eurovision.tv meets Mr Lordi from Finland"After an exhausting marathon of TV interviews, Lordi came over to speak with eurovision.tv – but not until he’d first taken the time to say hello to three blind journalists.
Mr. Lordi took his time, letting them touch his costume and put their hands on his face before describing the face that is attached to his belt. “You know, that is all glued on,” he told them. “And this is reindeer fur. I do all my costumes on my own.”
Then it was our turn to talk to the great man, in a conversation that ranged from monsters and Greek food to beauty and Lordi’s fear of horses.
eurovision.tv: It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Lordi. You’ve just been asked most of the questions that we had prepared for you. Is there any question that you’ve never been asked but would like to answer?
Mr. Lordi: Oh, good one. Actually, I don’t know. Let’s start with yours.
eurovision.tv: You said that you’ve seen some of Athens. Are you interested in sightseeing?
Mr. Lordi: We had a sightseeing tour on Saturday and went to the Temple of Zeus. But as well as Greek history, I am a great fan of Greek food. We had a big dinner with the delegations on Friday night in a traditional Greek restaurant. That was nice. But they didn’t have these meatballs that I love. You know the ones?
eurovision.tv: Actually, I am a vegetarian.
Mr. Lordi: Oh, sorry. Let’s talk about cheese. Greek cheese is great. [Laughing.]
eurovision.tv: A lot of fans would like to know what photo you have on your accreditation card – is it one of Lordi or Tomi?
Mr. Lordi: I have two different ID cards. But actually, I am a living ID card. I don’t need one in here. No-one is like me.
eurovision.tv: You made your first Lordi video when you were at university, studying theatrical arts. But you didn’t wear a mask. Can you tell us about it?
Mr. Lordi: That’s right. I was a student in a film school. That was 10, 15 years ago. The video is from 1994 and was for my exam work. At that time, Lordi was more or less a one-man project. I was the only one without a mask in the video. I did all the costume work for the others. But when I saw the results of this video, I thought, ‘okaaaaayyyyyyyyy’. All the others looked so much cooler than I did. It should have been the other way round. That was how Lordi came to life.
eurovision.tv: How would you describe yourself to a blind person?
Mr. Lordi: Yeah, that was funny. There were three blind journalists in here. I asked them to touch me so now they know what I look like. They will see things differently. They have eyes on their fingertips.
eurovision.tv: And how would you describe to a blind person who couldn’t touch you?
Mr. Lordi [laughing]: Mr. Lordi is the monster of monsters. He leads a group of five monsters from different ages and different dimensions. We have an alien, we have an Egyptian mummy. On the musical side, we are a rock band, a heavy rock band, playing melodic 80s hard rock.
eurovision.tv: Are there any similarities between Mr. Lordi and Tomi? Is it Jekyll and Hyde?
Mr. Lordi: It’s exactly like that. There are a lot of things that I wouldn’t do without a costume. Mr. Lordi encourages me to do more than I normally would. But Mr. Lordi and Tomi have the same brain. As a private person, I speak differently, I act differently, I walk differently. But to do make-up stuff once in a while is also a relief.
eurovision.tv: Your first monster was the animal from ‘The Muppet Show’. What kind of things did you play with when you were a child?
Mr. Lordi: Not when I was a child – I still am a child. I still collect Muppet’s toys.
I played with Star Wars figures, with Masters of the Universe figures, well, monster figures. I loved little spiders, dinosaurs.
eurovision.tv: You said that the scarier a movie is, the more fun it means to you. So how would you define humour?
Mr. Lordi: A difficult question to answer in brief. Let me think. [Pause.] Some say that horror is a sub-genre of comedy. I believe this is true. It’s not humorous, we’re not meant to burst out laughing, but it’s fun and entertainment. It’s the same thing with riding a roller coaster over and over again. Some people would never do it. For others, it’s fun.
eurovision.tv: One last question. You replaced two members of the band. Was it difficult to find new ones?
Mr. Lordi: It was quite easy. But it’s not just about replacing a musician in the band. The chemistry has to be okay. But we were lucky with the decision we made. We are happy with the new members.
eurovision.tv: Mr. Lordi, thanks so much for your open words. Good luck in Eurovision.
Here are more highlights from Mr. Lordi.
* “You know, we are meat eaters in a vegetarian café,” said Mr. Lordi when asked how the band feels to be in Eurovision.
* Surely Lordi and Christianity don’t go together? Sure they do. “I am a member of a church and our drummer Kita actually wrote and played some church music.”
* “I don’t want to burn in hell, I want to go to heaven.”
* When Finnish TV invited Lordi to take part in Eurovision, Mr. Lordi thought that they’d got the wrong number.
* “We think we look pretty. We look like monsters.”
* “Lordi is actually my nickname. It was given to me by friends.“
* “We toured last year through the whole of Europe. And we toured extensively in Germany.”
* “Our future plan is to get back to our normal heavy metal routines.”
At this point, Mr. Lordi had to go to the little boys’ room. But he continued to provide insights on his return.
* “Sure, some fans have seen us without costumes. But they won’t take any pics. And I also don’t wear my stage costumes when I walk my dogs.”
* What is Mr. Lordi scared by? After a long pause, “That’s a good one… Horses, I think. They’re so big.”
* “The Rolling Stones are as careful with their clothes as we are. They only look different. You know, one pair of jeans isn’t the same as another.”
* “I always drew monsters. My monsters always looked more beautiful than other things.”
* Are children afraid of Mr. Lordi? “No, not at all. It’s their parents being afraid that make the kids afraid.“
* “Kids love us. We look like their toys.”
* “There would never be a Lordi show without our masks.”
* “‘Kitos’ means ‘bye-bye’ in Finnish.”
Kitos, Mr. Lordi."
The fact that Lordi played with He-Man toys makes him even cooler
“‘Kitos’ means ‘bye-bye’ in Finnish.”
Uh, you dumb fucks. First of all it's "kiitos" and it means "thanks" :evil:
Topic: Finland won the Eurovision contest! (Read 6470 times)