“Five-seated spacious craft with an unsteady hyper drive and a hazy transmission equipment” reads Kremlin’s Facebook bio. A sci-fi description of a band whose very sound encapsulates the genre of science fiction; however, it wasn’t always this way for Finnish quintet Kremlin. “Kremlin started up as a classic rock trio like Motörhead or The Sonics”, explains Antti Hirsiaho (guitar, backing vocals), “But was soon seeing itself developing into something more. We started to see some sci-fi stuff on our retina – messages from outer space. From being a standard rock-trio, Kremlin started to transform into some kind of progressive space lobster, having a bluesy core and reaching its grey tentacles into outer space.” It hasn’t all been as easy as Antti makes it out to be though, Kremlin was formed over the course of a decade and through the break-ups of several line-up formations before finally coming to fruition. “It took ten years to really start a new band. Stars were in right position and Kremlin was found”, he explains, “First Idea was to make simple rock songs with a weird spice of psychedelic flavour, trying to find some evil element in every song. The main core of the band have been playing together in various combos during the years, other bands broke up and it was finally time to make up something new.”
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Kremlin continue their ascent into the farthest reaches of the galaxy with Svart Records providing their firing power. Despite their relative newbie status within the world of modern rock, the Finnish label were quick to snap up the band for the release of their self-titled debut LP. Despite having a professional label backing them, Kremlin are still DIY at their core and retain their sense of fun, especially when it comes to live shows: “The worst moment was being drunk as fuck playing a live show, not to remember any of it next morning”, confesses Antti, “But to hear afterwards it was quite a hell of a show.” Rather than taking the time to relax following their recent LP release the band are straight back to work on their next album, alongside a string of live shows. Antti reveals “The next album will be the main Kremlin album because we have found our form”. You can catch these Helsinki space cadets hitting a stage near you – stay tuned!
(Angela Davey)
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