Interviewer: Didn’t the neighbours mind you recording in Captain’s livingroom? Usually if you play an electric guitar in a apartment house or in a terraced house…
Marko: I think all Captain’s neighbours knew all the songs of the CD after the album came out. Thanks to them for standing it. Even though during the making of the record the livingroom moved, which is probably good considering the neighbours.

Interviewer: Let’s continue this in a while, next revealing if your new album, Carnival of Rust, made it, with your debut, to the top 40. If this has happened, guess where it would be.
Marko: No, I won’t guess anything.

Interviewer: Come on, don’t be a wuss.
Marko: Starting from where? You mean the whole scale?

Interviewer: Top 40, the whole scale.
Marko: Hmmm… 16.

Interviewer: 16 is the guess?
Marko: Yes.

Interviewer: Ok. Let’s see what it really is. Next the official album list with popnews.

Straight to the 1st place goes Poets of the Fall’s second album, Carnival of Rust.

Interviewer: Congratulations, Marko Saaresto, for the first place of the list.
Marko: Thank you.

Interviewer: And congratulations, Jane, for the 23rd place. What makes Poets of the Fall’s 1st place special, is that you still have your first album, Signs of Life, in the top 40. Just how many albums are you going to put in the top 40?
Marko: I guess we’ll have a hurry making the third album now.

Interviewer: Yes, for the Christmas sales. You’ll make it to the Guinness records.
Marko: Yea.

Interviewer: How do you feel now, I was looking at your expression, you were quite exited.
Marko: Yes, I’m a bit overwhelmed. It’s great. I was quite overwhelmed a year ago too when Signs of Life came out and we went to the first place and now it’s the same situation. There are these “doubles”, two Emma-prizes, two first places. I won’t start philosophising about it. It just feels great.

Interviewer: And congratulations for that. (He talks to the girls again). And Marko Saaresto, about you, your hobbies are tai chi and yoga and you have the education of a sports masseur. And you also are learning acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Where does this interest for human body comes from?
Marko: Well I think the human body is a combination of body and mind. And everything that is connected with healing body/mind and improving the quality of life has always been inspiring to me. And our music is an example of it, at least this is what I want to bring into our music.

Interviewer: Thank you Marko Saaresto. We can end to these world-embracing and healing sentences the interviews.

- You gained a lot with your 1st album. What kind of hopes and expectations you have concerning the 'second round'?
- Let's hope this thing develops the right way... It would be cool to get to stretch out abroad a little more this time.

- Your new album sounds a tad heavier than SoL and there's some more live on it. (aha?) How do the making processes differ from each other?
- Actually the making was quite alike, just that we had a tighter schedule. Also that was a 'hey guys, let's try this' -thing. But it turned out well. We were trying to get out those heavier and more alive sounds. Finding that sound is actually an endless road, what you're looking for changes all the time and you can only hope that you'll find the right sound fitting to the current mood.

- What is your personal favorite on CoR?
- It's impossible to say, that depends so much on the day. Sometimes you feel Delicious, sometimes you need Roses.

- Let's get back to last year. Was success at any point about to knock you off your feet?
- Well, no. Actually those were other things knocking me off my feet, mostly lack of sleep.

- You became quickly a band of big stages. Was that transition from your training location to those anyhow "smooth"?
- Well, it was quite smooth, yes. All of the guys in our band are experienced players, but that was some sort of humor when we left our training locations straight to the main stage of Provinssirock. We have given ourselves time to adjust to all of those changes and expectations set upon us, though. In many situations we'd notice that we're getting compared to world-renowned bands that have been playing together for the last ten years, whereas we had had ten gigs together. Thinking of that you could say that we did it more than well!

- You did do an awful lot of gigs last year. How was it to live the life of a touring band? Was anything a surprise for you...?
- Well, all of us had been touring a lot before, too, but not on the same scale, except maybe of course Jaska and Jani, who have played in every single town in this country! You had to handle a lot of new things straight away, so it was mostly a race with tiredness. Now I know that at least for me it was about not being used to it. I'm more aware of what I can do and what I can't and what I certainly don't have to have the energy for.

- Poets Of The Fall appeared from almost nowhere. What kind of response did you get in the music industry and other musicians? Jealousy?
- They noticed us pretty fast, and mostly the feedback was only positive. Feels like people realise that it's only cool that you gain success with what you do yourself and that it also gives others chances to pursue their talent. Naturally we encountered some futile 'rock police', (LOL @ translation) but that's something you won't avoid, no matter who you are.

- Poets Of The Fall has a lot of foreign fan sites and you have your records published in several countries. What are the tactics regarding these countries?
- Well, let's not reveal the plans until the battle is won...

- Final call: What's been the nicest and least nice experience for you in the world of music industry?
- I'm not a superlative person, so I wouldn't mention just a single case. Of course well done gigs or the immediate effect our music has on a listener. The worst thing would be people who think they know. I'm not really a fan of the besserwisser -attitude. Thank god it's not that often that you meet these people.

How did POTF spend the New Year, were you together?
-no, we were each to his own, and we didn’t want to see each others faces. (Laughing)
-Nah, in good terms but with our own friends relaxingly spending the evening and shooting fireworks.

Do you have any New Year traditions?
-No, not really. I’m very untraditional with these beautiful haven celebrationdays that we have in the world.

New Year is here, and before we go more specificly to 2006 lets look back to 2005. Quite a huge year for you.
-A very huge year. Very busy from the beginning of the year, the album(SoL) came out 19. January, and before that there was a lot to do. The basically the whole year doing gigs and around the world, well not exactly around the world but in Finland, Scandinavia and in Germany and so on. The response for the album was good, and originally we didn’t think that it would go this well, and it went very well. And specially that we could do what we wanted in a amazingly good group, we’ve had a very good feeling during the whole tour and year.

What was the most confusing event that happened last year?
-The confusing events are mostly small details, sometimes if you think negative stuff, you wonder how can there be so extreme opinions in the world and so “blind” cases and people who have opinions about stuff and then a beer mug flies to the stage or something like that. Any kind of situation when you get very hard recistance, but on the other hand you understand that it’s part of this in a way, if you get boosted a lot(meaning for example if you are drunk) a thing can become difficult. and the positive problems are always nice, but for us Poets it was confusing to go before an audience of 40.000 like for example in Voice concert and 20.000-30.000 in Raumanmeren juhannus and in Provinssirock and see the crowds response and when they start shouting your name and the hands rise up. Then it’s like, is it me who they are shouting? (laughing)

Like who was on today, is there a big star or what.
-Yeah, exactly.

For me the most confusing thing was the Mister Pop choice.
-Yeah, that was a bit funny. I’ve heard some comments about it, but not much.

You won Antti Tuisku.
-Yep, thanks for all contestants and for those who voted. (laughing)

How important in general outside things are for you?
-Well this is a business where they all they pile on you. Everywhere comes small, and sometimes bigger messages on how to look, what to say, what to do and what to be. And then it’s difficult not to say that they are not important because the messages from outside begin to affect you. But it’s important to stay as who you are, I would spend too much energy if I would force myself to dress in a way that doesn’t fit for me.

One reason for the big popularity is the big amounts of gigs. About 60 gigs, when I quickly counted them in your website. 60 gigs last year and about a half of them in summer, would there even be time for more gigs?
-Yes there would be, but we had a certain amount of days to use for playing in gigs so we basically couldn’t do more. Even though you are 1st on the TOP40 list in Finland and there are a lot of gigs, some of us still had other jobs and they had to be done too. That’s why we couldn’t do more, but if POTF was the only thing we were doing, there would be time for more. The pace was so hectic, that there isn’t a point on doing much more gigs, because after some 50 gigs I started to feel that we have done these so much straight up that I don’t have anything more to give. Then you just went there, sang the songs and did your job and did your best and gave what you had to give but after the gig you started to think that was this good. But from the audience’s reaction you saw that it was good, but still you I felt that I would have wanted to do it better.

Has one of those gigs last year been special to you in some way?
-Yes, Oulu’s 45 special –gig was the first wake up for us that a band can be popular. We went there and the crowd screamed so loud that the whole place shaked, so we didn’t almost dare to go to the stage.

And of course the YleX pop 2005?
-yeah, that was great. We actually had then two gigs on the same day, and it was funny when we had the gig on the day in the Ylex pop, and in evening in the Hämeenlinna gig. In Ylex Pop we didn’t have any rain, and when Poets of the Fall left, it started raining really hard. And when we got to Hämeenlinna, there was a place where could fit lots of people, and then there were some die hard hardcore fans, and they had stayed there in the rain, they had a good time and they wanted to see the gig. And I don’t mind water, rain is in the name of our band, and the gig was great. A couple of times I almost got caught by lightning when I was jumping in the puddles with the cords.

But made it alive?
-Yeah, made it alive.

That was Lift by Poest of the Fall in Finlands official list program, and here we have the bands singer Mark. Your debut album was 39 weeks on the TOP40 list, and soon you might have two albums on the list. Or in what stage is the album?
-In a busy stage. We have selected the songs, and we’re thinking the song order and some other things that need adjusting. But there are surprisingly many things to do, even though most if the things are very small and you want to get them right. And the schedules are tight, and you have to stay in them. We’re just humans, and you work as you can and during christmas I stressed a lot if I get these lyrics ready, if we have time to play this and will we make it to the time we have planned so on.

How has the feeling been in the studio, is it just stress?
-No, not really. It hasn’t been total stress, the stress is part of this and it’s “problems solving stress.” I’ve been told that it’s positive stress. There is of course negative stress involved. But otherwise it has been fun like last time. We get to be in Captain’s livingroom and do calmly what we want. Altough its not very calm since we are quite noisy guys. Sometime one watches animal planet, and occasionally two guys play guitar and one tries to make sense of them. Ordering pizzas and so on.

Often is talked about the difficult second album. Have you taken much pressure about it?
-The first album was doing well, and still is. So you hope that the second album does well too. But the greatest pressure comes from that when you have the songs and you have a vision of what kind of songs they are. And you have to tune the song to what it sounded in your head. That’s the biggest cause of stress, from the artistic view. And with the lyrics, I might be doing the them over and over again. Some lyrics just just come easily and some you have to work on the whole studio time and at some point you just have to decide that this is how it’s going to go. And I’m sure that Captain and Ollie the same thing with their stuff, like does the guitar go like that an so on. But in the end, when you get your mind out of it for a while, you realise that you wouldn’t do anything else. So you do enjoy this job.

What can you expect after the great success of the first record? If it’s more succesful, there will be a potf-mania, and if it doesn’t do so well people start saying that’s the end of that band.
-These kind of thing you have to look on a longer time span, like I use to do. If things don’t go well for a two, four or six months and you look it after five years, thing might have evened out so that it isn’t so bad. If we do this job for ten years and then look how things have gone, then we can see how things actually are. Because of the outside factors you can easily cheat yourself to think that today nothing is working and tomorrow you feel that this is actually going very well. But I’m not expecting anything, I’ll just do my best and hope...

Doing your best and see how well that goes?
-Yeah, an athlete attitude.(laughing) That’s the usual answer I guess, but that’s all you can give. [sarcastic]I burn candles with pentagrams

And voodoo doll stuff?
-Yeah, that’s right[/sarcastic] (laughing)

What can you say about the new album’s style? will it be different?
-It might be a bit heavier than the last one.

Heavier stuff, have you been listening some churchburning music in the studio or where does this come from?
-I don’t know, I think we three think it from a different perspective. But if you think it from the musical side, leaving out the singing and the lyrics now we have tried out different kind of styles which sound good. Meaning that the music has more DISTORRRTION everywhere and stuff like that. About the lyrics, I have sometimes wondered where they come from. I have seen something or heard something somewhere and it has stayed in my head. It might have been something positive thing that I have wanted to tell about, something that has affected me so much that I made a song out of it. Or something has just pissed me off and I just go and write mfgdshgdg that you just don't get it..[makes sounds as is about to strangle someone] From those kind of things the lyrics come from I guess, then you just have thought what the real message is and how you want to say it.

When you are making an album, do you listen to some other music?
-During the first album I didn’t listen anything. During this second album I have listened some music that I usually listen but I don’t add it to the making of this album. But I have noticed that I listen to music little, at the moment I’m listening Chinese in my car.

You are learning Chinese?
-Yeah, I am.

Why? Are you going to China?
-Maybe. Chinese just happens to interest me.

Sounds good.(laughing) When is the album being released? Is there a release date at the moment?
-I can’t say the exact day now, but sometime more in the spring.

Now even a month?
-Dididididi (makes a mysterious sounding sound)

Okay okay, that’ll be seen later. Thank you Marko

Where is the name of the band coming from?
It derives from the idea that two opposing concepts both give meaning to the other and together they may create an entirely new concept. There is the appealing idea of beauty and the possibly equally fascinating idea of ugliness or decay, which when put together create an understanding of what’s valuable and what’s less so… get it? It’s a four word phrase that can give you a topic for long hours of contemplation… Also we all like the mood the name sets for the music we write…

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Uh, a load of them, Pink Floyd, Steve Vai, Metallica, the whole Seattle grunge thing, classical composers, thank you very much… Live, Madonna, Tori Amos… even Def Leppard in the Hysteria days, and of course U2 has had great influence on us… does that answer your question… I’d also like to thank Bill Watterson for the Calvin & Hobbes comics. After reading them I was ok with myself, since I knew I wasn’t the only six year old in the world… ha ha ha…

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
It’s a small market.

How could you define your style of music?
It’s Hybrid Clash… which means it’s got loads of melody, spiced with punkmetal and ballad pepper with a dash ethnic sounds…

During the years how has your musical style changed?
I think our tastes have broadened while simultaneously we’ve become more selective with what we actually like to hear. This has also influenced our own writing.

How do explain these changes?
I believe that has a lot to do with working with music… like, say, a chef wouldn’t want to eat just any load of crap on a plate, the same goes with us with music.

What are topics you treat in your songs?
I tend to focus a lot on things that seem to be very common problems everywhere. I talk about love, about being humane and finding the right angle of looking at things to find solutions, I try to give hope and sometimes I’ll state the obvious just so people wouldn’t forget it, and of course there are always those who’ll hear it from me for the first time.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
That varies daily, it’s all really up to how I feel at any given time. From the first album, Signs of Life, I’d say it’s a song called Shallow and from the new album, Carnival of Rust, there are such songs as Desire, Roses and Delicious, which are fun laid back songs to sing.

Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
Both have their perks. In the studio I like it because I get to hear the tone of voice you’re singing in and the music you’re singing to a lot better than in any live concert, but the live situation has a completely different set of perks, the energy, the atmosphere, the audience to name but a few.

During the process of making a song, what is the moment that you prefer?
The very beginning, when the song seems to well up from the depths of my soul, new and striking. Then there’s the completion, when if successful, I’ll hear exactly what I’ve meant when I wrote the song.

A stupid question but… what is among all the songs you’ve been listening in your life the BEST song?
No such thing as a stupid question, but neither is there’s such a thing as the best song… I can name great songs that have meant a lot to me, some still do…

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
The internet has it’s uses. It’s a good tool for spreading the word of music as well as it’s good for any other similar “mission” if you will… of course, if you’re referring to piracy on the net… that sucks.

What are your projects?
Right now getting the new album finished takes precedence over any and all of my projects… so I suppose that’s my project… although I’m looking to find a nice, warm little place somewhere in the south of France to spend the cold cold winter months, and maybe do some hang gliding.

What “image” do you have of French music?
Isn’t Kmaro French? He came to Finland last year and we performed at the same concert. I think Patricia Kaas has some real nice tunes. But I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur of the French music scene.

Is there one French song that you prefer? If so, what song is it?
“Laissez moi chanter” by Patricia Kaas comes to mind, she has a beautiful voice. Of course, Celine Dion, has some sassy tunes as well, but I don’t know if the French people actually consider her French, her being Canadian and all… just a minor detail, ha ha ha