Joykamp

It was a cold, wet west coast Saturday night as I arrived at Supernova's "Last band standing" event at the Croatian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver. 16 bands competing on one bill, a large but intimate room, Joykamp, and a bar upstairs were too much to pass up. The several hundred diverse fans had shown up with a will to party it up hard and get crazy for their favourite band. Joykamp, although not competing, was in the headline slot. Presumably to insure that Supernova's reputation for great shows was not left in doubt by the eager and developing talent that I witnessed warming up the crowd. I have watched Joykamp evolve over the last couple of years into a high end, polished, hardcore machine.
Wasting precious little time, they break into "CIA" and the room comes alive instantly, the addition of "Mac Truck" type bass and seething lead tones to the usual cocktail of pent-up frustration, testosterone and a deep-seated shared lust to erupt with the vibe, certainly makes for a pretty inviting mosh-pit. Even with less than ideal acoustics, Joykamp's performance was in a whole different league as compared to any of the top 16 out of dozens of competing bands.
With Mike Wood's fiery red axe cranking out chunky, gnarly rhythm, dementedly melodic lead tones, and with his forceful backing vocals, songs like "Thought Police" and "Perry Says" left the energized crowd stunned at the level of this performance, as was evidenced by the deafening screams of approval.
Rik Kiviaho's Vocals have amazed me time and time again, as he never seems to disappoint. His immense presence and in your face attitude sent a shiver down my spine as he fingered an entity, that nearly manifested for all to see, as he belted out "Death man".
With the frenzied crowd raging on, Joykamp ripped into "Hypnotized", one of their most popular and well-known tunes. Dave Tull's thumping, hard-ass, bass lines, combined with his dark, brooding energy, set the tone for a heavy, heavy groove.
"Man of the people" featured a blood-curdling scream out of Rik that blew me away and will haunt my dreams with shades of Ozzy and Chris Cornell. Regarding percussion, explosive drummer Colin Harris is quite a spectacle to behold, completely clobbering his kit with wild abandon. He has an impressive grasp of rhythmic subtlety, and radiates the energy and drive behind the entire band's volcanic performance. Colin...You rock!! The crowd calling out for more, and the band chomping at the bit to give it to them, only to be denied by Supernova's MC, was the only complaint I had with the entire show. There's a steady confidence about Joykamp these days that seems incapable of producing a bad performance, and the band's tightness was fluid and natural, with Dave, Mike, Colin and the seriously intense Rik Kiviaho killing it big time! Unquestionably, there is torch of awakened perspective to be found in their lyrics, that this band is well worthy to carry. It was a further reminder of the pool of talent available to Vancouver rock fans these days.

Review by Joe Brooks (Spirit River Distribution) January 2005
- Joe Brooks, Spirit River Distribution

Local rockers release debut album and some strong opinions on human rights, freedom of thought and media objectivity

”And so they never give a sucker an even break
Show me a politician who ain¹t on the take
Telling you lies while you¹re hypnotized
And the television¹s turning off your mind...”
- Hypnotized, Joykamp

Sheila Reynolds
Staff Reporter

Yesterday (Saturday) was the second anniversary of the beginning of bombing in Iraq and International Day of Action a day when citizens around the world were expected to rally at various venues to protest issues such as government policy, war, and human rights abuses.
It was also the day Joykamp, a four-member, Surrey-jammin’ rock band released its debut album.
"The timing," says lead vocalist Rik Kiviaho, "was no coincidence."
“It¹s a day of awareness and our album is about people being aware of what’s going on in the world around them ... pay attention,” he said. “A lot of the music is politically and socially themed that’s what Joykamp’s all about.”
“Have an opinion, have some thoughts,” he says. “Get involved, get off the couch, get your hands dirty.”
The group, with a name inspired by a camp in George Orwell¹s 1984 where people were sent to be “re-educated,” consists of Kiviaho, guitarist/vocalist Mike Wood, bassist Dave Tull, and drummer Colin Harris. All but Kiviaho reside in Surrey.
The four hooked up in the fall of 2002, wrote several songs and quickly put a demo CD together. Shortly after, following some airplay on Vancouver radio station CFOX, they unexpectedly won a spot on the Vancouver Seeds 2003 compilation with their single Hypnotized, a song about objectivity or lack thereof in the media.
Joykamp added to their initial sampling of songs and went on to record the current, 13-tune debut Fear the Future. The title, Kiviaho says, is self explanatory.
“If it keeps going the way it is, people should be scared,” he says. “But if the world got up and everyone said “we’re not going to tolerate that kind of thing” maybe things would change.”
Other songs on the full-length album have obvious messages to deliver, like Thought Police, which is about the erosion of freedom of expression, and Perry Sez, a song about living in a world where bombs are going off. The latter has already been hitting airwaves in the U.S. and Europe.
“We wrote that song the first day the bombs started dropping in Iraq in 2003. It was definitely inspired by that.”
But, Kiviaho assures, it’s not all doom and gloom.
“It’s got a sense of humour,” he says of the sarcastic, often tongue-in-cheek tone of the album. “It’s not completely black.”
Joykamp held their CD release party in Vancouver last night. The album is available at Zulu Records or online at www.joykamp.com, where upcoming concert dates will also be listed.
- Surrey Leader- March 20, 2005

If your name is Chip, Muffy or Brint or you think you are learning something from your Television, newspaper or radio, this album is not for you. Go back to your hapless grazing and never mind the pending cull you pathetic sheep.
From top to bottom this band exhibits a very rare, wide- awake and aware perspective with the full-on rage that accompanies finding out that you are a slave in a world where most of the people around you are totally asleep and in some cases completely dead from the neck up and thus hopelessly conjoined with the momentum of a diabolically influenced ignorance.
Joykamp's debut album is a surprising and bold declaration of their vision and radiates defiance. It is a scathing indictment of today’s social and political climate that may well get them "suicided", "lone nutted" or "plane crashed". As one of their awakened brethren, I am gitty, and silly in love with this breath of fresh air of an album that has not yet been replaced in my cd player. Seriously intelligent, aware, and musically fresh, this album threatens to tweak your pineal gland and is well worth buying. This is not the latest crap that passes for new and innovative on the airwaves, dulling the senses of our youth with lowest common denominator themes and being played so much that there is no point in owning the disc for your self.
These guys will likely never get to a "Clear Channel approved" level of notoriety, as they just can't seem to avoid aggressively putting the truth in your face. Every Verse, chorus, and bridge on this sucker is a wake up call to the few, the strong and the lonely minority of those who walk through the proverbial valley of death. Sadly, their truth will never be heard in the "main stream media".
The whole album boasts a George Orwell/Totalitarian state kind of vibe in the production with short sound bites from the movie 1984, as well as other sources, sprinkled throughout. For my money, this album is a true expression of the collective subconscious, and is, in the classic sense, a work of art. As well, it's unparalleled in it's power to be a swift and satisfying kick in the nuts to the mainstream media/propaganda/indoctrination machine and the whores who pollute it's ranks.
Joykamp is at there best when Rik Kiviaho lets loose an enraged blood curdling scream over top of the melodic backing vocals and chunky, funky rhythm guitar of Mike Wood solidly anchored by the seething foundation laid down by the gnarly bass and forceful drums of Dave Tull and Colin Harris.
Track 2 ( Hypnotized), track 11 ( Deathman) and track 9 (Perry Sez) are smokin' hot and probably the most commercial friendly, but track 20 (Hey Mofo) really gets my blood boiling. The whole album is very well written and developed but the content will just not be allowed. My only complaint is that the big league, big money sound production and engineering that accompanies major label radio releases is missing from this independent self- funded labour of soulful necessity. Their talent and meaningful message will get them signed to some courageous indie label and future recordings will no doubt have much bigger budgets, but the sound is still very good and I love the underground feel and integrity of it. Plus, there is enough rage on this thing to inspire even the most timid amongst us to want to hit back, hard!
The poetic, politically aware and deep thinking lyrics, delivered aggressively enough to get you moshing it up where ever you hear it, welded together with hard edged rhythms, torrid and ambient lead guitar tones, thumpin' bottom end and high octane percussion will satisfy every time you crank it on. While the message will invoke rage, there is nothing negative here, as ultimately the truth will set you free, even if it pisses you off on the way! Testify Joykamp, testify!

Luke Wittin
Hia-Phi Productions
- Luke Wittin