Negative

Negative is a Finnish glam rock band founded in 1997. The band itself labels the music as ”emotional rock’n roll”.

The Finnish forefront rock band and export act Negative is due to release their fifth album June 2nd. The new album, titled “Neon“, has been recorded at the Broken Wave –studios in Los Angeles with Warren Riker as the engineer / assistant producer and Jimmy Westerlund as the producer. Riker has worked with artists like Michael Jackson, Korn and Santana.

The production
“Neon” is a milestone in Negative’s career. A lot has been invested in the production – the material has been polished to perfection before entering the studios under the supervision of Jeff Blue. Mr Blue is an award-winning music producer and A&R who discovered Linkin Park among others. The singer Jonne Aaron’s vocal scale stretches wider than ever and the band’s playing comes together brilliantly on this upcoming album. Aaron has composed an album filled to the brim with emotional stadium rock.

Release
“Neon” is also the first Negative album to be released in Europe and Asia simultaneously. The record will be released in Finland and Europe by Warner Music and JVC Music in Asia.

The first single and video
The first single taken from the album, “End of the Line”, will be distributed to radio stations March 1st, and will be followed by a music video later in the Spring. Jonne Aaron describes the album as “melody rich and comprehensive string of pearls with a twist”.

Negative is a Tampere-based rock band founded in 1997, who broke through with their debut album “War of Love” (2003) and hit track “The Moment of Our Love” taken from the album. The five man group has sold 150 000 albums and received a number of gold records. The band was proud to take home an MTV Music Award as the best Finnish Act in 2007. They have toured in Japan, China, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria , Hungary, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic and France besides Finland.

With two Finnish gold albums and singles, radio hits and successful tours in Europe and Asia under its belt, Negative is now ready to release its third album, ANORECTIC.

“It’s a rollercoaster ride”, says Jonne Aaron, Negative’s lead singer. And going through the record’s peaks and valleys it becomes clearly evident that Negative’s combination of hard edge and beautiful melodies has never been better defined than on this album. The songwriting has a sense of classic rock and roll grandiosity, yet it feels fresh and inspired.

You get the feeling the band really knows what it wants to say with its music. Add to that the all-important element of surprise, which comes from imaginative arrangements coupled with the sonic mastery of producer Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, the 69 Eyes, Sentenced, Lordi), and you’ve got one hell of a rock album in your hands. From the beautifully unfolding melodies of the single “Planet Of The Sun” to the heavy bursts of “One Last Shot”, this is inevitably the best work the band has done so far. A ride you don’t want to miss.

So, how did Negative get here?

Negative played their first real shows in 1998. After getting the current line-up together things started to fall into place like a true rock and roll dream. Negative signed a record deal with Tampere-based Gbfam Records in 2002 and started the recordings of their debut, War Of Love, with producer Lex Luthor at Cosmic studios.

“All the songs on War Of Love were written in a six years’ time span. The oldest ones are from 1997, I guess. Because of this the album sounds slightly chaotic. But I still like War Of Love very much; it gives a very good overall picture of Negative’s early career. And I’m extremely glad that War Of Love opened some doors to foreign countries too. I never would have expected that”, Jonne says.

War Of Love definitely opened many doors for them. Today it has sold gold and is very close to platinum in Finland. The first single “The Moment Of Our Love” became a massive hit. War Of Love has also been released in Scandinavia, Italy, Russia and Japan.

Negative’s second album took shape under the overseeing eye of veteran producer TT Oksala (HIM, The 69 Eyes, Lordi etc.) during the spring of 2004.

“Sweet & Deceitful revealed totally fresh sides of Negative! We thought out and planned the new songs carefully from the beginning of the process to the very end of it. The album is a tight entity, the sound is more powerful and we were much better musicians by then, too. In my opinion we took a big step forward in finding our own style with this album,” says Jonne.

An important part of Negative’s tighter sound was their new keyboardist Snack.

“We chose Frozen To Lose It All to be the first single because the song reveals Snack’s skills. We want our fans to know that Snack will be a very important part of Negative’s sound in the future. And I guess that Frozen sounds pretty familiar to old Negative fans. But hey, Frozen is one of the poppier songs from our second album”, Jonne says.

Soon after Sweet & Deceitful came out in Finland, Negative signed a worldwide deal with Roadrunner Records, which was again a big step ahead on their career. Jonne Aaron was even voted rockstar of the year in the 2004 readers’ poll of the Japanese magazine Burnn!.