VAARALLINEN : the Band, the Men and the Mysteries

Original article found at: The Hutson Street Journal

Date published: October 30, 2018

Written by: Saphera Jansma

Recently I had the pleasure of joining some of the members of the rising rock band Vaarallinen at none other than Mr. David Pink’s home. They invited me in to take a closer look at their band’s dynamics and their personal lives.

We can all relate to having a past and it sounds like there are some mysteries here that are better left uncovered, but I did my best to get answers to all your burning questions.

Lets get started shall we?

Saphera Jansma: How did the band come to be?

Callith Appleton: We formed in Europe; Trish our original bass player and Gabe our drummer formed the band about six years ago or so. They were playing for a student band competition in Vienna, in fact for the Vienna Animal Welfare Society. They contacted Hannya, our keyboard player, and from there I auditioned later. It wasn’t until Erik joined in, our lead guitarist, and also a vocalist as well that we formed into something bigger and better. Erik came up with the name and we ended up winning the competition. I was the last to join,and soon afterwards we did the first album.  I didn’t expect to even last long in the band, honestly. Turns out that I enjoyed the experience, Been with them ever since.

Okay readers, lets talk about Callith for a second before we move on. He is every inch the protector of this band. He has secrets. Secrets I want to dig into and bring to light. He is very professional, choosing his words carefully to each and every question. He is also very polite. He very much welcomed me into the interview but kept up his guard. We will hear more from him in a bit.

SJ: How many member of the band are there currently?

CA: We generally have five people playing on stage. Trish pulled back to be our full time lawyer, so we have another bass player. We also sometimes rotate additional guest artists in. We have the wonderful mayoral candidate, David Pink, as our manager who does a lot in the background. We are looking for a production person to keep the actual stage crew in line and supervise set building, Ten roadies, sound and lighting engineer, it ends up being big. And we’re hiring too! We’re always looking for talent to fill in with things we may need. Contact David Pink on that.

Well there you have it readers, if you are looking for a job with the band contact Mr. Pink.

SJ: How well does the band function together?

Hannya Lee: Our official base is Helsinki. Yea, yet another Finnish metal band, but you see, we’re one from each country. I’m Japanese. Erik is Finnish. Trish is Austrian. Gabe is Russian or Latvian, I’m not sure, he speaks Russian. Callith here is Egyptian. Ryu, that replaced Trish, is Scottish, half-Japanese. Of course, five, now six heads, six completely different cultures, religions, myths, health issues, alimentary habits. We learned that tolerance, acceptance and respect worked for us all. Erik likes to say we embrace and praise differences. We actually do. We do fight. We sometimes don’t speak or sometimes yell in each other’s faces, but by the end of the day we’re friends. We talk. We don’t always understand but we try to listen and its a formula that works. Sure, some stuff, we have to agree on; like rules. Like for example, no one smokes inside the house.  Good none of us smoke anyway,;but if we bring in a friend who smokes we take them outside. We all have dogs, so we keep the dogs all outside. Stuff like that. Most are common sense really.

Now lets talk a little about Hannya. He is very much the young man in the group. Only 19. The pretty one for sure. However, he is intelligent if albeit long winded. Sweet hearted I believe but he definitely followed Callith’s lead and gave me the standard professional answers when it came to the harder questions as you will see coming up.

SJ: How do relationships work for the band?

HL: Love seems to be a predominant theme too in this band. As long as someone is in love, we don’t fight as much like siblings.

I don’t know about you readers, but this reporter thinks there might be more love going on in the band. Lets find out!

SJ: Are there inter-band relationships?

HL: You must remember, our band is first and foremost our work space. Like in an office or department, crushes and relationships are bound to happen. But, also not. People come and go. We’re still young and it’s part of life. But at a current, up to date situation, well, I am very single. I am the most unlucky guy ever. Like, I don’t even hold a lover for more than a date. They start in my arms, and end it in Erik’s bed. So what I can I say?

CA: Much of what I had planned on saying echoes what Hannya said. My experience is that we try to keep things discreet. I am not going to say it doesn’t happen. I mean, you can look at us, we’re all still college guys. None of us is married, in or outside the band. I am not going to tell you sleep arounds do not happen either. It does. But when we break up, in or out, we try to do it civilly. Remain friends, you know? As the oldest in the band I can say that yes, there is some inter-dating. Two of the members were in a long-term relationship that ended about a year ago. I will admit to dating one member for awhile after that until about a month ago. And I admit that spending my work days with some incredibly hot and gorgeous people ,while doing some rather physically demanding work daily, there are urges and needs. I also will admit to having a few crushes and connections in there as well; crushes and connections that I cannot act on due to wanting to be respectful of what they have in their lives. That does get hard at times, but you have to remember too that these are your coworkers and if (expletive) hits the fan, if I can say that, you still have to see them every day as well. That is why I try to be discreet.

It is here readers that I will introduce you to Erik Severn. The self prophesied sun of the band. He is very much the outgoing flirt.

SJ: How would your past lovers describe you?

Erik Severn: They’d probably say I am a cold bastard without a heart. I don’t love anyone in a lovers’ love way. Do I have relationships? Yes, I do. Do I want to love? Yes, I do. But I am a logical person. I am very much mind and career oriented. My relationships tend not to last, for a reason or another. Sometimes they’re too busy, or I am too busy, so it’s not like we have time to sit and woo and date and do those silly things lovers do that I find extremely boring. I’m active. I am always running everywhere, doing a million things. I think I don’t have time to love the way normal people would expect. Or maybe it just didn’t happen yet. Or maybe I keep too high expectations on what is it I want into my love life. And it’s just hard to how to say, fit? Into what I’d expect. If high expectations were considered immaturity, the incapability to view the other within the scope of merits and flaws, strengths and weaknesses, I can tell you I am not yet ready to have such commitment right now.

It seems to me that none of these boys want any commitment to their rock lifestyle, readers. Perhaps they are enjoying the intermingling of members and outside toys they bring in occasionally to play with. I do know there were some interesting words spoken about bandmates not in attendance.

When asked about how it made Hannya feel when Erik would steal his dates and sleep with them Hannya had a reply.

HL: Lady, have you seen Erik? Rather, have you seen the sun? Erik is fire, devastatingly charming, blindingly beautiful, but he also burns.

Callith had something to say about Erik as well.

CA: Yes, being near Erik can be like being Icarus: you have to be careful not to get too close to the sun.

This is just the beginning. I have a feeling I will be chatting with the men of Vaarallinen again. Until then I hope you, my readers, have enjoyed a little insight into these seemingly untouchable band members.