BIOGRAPHY

Bad Monk's Hill is:

Kim - vocals
Jukka - guitars and backing vocals
Marko - bass guitar
Mikael - drums, electronic percussion, cymbals

The History before the days of BMH as I see it...

A few unsuccesful haircuts ago (Fall 2003) I found myself replying to an advertisement in Muusikoiden.net (a Finnish web forum for musicians) where this guy was seeking players to start a band with. From there I met up with a gentleman known as mr. Monto with whom I found a common ground in how a good rock band should sound like. Due to Monto's songwriting skills he naturally took the role of lead singer.

During those days I hadn't yet decided the string number of my instrument so while the songs progressed we were still looking for drummers/guitarists/bassplayers until a duo(guitarist/drummer) from peripheria of Finland came our way. And they both were real bad-ass-players. So from then on I picked up the bass (which was by no means a negative thing). During the next few months we sharpened our co-operation (musically) and created several hit songs. In the beginning of 2004 we had our first gig as Freenoize in band competition known as the Global Battle of Bands. This wasn't a particularly positive experience (the nature of band competitions) but it helped us to push forward.

The following summer and fall we spent recording and sharpening our songs while doing small number of gigs in Helsinki. At some point the name Freenoize was replaced with Sub Rosa.

During the summer of 2005 it was clear that the objectives and musical ambitions between Monto and the rest of the band were just too different. Also our timetables never met anymore. So it was time for us to move on and begin the quest for a new lead singer.

In the beginning of our search we made a common agreement that we would listen to a large number of singers before making our decision. BUT along came Kim and his version of Faith No More's legendary song Digging the Grave. And it blew our minds. Still does... allthough we should set his clock ½ hour earlier so that he would show up in time for rehearsals just for once... Actually he came on time once but I guess he thought we were supposed to begin much earlier or something, heh...

Jukka, April 2007

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Countless headshaves ago (Fall 2005) I found myself in a situation where music seemed to have given me all it has to offer. And that wasn't enough. I was feeling that all the years I've sacrificed should somehow be compensated. I had lost the joy of making music and everything was just plain work. I was playing bass in couple of bands and singing in an "a cappella" group and I still do. I just can't express myself through them enough.

There were basically two reasons why I decided to reply to these guys who were searching for a new singer. Singing is in my opinion the greatest way to express ones feelings. There are the words, the melody, the rhythm, the sound, everything in it...I love yelling my lungs out! Few years ago I was the front man in couple of rock bands and since then I had been literally dreaming of doing it again some day. Maybe I wasn't ready back then, god would know if he existed... Secondly, the band itself seemed to be an interesting mixture of little bit everything. As it turned out already in the audition, the band was by no means ready (Sorry guys!), but there's something exciting about that too - it's possible to influence the direction where the band is heading.

From the very start I was able to change the old arrangements and so on. They were not stuck in some certain genre (whatever that even means), which seems so popular nowadays. People just grab sounds and clothes from the shelf and think that's it! Ok, no more preaching. As you probably know, BMH has only a single demo (All the way down, EP 2006) to show. The recording was quite an experience. The whole band had just changed its style into something heavier and more diverse form and suddenly we had to put all the new ideas and sounds on tape. The demo gave us many new friends, but after couple of month's we had reach a dead end - at least in the minds of some people. It has to be admitted that we were searching for something and the ideas never seemed to realize into complete songs.

Blessing in disguise. When Tomi left, Jukka took his duty and really came out of his shell. To my surprise he gave us many songs he had recorded by his own. Besides the vocal parts, he had played all the instruments. The songs are very smooth and melodic. The rest of us just add some spice there. That fellow is the new Lennon (just had to put his idol's name somewhere here, hah)! Couple of months ago I purchased a stand-alone multitrack recorder and been practising with it. There are dozens of songs just waiting to be freed from my mind. I need some more space in there or soon I can't hear my own thoughts anymore...

Kim, May 2007

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