Recently there was a message in the guestbook on the Protest zine website from Rakkaus from Finland just saying to check out their website. I did and downloaded some of there MP3's, and loved it. The songs 'Palavat liput' and 'Syo pommi jaajahda' really stood out. So I just had to interview them to find out more. Could you tell us the history of Rakkaus, line up, releases etc? The band started first as a project in the spring of 2003. The idea was to play fast-as-fuck hardcore in the vein of Disrupt, Lärm, Homomilitia etc. The line up has been the same until the start: Katri:vocals, Juhis: vocals and guitar, Jontte:guitar, Juuso:Drums and Vellu(me):Bass. Our first demo was recorded 17.1.2004 and it sold pretty well. The next release will be a 7" released by AMA records and maybe by some other label too. What's the diy scene like in Finland at present? Well, the city, where I live(Jyväskylä) is pretty small place, but there are still lots of shows because of active people. Now there has been a small break in the shows because of gig organisers "burn out", but they are going to start it again in January. I'm going to start organizing shows too. It's too bad that shows must be organized to a bar so the under aged punx can't come in there. There's also an all ages gig place in Jyväskylä, called Lutakko, but it's too expensive to organize a show there. In other cities, Helsinki is the most active place, they have their own gig place there, run by punx called Vuoritalo (www.vuoritalo.org). They rented the place few years ago and fixed it and now it seems that there is at least one show/week. They also have bands practising there. In Tampere there will be the same kind of place too, I think it opens next year. Other wise, there's a couple places to have shows. There is also one squat in tampere but it's not for concerts, it's more like a social centre. for the other cities, I don't know too much. We are going to play a show in Turku on this weeks Friday, lets see what happens!For more info of punk in Finland, check: http://www.punkinfinland.net Best and worst experience with Rakkaus? Well, the best one was to play with Rattus in Lutakko, Jyväskylä. It's a great place to play, a band gets 24 beers and good food. the sound system is great and Rattus was the best! I think the worst experience was to play in the small city called Imatra, near the Russian border. We were playing outside, in the middle of the city, the stage was too big and there wasn't too many people either. The show was organized, because there was the noborder camp in the nearby camping area. The after party was great, though; the lake, fire and nudity... What are the future plans for Rakkaus? Well, we have two shows on the weekend, on Friday we are in turku with Armageddon clock, Stakeout and Biopsy. it's a support gig for Jeff "free" Luers(check www.freefreenow.org) and on Saturday we play in Helsinki with Unkind, Valse triste, Abnormi and two other bands. Next spring we are planning to go tour Europe, let's see what happens.Thanx for the interview, this was our first one!!! (A)//(E):VeLLu http://www.oocities.org/rakkaushc/