all from sounding dated or sounding like a throwback band.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I recently had the chance to talk with lead guitarist Joonas \u201cJohnny\u201d Parkkonen from his home in Finland. We spoke about the origins of Santa Cruz, what it was like playing the US for the first time, just why he loves Deep Purple so fucking much. Johnny was an absolute blast to talk to and I really enjoyed getting to know him and more about his awesome band, Santa Cruz. I hope you\u2019ll enjoy it as much as I did!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Thanks for taking the time out to talk today, Johnny. How are ya today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hey, man. No problem. I\u2019m good. I\u2019ve been very busy!<\/p>\n

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So where are you at as we speak?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019m at my home in Finland. I just got back from the studio where I did some demos with another band mixing their demos.<\/p>\n

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Oh, that\u2019s cool. I thought for some reason you were in the States and was like, \u201cWhy the fuck is this guy doing interviews at 9am?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] It\u2019s like 4:30 in the afternoon here [laughs].<\/p>\n

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Santa Cruz isn\u2019t really that new of a band but you guys are a new band for me and maybe a lot of my readers. How would you describe Santa Cruz to someone who hasn\u2019t heard you before?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many words can I use? [laughs] I\u2019d say it\u2019s just pure fucking adrenaline hard rock with catchy songs and a great live show. We give 110% always when we play live so you should totally come and see us when we\u2019re in the US in May.<\/p>\n

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The thing about Santa Cruz that really appealed to me was that you guys really channeled that kind of classic, heavier glam yet you managed to put a modern twist on it. What would you say are some of the influences behind the Santa Cruz sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s really just a combination of what we\u2019ve been listening to. When we started the band, we listened to a lot of Guns N\u2019 Roses, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi; those kind of bands and we tried to be those guys. As we\u2019ve grown, we listened to much more music and more genres of music. From there, the sound became what it is now. It\u2019s a combination of those. Everybody in our band listens to different kinds of music. Our bassist listens to a lot of punk and we all listen to everything from classical to jazz to as metal as you can be [laughs]. We get our ideas and influences from everywhere. We wanted to try something new with the 2nd<\/sup> album because we don\u2019t want to be a throwback band. We want to be something modern and something fresh but still kicking ass and not being pop.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s really best to not pigeon hole yourself and emulate one band when you can pull from so many different influences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. I think there are so many bands out there that try to be like Motley Crue or Guns N\u2019 Roses but we wanted to do something totally different and go somewhere else with it.<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s the story behind the 4 symbols on the album cover?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was actually Archie\u2019s (Arttu Kuosmanen; guitar\/vocals) idea to have those symbols. I drew a couple of them myself and the other two were already symbols. The first one is a hexagram, the second is the chaos symbol, the third one is one I drew to make it to say \u201cSanta Cruz\u201d, and the fourth one is the reverse all seeing eye. Really, there is no story behind them. We just thought they looked cool [laughs].<\/p>\n

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I figured there was some dark mystical thing behind the symbols or something.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Actually, this one girl at one of our shows came to us saying, \u201cYou cannot put those symbols on your CD. It\u2019s devil! Don\u2019t do that.\u201d It was like she studied magic at Hogwarts or something [laughs].<\/p>\n

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Ok, I haven\u2019t heard the story so I have to ask about the name. Why did a bunch of Finnish dudes call themselves Santa Cruz?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] When we met with Archie in 2007 and formed a band, he was like, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we call the band Santa Cruz?\u201d and we were like, \u201cOk.\u201d [laughs] He actually found the name on the globe. He just put his finger on the globe somewhere and it landed on Santa Cruz. It sounded cool and sounded like a band name a crowd could chant. It\u2019s a pretty good band name I think. We read that there are 36 cities all over the world named Santa Cruz. We would love to make a tour where we played all 36 Santa Cruzes. That tour shirt would look awesome [laughs].<\/p>\n