APOCALYPTICA Members 'Love Being Naked'

Samuli Väänänen of Finland's Radio Nova recently conducted an interview with Franky Perez and Eicca Toppinen of Finnish/American cello rockers APOCALYPTICA. You can now watch the chat below. Also available is footage of the band performing the songs "Shadowmaker" and a cover of the METALLICA classic "Nothing Else Matters" at the Radio Nova studios.

Speaking about how APOCALPYTICA ended up recruiting the Las Vegas-based Perez as its vocalist, Eicca said: "When we started to search for a singer, we felt it [was] risky, because we thought it's hard to find a world-class singer. We thought that the singer needs to be on the level that our guests [on previous albums] have been. And how can you find a singer who's available and who can take the gig? It's not the easiest gig, you know, to take. You know, it's a partly instrumental band, and it's partly with vocals, on stage also. And it's not about finding a front face for the band; it's a totally different thing. The singer is one of us, and one of the musicians, actually, in this group. We just thought, we checked out all [of Franky's] stuff, [his] funk stuff, and all this stuff on the Internet, and we were, like, 'That guy is an amazing singer, but is he really…?' You know, he needs partly to move to Finland, he needs to spend a lot of time here. What kind of family situation he has, and is he available or willing to do it? It's a big step to take the job. So we were a little bit concerned. And it was funny that we never met [before]. We've been working with the same people, we know the same people in the music industry, and the same bands and musicians, but we never met in person. Even we were [playing] at the same festival [in 2008]."

Asked about his impressions of the APOCALYPTICA guys, Franky said: "It's actually… and maybe the public will be happy to know that… these men are very proud of their country. And so they made a point of showing me proper Finnish culture. And I love it here. It's gorgeous here. And people have been very friendly… One thing you all should know… And maybe it's a Finnish thing, but I don't think so. I think it's an APOCALYPTICA thing. These guys love being naked. I don't get it. I've been naked once, but they're naked all the time."

APOCALYPTICA's new album, "Shadowmaker", was released on April 21 via Eleven Seven Music Group's Better Noise imprint. The CD was recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, DEFTONES, MASTODON).