"Pick up your first thought and take that adventure
I'm sure you'll be much happier than if you're
stuck with the idea of doing what you're expected to"
Kingston Wall - "When Something Old Dies" (from the album Kingston Wall III - Tri-Logy)
Born in
Helsinki,
Finland as Petri Ilari Walli on
February 25, 1969, he was the first
child to born from his
father's third
marriage. His
family tree consisted of well-known
Finnish artists and musicians, so it is no wonder that Petri Walli (sometimes credited as
Pete Walli) later became the
leader (
guitarist/
singer) of a
popular Finnish cult rock band named
Kingston Wall. The group existed from
1987 to
1994. Walli composed most of the songs for the
band and wrote all the
lyrics. The other two members in his band,
Kingston Wall were
bass player Jukka Jylli and
drummer Sami Kuoppamäki.
Other notable persons from the Walli family in Finland are, for example his stepbrother
Hasse Walli (has the same
father as Petri), a
famous Finnish jazz/
blues guitarist - he played in groups such as
Blues Section and
Piirpauke. And there is his
cousin,
Eppu Walli, who helped in creating the cover arts to the
three Kingston Wall albums - he makes
tattoos in
Helsinki,
Finland and owns a
tattoo studio in
Helsinki called
Blue Dragon Tattoo Studio.
Those who knew Petri Walli, described him as a
philosophical and an
eccentric person. He travelled, for example, to the
middle east and
India on many occasions and gained
oriental influences that showed in the band's
music and
lyrics. For example, in the songs "
Nepal" (from their debut album) and
We Cannot Move from "
Kingston Wall - II" the eastern themes can be clearly heard.
During
Kingston Wall's 7-year existence, Walli had only one
electric guitar, a Gibson
Les Paul '72 Goldtop with sandwich body with the original paint removed and redone in brown. Walli in
Soundi 3/1993: "
Some people have time to build guitars, but I rather spend my time on something else. And I have no interest to modify my guitar, I rather work in a way that I see a new guitar and get something out of it which I haven't got before. And I must think of my resources too. I have only one electric guitar and I work by its resources."
He was often seen as some sort of a
perfectionst - they originally had
Timo Joutsimäki on drums before
professional jazz-
drummer Sami Kuoppamäki (who is often said to be one of
Finland's
best drummers) replaced him. Joutsimäki left the band when KW was recording their
debut album because he ran into
serious fights with Walli about arranging the drums. Walli got Kuoppamäki into the band and recording sessions continued. "
Kingston Wall - I" was released in
early 1992.
Petri Walli's artistic visions were also enhanced by
psychedelic drugs, for example the first
Kingston Wall album had a 21-minute
song titled "
Mushrooms". In his
1994 interview (in
Soundi 11/1994,
English translation) he stated: "
I don't know, does the whole public drug-conversation have any sense before people in Finland are ready for it. I could join the conversation by saying that the biggest group of narcomaniacs in Finland are career people, who take amphetamine in the morning under the doctor's prescription and sleeping pills in the evening. And still they demand criminalization for a plant that you grow and smoke yourself. And that mushrooms are the worst thing that there can be. They're the products of Mother Nature anyway and if they contain psychoactive components, isn't it the will of Mother Nature? And all the time people are pumped with chemicals under doctor's order and upon the request of the medicine company, altough you really don't need them."
Kingston Wall was a band that was Walli's lifetime project, and it sure did keep the man busy. All the original print versions of the
Kingston Wall records were released under the band's own
record label,
Trinity, which was run by the
mysterious "
Pedro Cucaracha". Those who remember
Lucky Luke might recall that
Pedro Cucaracha was an
alias name for a
gangster named
Horseshoe Harry in an old
Lucky Luke cartoon, so it shouldn't be hard to figure out that Mr. Cucaracha was indeed Petri Walli.
Walli was once asked in an
interview about his role in
Kingston Wall, and he replied to be "the
lunatic who tries to do it all at the same time". And that is what he was - a
producer,
manager,
promoter,
composer and, above all, the
centre-
figure of his group. Perhaps his effort on the band was explained through his
perfectionist personality.
Kingston Wall base player Jukka Jylli in an
interview (from
Soundi 3/1998): "
Jylli admits, that a manager who would have been organizing practical things would have helped Kingston Wall. But on the other hand Pete Walli was a man, who always wanted to do things his way. That's why he would have probably always told the manager what to do."
Altough the band was so popular that they played at the largest clubs around
Finland and the
record sales weren't bad either, Walli could have been frustrated because the band wasn't appreciated enough in his opinion, at least compared to the effort he had put in it. And altough all of the
three albums were released by record label "
Zero" in
Japan, they still didn't get a big international breakthrough.
Kingston Wall performed
abroad only once, in
Tallinn,
Estonia.
With the band's third album, "
Kingston Wall III - Tri-Logy" (
1994), it was beginning to be more and more obvious that the band project would soon be discontinued. In the release interview of
III - Tri-Logy (in
Soundi 11/1994) Walli says: "
Well, the record-set is now finished. I don't believe that it will have a fourth part, because it's in fact a trilogy of three men on seven levels. So this is the sixth level and next there will be a single called The Real Thing. That's the seventh level. But you never know about tomorrow, do you."
At the time of the third album, Walli's interest towards the
Bock Saga (told by
Ior Bock, a man Walli knew well) grew and Walli referenced the
Bock Saga story in the
lyrics and CD cover
booklet on
Kingston Wall's last album,
III - Tri-Logy.
After
Kingston Wall played its last
live gig in a
prison in
Helsinki on
December 6, 1994, the band split up in a nearby
cafeteria. Base player Jylli and
drummer Kuoppamäki headed out to work with other projects, and and weren't much in contact with Walli (Jylli went to work abroad, Kuoppamäki played drums in various groups and taught drum playing in
Helsinki).
But on
summer 1995, Walli headed out to
India for one last time. After returning from his journey, with his backpack still unpacked at the
Trinity office, Petri Walli committed
suicide on
June 26, 1995, at the age of 26, by jumping from
Töölö's Church tower in
Helsinki,
Finland. He was then later buried in
Hietaniemi Cemetery,
Helsinki,
Finland.
As for the reasons for why he did it, nobody knows for sure. People who had seen him just hours before his
departure claimed him to be about as normal as usual. Nevertheless, the lyrics for the song "
For All Mankind" from the last Kingston Wall album can easily be seen as his suicide note:
For All Mankind
"We all know this world's going through some big changes,
it gets to the point where all phenomenons seem
crazy and people start looking for ways to live
outside from the system that makes them all so blind.
Some try to find new fields to explore from outside
their heads, some go in there and find that the
richness of life is so easy to multiply,
just by throwing away all the thoughts that keep us
from learning to now the personality, that lives inside
us and tries to come out,
but facing it is the key to unwind from closing yourself
as the surroundings provide."
Look out world it's time to die
No more crying with my mind
Some of us have seen the sign
the promise of a balanced time
When we'll sing no lullabies
and all of us have got real eyes
"The shamen seeds for all mankind"
One* day we will say goodbye
to all of them who live the time
nomore need to compromize
nomore questions: "tell me why"
balanced heart needs no disguise
but shamen seeds for all mankind
"The shamen seeds for all mankind"
Later on, Walli's work has gained more and more appreciation. The original
Trinity copies of the
trilogy (and the four singles) are long-ago sold out and are high-priced collectors' items as well. On
February 25, 1998, on Pete's 29th birthday (if he had lived), the three Kingston Wall albums were re-released with bonus material in
Finland by
Zen Garden Records and so Kingston Wall climbed its way back up to the Finnish top music charts.
The influences of Petri Walli's
music,
lyrics and
guitar playing still show strongly in
Finnish popular and
rock music and his works have influenced such groups in Finland as
The Rasmus,
Amorphis and
Von Hertzen Brothers. As a tribute to Walli's work, on
June 2000, a trance
remix CD "
Kingston Wall - Freakout Remixes" was released. It contained
psychedelic trance remixes of classic
Kingston Wall songs made by
top-notch Finnish underground trance artists, such as
Texas Faggott,
Squaremeat,
Possible Apple and
Accu. There has also been
Kingston Wall tribute gigs in Helsinki, where other bands played
Kingston Wall and these tribute shows have always been a great success - and it shows clearly that Walli's
music is still
alive.
Petri Walli
quotes (translated from
Finnish to
English):
* (
Soundi 3/1993) "I think of myself as a fairly talented
sound producer, but not as a
guitarist in a
traditional way. The most important thing isn't how your fingers should be, but what
sounds they make. That sound can originate from anywhere, even from a
washing machine. I used to play some good songs with a
washing machine... I wanted to bring it along to our gig, but I haven't managed to do that yet. My
father still has it, so maybe some day..."
* (
Sound 3/1993) "A
guitar is kind of a
symbol of a
woman and if you look at good guitarists, they warm up chicks the same way they hold their
guitar in their hand. I think girls see some similiarity in that thing. At this stage I don't want to speak about myself, let the chicks talk. Oh, and notice, I really just have
one guitar!"
* (
Soundi 11/1994) "I went to
India last
spring. It was the first
time for who knows how many years when I had the chance to
think and to be with
myself. It was a
fertile thing in many ways, for myself and also for the
band.
You need real eyes to realize."
* (
Soundi 11/1994) "Of course I too sometimes get myself really
drunk. That's the
salt of
life, you know. Rough work requires rough fun. Of course there's many ways to have fun, but nothing beats the good old
drunk except the
hangover. - But
life is the best
drug. It's really
true, but it's kind of
ironic to read it from a
sticker that's glued to a side of a
police car.
Life is the best
drug, but first you have to
realize what
life is. Otherwise it can be quite a suffering."
See also: