JP: I think I’ve always mixed little metal and occult elements in my projects, so I guess Belzebubs was just something that was bound to happen sooner or later. IPM: Here, for the most part, there is a very slim interest in the face-painted Death Metal scene, and many of the local bands are, well, not very good, but bands from Europe are phenomenal, admittedly some take themselves too seriously, why did you choose the Belzebubs as your medium. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Ihsahn, Anathema, Lunatic Soul, Tiny Giant, Be’Lakor, Insomnium, If These Trees Could Talk, Bonobo, Grails, The Cinematic Orchestra, just to name a few… At some point I tried to find the right atmosphere for a specific scene or project I was working on, but nowadays I just try and get my mojo working, you know? I might find myself listening to death metal while drawing smiling kids for a school book, or whatever. JP: Oh, I listen to a wide range of stuff, really… Jazz, electronica, soundtracks, post-rock, progressive metal, death metal, et cetera. IPM: Since this is a music mag, what are your musical tastes or interests?

I was still studying graphic design in the University of Lapland at the time, but started doing more and more freelance illustration gigs on the side. JP: I’d say my artistic career started out in 2003, when my Sunday comic strip Villimpi Pohjola (or Northern Overexposure, as I’d translate it) started out in a Finnish newspaper. IPM: How long have you been an artist, when did you start? As the strip series fools around with”mockumentary” style interviews from time to time, I felt it quite fitting.

The adjective is/was used to describe obscure music, bands and artists that very few know of. The whole definition is a little tongue in cheek, as the term”trve kvlt” is used more or less ironically these days. JP: Hehe, well, I figured I needed some sort of description for the series, so I went with that.

IPM: What is a “trve kvlt documentary”, in the US, we are not familiar with the term?

Perkeros by J.P. Ahonen