Ukri Suvilehto

Keep up with Ukri here:

I was born in Oulu, Finland in January 1994. Music has always been a very important thing in my life since I've been growing my whole life in a very musical family and ambience. Playing different instruments has always been a thing which I enjoy a lot, and when I was very young kid I was very interested in playing, especially different string instruments inter alia violin and finnish zither (Kantele).

My serious interest in drumming came in 2003-2004 at age 9-10 when I heard Metallica for the first time. My cousin, a guitarist asked me to jam and soon I was jamming some Metallica with some saucepan covers and tins making up my drumset. In 2004 I got my very first drumset which was Tama Stagestar.

Nowadays I'm working as a drummer in a couple metal band projects. I also handle my personal solo project Psykoosi, where I write the music, play every instrument and do the vocals myself, and also do some session gigs for other bands.

Ukri Suvilehto Interview:

SDM: How old were you when you started playing?

Ukri: I think I was 7/8 years old, but the serious interest in drumming came out around 2003-2004 at age 9 or 10.

SDM: Did you play in a school band or any drum corps?

Ukri: I actually started drumming in a band lessons in a local adult education centre music school. Before I entered the lessons I even didn't know what instrument I was going to play in the band lessons, pretty much I just wanted to be a guitarist. But the drummer of the group was leaving and they already had three guitarists, so I kinda was the only possible kid to play the drums at that time. I wasn't very interested in drumming that times yet, my timing was insanely bad and for the band it was pretty impossible to play with me. Lol!

SDM: Who are your top 5 metal influences?

Ukri:

James Hetfield. When I heard Metallica for the first time, my life changed! I was kinda living far away from modern metal music when I was young kid, and when I heard Metallica it was actually the heaviest thing I had ever heard!

Lars Urlich. Same goes for Lars. He was pretty great in the old albums and I think he has influenced many many today's metal drummers .

Fredrik Thordendal and sure everyone in Meshuggah! Fredrik's style of playing guitar, especially his riffs and solos are so recognizable and I think within Meshuggah they are such a pioneers in their genre nowadays.

George Kollias. Along with Derek Roddy he's the biggest influence for me in extreme drumming. Things what I love in George's drumming is the way his playing and his kit sounds like, and how passionate he is for doing what he does!

Erik Rutan. Erik is just so genuine! He writes really brutal songs, he has insane skills for playing guitar and growling, he's a great producer for death metal bands and I'm pretty sure his voice is from hell. >D Hah.

SDM: Who are some other of your favorites?

Ukri: As my favourites I would say artists that have really affected to my musical directions… When I was very young kid like 5-6 years, I totally loved ABBA. Their songs are brilliant, they are very interesting and catchy melodies. A bit later I found my love in AC/DC, and especially in Angus Young's working on guitar riffs and playing! I just fell in love in the way they make very simple guitar riffs so groovy with their musical cooperation as a band! I actually started playing guitar before I started drums, AC/DC just sounded really good to me and I was just listening them all the time and trying to learn the riffs of their songs by ear.

SDM: Let us know 5 CD's that are in your current rotation

Ukri:

Septic Flesh – The Great Mass

Hate Eternal – Phoenix Amongst The Ashes

Oz Noy – Oz Live

Avenged Sevenfold – Avenged Sevenfold

Dead Shape Figure – The Disease Of St.Vitus

SDM: What do you do to warm up before a show?

Ukri: Some practical rudiments in little rounds from slow to fast and back to slow. Also stretch some muscles to get a better performance. And just try to move a bit to get better circulatory as well.

SDM: Do you read music? Regardless of answering yes or no, please tell us how it might have effected your playing?

Ukri: Yes, I do read music. I think I would be much less technical drummer if I didn't read music. The ability to read notes is a very beneficial in many things and helps a lot in learning to play music. I also write songs by myself (at this moment mainly for my own solo project Psykoosi) and of course music theory helps a lot in writing songs.

SDM: Can you tell us about the gear you use?

Ukri: My drums are Tama Superstar series, the hardware is Yamaha, Tama and Pearl. There's one tom from Yamaha Stage Custom series, there's various cymbals from Meinl, Sabian, Zildjian and Stagg. The mixer I use in recording drums is Behringer Xenyx 1204FX, the mics are T.Bone DC4000, the drum module is Alesis DM5, the kick trigger is Ddrum Pro series, the double pedal is Pearl Demon Drive and my sticks are usually Regaltip 5b or Vater 5b.

SDM: If you could give one piece of advice to young drummers, it would be…

Ukri: Start taking lessons!!

SDM: Who gave the best live performance you've ever seen?

Ukri: I would say Meshuggah. I saw them in Qstock, Finland in summer 2010. They are such amazing musicians and very entertaining performers!

SDM: Aside from drumming, what else do you like to do?

Ukri: Pretty much everything I do is music. I write songs for my own solo project Psykoosi, play guitar, growl some death metal, I just like to play everything! I also listen to music just all the time. Editing videos is cool too! And last but definitely not the least, hanging out with FRIENDS!

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More Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIE6MfH03sU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtqVMaKr2dw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JermancFAbQ