YOUNG FINNISH TURKS
By Kelley Simms
Santa Cruz:: Johnny Parkkonen (white shirt)
F
innish metal newbies Santa Cruz
have been generating quite a bit of
attention lately. With a new, self-titled
sophomore release, a slot opening for
Amaranthe on their U.S. tour and a recent
broadcast deal with ESPN(!), the band is
exploding in all the right directions and
garnering well-deserved headlines - and
not just in their native Finland, but in North
America as well. The band's brand of
Americanized '80s rock and metal, done
with a fresh, modern edge pays homage to
seasoned groups such as Guns N' Roses,
Skid Row and Bon Jovi.
Santa Cruz guitarist and co-founder
Joonas "Johnny" Parkkonen filled IE in on
the recent buzz surrounding the band.
IE: I hear that the band has inked a deal
with ESPN allowing your music to be featured during some major sporting events.
Johnny: We met this guy Ray at the New
York show when we played there last
December. He happened to work at ESPN
and asked if we needed help getting our
band out there. So he arranged the whole
thing, and it was so huge. [They're] going to
be [using] our songs on drag racing and XGames, hopefully. It's going to be awesome.
We have four songs that will be played
34 illinoisentertainer.com march 2015
before commercial breaks and you can see
some of the clips on our Facebook page.
IE: You'll also be returning to North
America to support Amaranthe in May.
How do you like touring the U.S.?
Johnny: The first show in New York was
insane! We've never played in the States
before and there were like 400 people
screaming, singing all the lyrics and creating mosh pits. And we were thinking,
"What the fuck is going on? Why haven't
we been here before?" (Laughs). So, now
we're coming back for three weeks, which
will be fun because Amaranthe is also getting bigger in the States and [we'll] be playing theaters for 2,000 people. So it's going to
be fun.
IE: The band has been labeled as a newschool '80s hair metal band. What was it
about this time period, its music and its
vibe that attracted you to this style of
metal?
Johnny: I don't consider us as a new-school
hair metal band. We just want to respect
our roots, but still bring something modern
and fresh. As you can hear from the new
album compared to our first one, it's more
metal, I think, and the lyrics are pretty deep
and dark, also. Not so much like ‘let's drink
Jack and go to the bar,' though the album
should bring that feeling to you when you
listen to it.
IE: You have a very Americanized sound
with obvious similarities to Guns N' Roses
and Skid Row. Did you grow up listening
to this type of music?
Johnny: When we were young and started
the band, we of course listened to a lot of
metal like Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi and Skid
Row. We actually toured last summer with
Skid Row in Germany, which was pretty
cool and we played "Youth Gone Wild" on
stage two times with those guys. Of course
we love music from that era, but we also listen to a lot of older stuff like Led Zeppelin
and Deep Purple, and then much more
newer stuff like Bring Me the Horizon and
Avenged Sevenfold; also [music] from the
grunge era [such as] Alice in Chains. I think
all of those bands' influences are combined
[on] the new album when you listen to it.
IE: How would you compare your debut
album, Screaming For Adrenaline, to the
new album?
Johnny: With the firs ۙK \