hellen troy
Close To The Flame
Number of posts : 1010
Localisation : Bucharest
Registration date : 2007-09-06
 |  Subject: Helsingin Sanomat October 2007  Sat 6 Oct 2007 - 18:50 | |
|  Burton and Antto M. tell about the band´s tour cuisine article publushed on 5 th of october 2007 in Helsingin Sanomat NYT-supplement
translated by Kezza Even a rockstar needs proper food. HIM´s keyboardists tell about their tour cousine.
Everybody knows that it´s not a good idea to go swimming with a full stomach. How about rockstars? Should they go on stage after a good meal or rather slightly undernourished?
HIM´s former keyboardist and the present owner of Restaurant Kuurna, chef Antto Melasniemi says that you shouldn´t eat before a gig.
“When you´re peggish, you´re of course more energetic compared to being too full and falling asleep on stage. I´d say you should aim to be a little hungry” he advices.
Then again, hunger can be a problem too. Melasniemi recommends starting the day with a proper meal. Breakfast, even a late one, prevents the blood sugar from falling too low in a critical situation.
“At Puistorock in Munkkiniemi, I once ate two slices of pizza on stage because I hadn´t had time to eat them earlier. That was a real low point.”
It´s not easy to nourish yourself while on tour. You get fed up with the sandwiches you get at gas stations and airports and not even at gig places is it always easy to get healthy food. Besides, there´s often not much time between a soundcheck and the performance so it´s better to forget about eating.
“We often have a pretty established routine on tour”, says Janne “Burton” Puurtinen, the band´s present keyboard player. In our rider we ask for bread and cheese before soundcheck. With those we cope until the gig is over. Then we go to eat out or have something in the bus, depending on the schedule.”
In the US you can get something to eat day and night, but that doesn´t mean that you get proper food in the middle of the night outside big cities. Burton recalls how on one tour they lived off pizza for a month.
Was it after this particular tour that Ville Valo ended up in rehab?
“Um no. This was quite a bit earlier”, Burton chortles.
When HIM was recording their album Love Metal at Finnvox studios, Burton used to cook for the band on a small hotplate.
“My star turn was sandwich cake that I made from ingredients that you can get from the corner store. I prepared it completely by the book, including cucumber slices on the icing”, he tells proudly.
Antto Melasniemi hasn´t played in HIM for years, but he´s toured with the band, working as their chef. Burton thinks back longingly of Melasniemi´s foods and his selfmade mobile kitchen.
“I built a mobile kitchen inside an instrument rack. It had two gas plates, an oven and a place for a composite tank, Melasniemi remembers.
“We used to have different themes. One day we had Chinese food that didn´t taste much of anything, on another we made school food. Macaroni casserole and stuff”, he recalls.
Most members of HIM are vegetarians, so vegetarian food is the most popular.
“Veggy lasagne and caesar salad, that is, food that appears healthy but contains lots of fat”, Melasniemi says, amused.
Healthy food isn´t always popular on tour.
“I used to buy fruit, because people asked me to buy them”, Melasniemi recalls. “During the tour I must have thrown away 50 kg of fruit. If you didn´t peel them and practically push them into people´s mouths, no one would | |
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