Talking Meditation With Teemu Markkula of Death Hawks

Photo by Konsta Leppänen

When Death Hawks first caught our attention we immediately had to book them for the Noisey + Philips session YNTHT Live: Helsinki. Not only due to the fact that all members are ridiculously cute. Rather because they shatter every single preconception of Finnish music there is. But then again, the standard references to Finnish music are usually pretty poor: Think tango, Linda Lampenius, Arja Saijonmaa, and ehm, Lordi. (Although last year I think many of us fell in love with Jaakko Eino Kalevi, who just got some serious competition.) Death Hawks sound similar to plenty of acts you've heard before, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to pin them down into that copycat box of yours. Furthermore, watching Death Hawks play live is like a sort of time machine that takes you on a journey back to the 1960s. I'm not only talking about their music here. Their instruments look like something not a single person born after 1989 has ever seen, and their performance is mesmerising. Lead singer Teemu Markkula is seriously one of a kind. So being under his spell I obviously had to give him a call. Noisey: Teemu? Do I say your name right?
Teemu Markkula: Teemu, yes! So how was the gig at We Got Beef?
In Helsinki? Yeah, it was great and loads of fun! It was a small venue with great people who seemed to be really enthusiastic about the band. There were a lot of handshakes and hugs after the gig. Do you think that's because you've been touring a lot in Finland recently?
Maybe. We've been touring since the winter 2012. So yeah, people are starting to recognise the band. So how did the band come together?
Well, it was in 2010. I had plenty of songs but no band that I could preform them with. So I began to make a solo record, but realised I couldn't do everything alone. So I asked the other guys in Death Hawks to join me. Things took their natural course after that and soon it metamorphosed into this band and it wasn't a solo-thing anymore. We're all from the same town. We went to school together and have been playing together since we were 17. It was natural for me to ask these guys.

Tell me about Death Hawks' lyrics.

The lyrics are one thing that combine and make the theme for our records. Music-wise, the songs are diverse and different from each other, but the lyrics make the theme.

So what's the theme on the latest record?

I wanted to move on from the point where we ended with the first record. The first record is called

Death & Decay

so that was about those subjects in this folklore kind of way. And now on the latest record I wanted to go beyond that. So we've moved into a different dimension where we're looking for new places and new worlds. There's a lot of voodoo and Indian-influenced stuff, too.

How come you're into voodoo and Indian stuff?

I find it fascinating and interesting. Those kinds of chants, the music and the traditions behind them. It's just what inspires me. I obviously get inspiration from a lot of things. These things are just one example.

I heard that you're from Tampere.

No actually, I lived in Tampere for five years. All of us who are in the band are originally from this little town called Riihimäki, it's like 25,000 people there, 70 kilometres north of Helsinki. But now I live in the countryside halfway between Helsinki and Tampere. It's my grandmother's old house actually. I've built a studio upstairs so now I work there as well, in the countryside, in the woods.

How important is the countryside for your creative process?

I find it very good. I just moved there from Helsinki last spring. I get more things done now as there's peace and quiet.

When you preformed at We Got Beef, you did a massive jump from the stage up behind the drummer, staring out over the audience without blinking once.

Oh yeah, yeah.

For how long can you stare without moving your eyes?

I don't know, I should probably test that. It gets longer and longer. It has become a habit that I do on this one particular song that we perform. There's a point in the song that's sort of meditative. So I just look for one spot in the room that I can focus on so my mind opens up to what's happening around me. That's a particular point in the set when I can think of where we've been and where we're going and what's happening now.

Right. So I guess you meditate a lot during your spare time?

Nowadays it's more. I just started to find out about stuff like that and now I'm looking for different kinds of meditations. But I haven't found the one that suits me perfectly yet. I actually took a ten-day meditation course in Switzerland about a month ago.

Is that influencing your music?

Not yet. But it's starting to. We have to see what comes with the new songs and the next record. I guess we have to wait and see how much influence that actually will have.

I heard rumours about your guitar.

Yeah? It's actually a Finnish one. It was made in the 1950s in the south of Finland. By a man called Jake Noso so the guitar's name is Noso. And it's basically the greatest guitar I ever had. I bought it four years ago on Midsummer's eve in Helsinki. The guy made these guitars in the 50s and 60s and then he moved to Vancouver, Canada, and just last year he passed away and was 99 years old. It was like a week or so before his 100th birthday.

Did you ever get the chance to meet him in person?

No no, I haven't been to Vancouver.

I guess what I heard was completely wrong. Thanks, Teemu!

Death Hawks' second album Death Hawks is out now on Gaea Records.