Before The Dawn
Into The Deadlight

06.11.2007

It often takes years to find a balanced approach to life and to realize the mistakes you made when you were young. Many bands start their careers by signing bad contracts, and when they record and release excellent albums, they face the situation when their music is simply unavailable anywhere. It seems that they only need to make one small step to reach fame and fortune, but contractual obligation prevent them from doing so, and the only thing they can do is wait until the deal expires, to try again afterwards. That’s what happened to Finnish gothic metal band Before The Dawn. The band has been playing live regularly, taking part in festivals and releasing solid records for a few years, but Lady Luck has been quite reluctant to notice them. The situation only started to change this year, with a new contract, new critically acclaimed album “Deadlight”, and a new single called “Deadsong”, which reached Top 10 in national charts. While visiting Finland, we caught up with the band’s mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen in his home town of Lahti shortly before the gig with Amorphis, and the result of the conversation is available below…

How are you doing, Tuomas?

Well, I am bit confused. Too many things are going on right now. We’ve just signed a contract for another band of mine and now I can’t tell you more about it. We will soon go to studio and the day before yesterday we recorded two new songs, so we try to combine playing gigs and spending some time in a studio.

Your latest album “Deadlight” came out in April this year. Who was the designer of this mystic cover of the new album?

The designer of the cover was the same guy who made the video for “Deadsong”. And that was not my choice, that was the compromise I had to do with the record company (Stay Heavy Records). The cover turned out very mystic and I actually like it. The video is very interesting as well.

On covers of the previous Before The Dawn albums one could see the symbols of the sun. Will you return to it later?

Well this time I gave some freedom to the record company, so they decided on everything about the cover. And I think that the sun will be back on the cover of the next album.

Why did you re-record the old song “Gehenna” for the “Deadsong” single? Don’t you like the original sound of the song?

Well, I like the original sound of the song very much. But now we have the fourth album already, and many people are asking us in interviews how our music has been evolving and changing since the beginning. I wanted to show that we still sound the same as on the demo versions. I decided to re-record the song as it was on the first mini-album, but I did all the melodies a bit new, so it is like an updated version. And this is the proof that we still play the same style.

On that single you made a cover version of “Bitter End” by Placebo. Do you like this band?

Yes, I do. And I like this song, I think it’s made by a genius, because there is only one riff and only two choruses in the whole song. As I do music myself, I usually analyze the music when I hear it. And I didn’t get the idea of this song before the practice. I tried to play (shows how he tried to do it) – OK, first part… aha, second chorus…fuck, the same riff… In this song everything is so simple but still very good arranged. I also like the lyrics and Brian Molko’s voice very much, although he is looking like a girl and it’s a bit too much for me. I mainly like vocalists like the one in Pantera, and I like my voice as well. Brian’s one is a bit girly… (laughs)

Speaking about Pantera, you did a cover of their song “Mouth For War” on another single, and your version features Jone Nikula, a judge of the Finnish TV show Idol. How did you get him?

He is actually a big fan of us, so it was very easy. He was playing our first single in his program at Radio Rock, which is the biggest radio in Finland, for nearly five months, he helped us so much. This was actually my stupid idea when ahead I spoke with the record company and they asked if I wanted to make another single for the Tuska festival with some special things like a new cover song. And I said, “OK, I’d like to do some old school stuff like Pantera.” Also the record company knows Jone personally, so they just said, “Ask Jone,” it was a bit of joke. When I called him, he called back in five minutes and agreed. I liked that he sang with me.  

Is it comfortable for you to take part in such festivals when there are different bands playing in a variety of styles?

Yes, we want to play with different bands, and sometimes we steal the audience. In Finland there is nearly five million people, and this is less than in London, and if you would play only with gothic bands, very narrow audience will hear you. Since the early days we have been played with Katatonia, Moonspell and Meshuggah, and when you compare Katatonia and Messuggah, they are like earth and water but still we get no battles. Foe me all these audiences are important and I think it’s good that we can play before them.

What is your attitude to the Idol show?

(Starts to think very seriously) Mmm… I try to be very polite now, because I have nothing against the people who take part in the show and win or have success. I don’t have any problems with that, I have sold more than a thousand copies of CDs myself. Actually this will help us in the future - there are a lot of people who learn to be an idol and perform some heavy stuff, but they don’t write music. And people start to buy albums of these metal stars, but later they will also buy ours. It’s still difficult to complete with Ari Koivunen, who is actually a very cool guy, and I have nothing against him personally. But I have been doing this since 1999, I have spent my money and time on the music, I have the second record company now, I also had some health problems because I worked too much with music to get money. And then these guys say on TV that they worked very hard at using karaoke for a couple of years! So he is a hard working guy who got his success using karaoke, and take me – I’ve done years of working! The Idol thing is a very cheap way to get success, and I like musicians who make their own music, not the pretty boys or girls for whom the record company does everything, telling them what to do and what to say at interviews. When there’s too much pressure on a musician, it’s not for me.

For several years you released your albums via Spanish record company Locomotive. How did you like to work with them?

I remember how I sent them the demo and they offered us the deal very quickly. There were a couple of other record companies interested of the band, I had three offers at that time, and  Locomotive offered us the best deal. But now when I think about it, I understand that it was a mistake but this thing you would never know, nothing gives you a guarantee. The contract didn’t go that well, and “Deadlight” is the first of our albums that was released in Finland and that sucks. We have been playing gigs for nearly four years, we have albums and even a DVD, but people still don’t know us. There are no albums in stores and there is no promotion. And the same is actually in Russia, I have some offers from Russia as well. I know why Locomotive didn’t do any licensing deals with other labels - they were afraid that CDs might return to Europe and that would be very bad for the distribution of the label, but now with the new label Mystic Empire, I think they will release our stuff in Russia, so it’s only a question of time. Now we try to make our way to European festivals and also Japan. I didn’t expect Japan but it has happened. Now we want to concentrate on the United States and Russia, later we will cover other countries, but we know that there is no company that can take care of the whole globe.

The first album “My Darkness” (2003) ends with the song “4.16 a.m.” and the second album is named “4.17 a.m.” (2004). What is going on at this time?

Well, this song and the name of the album are not about some actual time. It’s only that the next album continued after “My Darkness” was finished. So I only had several seconds free before I started to write the next album. The ideas were just going and going, and I think I was so clever when I made these songs so quickly.

Right after the first album you released a DVD called “The First Chapter”, was it a risk for you in some way?

Yes, for me it was a risk, and there was no reason to do it, but it was the idea of the record company. And I still don’t know why (laughs), because there was no point to make a DVD before the second album. I only liked that they tried to make a good video and use it as a promotion tool for the new band. We know that usually bands use the mix of the best songs from four or five albums when they do a live DVD, but our label wanted to try how this DVD would work. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as the promotion for a new band.

Do you have any plans to do another DVD?

Maybe yes. (smiles) Maybe it will be a collection of the best songs from our albums, and we will be able to use the recordings of some gigs that took place already.

What instrument did you start to play with?

It was a guitar…it wasn’t drums but now the drums are actually my main instrument. I played guitar for nearly eight years, and then I started to play drums, and then again replaced them with a guitar. I can also play the piano and I use these instruments all the time. I like to play drums, because this is a more physical instrument if you play heavy metal, or death or black. I practice one or two hours a day, and I actually like to play drums live more than guitars. I can feel that it’s not my place in the front of the stage, I don’t want to be in the center of attention, I would rather be in the back. I also like to play in small clubs, it’s warmer and noisier there, but when the stage is very big, and the audience is far away, you feel like you are on the podium, and I don’t like that. I like to be with the audience.

Have you ever thought about getting regular band members?

Yes, this is actually a regular band now. And to describe the whole picture - Before The Dawn has already had nearly 14 members, even more than in a football team. It’s quite much, every year persons are coming and leaving all the time. In the early days it was my solo band, I did two demos for myself, but later I had to get some guys for playing gigs. I got a band, and they played live what I told them, but most of the parts on the albums were recorded by myself. I don’t want problems with members in creating music, and my way to deal with problems is to cut them away, it’s like with cancer. I still feel friends with all the members but I want to be sure that they play good at the gig. When the house is sold out, I don’t want to have someone drunk on stage or someone who doesn’t know what to play.

How do you manage to write lyrics for two bands Before The Dawn and Dawn Of Solace?

(laughs) Actually I have five bands. And these two groups are like twin brothers. At the moment I also have record deals for two other bands and have just negotiated one for the fifth band. For me it’s very easy to write lyrics, I usually write all lyrics in a studio. I just write about things which I have in my mind, and it’s like a diary. Everyone has some thoughts or feelings all the time, and I create my song this way and not talk too much about how to write…

Don’t you think that the sound of these two bands is similar in some way?

Well, actually the sound of the bands is similar, my vocals are what makes them a bit alike and there is also Lars (Eikind) doing some growling vocals in both bands. I think people can recognize my way of doing music, and I try to make it as decent as possible, but I understand that people can hear some similarities. But I like very strong and melancholic melodies, aggressive guitars…

How did you feel when you single got the first position in the Finnish Top Ten?

Well, it was only the second position – a shame, a very big shame.  (laughs) It was a long way to get this far, we have played nearly a hundred gigs in Finland and have a good progress with the new album. The new record company has done a good job for the band - we got a nomination in the category of the best musician of the year, and they gave us enough money to do a decent video for “Deadsong”. Moreover, they work closely with three different radio stations in Finland, and that was a real help in getting the single to the top. We were expecting the single to make it into Top Ten, but the second place was actually a very big surprise. At that point I felt happy…

Before The Dawn on the Internet: http://www.beforethedawn.com

Special thanks to Mikko Vehmas (Stay Heavy Records) for his help with this interview

Interview by Victoria “Ewigkeit” Bagautdinova
Questions also provided by Roman “Maniac” Patrashov
September 29, 2007