Jaakko Metsapelto & Aarni Metsapelto

Block Buster

Block Buster are an up & coming 4-piece Rock Metal band from Finland. The band are under the umbrella of Frontiers Music Srl. The band are currently touring Finland after the release of the release of their debut album "Losing Gravity". The band are indeed busy at the moment however, in between their busy schedule, drummer Jaakko Metsapelto & his brother, singer Aarni Metsapelto have took some time out to be interviewed by Jojo "Rocket Queen" Hamilton.

By Jo M Dykes

• October 17, 2019

Block Buster's Jaakko Metsapelto: "Our style is a combination of many things. We grew up listening to 'classic' rock but also like many current artists from different genres

Hi and thank you for performing this interview for the readers of Metal Temple Magazine.

When you decided to create the band, how long did the auditions take before the band was formed?

Jaakko: Aarni and I formed the band when we were in junior high, aged 13-15. There weren't too many like-minded musicians in our school, or even in our home town. Our lead guitarist Elias was one of the very few, so we asked him to join right away and luckily things clicked with him immediately. We had a different bass player back then, who had been a friend of ours since we were little kids. So basically we didn't have to do any actual auditioning. We parted ways (in good terms) with our old bass player in 2013 and that's when Joonas came to the picture. We'd been friends with him for a long time as well and knew him as a musician so basically the deal was sealed before we even had played a single note together. Guess we have been lucky in that sense, since we haven't had any struggle with finding the right guys

I've read that you have been influenced by 70's and 80's rock, who inspired you musically when you wrote the album "Losing Gravity"?

Jaakko: That is correct. We grew up listening to all the classic rock bands from the 70's and 80's, 60's as well. The album itself is more diverse in terms of influences. There's AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and also slightly newer bands like Oasis, Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, who were definitely an influence. That said, we did not want to come off as a total throwback band, so especially with the vocals we wanted to sound like a 2019 band by taking influence from very modern pop music, for example.

Writing your first album must have been a whole new experience to you. How long did it take to write the material for "Losing Gravity"?

Jaakko: Even though the band has been existing for 10 years already, all the material on the album is relatively new, with all the songs having been written during 2017-2018, basically. At one point, around 2016-2017, we decided to clear the table from all our old material and start fresh, as opposed to having bits and pieces of music from various years.

Who is the main song writer for the band?

Aarni: We don't really have one, most of the time it's quite collaborative process. For example, one of the guys might have an idea for a riff or a chorus, of course sometimes there might be an actual demo, too. Then, every once in a while, all four of us go through all the material at our little studio that we have at our rehearsal space, and decide which ideas have the most potential. Eventually all the songs are finished with everyone participating.

Do you see yourselves as a band who will stick to a particular style or can we expect a variety of musical styles in future albums?

Jaakko: Probably there will always be a certain element, our signature "groove" or whatever, that will tie all the future albums together with the current one, but we don't want to write the same album over and over again. So yes, you can expect progress and variety, definitely."

This is just the beginning of your adventure, where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

Aarni: Recording an album at Josh Homme's studio in Joshua Tree

Jaakko: But seriously, in 5 years, we hope we have our 3rd album out, have done a couple of tours in Europe and at least one or two in the USA as well. Would be cool to be in a position where we could tour medium sized clubs abroad as headliners

After your tour of Finland, do you have any plans to expand the tour to Europe or the States?

Aarni: Absolutely! Europe will be first, and we hope to come to the States as well in the not-too-distant future. That's where the market is, no point in staying in Finland

What can we expect from Block Buster in the future?

Aarni: Aside from the obvious which is new music and touring, it would be cool to do some collaborating with different artists at some point, which is not very common in our genre, right now at least. And hopefully you'll see even more movie-influenced music videos from us in the future. The video for our song "Move" had a little bit of that, but in the future we really want to take things to the next level with our videos. Of course you'll need a budget first. Haha"

Do you have plans to create a band mascot like Iron Maiden's Eddie or the Korn doll?

Jaakko: Especially in the early days there was talk about creating a mascot for the band but right now that's not in our plans… But who knows!

Now that "Losing Gravity" is out there, how does it feel having released your debut album?

Jaakko: It feels very good. Since we have been together as a band for so long and people have been asking about the album so much over the years, we're glad that we are finally able to say that the album is actually out! No more "maybe next year"

Jaakko, Aarni, on behalf of Metal Temple Magazine I'd like to say thank you for your time and best of luck for the future.