Source: Seepra Magazine

Thanks to IronHeart and Videl

Cap gun interview
You don't mess with Marko's hair

Marko
-Poets of the Fall was founded in 2002
-The band consists of the singer Marko, guitarist Olli and the man of many talents, Captain
-The band rose to fame when their song Late Goodbye was chosen to be the music in the computer game Max Payne 2
-The band's first album came out in January 2005
-The singer Marko lives alone in Espoo
-Marko was born on the 5th of December in 1970
-He's got, among other things, a sport masseur's training. At the moment he's studying acupunction
-Earlier he has worked as a graphic artist, designer of advertising and a masseur
-Poets of the Fall performs at the Lappeenranta Festival on July 16th

Marko, singer of the band Poets of the Fall, why does your band have an English name?
Marko: This language question comes on the whole from me, cause I'm bilingual. It feels natural to write the music and sing in English.

That explains the fact that you sound foreigner when you sing. I feared for a moment that there's some Milli Vanilli -type of system behind this. That the guys just move their lips when someone else sings.
Marko: Now that would be neat! To always do the gigs as playback. Yeah, I couldn't go to a gig like that, though.

Poets of the Fall also sounds better than *'Syksyn runoilijat'. That sounds somehow too…**Tommy Tabermann?
Marko: May be. There are also other connotations related to the word 'fall' than autumn, like having a fall and falling down.

By the way, do you read Tommy's books?
Marko: I've read some of his stuff and I've surprisingly liked it. I thought it'd go beyond my comprehension, but it's surprisingly perceptive.

In some articles your name is Marko and in others it's Mark. Does the name depend on whether the interview goes outside ***Ring III or what?
Marko: No, it depends on whether the story goes to Finland or abroad.

Wouldn't it have been good then to take a foreign stage name like…
Marko: Nasty Suicide? We did talk about that too, but it doesn't really fit to our style. We have foreign names mainly because there are quite a lot of people who don't understand Finnish. Now they don't have to think if the name was markou or what.

You don't use hair spray, do you?
Marko: Hair spray? Actually I have wax.

In one of your songs it says that 'don't mess with my hair', so I thought I'd suggest that you'd use greasy hair wax. To keep people's hands on their own side. But obviously someone has already given you the hint.
Marko: True. 'Mess with my hair' is more like a metaphor, that get out of my head, but actually I got the idea to that metaphor when I was at the barber's.

I've heard that one of your parents is Irish?
Marko: So have many others and I haven't been bothered to correct them. The truth is that both my mother and father are Finnish, but my mom used to live in England for many years and spoke English to me when I was a child.

Aha, I was wondering already, that what kind of an Irish is a one who doesn't drink.
Marko: Yeah, I get to hear that a lot. At first they squinted me in Ireland when I visited there. But I'm not a teetotaller, I had a couple beers at the last gig. I just don't drink if I don't have a mind to.

I hear you have a metal background. How have you drifted so far away from it?
Marko: There has only come one album out from us!

So there can be Anthrax -type of songs coming out?
Marko: You never know. But our albums don't depend just on me. On the other hand I write songs from a pretty different basis compared to the guys of Anthrax. I've done trash earlier, but I don't know if that'll ever end up on our album.

What are you allergic to?
Marko: Mosquitos and wasps and other stingers. I always carry a viper package with me. Once my hand was in a splint for two weeks after a wasp stung to it.

Do you play the computer game Max Payne 2 to hear your own song?
Marko: No, I don't. The game itself is a great achievement, but I don't like shooting games.

I've understood you're reserved, but if you weren't how would you charm yourself a summer cat?
Marko: I'd save it from a dog.

* 'Syksyn runoilijat' is a Finnish translation to 'Poets of the Fall', fall means the same as autumn there.
** Tommy Tabermann is probably the most famous Finnish poet
*** Rings I-III are big motorways surrounding Helsinki, Ring III being the farthest one from the capital.

When do you believe that you´re on the peak of your career? Soon? (Kaisa)
- Well there isn´t anything to complain on the present either . I´d rather be on the way up all the time.

Do you play consol games a lot? (Harri)
- There isn´t much time for playing but usually on chirstmas holidays we like to play something new and interesting.

Where does the name ”Poets of the Fall” come from? (Allu)
- The name came after a quite a long thinking. It was ment to consist the words which contain our own musics atmosphere. Briefly, the name is ambiguous. It is both description of the human life: poets of the fall, architects of decay, authors of demise… and so on… and purely poetic poets of the autumn or the rain or the fall.

When are you going to release new music? (Mikko)
- It´s born all the time. Maybe in the fall we can start recording a new album… maybe not…

What do you do when you have spare time? (Jarkko)
- We sleep a lot and hang out with our friends, sometimes you just need to be alone. However we have shockingly little spare time.

Have you had any gigs abroad? (Liisa)
- We´ve been in Norway and this year we should visit the rest of the Scandinavia and possibly Russia.

If Poets of the Fall would be a hockey team, it would be…? (Rami)
- On lay off.

The singer has such a sexy voice that it makes my knees weak…hmmm… (Mirka)
- Thank you.

Where are you from? (Karpo)
- From Helsinki.

Who/What is your music idol? (Pete)
- U2, Vai, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Live, Alice in Chains… I just bought Tori Amos´ new album, it´s good too.

Do you have girlfriends? (Anselmi)
- That´s classified information, dude.

How did you happen to make music to a game, was the song ready already? (Janne)
- The gamemakers in Remedy are our friends. That way I got to compose the song to the game (MaxPayne 2). The song was custom-built. It has been composed for the game, so it wasn´t ready on the drawer.

Don`t mess with... Poets of the Fall

March 15th 2005, Helsinki
A concertreport by Nathalie Martin

Inspiring poets without airs and graces.
Grade: Absolutely recommendable
Site of Crime: Tavastia, Helsinki
The alleged criminals: three poets and three friends
Time of act: almost 1 ½ hours
Witnesses: mostly Finns and some fans from UK/Germany

Singer Mark storms the stage in rapper outfit, Poets of the Fall hoodie and sunglasses and starts with „Don`t mess with me“

The lanky guy jumps wild and crazy while the first songs, rips his jacket off and throws it in the crowd. A fight starts then and he shouts visibly irritated „It`s just a jacket!“

While playing the Max Payne Song „Late Goodbye“ he goes through the audience somehow and gets to the fourth row. The – not only now arising – crowd is more worse than on a Slayer concert... too much female fans.

But the poets don`t play girlie musik by no means: Mark, guitarist Ollie and keyboard man Captain – who likes Apple I-Books definately – and also the supplementary second guitar, bass and drums – are playing the songs live much harder than on their SoL album.

And the Finns celebrate it completely, not till „3 AM“ but almost 90 minutes long. The band grant themselves a little rest at „Someone Special“, when Ollie grabs his accoustic-guitar, Mark sits down on his bar stool, Captain sinks on a platform and only the bass singer twitches his chords gently in the background.

Mark – who changed from cap to bowler-hat – searches for the contact with the audience again, climbs from the stage, walks through the audience, goes back and asks „today is thursday, is that a good day?“ Everything sreams „Hyvä!“ (that means good), but Mark doesn`t accept it and means „Maybe tomorrow is a better day?“ You can only hear this unique christmaspresent live yet.... maybe a piece for the new CD?

The singer shouts now a bit less reflective „Should i STAY or should i go?“ The crowd sreams soulful with hundert voices „STAY!“ But that seems to be too quiet for him, cause first when they reach their maximum volume he`s satisfied and sings „Stay“. After that he shouts „Give me an L!“ and in best cheerleader style the heated up audience gives a „L-I-F-T“.

The musicians leave the stage too early. The mass wants more and the returning band has trouble to calm them down. After some „shhhh`s“, Mark can whistle „With Silence comes Peace...“ and begin to sing „Sleep“.

Who wonders all the time where the fabulous „Illusion & Dream“ is: This really last song finishes this sweeping concert. A compliment to the guys from the sound technics for the excellent sound.

But the evening isn`t over with that: The poets don`t show airs and graces. Mark, Olli and Captain are busy writing autographs on booklets, just bought t-shirts, tickets and by paperabsence on arms. They`re posing for pics – witch are taken by the mobile in Nokialand – not only with female fans; some guys eternalised too.

The one who missed the band so far should get enough chances : The history of the poets just started.

Text: Nathalie Martin

...now probably we are “Rockstars“
An interview by Nathalie Martin, Helsinki 2005

The song “Late Goodbye“ of the finnish poets, alias rocksinger Mark, jazzguitarist Ollie and industrial-trance-man Captian, spread like a virus with the computergame “Max Payne 2“. Radiostations picked and play(ed) it, like the second single “Lift“.
And suddenly it swarms on their webpage with visitors from Scandinavia, Germany, England and the USA. They storm the finnish charts with their debutalbum –
Singer Mark makes a statement

Music gives us the perspective

At first, congratulation to your furious enter in the finnish albumcharts: Top 1 in the first week!

Thanks!

You even topped Apocalyptica, Nightwish and Green Day...

(headshaking)... only worldstars. That is really unbelievable. And we´re still in the Top 10.
(annotation of the editorial staff: So since six weeks, at the date of the interview on place 10)

How sounds your explication for this success?

...there isn`t any. (long break) I just can explain it to me this way: the people really like our music. Music is everything we had given them. (break). Every person has to do something, some go jogging, some drink, others meditate – and we compose music. That gives us the perspective. (break) First, i write the music, play it, feel it – and then the lyrics come from alone.

You`re the Mainsongwriter?

Yes. Normally me and ollie. Then we sit down and produce them together. The result comes from us all. It`s good to have them, they giving their own input in. (break) Even when i feel mostly the primary responsibility.

Songs as snapshots

Your music sounds not very finnish; it could come from bands from the UK or USA. Why?

We never intend to sound english or american. We make our own music – and we enjoy the way we do it... and it seems to appeal to other people. (smiles) Many people think that we come from England or the USA. They`re very perplexed, when they read “Finland“ on our site.

(break) I learned english from my mother since i was a child, she lived a long time in England. With 17, i was a year in Florida as exchange student and later i was in Ireland. (thinks about) ... english is a expressive language. When i write lyrics, i always do it in english.

You had never written finnish lyrics?

Sure. Few. But they didn`t feel like they were from me. (smiles) That “accents-thing“ is difficult, ... when i talk to a englishman, i speak with british accent, with americans american and with irish people irish. (smiles) The same happens to me here in finland, whatever i go to Tampere or Turku; our second guitarist comes from Pori, i match very quickly with him.

And your musical influences?

I´m very diversified there. From metal over U2 and Live to classic.
I also like Pearl Jam, Tori Amos, Prince (smiles) ... i have all his albums and know all lyrics. Ollie prefers jazz and guitarheros: 80`s metal, Van Halen.
Captain likes Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, he is our industrial-dancemusic-man. (break) But our songs arise from “snapshots“, not because of our musical influences. A good example: i`m sitting in a bus, it`s dawning, i´m passing a house with a backyard. The house, the sky, the half-light – there arises the idea. I come home, sit down to my piano – there is the song, the lyrics, everything (starts singing). Maybe it will be on the next album (smirks).

When you really want something: Write it down!

Did you already made music when you lived in Florida?

Of Course, for a long time! (smiles) I started singing when i was 3. My first perfomance...

...under christmas tree?

(laughs)... quite similar. I took a screwdriver as microphone. Of Course i didn`t sing a text, just for fun (sings an example) aaajaaajaa and everyone starred at me. That was my first performance. I think they found it rather funny. (laughs)

With seven i started paying guitar, later with piano and violin. (defending)
But i can`t play violin, i did it only a half year. (thoughtful) Violine is a beautiful instrument. Maybe i should go into a store, buy one and take lessons. (break) The violine gets familiar to the voice at the most (kidding), okay, a cello applies sooner to my voice.

Are the poets of the Fall your first band?

No, no. I had the first with 15, as singer, then there were five, six others.

And than the poets...

... Yes, 2002, in may at 21. oder 25.

Good memory!

(smiles) No. Lately someone asked me for the foundationtime. We arranged a kind of schedule, what we`ll do when, i got it lately into my fingers – and the date was on it.

And was there something like: End of january 2005 TOP 1 of the finnish charts?

(laughs) No! More things like “getting signed“ and so. But it`s a good thing when you really want something: Write it down! Then you will achieve it.

Now probably we`re rockstars

How long do you know eachother?

Ollie and me are old friends. Years before, we played together in a band. Just when we recorded “Late Goodbye“, Captain joins and worked with us. We liked him and asked him, if want to play with us. We gave him other stuff from us, he listened to it... and he liked it. He called us and meant: Okei

And live...?

We`re six musicans. We three are indeed Poets of the Fall, but live we act together. They`re our friends, almost a family. (break) It isn`t work, it`s fun. You feel home. It´s important for me and for us all.

Is there a musicvideo from you guys?

(laughs) ...ähm. We`ve been working on the “Late Goodbye“ video since a year.
That is an expensive thing too, but many friends helped us – und i hope it`s finished within a week. Than we countinue with the second, “Lift“ or “Illusion & Dream“. (smiles) I already think about the second Album. I`m writing songs the whole time. I love the studiowork, “to get the songs out“, to file on them in the studio.

... but sure to perform live too. How is it going with you tour?

Short time after the publishment, at February 2nd, we were 3 weeks on tour. 11 shows in clubs with around 400, 500 people. Many were sold out, the people knew all our lyrics. We had much fun. Meanwhile we have dates till august, also festivals. (break) And we played also a gig in Stavenger, Norway. Nobody there knew our album, but at “Late Goodbye“ everybody sang along. They liked us, i think.

(thinks, and snorts with laughter) The First time i recognized that we are probably “rockstars“ was in Oulu: we sat backstage, the hall was already open, people stand to the rear wall. Our guitarist wants to smoke, opens the door, the crowd sees him – and starts screaming. He really got scared. (laughs)

Or in Vaasa... I sit on the stage, five peolpe pulling at my legs, three women get on the stage and want to kiss me, äh... kiss me and i try to sing, “Lift“ ... i beat the microphone against my teeth, and my lip starts to bleed.

... isn`t it scary?

I´m not a scary person (jocking)... not yet.

Max Payne, Internet – and a inkblot test

Why do you wrote the score for “Max Payne 2“ ?

Sam (annotation of the editorial staff: the scriptwriter) from Remedy is an old friend of mine and asked me if would write a song for it.

It´s so easy. And what`s up with the G.A.N.G. – Award you`ve won in California?

That is like a Oscar/Grammy for computergames. We won it in March 2004 for “Best Original Vocal Song“ . (annotation of the editorial staff: The Game Audio Network Guild deals with the scoring of videogames and award the G.A.N.G. – Award for special earnings in Sound Design, Music and Synchronisation).

Do you owe Max Payne to your fans?

At the beginning, surely. But now i think it`s 50:50. Of Course at first from Max Payne, but radiostations play(ed) “Late Goodbye“, “Lift“ spread legally over the internet (smiles). Others heared the music from their friends.

Let`s stay on the internet. Benediction or curse? Many labels mourn about the losings because of downloads, many small bands see it as an opportunity to get established...

I think the people who like our music, buy the album. At our performances, many people keep “SIGNS OF LIFE“ up and say: “Look, i bought your album!“ (smiles) and furthermore, they have something that we can sign. That is really great! (break)

We made our fans a Christmas present over the net: One month long, we set a song online, “Maybe Tomorrow Is A Better Day“. Several minutes after it was online, it was spread over the whole world. Really amazing.

Apropos “SIGNS OF LIFE“: I heard you recorded about 100 songs... how do choose the proper ones?

That was a tough decision! Of course everyone of us had his favourites; at first we had 24 songs, than 16 on short-list. To choose 12 of them was really, really hard... and this 12 had to build a whole. Really tough. Than we wrote lists everbody, and than we got it.

One last question: What sense stands after the album cover?

There is no direct sense in it – but many dicussions about it. Why a lollipop in the ashtray? If ash would be in, nobody would talk about it. I heard the most unbelievable incursions and interpretations of the cover from all sorts of people.
That`s like a inkblot – test. (annotation of the editorial staff: The test collects and points the associativity of 10 standardised, colored inkblot picture. The test was developed by the swiss psychologist Hermann Rohrschach in 1921).

2. Sorry Go 'Round
A funny song. Not like a joke kind of funny, but good stuff. It has been made with quite a rough hand. I'm really looking forward to playing this song in a gig. The name of the song refers to a merry go' round found in amusement parks. it symbolically and ironically refers to our planet and to its' doings. What comes to the message, things aren't always what they seem.

3. Carnival Of Rust
Carnival Of Rust is basically a love song. It's slightly bitter though. In the middle of all the grotesqueness that the "I" in the song seems to take part, is found that one person for who all the evil can be endured. The title song for the album and the first single. A video is getting ready for this song.

4. Locking Up the Sun
Meaning that it becomes completely dark. I bump into this same theme very often. There's a trivial problem. Almost insignificant. A fingernali broke. Someone hasn't eaten for six hours and or people get frustrated even when they don't know what's wrong, and so on. Quite quickly the trivial problem becomes enormous and causes more problems. Of course the fault and the guilty must be found. Ridicioulusly often the fault and the guilty are found in someone else. When the problem has been defined, shouldn't someone solve it? Someone else than me. Someone has to be guilty..

6. King of Fools
I think everyone of us can sometimes recognise themselves in the title of this song, at least when you're speaking out your own opinions. The song was made in some of the recording sessions we had with Ollie. His new idea at that time was simply such a great one the song just "happened to us". I instantly knew what to sing and how, and what kind of chorus it would have.

We just had to rush out to get our old tape recorder and get the idea saved. (Some random facts about the old recorder here )
Luckily, these days, I've got mp3 players and such for these things. I try to keep all the new stuff in one place, tho, so it can be found easily when needed.

Unfortunately I'm sometimes a bit sloppy with the electronic devices and a new song can easily be deleted accidentally. Last week I just lost a f'cking great song, that was supposed to be one of the songs for the 3rd album. I still have the lyrics in a notebook, and I think I can remember the melody do as I've been singing it out loud a lot lately.. maybe the song can still be saved.

7. Roses
Roses has a totally new Poets-feeling to it, altho as a song, it's quite simple. ON of those "three chord miracles". This song I've been listening to even after leaving the studio for the day. The lyrics have more story-like narration to them and the music flows and winds like a stream.

8. Desire
This one's about the dangers of seduction , and the fact that no-one can really live without it. I mean, without some sort of passion. An easy-going unplugged song. We actually made a big "orchestra version" of this too, but in the end, just wanted to keep it simple.

9. All the Way / 4U
Well, a man needs to soften up a bit every now and then. It's one of those rainy day songs, but I think it was originally written on Midsummer day last year, as the sun was shining. A beautiful song.

10. Delicious
This song has something to it, that makes your throat tickle and makes you wanna sing. The song is about those two things, that not only fascinate people, but also sometimes slap them in the face. The dark and the mysterious things: "life & love".

11. Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day
I wrote this back in the 80's. It didn't get out of the drawer until I tried it with one of Ollie's guitar riffs and notice, that the melody and the lyrics fit like {insert a bit of a rude finnish saying here}. And the song wouldn't be what it is without Captain's effort. The song was originally published on the internet as a gift to our fans on Xmas 2004, but since people have been asking about it constantly, we just had to publish it "officially" now.

12. Dawn
The sentimental Dawn begins as of nowhere and rises up like smoke, and grows bigger as it gets higher. The song is about the relation between the past and the future. The message of the song can be heard in the sentence: "Do not mourn what is gone / greet the dawn". The song originated back when me and Ollie had to do some soundchecking for a tv show. Since that it has grown a lot. The lyrics were made a long time after that, and they have some really personal meanings to me.

Mark: Well, this was totally our idea, and as far as we are the band and the record-company, so this was the idea of the record-company and the band's idea.

Isa-Eerika: Apparently [Kapu] Captain, your work place is very near here, and you have gathered this studio up. Tell us a bit how this studio has came to here.

Captain: Along the years, this stuff has been gathered, and it has little by little came to here nicely, and it has been well helping with doing the album.

Isa-Eerika: So, what if we start totally from the beginning, first you record bottoms to the songs, what generally does it mean? Drumms and bass or?

Mark: Usually it is the acoustic guitars...

Isa-Eerika: Hmm.. ok.

Mark: ...And then demo-singings, that is quite where it starts, sometimes the demo-singings are the singings what end up to the album. And also with the guitar is the same thing that can be that the first few versions are finally so good that they end up to the album, like all again scraped, just as, just as.

Ollie: Usually it is done like that, the guitars are demo-guitars, but sometimes there happen to be succeeded things, what we want to save, the problem is that if the guitar changes in the journey's time, like first we record with another guitar and then guitar gets broken or too bad state that it cannot be used, but there are those great shots with that guitar what went broken during the working with the album, then we are in troubles. But won't happen again.

It was something like that, ye

Isa-Eerika: But how finished those songs are when you come to the studio? Are they so finished that you know excactly what you are gonna do when you get to here? Or do the songs born in here in studio?

Mark: Well there happen both things, usually we come locally, that we have a guitar and singing versio ready, so could make it with two persons. But yes, also with working with this album, has happened that we have came to the studio and the song has been revised when we are in here, like figured out in accident an idea, or just simplistic I just couldn't have done the lyrics ready before I come to this situation, this place, this atmosphere, and then it starts to percolate.

Isa-Eerika: So, how is it, are you gonna try to be on the same music-lines with this album what you were on the first album?

Ollie: We thought propably concentrate to the dance-music

POTF: *Laughing* Yea *laughing*

Mark: To the "humppa"(Doesn't have certain word, but it is like old people not slow, not fast dance music, what only old people listen mostly), we start to go touring with "Eläkeläiset" (Humppa band)
No, yes we thought to keep the same music-line in certain style, but of course it improves its along what you live forward, so your musical-expression and so on won't stop on, at least I hope so. So it is Poets of the Fall but I think there will be more new and different tensions and so on, so a bit harder intention and a bit intimate intention.

Isa-Eerika: How much does this studio-working cost?

Mark: We are in pleased situation that we have own studio, so in that way it doesn't cost us anything but all that time and work.

Isa-Eerika: But what if you wouldn't be in so pleased situation?

Mark: You can use 10 000 euros for making the album, like in other band's cases.

Isa-Eerika: Are here any other bands working in this studio?

Captain: Not in this particular studio, this is just in our own use, all kind of projects are done at times but not any other band regularry.

Isa-Eerika: Could it be possible that someday one of you, or all three of you would move perfectly to the music-business, to produce other band's albums?

Mark: Everything is possible.

Captain: Lets see after we have finished this our own album ready.

Mark: Wetty ear-backgrounds, that let the time go on and let see what happens, by doing you learn.

Isa-Eerika: This first album got very good receiving, how it is when you are working with this second album, it is always in mind these foreign-markets and there breaking through?

Ollie: Of course, of course, that is what we are hoping and waiting here, fingers crossed, but of course we are gonna work hard for it.

Isa-Eerika: I hope so too, congratulations, I am sure we will get good output here. And now we move forward on the show....