The Early Days
It all started back in 1997 when drummer Jarno and bassist / vocalist Atte tried to find band mates for their CMX stylish rock band. This couple tried to play black/death metal for couple of years with three other guys but it didn’t work out. One of the reasons was that their former singer started to hangout with the local white power black metal -scene and one day he became a bonehead. After that Atte and Jarno formed a band that lasted a short time. The idea was to play, as a trio, Ved Buens Ende and Ulver -stylish black metal with Finnish lyrics from Kalevala and old Finnish myths. The idea was good but somehow everything fell apart again.
One day Jarno told Atte about two skateboarder dudes who were in the same music course as him. Jarno told that the guys digged CMX which was one of Atte’s and Jarno’s favourites back then. The two guys were Juho and Ville. At first Atte disliked the idea of having two skateboarders in the band because skateboarders usually were those guys who shouted insults when Atte and Jarno walked down the streets of Kotka wearing long black leather jackets. However Atte and Jarno went to a local band school to pick up Juho and Ville. Juho and Ville had played together for a couple of years and back then they listened mainly alternative bands like Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and Rage Against The Machine. The first rehearsal turned out to be a success. The chemistry worked out and the band started to practice every week. Their style was something that Maj Karma plays nowadays even though the influences came from CMX and Absoluuttinen Nollapiste. Lyrics were written in Finnish and they were mainly poetical nonsense in the spirit of early Absoluuttinen Nollapiste. Band took Joonas to play bass and Atte started his career as a rock’n’roll singer.
The band was called Suljettu Progressiivi (we still don’t have a slightest idea what the hell it means). Suljettu Progressiivi never released any demos or such. The only thing that they came up with, were numbers of rehearsal tapes and two live shows. Live shows that were kind of weird. First gig was at Kotka`s nuokkari. All of the bandmembers wore black suits except Atte who for some reason or another wore his mothe`rs old hippy dress form the seventies. He must have been an eyesore when there was no underwear under that dress. His lips and hair was painted blue. Atte was not a very good singer eventhough he sang the vocals in rehearsals and shouted them live. Other gig took place at Atomi rock band contest in Hamina. Suljettu Progressiivi did not win but a picture from the band´s gig reached the local newspaper Kymen Sanomat. The funny thing about Suljettu Progressiivi was that when there was a pause in the rehearsal the band played short hardcore songs. It was weird to notice that hardcore songs were actually more enjoyable to play than Suljettu Progressiivi songs. Suljettu Progressiivi disbanded when drummer Jarno decided to stop playing drums and to focuse on poetry.
When Jarno left the band in 1998, Atte, Juho and Ville started to play as a trio. Ville took the drummer´s seat because he was the only one who could handle some kind of beats. Juho played guitar and Atte played bass. The band had no name and actually it wasn’t a band at all. The trio just mainly improvised for fun. Back then the Finnish underground music was the biggest thing. Juho found the Mutiny! magazine and with it a new world of music was found. Juho started to order records from P. Tuotanto and Bad Vugum. Also Atte freaked out in bands like Terveet Kädet and Radiopuhelimet. Juho and Ville together with a friend called Erno decided to put together a punk band. The punk band started rehearsals and one day Juho asked if Atte wanted to join the band as a guitar player. Atte tried to play guitar in rehearsals but he was such a lousy guitarist that it didn’t work out. Juho and Atte decided to change places. Atte took the microphone and Juho took the guitar. Rainhold was found.
Rainhold
Things happened extremely fast with Rainhold. After a few self-organized live shows the band decided to do a demo. Unfortunately sound of the bass drum was somehow lost during the demo session and the band decided to make a new trip to the studio. This time the plan was to release a 7”. The 21st Century Fight songs 7” was released in 2001. The music of Rainhold was simple hardcore punk sounding a bit like the early US hardcore. Lyrics were written in English and they were just simple statements dealing with war, racism and other things important for teenage punks. Most of Rainhold’s gigs were organized by the band itself. Erno was the main organizer but also the rest of the band did their thing. Back then lots of hardcore bands visited in Kotka in shows organized by Rainhold. In 2001 Rainhold did also a split 7” with Threshold. The record is actually pretty lousy but somehow the feedback was mainly good. Rainhold got a few gigs to Helsinki and Turku and the main thing was to get to play to Puntala festival. In 2002 Rainhold recorded a split-cd with a Polish band called Nonsense. Unfortunately the record came out over a year after the studio session and most of the copies were left unsold. Rainhold disbanded in 2004. The flame just wasn’t there any more. Atte and Juho moved to Tampere and Ville and Erno were living in Kotka so the band could rehearsal only seldom. Some songs that were written at that time later found their way out to Derrida’s repertory.
Rainhold discography can be downloaded here ->
http://www.mikseri.net/rainhold
Derrida
Just after Rainhold was disbanded Atte and Juho decided to form a new band. During the last moments of Rainhold the singing language was changed from english to finnish. The lyrics became more personal and better because things were easier to express in mother language. Atte took the main responsibility of the songs. Songs of Rainhold were mainly done by Juho. Atte dialled to Ville and Ville joined the band. Tatu from Kotka´s ska band Goon just moved to Tampere and after Atte called him he also joined to the band. The first line-up was ready. Band with no name back then rehearsed and made new songs. Couple of songs like Kasvu, Pieni Ihmissuhdelaulu and Valon Ristiriita were actually old songs of Rainhold. Even in the times when Rainhold was alive and doing well the band thought that a second guitarist would be a nice idea. Juho and Atte tried to think who would be a suitable person to play guitar. Finally things fit perfectly to the places when Petri moved after his girlfriend from Kotka to Tampere. Petri was the guy who played a main role in theatre version of Kafka’s novel The Trial directed by Atte and rewritten by Tuukka (Kevyt Nostalgia records nowadays). Petri also played guitar in various metal projects in Kotka. Petri came to rehearsal and joined the band.
Band got their name Derrida after the philosopher and father of deconstruction theory Jacgues Derrida. After five Derrida´s songs were ready the band decided to make a demo cdr. The (d)emo session started in spring 2004 but after everything else except Tatu’s bass was recorded Tatu decided to leave the band. There were no hard feelings. By then we had managed to do one live show in Atte’s summer cottage where Tatu was not able to come. Tomi from Markku Lahtelan Sirkus was the session bassist. Juho played the bass to the demo and not Tatu because we had little time in the studio. We decided to leave Juho’s bass lines to the demo. Couple gigs were played with Tomi on bass. We lacked a full-time bassist and that was a problem because Tomi had to focus in his own musical projects. We started to search a bass player through the internet. Abduktio's singer Mikko told Touko (the singer/guitarist of Divisive) that Derrida needed a bass player. Right after that Touko sent email to Atte and told that he was just moving to Tampere and was interested in playing bass in Derrida. Atte got the message and called Touko to tell that the bassist´s place was his. Atte had seen Touko just one time in Puntala festival. With Touko the chemistry really worked. Derrida started to do more gigs and write more songs.
Right now we are heading to studio. We also made short trips to Baltia and Russia. More gigs and new songs are coming up.