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Yeah, yeah, yea, don't talk shit...
Against It All was one of the handful of skate punk bands in Finland in the mid-nineties. We were originally from a small town in the middle of nowhere, where we used to hang around and skate together when not fighting with each other. We watched skateboard movies and listened to bands like Bad Religion, NOFX and No Use For A Name. Older stuff like Hüsker Dü, Black Flag and Dinosaur Jr we got to know from skate flicks like Blind's Video Days. That was in 1991, way after those bands had actually peaked. But still in 2006 I personally think that's the best music ever.
At around 92 we were in the critical phase where some of us had gotten also interested in playing in addition to listening. We were about 17-19 years old. None of us could actually play anything so we got ourselves signed up in a band-school that was meant mostly for kids and spent half a year there, after which we were a real punk band. First song we ever played was an old Bad Religion song "Yesterday" and the name of the band was "Snot", which I think pretty much sums it up how much we sucked. Anyway, soon we found ourselves in the first and last band competition we ever went to and needless to say that didn't go too well. The song's we played were called "Bathroom" and "Sitting in my room", if I remember correctly. After the show the critic came to us and gave this nice feedback: "A pile. It's like this pile...", long silence followed, "Like a compost... But with the exception that the compost keeps developing." I don't remember him actually saying out loud "pile of shit", but he must have been looking for that word...
I think after that we did develop. Maybe even because of that. Kimmo had left the band at some point and Jani who wrote most of the stuff took the singing task. We made quite a few gigs mostly close to our home town and released some C-casette demo tapes, that we sold or gave away. We didn't have any connections or anyone who would arrange the gigs, so we were getting kind of tired playing in the same small towns and cow-houses. Well... Then after one gig in a friend's parents' old cow-house (really!) some guy from Helsinki had called Heikki's home. The guy was called Ykä and he had found a copy of our demo tape lying in the ground on some obscure small town rock festival. There were no cell phones at that time kids, so only after we got back home we called the guy and he asked us if we would like to play in Helsinki. Well, what do you think!?! Did we! The place was Lepakko, R.I.P, that was probably the best place for a punk band to play in Finland at that time and it's still the most legendary ever.
Yep, we went to play there and after the gig I remember getting myself very, very drunk and saying something very, very stupid to many, many nice Helsinki folks. Like someone from another band saying: "Thanks guys, a really good show!" and me saying something like "Yeah, yeah, yea, don't talk shit". Whether it was shit or not but the next day we were sitting in Spinefarm Records office. And couple of weeks after that we had a guy selling our gigs and couple of months after that we had our first EP, "Echoes of our time", out. I think that was absolutely fucking amazing series of stuff happening.
During the next couple of years we played a lot. Everywhere around Finland. Basically everywhere from Helsinki to Lapland, except in Turku. Nearly every weekend we packed ourselves with the guitars and basses in Hena's Opel Kadett to have a gig or two somewhere. We got to play together with some really nice bands like the chili-pepper-teen-funk startup band Rasmus or the old school punk band Klamydia.
In late 1996 we released the album "Blank", where the cover art was a picture of the ass of a friend of ours (Antti) fortunately wearing a pair of jeans with embroidered AIA logo. That year the majority of the band also moved to a bigger city of Kuopio. Speaking of jeans, in Kuopio Mika (a.k.a "Raato", engl. "Corpse") also got bigger jeans. Before this he used to be this old-school punk/metal guy with tight jeans, while the rest of the band wore more skate-punk style of loose trousers. That year we played on some major and minor rock festivals and supported for example Rancid.
The Provinssirock-festival gig was another highlight. First major festival and everything. I guess I was a bit tense about the gig and I remember telling the other guys to take it easy the night before our show. Well, that night I got totally drunk myself. I almost got arrested and suffered a terrible hangover the next morning. It was a good show. Also it's the only show when I ever have puked five minutes before and after the show.
That lasted until late 1998. Having good time I mean, not puking. But on the other hand we were, influenced by straight edge movement also, the whole band being vegetarians and all... Still for some reason we had to set an alcolol limit of three beers before a show. There's some really funny stuff in the interviews from that time, believe me.
The second last gig was supporting Bad Religion in Tavastia, Helsinki. That's kind of where you'd think that the "circle" ends, the first song being a Bad Religion song and everything. But it didn't. Now, over seven years later in 2006 when we're older, fatter and uglier than ever before and we still had to ruin everything by doing one more show. I hope eveyone who saw us in Nosturi March 4th 2006 had a good time! We did! Thank you!
- Ripa
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