MOUTHY ISSUE TWO
May 2003
KALIBAN Toni Kettunen
interview by Ian C Stewart

Who does what in the band?
At the moment we are going through some line up changes but the core trio that has not changed since the beginning is: Toni Kettunen (guitars, compositions, lyrics), Henri Peltola (vocals, guitars, compositions, lyrics), Mertsi Helppi (drums)

Where and when did the band form?
The three of us were school mates as teenagers. We were all very much into making brutal noises in our schools music class, so that´s how it all got started in 1994.

Where did the band's name come from?
We came up with the name “Caliban” with the basic “finger and a dictionary” method. That name was originally from Shakespeare´s play called “the Tempest” where Caliban was this really twisted and a bit cannibalistic character. We thought the name was perfect because we were all big fans of Cannibal Corpse at the time. Later on we had to change the firs letter to K because we found out that there already was a few bands called Caliban.

Are you active in your local music scene?
Not really at the moment. We had a gigantic amount of problems with the release of our debut. It took us four years and it´s a really boring and depressive story so I´m not going to explain it all here now. Anyway, because of that, we haven´t made any gigs for years. But now we are getting warm again and hungry for live performances!

How do your songs come to be?
Well, it´s really different every time, but usually me or Henri combine the songs from the best riffs we´ve come up with. After that the songs may stay like that, or may change very much when we play them together as a band. Usually the lyrics are made afterwards but there are exceptions to the rule, of course.

Who are your influences?
It´s really hard to say because we all have very different music tastes. I don´t think there is any band that we´ve listened to and thought, that this is the kind of music that we want to play. Of course everything that you like to listen has an effect on the music that you make, at least subconsciously. So, if I have to name some of our favourite metal bands, they could be for example: Iron Maiden, In Flames, Slayer, Sentenced and my all time favourite Gorgoroth.

What's the biggest show you've played so far?
We´ve mostly played in clubs and small festivals so far, so not very big shows yet.

Funny band story.
Well, once we had a show booked in Lithuania, during our minimal summer tour a long time ago, and as a young band we were pretty excited about it. When we got to the place, it was this huge opera house in the center of the city. We felt like big stars when we were setting up our gear on the massive stage before the show. When it was time to start playing, only about ten local guys showed up to check us out. Apparently the local flyer advertising hasn´t been so successful. It felt pretty strange playing in that enormous hall with only ten guys moshing and jumping in front of the stage (which was so high we almost couldn´t see them). But the gig was good and we had a great time playing there.

What's next for the band?
At the moment we´re trying to get a new record deal, because it didn´t work out with Mastervox Records, and making some new material for the second album.


www.lowfrequencyrecords.fi


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