Meeting StSanders: The Sultan of Shreds
It was in 2007, many years after the joke of karaoke and the X Factor had worn thin, that one Finnish man inadvertently discovered a whole new world of humour in the amateur performance concept, inverting it so that respected musicians were made to sound terrible.
While nonchalantly watching a Steve Vai performance clip one day and jamming along, media artist Santeri Ojala, aka StSanders, clocked the hilarious contrast between a performer’s intense posturing and the tuneless racket he could dub over it.
After his ensuing ‘shreds’ versions of performances by fellow guitar legends Gary Moore, Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana swiftly garnered millions of views on YouTube, and saw Ojala being flown from his hometown Tampere to L.A to live-shred a Guns’n’Roses clip on the Jimmy Kimmel show as a bemused Slash looked on, he moved on to composing entire new wacky songs for some of the world’s biggest bands, exquisitely lip-synching bizarre alternative lyrics for videos by The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kiss and Queen.
The effect is both bewildering and hysterical: iconic musical artists reduced to unwitting puppets performing crude ditties which are truly awful yet brilliant in their execution.
These next-level shreds creations attracted a new wave of online admirers in their hundreds of thousands (and spawned countless imitators) but also some more unwelcome attention in the form of record companies unimpressed by the liberties taken, leading to Ojala’s suspension from YouTube (he’s since republished the removed videos on his own website).
A decade on from seeing his first shreds video, I made a point of hitting up the creator while visiting Helsinki for the first time late last year, as I’ve spent many hours watching his clips, often reduced to tears, once spending a whole evening consuming the full canon back-to-back with a fellow muso mate. Ojala’s adroit musical skill in so capably aping the artists he’s parodied has actually led to interviews in respected music magazines like Guitar Player.
Now aged 42 and about to unveil a new creative project, he agreed to meet me in Hämeenlinna, an old city equidistant between Finland’s capital and his current hometown Nokia, and even brought along his yellow shredding axe for some fitting rock poses.
First things first: how long does it take to create one of your band shreds videos?
About a week, sometimes two. I wouldn’t say I’m much of a perfectionist but, you know, it can’t be bad, at all. When I’ve looked back at them later, the only slight regrets I ever have is to do with recording quality, like, I should really have had better gear.
It must be quite a balancing act to make it sound crappy yet passably good at the same time, and sometimes it’s a bit too good.?
Yeah, that’s something I sometimes struggle with. It’s easy to play badly if you don’t play, but if you’re good you have those patterns and that zone where you want to play as well as possible, so it creates a kind of struggle.
I always come back to the Kiss shreds because it was the first band one and I was learning the craft. It’s just trial and error. The philosophy is that it still has to be pleasurable to listen to — not so bad that you don’t want to listen to it.
Are there any acts you’ve seen who already look so ridiculous that you wouldn’t be able to parody them?
I did have an idea to do a Justin Bieber shreds but then when I tried I thought ‘I can’t do this’ — he’s unshreddable!
Which makes sense because obviously he’s not very good to begin with so there’s little point. They need to have some respectability?
Exactly. But they also need to look a bit…goofy? That’s why Yngwie Malmsteen is the greatest…victim…because he’s super-respected, but also so full of himself that I really can’t leave that alone!
What does your mrs think of your work?
(Laughs) Oh boy. Put it this way, if my wife wasn’t supportive of it, things wouldn’t have worked. While she likes a lot of the stuff I do — she loves the band shreds, especially ‘Job’ — she doesn’t necessarily ‘get’ other stuff and of course I don’t expect her to, like the subtleties of guitar wanker parody, not being a guitarist. But she’s very supportive and believes in me and that’s what’s important.
What would you say to someone like my ex who thinks it’s all a bit immature and the result of having too much time on your hands?
Well, that sounds a bit like something my parents would say! But it’s probably the reason why most of my audience are guys, because you need to have some amount of immaturity to appreciate it.
Some of the people you’ve parodied also didn’t seem to get the joke?
It’s strange because I heard that Steve Vai loved his clip but it was still removed from YouTube, but I think that was more to do with copyright issues than him not being amused.
And he was the first artist who inspired you to ‘shred’?
Yes, I was watching a video of him perform one day, and he just looked so stupid that I turned down the sound and started playing my guitar over it and thinking that’s what he should be playing! So that’s what gave me the original idea.
Did you have any expectation of how popular your videos would be?
No. I mean, I knew it was good because I was laughing so much that my shirt became wet, just re-inventing him in this way and making him sound so bad.
Which one’s your favourite?
I’d have to say The Beatles one, but of course I love the Stones one too.
That’s probably mine too. I actually downloaded it as an mp3 to listen to in my car when I need a pick-me-up.
Well you’re not the only one. They’re on iTunes too, where I can see they’ve been downloaded quite a lot.
The downside to it all though is that I can’t now take seriously the videos to Start Me Up or Van Halen’s Jump ever again?
You know I’ve had the same problem with one of my favourite ever films — Blade Runner — which I’ve been re-dubbing scenes from, but it got to the point where I thought “I’m actually fucking up this movie for me now” and started to regret it.
No more shreds videos in the pipeline then?
Well it’s been ten years now, and there’s still so many bands that I could shred, who really deserve it — not gonna name names! — but the problem remains the copyright thing. I’ve never found a network that could stick up for me, that could say ‘no, you can’t take this video down, it’s clearly a parody’. So it’s frustrating to put a week of your life into making something that’s then torn down.
However there is a newly published ‘Crossroads shreds’, featuring Steve Vai again [from the 1986 musical drama starring Ralph Macchio]. Begin with Vai, return to Vai: the same damn wanker, still celebrating his own shitty playing. But hold on — there’s a new player in town. He’s young and hungry and wants to take down the master. High noon, they duel. The result is brutal.
(StSanders has also published this new take on Hocus Pocus by Focus,
to commemorate the ten year anniversary of the first Shreds video)
You famously were invited to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel Show in L.A to live-shred a Slash video with him watching. Did you speak to him after and was he cool with it?
Yeah, he was asking me if I knew some Finnish dudes that he knew, like Hanoi Rocks’ Michael Monroe, and I was like ‘how the fuck would I know them?’. But he was cool about it. Of course when he started playing his gear was 10x louder than mine which kind of drowned me out.
[Whole clip at stsanders.com/web/about]
I know Finns’ English is generally pretty fluent but how have you progressed your vocabulary to such a high level?
I basically try to read as much as possible in English, particularly on the internet, and I watch so many British and American comedies and TV shows.
Any you particularly love?
Alan Partridge. I don’t think Steve Coogan’s created a better character. And I love how he goes all the way back to that earlier show — Brass…Brass Eye? — as a crappy sports journalist. [English accent] He must have a foot like a traction engine!
Likewise, it must be a great feeling to know you’ve made so many people laugh so much. I’ve certainly cried a few times, drawing odd looks in my gym while using the treadmill YouTube screens.
Well thanks, that’s the ultimate payoff I get from it all really. It’s mission accomplished.
Santeri’s new animated band series ‘Prostatika’ will start going live later this year — subscribe to the YouTube channel or Facebook page to stay posted.
* My personal video tribute to StSanders’ Job by Han Navel
> the ‘live’ version