Wasted was formed in the fall of`96 in Joensuu, Finland.All the band members had been friends for many years and been playing in all kinds of punkbands before Wasted. We played finnish hardcore, punk/ska and all kinds of shit just for fun.

In ´96 there wasn´t that many bands, who played raw old school punk rock in the finnish punk scene. Almost all the bands were playing either crust/hc or straight edge hc or something. So we thought of starting to play the kinda music, we´d like to listen to and see ourselves. I decided to form a band that would play raw old school punk rock. That is the kinda style of punk that got me interested in punk in the first place. At first we had a different drummer(Olavi), but he left the band after a few months. Then Miikka(who first played bass) started banging the drums and Kalle, who was playing bass in all of our bands, picked up the bass. None of us could really play our instruments, so it was pretty obvious, that we had really short songs, raw and rough- style of punk rock.Our influences in the beginning(some still are) were for example: Black Flag, Adolescents, Op. Ivy, Spermbirds, Stiff Little Fingers etc. But we have progressed along the way and nowadays we try not to sound like any other band. We try not to take too much influences to stay original, to make our own sound.

Of course the lyrics have made a big difference right from the beginning. Song-writing, in this mad, fucked-up world, is a good outlet for your anger, frustration, depression and all that. We have both political and personal lyrics. I mean, not necessarily political, but just how I feel about the things going on all over the world and around us. Most of the lyrics deal with our own experiences, things we have gone through, some are just angry, pissed-off screams at the way things are in this world.

We had kinda slow start, ´cause we had quite a hard time practicing, ´cause every practise turned into a total drinking-fuckingshitup-party.But then we got a gig in Ilosaarirock-97, so we had to practise at least 10 songs to play the gig. And after that things started going on a lot faster. All of us,except Kalle, moved to Helsinki, ´cause there wasn´t anything going on in Joensuu, at least gig-wise. The first gig in Helsinki was at Rauhanasema, the place was crowded and the people really enjoyed our act. After that, we went to studio to record our first 7 inch "Inside Out", released partly by ourselves, partly by "Underground productions" in summer ´98. People started showing a lot of interest and we played a lot of gigs all over Finland. We still had a lot of unreleased songs, so went to record our second 7 inch "Battle of Life" half a year later. It was put out by Halla-records/Grey Days recs. and was sold out in no time. We also got asked to be on a few compilations like Beer City records` comp. and Farewell to arms 2-benefit comp. In ´99 we played loads of gigs all over Finland and recorded our third 7 inch "On the brink"(Brown/Grey days records). In September `99 we made our first european tour with Manifesto Jukebox. We toured all over Europe(Lithuania, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden). The tour went really great and people´s response was really good. After that we started making songs for our first album. We recorded it in January 2000. We recorded the album(15 songs) in four days and used a day to mix it. We were supposed to get the album released by March, `cause we were gonna on tour again, but somehow things didn´t work out as we planned, so we went touring without it.

Again with Manifesto Jukebox. This time we concentrated on the western countries in Europe. We went to Belgium. France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The tour went great again. We had a great time and so did the people at the gigs. This year(2000) we gonna be on a couple of finnish compilations along with some foreign comps. And in summer 2000 we are gonna record some songs for new up-coming comps. The Lp "Suppress & Restrain" was released in May 2000 by a new label "Combat Rock Industry".

The response of the debut-LP was really inspiring and better than we expected and it led to more and better gigs. We sent the record to many labels all-around the world and a label in Poland called Trujaca Fala replied that they would be really interested in putting the album out on tape in Poland. So they did and now the second pressing of it is out. Also a lot of labels replied that they would like to have our songs on compilations and now almost every song of that record is on some comp. After the summer of 2000, we started writing some new songs for more compilations and upcoming releases, did our first gigs up in the northern parts of Finland and then again plenty of gigs in the south. In November we recorded four songs for international compilations, including one comp. in Malaysia! In the beginning of 2001 we started making songs for a split-ep with a finnish old-school hardcore band The Stakeout and our second LP. In February we played the Linköping hardcore-festival in Sweden and recorded our part of the split-ep. The Split-ep was released in the end of March by Combat Rock Industry and a new finnish label 7-ply records. Then the spring was really hectic, ´cause we were busy practising and recording the LP-songs and then touring Europe for three and a half weeks and also some gigs in Finland. The Lp was recorded in two sessions, one just before the tour and one right after the tour. Altogether it was four and a half days of recording and one day of mixing, so it was made in a really short period of time, so it was just straightforward playing, no gimmicks or breaks needed, and I hope we got the live energy recorded. The LP/CD will be released by a german label Scene Police and Combat Rock Industry from Finland in August/September. The Eurotour went really good as well. Again we toured with Manifesto Jukebox. This time we went to some countries we had never been before, so we got really good, new experiences as well. We went to Sweden, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czech and Poland, altogether 21 gigs and we had a fucking great time, our van or our livers didn´t break or anything, and no gigs got cancelled. I think one of craziest gigs were the ones in Poland. We already started planning new tours for the Fall. During the summer of 2001 we are gonna take it pretty easy, just a few gigs here and there. Finishing everything that has something to do with the new album and stuff.

After releasing “Down & Out” we played all over Finland a lot and made one longer and one shorter European tour later that year. In the Spring of 2002 we went to Poland and Chech for two weeks and had some amazing shows again. This time Miikka, our original drummer couldn´t make it, so we had Jussi from Hero Dishonest playing drums for us.

In the summer of 2002 we had some new songs and we wanted to make a 10”, cause we had never made one. We recorded six songs, five to be released as a miniCD/10” on Bosstuneage/CRI/Twisted Chords and one to be on a Twisted chords compilation Action speaks louder than words. The song “Safe and calculated” is released only on that comp.
After releasing the record we toured the Europe again for three weeks. It was the first time for us in the UK and almost the last time. We had a really nasty looking car accident in Scotland, it was a matter of seconds that a car would have crashed the side of our van and we would´ve been crushed. Luckily we could steer the van straight before the car crashed us. It hit the back of our van and we thought that someone had died in the other car, cause it looked so bad. We also thought that we have no equipment anymore, cause the back of our van was destroyed. It was one of the most horrible moments of our lives. But after the shock, we found out that no one was badly hurt, just broken bones and none of our equipment was broken! And the crash happened close to a friends house and he knew how to fix cars. So we could fix the van in a day and only missed a gig! The rest of the tour went really good except for some loading problems, cause the back doors didn´t work. And the Police kept pulling us over and reminding us that we have a damaged back of our van! Really! I haven´t noticed.

In the end of 2002 we run into some different kind of problems. This time within the band and it nearly got us. But we made it through the hard times after all. We played the last gigs with the bassplayer Kalle( an original member) in the end of 2002. After that we had no bass player, but we had a lot of good gigs coming up, so I picked up the bass with just two days before a confirmed gig and practised all the songs in the set. I played bass for a few gigs, then we took some time out and started planning how to go on from there. Around that time we, Antti, me, two guys from Manifesto Jukebox and a keyboard player Anna started a new band called I Walk The Line.

During the summer of 2003 we found a new bass player Tuomas, who we knew from his other band, Abduktio. We started practising hard with him and played a first show, a big open air festival in Finland. What a nice start with a new band! A little after that we went for a three week tour all around Europe and UK. We toured with I Excuse from Japan and had a really good gigs and some really good times. This time the only problem we ran into was a broken tire while driving 120 km/h on a highway. Luckily the traffic was slow and we didn´t crash into any other cars.

After that it was time to take pretty slowly, cause we were making an I Walk The Line debut album. Wasted still played a couple of shows here and there in Finland. We also released a compilation CD “Here we go again”of all the sold-out 7”s, compilation tracks, live stuff and two videos. It was released by CRI and Bosstuneage again. Bosstuneage also re-released the sold-out debut album “Suppress & Restrain”.

In the beginning of 2004 we started planning a new Wasted album. We chose the best ones from about 30 songs and started practising them. We were ready to go and record them in July. This time we spent a little longer time in the studio to make it as good as we knew we can make it. The result was even better than we expected, we were really happy with it. We managed to combine the energy of the live performance, the melodies and roughness just like we wanted. It is the best Wasted record ever, I think it combines all the best parts of the old stuff and adds a little new sounds to it. Again, we continue our co-operation with Combat Rock Industry and Bosstuneage from UK. When the new album comes out, we´ll tour the whole Finland, we try to play all over, from Helsinki to Lapland. After Finland we head on to the rest of the Europe and hopefully some other continents as well.

So, see you in the pit, bastards!
WASTED

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