By Finnish rockers Rebellix recently deployed a music video, “Serpent’s Kiss”, in tandem with an announcement of their forthcoming EP of the same name, to be released October 15th.
In an interview with Metal Solstice, lead singer and guitarist Samuel Honkavaara (you may recognize him from behind the famed Helsinki bar The Riff) eagerly detailed the creation of the video, featuring their latest single and a humorous, intentionally-cliché storyline.
Honkavaara also explained that the band is looking forward to hitting their stride with Inverse Records, learning more about the business side of the music industry as they continue to hone their sound- a hearty blend of rock, metal, and punk influences.
Metal Solstice: Rebellix recently announced a partnership with Inverse Records for the release of your upcoming EP. What does this mean for the growth of the band?
Samuel Honkavaara (a.k.a. “Sammy Dee G”): Well, previously we released our music on our own, and we didn’t really know how it works, for example press kits and getting our songs onto Spotify. We were also looking for someone to release our music, and Inverse Records, an independent Finnish record label, seemed to be really interested in releasing our music.
I think the deal is going to be great for us, since they will take care of the marketing and the selling of our music. That way, we as a band have way less work to do on the business side, and our music is being heard in a lot of different countries.
MS: The EP is on its way; can you share the title and release date? “Serpent’s Kiss” holds nearly five minutes of hard rock and metal elements, including noteworthy guitar solos. What can we expect to hear on this release?
SDG: Well the title of the EP is gonna be Serpent’s Kiss, as the song of the music video. There will be three more songs other than this one, and it will be available on October 15th to stream. Physical copies are still in the works, but we’ll try our best for those to also be out the 15th.
The music we do, is always been a mixture of hard rock, heavy metal and punk rock elements, so you can expect more of that, plus more epic guitar solos. The tracks’ names will be “Serpent’s Kiss”, “Fuck You”, “Play the Game”, and “Hail to the Sky”. Every song has its own history and meaning, and I can promise every song is a banger!
MS: Tell me about the process of making the “Serpent’s Kiss” music video, as well as the folks who helped to make it happen.
SDG: Well, I had the idea for this video already some time back. The idea was to create a joke about a cliche’ rock music video, with a live performance and a girl dancing and singing. It was a really funny day at On The Rocks, and working again with Hector at Estrada Creative was amazing. Also a big role in the music video was played by the light guy, Riccardo Floridia, who usually does festivals and gigs.
The actors at the end are Johannes Eckerström (singer of Avatar) and his wife Paky Eckerström, who are my dear friends. I thought it would be funny to have them in the video, since it made the concept even stronger. They are both into metal and rock music, so the end joke was even funnier. At last but not least, the dancer Mari came super prepared for the video and did a great job!
MS: What is something that you learned during the process of creating this video?
SDG: I definitely learned that I have a lot more to learn, and that you can always improve, as a musician and as a performer, even though I am pretty happy with the result we had.
MS: For those who haven’t yet seen the video, can you explain the concept, especially the minute at the end with the actors?
SDG: So basically, as I said before, the idea of the music video is to recreate a cliche’ rock video, with the band thrashing around on stage and shredding, while the good-looking girl dances and sings. The funny part, and the revealing of the joke, really comes at the end, when the actors (Johannes and Paky) are acting like some big record label guy (Johannes) and a famous journalist (Paky) telling us that they hate rock and roll, and that we should change genre. I won’t spoil this completely, just go watch it!
MS: Let’s get to know Rebellix. Can you give a rundown of the band’s current lineup, and anything that listeners should know about each of you?
SDG: Alright! Rebellix at this moment is me, Samuel Honkavaara (vocals and guitar), Tomi Lappalainen (guitars and backing vocals), Kimmo Keipinen (bass and backing vocals) and Mikael Leinonen (drums). We have had many line-up changes during the years, so the only founding members still in the band are Tomi and me, although Mikael came not too much later. Kimmo is the newest.
What I like about this band is that we are all down to earth kind of guys, we don’t pretend to be someone we are not, and we enjoy the music we are playing together. Usually I write the songs, then bring them to the guys either as tabs or to the rehearsal place. Then we start working them out and arranging them, until we feel like we are all happy about it, and it has worked well so far.
MS: The live music situation changes from day to day. Do you have any live events or
streams in the works? What are some ways you’re connecting with your audience to drive connection to this single and the forthcoming EP?
SDG: Well, we are still waiting for the final round of a band competition here in Helsinki, and that should hopefully happen sometime in November. But as the situation eases up we will start booking gigs again and so on. No live streams are programmed at the moment. We think that we can give our best when you come and see us live, so we can really give you that rock n’ roll experience not through a screen, but in flesh and bones.
Check out Rebellix on Spotify here:
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