Shiraz Lane is a Rock band from Vantaa, Finland. Officially solidifying their lineup in 2015, Shiraz Lane has a variety of creative influences and sounds. Being young, in their early twenties, has not hindered them from becoming hometown veterans in their underground scene. They have developed their reputation for being uncompromising, loud, and genuine. Their debut EP was released in 2015 and has been well received by their peers and critics. They have played huge festivals in Toronto, Tokyo, and Germany. In 2016, they will be producing and recording their upcoming album, which is set to be released in the spring of the same year. So enjoy this week’s Indie Band of the Week, Shiraz Lane!
Who are you and what is your role in the band?
I’m Joel Alex, I play bass and sing most of the backing vocals. When I’m not on the stage or in our rehearsal room, I’m also taking care of most of the social media stuff and its visual contents. Music videos included. I do a lot of stuff and I like it.
How did the band get started?
The band was started by Hannes and Ana back in 2009 when Ana heard Hannes sing for the first time. A couple of years and line-up changes later they played their first shows with a line-up that included Hannes, Ana, Miki and Jani, but the bassist wasn’t me. I joined this company of long-time buddies in August 2014 and it’s been only uphill since that.
Who are your influences and how do they play a role in your sound?
I’m trying to speak for the whole band now. The obvious ones are Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row. The Darkness, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith. Outside that classic kinda rock n’ roll box we’re fans of Michael Jackson, RHCP, Dire Straits, more extreme metal, reggae, soulish stuff and to mention one from Finland, HIM. They all kinda play part in the way this band sounds, since we are not afraid of using the influences from various places and making it all sound like Shiraz Lane.
I have a more metal bass tone and more aggressive way of approaching it than many metal bass players have, Ana’s got more funk n’ groove than you even know yet, Miki’s going all weird but fascinating with his Knopfler chords, Jani is just Jani being awesome playing whatever and Hannes has the MJ-thing going strong. So it is not just five Skid Row fans doing Skid Row again, no. It’s five guys making the music they’d like to hear themselves by taking all their personal favorite elements and blending it with other band-mate’s sources of inspiration.
What has been your most meaningful experience being in this band so far?
It’s been so much like from victory to victory that it’s hard to pick one, but the champagne after signing our record deal sure tasted good. But as the culmination of the recording process – the beer after getting it finished tasted even better. So I’d say making our debut album “For Crying Out Loud” is the most meaningful. Everything else was just leading us towards that point, which we all had been daydreaming about.
Favorite memory from a show you’ve played or a place you’ve travelled?
For a band that had 5 self-released songs last spring, it was insane to go out and play in Tokio. Had 2000 Japanese friends giving us a warmer welcome that we could’ve ever expected. So that was huge. So was Wacken Open Air. Fuck, the whole last summer was too epic to be true and every trip had the funniest memories. Check out our music video for “Story to Tell”. That’s our good times put together.
What do you hope to accomplish with your music?
To reach and see the people of the world. To open people’s eyes to see the beauty of life, even if the beauty is hidden under piles of shit. To have fun doing our music, hopefully make a living out of it. Whatever as long as it’s awesome and there are things to accomplish.
Something about you that no one knows?
Me, personally? I don’t know. I’m an open book, so the things people don’t know would probably be very irrelevant little things.
About our band? Probably that where we’ll be going with our music. That’s a mystery to solve.
What is next for the band?
My last answer kinda ruins this one, but I do know that our music will take us to play gigs (surprise) and hopefully a lot of them. So we’ll tour (I’d like it abroad too) and play the shit outta #FCOL and then write some more tunes for you to hear. At the moment we’re focusing tight on our album release party, which will be the most special SHOW we’ve done so far. We want everything to sound and look awesome.
Anything else you want to add?
Live the life, laugh at it, listen to great music (preferably ours), love yourself and the people surrounding you. Make your days count. And also buy our upcoming album. Smooth. Peace!
