Some people say: it’s Howlin’ Wolf with Venom, others say: just like The Stooges, Dead Kennedys or AC/DC.

„We’re just playing blues. Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the cross of road 61 and 45 in Clarksdale. We have contracted with him at the corner of Fleminginkatu and  Vaasankatu in Helsinki. We’re in Robert’s league.” As guitarist Robert Johnson made the biggest impression on blues music.

BLACK MAGIC SIX INTERVIEW

RNR666: When, where and WHY did BM6 form?
Yukka (g/v): Black Magic Six was found 2006, but we count our birthday form the first gig 14.2.2007 in Chemnitz.

Why we put up the band?
Maybe we were just bored, hehehe.

I heard originally a lot more people were going to play in the band. Would the band’s name really have been J- Tan & the Black Magic Six? And so would there have been seven of you in the band? How did you finally become a duo?
That´s true. Originally we had some dudes from Damn Seagulls, The Mutants and Disgrace playing in rehearsals, but pretty soon we realized non of these guys came to rehearsals. Then there was just me and Japandeer in rehearsal room. I went to local music store and bought distortion pedal and octabass pedal and the sound of BM6 was there.

Jukka, what’s the deal with your other band, the Disgrace? I found an issue of the Hungarian Metal Hammer zine from 91 or 92, and they were already writing about you! (They also wrote about Japa’s old band’s – Sweetheart – demo at about the same time)
Well, I started playing heavy metal when I was kid late 80s. We played grindcore & death metal couple of years and got bored pretty soon. We started to play straight punkrock until last year. The band ceased all activities January 2015.

This is the seventh time you are visiting Hungary, and you are playing here since your first album. How did you get to know people here?
We were counting sixth time, but you are probably right, ´cos we are old sods and it´s hard to remember what happened yesterday. The basic reason for our tourin’ was Myspace. When we put our music there 2006-2007 we got shit loads of response all over the world – also Pali from Hungary. People asked us to play all over the world, so we did – and still do that, even though Myspace is pretty dead.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind about Hungary? If I am not mistaken, besides Budapest you also played in Debrecen, Szolnok and Miskolc.
We haven´t played Debrecen yet, but gonna do that this Friday. First thing coming my mind from Hungary is the venue in Miskolc and how the guys did the load into the venue. It was in basement, there was a window about three meters high from the floor – and this tall guy took shaky ladder, and guys upstairs gave him big Marshall cabinets thru window – and this dude single handed took Marshalls in his lap, on shaky ladder and took them down one by one. That was scary shit…

You know Hungary pretty well (besides the region west of the Danube). How were these gigs outside of the capital?
Loved to play in Szolnok and Miskolc. Especially Tomi Pub from Szolnok is always in our hearts. Friendly people, good atmosphere, drunk and having a hell of a party!

You have a song called “Imre you are a punk’”about Imre Antal (RIP), the unforgettable Hungarian TV personality. What is the story behind this – how does a Finnish band know about Imre Antal?

Well, the song itself was not originally made for Imre, but we heard about the story Mr. Pali saying to Mr. Antal this famous line “Imre, you are a punk”, and made the song fast in our rehearsal room. Unfortunately we haven´t recorded it so far, but maybe do that sooner than you think…

You played twice in Argentina, and even toured in Brazil recently. How did you manage to get these opportunities? I heard a while back that the Ramones was the most popular band in Argentina, even more popular than Michael Jackson or similar shitty acts. Do you think this is true?
The Mutants were in Argentina on tour some years before Black Magic Six. Because Japandeer had good memories about that, we decide to go there as well, and last November we went also to Brazil. Great countries, wonderfull audiences. And yes: The Ramones is VERY big in Argentina and Brazil. Also The Cramps are still big there. If you walk 5 minutes
in downtown in Buenos Aires, you´ll 100% see at least one The Ramones t-shirt.

You are touring a lot, playing a lot of shows, but did you ever play in France or Italy? The French have a great rock-n-roll culture right now, or rather a garage/neo-garage rock scene, and a lot of these bands also play in Budapest.
We have never played in France, because no-one has taken contact to us, and we are too lazy to find contacts. We have now a booker in Italy, so maybe going there next autumn. At least we work for the Spanish tour right now.

Do you feel some kind of kinship to this garage scene, or not really?
Yeah. We recognize our self a bit garage band as well, thou´ out sound is pretty heavy. We have always digged good garage rock, so it is close to our hearts. Actually we are recording now lo-fi tape of three new songs. Let´s see how they sound – are we or are we not a garage band, hehehe….

To this day you have published three LPs and a 6-song min-LP – how do you see your achievements so far?
Records are pretty good all in my opinion, but we can do better if we want to. But we are a bit lazy, so it takes time to compose more songs. But I´d not change a note from the previous recordings.

Would you say a sentence or two about each of these albums – or do you think this question is bullshit?
Evil Acupunction, the debut and most fun of making it. Nowadays it sounds a bit rough and songs are very slow compared playing them life.
Doomsday Bound was made a bit more seriously, including couple of classics.
Brutal Blues is the best album, more variation on songs, and we worked for this album most.

I was once in Finland and I was surprised at how many metalheads, rockers and punks I have seen there. A lot more than in Budapest. Is this typical there, or I just happened to be at the right time at the right place?
Yes it´s true. Lots of people play in the bands and dig the music. It´s very common here that people dig music and go for shows.

Are there any new Finnish bands you would gladly recommend? Anything else you would like to add at the end?
I´d say The Country Dark and The Toxics are probably the best garage rock bands from Finland. There´s also a lot of new metal bands coming up like Speedtrap, Foreseen, Baltimor and Ranger. Check them out! Thanks for the interview. See you guys around.

MARCH 26. BUDAPEST, RNR666 PARTY > CORVINTETŐ
27. DEBRECEN > FELEZŐ
28. SZOLNOK > FEDÉLZET