Synnin Viemaa
Pages 178-183Janne Johannes Puurtinen was born in Helsinki October 17th 1974. He is from an artistic family. He says he is very grateful to his parents for they has always supported him in his musical career.
"My parents are both ballet dancers. Sure, I heard about that when I was in school. I didn't take any pressures about it though. My sister also danced ballet and I did try it myself also a couple of years but then I realized it wasn't my thing. It's so organized and from being a child you should only reach for that one thing, it's a tough school and you wouldn't survive if you don't take it really serious.
My mother put me in piano school when I was a kid and I still was into that a couple of years ago. I didn't start to play rock music until I became a teenager. My musical education was classic so the rock business I have learned afterwards on my own.
Guess I'm the one who knows the theoretical side of music best from the guys in HIM. It helps but sometimes it's also a burden. If we for example rehearse on a song of course I think about it from my point of view and what I've learned. Sometimes I should just play and listen and not think too much.
I still listen to classical music at home a lot, Prokofjev and Sostakovits are my favourits. Nowadays I also like modern music, even the one that sounds freak. The thing is that when you finally have got the point of how a certain music style works, you have to get something new that you can try to figure out the same things. But, I don't like Jazz, I actually hate it.
When I started to get into rock music, my favourite was Pink Floyd. Later I started to listen to 70?s music like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Kiss and W.A.S.P never inspired me.
The youth wasn't probably easy to anyone but I would still say I was a nice guy. Later in the teenage years I realized I can be exact the way I wanna be and feel like, think I was about 15 then. I was in a music class and it was funny, many girls and only 6 guys. We had a really good time together.
It was very clear to me that I wouldn't join the army. I spent that time instead working in a theatre. Later I was also working at the Opera house for many years. I was also a dj and through that I tried working as a cook even if I had no training for that. I still like to cook a lot, I do that quite often when I'm at home.
My first real rock-band was Cosmos Tango, we even did some gigs. We also won the Finnish rock championship! After that band I got involved in Sub-Urban Tribe and Torpedo.
We were rehearsing with Cosmos Tango when suddenly my phone ringed and someone said "Hello, I'm Janne Joutsenniemi". I didn't have a clue who that guy was. I found out that he was the guy who was looking for a new keyboard player to Sub-Urban Tribe because they had just done a new record and needed a player for the upcoming gigs. They had heard about me from Max in Apocalyptica because they had been at the same show when we did that Type O Negative cover gig in Teatro with His Infernal Majesty where my artistic name was King Tut.
That way I got involved with Sub-Urban Tribe. I did know that band by name but hadn't heard them live or anything. They gave me the records and said, listen and rehearse. Once I also did a gig with Amorphis in Istanbul. They called me a few weeks earlier and asked if I wanna come along. I thought about it in the toilet while doing some business there (!) and thought that sure, of course I wanted. It was a funny trip, the flight attendants had to apologize when they ran out of Campari and Balieys.
HIM is a difficult band to be in comparing to those other ones. Many might have needed some professional help, me including. There's just this crazy insane feeling and such a hectic schedule.
HIM is musically more healthy than mentally. I like a lot to play in that band for sure, cause you get very much space to play your own stuff and that's very important for me.
Even if the touring schedule and rehearsing is pretty hectic I still enjoy playing very much, even at home. It's like therapy. Just let your fingers go.
Translated by Heidi Ekbom