Finnish act Teresa Banks recently released their new album Noboby Is Coming To The Rescue via their own label Fast Decade. That sounded like a perfect excuse to hop on the Zoom (again)! I was able to speak to bassist Jussi Salminen and guitarist Alvaro Sotomayor about recording your own music, lyrics, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
TGEFM: Could you start by introducing the band to the dear readers of That’s Good Enough For Me?
Alvaro: Teresa Banks started in 2016 after a Milencolin concert. I was there with Mika, the other guitar player who I was in another band with. After the concert we said to Jussi we want to leave that band, so Jussi asked if we wanted to start a new band. We had our first concert very soon after that and our second or third gig was opening for Adhesive from Sweden, so that was pretty cool.
You are a relatively new band but you’ve managed to release quite a few things.
Alvaro: Yeah we have. That’s something we talked about from the beginning. Just record and try not to overthink stuff. Let’s get stuff done, record it, put it out. In other bands things took a lot of time and you are thinking about things that are not important. Then it takes you three years to put out an album. We have been able to put something out once every year.
I think you just have a good work ethic, I guess?
Jussi: Yeah, it has been a good flow of releases. But we have mainly done them ourselves. Recording at our practice space and mixed and mastered elsewhere. Doing it that way also takes a lot of time instead of going to a studio for a week. With this album everybody just took their time amd then you get a bit numb to the songs and you do overthink stuff.
Alvaro: Especially now with Covid, you have nothing to do. Our plan was to record at the beginning of the year and have it ready by the summer.
Jussi: For this record we actually booked a studio for a few days to record drums. And the day before we should go into the studio the guy told us he had a small flu and didnt want to risk it. So we decided to record it ourselves again.
Wait, but this was pre-covid?
Alvaro: Yes, this was just a normal flu!
Now it makes sense to cancel if you are not feeling well.
Alvaro: Maybe he was one of the first ones!
Did Covid take some of the pressure off? I can imagine you don’t have to release it fast because you cannot tour either way.
Jussi: That’s true. By mistake we released the record at a really good time. In Finland there have been gigs for a few months. And we got to tour for a few weekends inside Finland. And those were actually really good gigs.
Alvaro: We were lucky that we had a small window where we could play but now it’s getting worse again.
When I first heard your band name I thought it was pretty funny to name your band off of a character on The Fresh Prince but after some Googling it turned out I had my Bankses mixed up.
Jussi: I didnt think about that!
Alvaro: The name is from Twin Peaks which I personally have never seen. But Mika and Riky are huge fans. They saw it quite recently and liked the name a lot. It came up when we were choosing names and we just stuck with it.
Jussi: I did see The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I still have to check out Twin Peaks.
Can you tell us something about the lyrics on the new record. Is there a theme?
Alvaro: There isn’t a theme or anything. We just write what we care about. But most of the songs are about things we believe are wrong- in our society or in the world. Like political corruption, the extintion of animals or animal cruelty. And that’s why the record is called Nobody Is Coming To The Rescue. If we mess up this world, nobody is going to save us.
Jussi: “Human Error” is a pretty basic song about how you can enter politics with good intentions, but due to maybe peer pressure or lobbyists, you can’t make a change even if you want to. So it’s pretty nihilistic actually.
Is that comment on Finnish politics or in general?
Jussi: In general I think. When you compare Finland to other places it’s pretty great but of course there are problems. But they are pretty minor on a global scale.
When listening to your records, I hear a lot of anger.
Alvaro: Well, “Not So Fast” is about my parents. I’m from Spain but I live in Finland and try to visit my parents as much as possible. I see that my parents are getting older every time I see them. That song may sound angry, but it’s actually a pretty nice thank you song to them.
Can you tell me a bit about the Finish punk scene?
Jussi: The past few years it has become a lot better! You will find a lot of bands from all over Finland, from small towns. You can make connections easily and do shows. I don’t know what happened but there are a lof of small organisations and individuals from small towns helping bands now. If a foreign band comes to Finland you can easily book three gigs for a weekend. And there are always people at small town gigs. Or at least, that was the case.
Are there any bigger Finish punk bands the world should know about?
Alvora: One Hidden Frame for sure. And it you want to hear singing in Finnish check out Tryer.
Teresa Banks’ new LP Nobody’s Coming to the Rescue released on 20 Oct 2020. You can check out that album here, and the rest of their releases on their Bandcamp page.
You can follow Teresa Banks on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, or Spotify.
Quirijn’s primary focus for TGEFM is on album reviews and band interviews. When he’s not writing for the site, he can be found mixing sound at Fiction Studio, mixing up beats for as one part of hip-hop duo Breekpunt, or playing guitar for punk quartet Ink Bomb.