Taken from Vampire Free Press - December 2000 issue

In the late afternoon, of November 26, 2000 I arrived at the house the Von Hulkol’s, for the interveiw. It would be with Antti Von Hulkol, known more commonly as “Blues”. He is legendary in the myth of The 11th Hour Gang, as are most of the gang members. . .

At the [assumed] age, of 38, he is a wealthy businessman with a string of highly successful European style cafes in Japan, Vietnam, Australia, and Singapore. He has also branched out into rock clubs in Finland, Denmark, and New York. His newest one, “Born Again Electric”, opened last month in London’s clubland, a first night champion. But Antti is also an accomplished muscian, and song writer who performs, at his many clubs, with a small band made up of friends. And of course he is a family man, with a wife, Tiina, and a daughter, Andi. Antti “Blues” Von Hulkol is many things to many people.

We settled down in the basement of his Los Angeles home, in a room that was filled with his guitars. It was his home recording studio. He gladly put on one of his demo tapes, he just finished, so we could have background music during the talk. Antti was clear eyed, sober, and surprisingly pleasant. His reputation as a belligerent, knife welding alcoholic/drug addict had a habit of preceding him.

He was dressed casually, in a romantic style. He wore a hat on his crown of long soft brown hair. Antti wore an open shirt with black jeans, He was loaded with jewelry. He showed off his most loved piece of jewelry, a silver necklace made from highly expensive Finnish silver. It was his father’s he explained. Antii had recovered it from a safe deposit box in Helsinki, last year and has kept his with him ever since.

He lit a cigarette from a fresh pack, after turning the first one, out, around and sliding it back in the pack. “lucky fag.” he said, smiling. This seemed like a good a time as any to get the interview started.

VFP: “ Okay well, I suppose we should start with some background. Now you promised to be good when we set up this interview. You know that means to answer any question I put to you?”

BVH: “ Sure. You caught me on a good day. I ‘aven’t drunk too much and I am in a good mood. But don’t ask me no questions, I can’t answer. . .”

VFP: “ We’ll begin with the basics. When and where were you born?”

BVH: “ Not exactly hardball right out the gate, but alright. Now see I hadn’t celebrated a birthday since I was somewhere like four years old. And I have no certificate or birth records of any kind. It was one of the ways the parents protected their children, no records meant we didn’t exist. As far as I know I was born in Helsinki to Timo and Johanna Von Hulkol, in 1962.”

VFP: “ That’s as far as you can guess?”

BVH: “ Niine. . . Yep.” [ Blues dragged from his cigarette. He will slip in and out of English and Jippenish, a language natural to him.]

VFP: Next up, I guess, is your name. Which do you like to be called, Blues or Antti?”

BVH: “ Blues, is what most people call me, unless you’re one of my main woman, then you can call me Antti. You have to know me very well to get to call me Antti. Otherwise, it’s Mr Von Hulkol, or Blues..”

VFP: “Where did you get the name Blues?”

BVH: “ I was about 14 when I chose the name for myself. Me and the boys [ Hanoi Boys] were all choosing our new names. We wanted to cast off our ties, as everyone in the bloody village, except Mumma and Poppo [Stalgerholm], had cast us aside. My life had been the blues since I was about 5 years old.”

VFP: “ You have had an interesting childhood. Born in Finland and raised for the most part in Vietnam. Was there a culture shock?”

BVH: “ Surprisingly no. There are some similarities in Asian and Finnish culture. Except the jungle and heat. God, that was awful, I was soaked with sweat all the time. We were buffered from the pure culture, by Jeepinahs [ Finns born in Vietnam]. They learned Vietnames as their first language, then Finnish. There were problems. Class separations, language barriers. You had the European farm boys and then the Jeepinah farm boys, which meant lots of fighting. Lord help you if you were blond. You were rarer than fuck. Most blonds had been killed off first. The ones left were mainly females.”

VFP: “Why Vietnam? Why had scores of Finnish fled to a country immersed in a bloody war?”

BVH: “ That I dunno, except that our hunters had to be as fucking mad, as we were, to follow us. We were fairly safe, where the compound was. By the time I was half grown the war had been long over, anyway. I don’t want to talk about Vietnam, or the village or those fuckers, The Externimators [ The underground organisation who orchestrated, and executed the annihilation of Finnish and Jeepinah vampires].”

VFP: “ Alright, we’ll move onto your gang. The Hanoi Boys, when did you form the gang?”

BVH: “ Well, before I met Monroe[Stalgerholm] and Finn [Stalgerholm], Saigon [Jaffe] and I were pretty tight compadres. We had our own little gang, just me and him. I was like 12 and ‘e was 10. We called ourselves “Amhay” which is [Vietnames dialect] Jippenish for Assassin. A name that shouldn’t be confused with “Ambow” and “Amhan”, cos those words, [Blues smiled smugly] aren’t fit to print, unless it’s a sex manual you’re writing.”

VFP: “ Getting back to your gang. When was it you met up with Finn, and Monroe, forming The Hanoi Boys?”

BVH: “ Hard to say, we didn’t really follow calendar years in the village. We had isolated ourselves so much, time passed us by. I was older, I ‘d say I was about 14 when I met Monroe and Finn. I ‘ad hit that age where I was more interested in kissin’ girls than knocking ‘em down. Monroe was this tall, blond thing, looked like he wore make-up when he wasn’t. He didn’t talk a lot and was you know, “off in his own world”. Finn was always hanging out with him, he was a kid too. More and more the two ventured into our territory and well, ended up joining us Amhays.

We got pretty tight out there on our own, and then we left home, after taking on our different names. We had some cash, our clothes and some records and an old crank handled record player. They said we’d be dead, within the year, or back at the compound, begging for them to take us heathen punks back. But within that year we had gotten to Hanoi, and then made it to Tokyo where we formed our first band “ Geisha Roki”. I sang and played guitar, Finn played guitar, Saigon was on bass and Monroe was our drummer. By, I think 1979 or 1980, we were settled in Los Angeles, in 11th Hour. We got dubbed Hanoi Boys by the other gangers. We kept the name.”

VFP: “ That was when you met Bazzle?”

BVH: “ He [Baz Razadal] was the one that found us. We’d been abandoned by our connection. We had been left at the bloody airport! I dunno, he took pity on us li’l bastards, and took us in. We didn’t speak one word of English. But I did know French, which Baz knew too. That’s how we had communicated, at first. He was beyond belief. I mean he taught us how to party and party harder than anyone! Sure he was drunk before he got his pants on in the afternoon, but he was good for a laugh and a stand up dude. We were already perverted, debauched, wasted little sons of bitches, when he met us, he just gave us a hand in going native.”

VFP: “ Do you miss him?”

BVH: “ What a stupid question. I miss him every bloody day he’s not around!” [Blues snuffed out his cigarette and went for another.] “ I wish I could have had a hand in getting the hookfakin sabba who did him.”

VFP: “ That was [allegedly] Vantac Westenhoffen. What would you have done to him, had you been there in the final moments of his life?”

BVH: “ Eye for an eye.” [Blues produced from his pocket a switchblade which he coolly let flip open. He then planted the blade into the consul beside us.]

VFP: “ Lets get onto a lighter subject, shall we?”

BVH: “ Fine by me.”

VFP: “ You have spent the last few years building very impressive credentials in business. What prompted you to become an entrepreneur?”

BVH: “ I’ve always made my own money. It wasn’t always licit. I was a pimp, a dealer. We snatched purses. I robbed people. I’ve sold myself a couple times. I got my money and I lost my money. More I got, faster it went. I found out I had inherited quite a sum of money, when I was like 24 or 25. I took it and did the first smart thing I could think of, put a third in the stock market, put a third in a Swiss bank account. The last part I considered buying a huge amount of drugs, with. But in the long run, I decided to start a club. It was the first legal job I had. I was the one who started The House Of Ecstasy [Strip club]. I lost it to Joe LeStan, but I ain’t crying now, I got twice the cash he does. The rest is history.”

VFP: “ The Hanoi Boys are not usually associated with illegal activites.”

BVH: “ We were just smart about it. Christ, everyone thinks Monroe is a sober saint. He isn’t, not exactly. . And hey, back then we did whatever we could to get a bed, or money, or some palynahkas[ amphetamines, “uppers”] or kwon-fah [Marijuana]to get us through the night. Life has been pretty hard on us. But if it hadn’t well, I don’t know what kind of blokes we’d be.”

VFP: “ So you consider all the hard knocks in your life, a learning experience?”

BVH: “ If by that you mean, I consider getting kicked down and my teeth knocked out by life, a good thing, then why not? I would probably be some sweet, and innocent mama’s boy if things hadn’t happened as they had.”

VFP: “ How many times have you been married?”

BVH: “ Twice, legally. Once, well, she never asked me if I was divorced, and I was so damn stoned I didn’t know I wasn’t. When Harl [Tiina Von Hulkol] came and got me. She beat me stupid all the way from the hotel to the airport! I mean I can get all the li’l girls I want to play with I want, but hell, marrying Anita [Suicide] was a big slap in the face to Tiina. I pay alimony to Roselita [Von Hulkol-DePaul] me first wife. I pay Palimony to Anita, and I take care of Tiina and Andi. Oh, and I have to keep some of me playmates in a comfortable fashion.”

VFP: “ So you don’t think it is at all wrong to have lover, and a wife and family?”

BVH: “ Come on, don’t be so naive. It’s natural. The elder who raised me after my parents left, had two houses. One for me and his wife, and one for his concubine and their children. A male can have a wife and a mistress. A male can have many girls. .”

VFP: “ Sounds chauvinist, Blues.”

BVH: “ Well, unlike the elder, I think a female can have as many boyfriends as she wants, and a husband. If that is what she wants. You make me sound like a pig. Look, it’s my opinion, females are just as bad as us males. They just hide it. Shit, I’ve practically been raped by chicks, in the backseats of cars! They act all coy but I’ve been scratched by a few of them “pussycats”. Those kittens have claws.”

VFP: “ I’m sure your’re very popular.”

BVH: “ I do as well or better than my gang brothers.”

VFP: “ What’s your worst fault?”

BVH: “ If I want a chick, I’ll get her. I always want more and more. Too much sex ain’t enough.”

VFP: “ What is the best thing you’ve done?”

BVH: “ Stuck with Harl when she had Andi. I can’t take credit for Andi, Harl did all the work. I stayed away too long from me li’l angel. I moved back here to be with her. I still can’t believe I’m a dad. I just wanna get strung out on ‘er.”

VFP: “What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

BVH: “ Worst? How bad?” [ Blues looked pensive.]

VFP: “Bad, bad. . The worst.” [ Blues sighed. He wetted his lips an moment, then inhaled from his cigarette. He exhaled slowly.]

BVH: “ Alright, but I’m not proud of this at all.” [Blues pointed a finger at me. His elbow rested on the consul.] “ When I was married to Roselita, I was on drugs like crazy. We both were. I was dealing, I was buying. I was going through money like a poet on pay day. Now, Roselita, she was no saint, so don’t think she was innocent. She sold ‘erself when she was low on money. She used drugs too. She drunk like a fish, and had a mouth like a Mexican sailor. One day I gave her five hundred bloody dollars to hang onto for me, I needed to give half of it to Jeff Isadrelli. It was my money, she wasn’t allowed to touch it. Next day, I came home, I needed a score so I asked her where my money was at. She said she didn’t have it. She spent it on coke, and smack and used up half the stash and gave the rest to her boyfriend. I’d been up all night, I was tired, strung out and pissed off. I screamed and yelled at her. She’s got a temper like a red bull, and it fired up when I had the nerve to yell at her. I lost my cool completely and beat her down. I pounded on her until she couldn’t get back up. I felt so lousy after I calmed down. I never condone hitting chicks. It’s not cool. I was a whole other person at the time. That was when we decided to get a divorce. We couldn’t take living together. We were too young. I can’t even remember what age I was, honestly. The years of the Eternal Party blur. I am very glad we didn’t have any kids.” [Regret stared out in his eyes.]

VFP: “ Do you miss Japan? Do you visit there often?”

BVH: “ I dream of Japan, every time I sleep. It is a special place to me.”

VFP: “ Do you hang out much with your gang mates?”

BVH: “ When I lived in Osaka, I used to take the train to Tokyo, to see Monroe just about every weekend. We talk on the telephone, usually only when it is important, lately. Saigon, I see on a daily basis. He moved here to be closer to his son, Sami [Jaffe]. Finn, used to stay with me in Osaka. We fought all the time, then. He has been living in London, off and on. He explored the set up in Finland, further for me. He says it’s pretty safe, now and days. He’s a good guy. Me and him, I think, are more like brothers than he and Monroe. We’re like twins. I know me and the boys are still tight. We always will be.”

VFP:” I think we can end it here, unless you have anything else to say?”

BVH: “ We can end it. One last thing. I like to consider myself a genius, but I think everyone else thinks I’m just an asshole. And most times, I think they’re right.”

With that, Blues stood and escorted me up the stairs, to the main part of the house. He stopped to show me a newly built sauna, he was proud of. He explained every Finnish household should have one. His daughter, Andi, a dark haired tyke, ran up to Blues. He picked her up and carried her with him, as he lead me to the front door. While at the door, Andi hugged Blues. For a moment it seemed there was only one girl in Blues’ life that mattered, and he was in her arms. Call him an asshole, or a business genius, or even a criminal. He makes no apologies. He can only be who he is; a ganger, an entrepreneur, a husband, and a father. He can only be Blues.-