Listen:

Download audio file (Marko_RadioNova_120202.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from poetcountyjail.com

Metadata:

• Size: 16.1MB
• Length: 17:38min

Transcription & Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Ari Hursti: It’s 8:38. That was a weird click-smack kind of sound.
Minna Kuukka: Yes, yes. We’re here sitting in the studio, the three of us, and there’s an empty chair in the middle.
Minna laughs.
Ari: Kuukka, Hursti, Laitinen and… and.. and…
Aku Laitinen: But not for long. We’re going to have a guest from Poets Of The Fall.
Ari: Yeah, Marko. But not…
Minna: So, Marko is in the house, that’s not the problem. But we have a couple of different doors from where you can come in and apparently Kristofer is at one door and Marko is at the other and they’re trying to find each other. And perhaps someone is already in the elevator. Yeah, but…

Aku: We could have some awkward conversation here, like we have to come up with anything.
Minna: We could.
Ari: Or then we could be all silent.
Minna: We have a message here for the specialty man Laitinen here…
Ari: Ah, no?
Minna: Besides the fact that Laitinen is soooo cute…
Aku: Oh! Hit and sunk, thank you!
Minna: … then referring to…
Aku: Just leave it at that.
Ari: He’s feeling good now.
Laughter.

Minna: Referring to what you previously said, before the 8 o’clock news, when you gave advice in case of a mishap on the road. You said if the car engine stops, just leave it running so you won’t get cold. And we got to bully you about it a little. So the message goes that if the specialty man Laitinen can leave his car running after the engine stops, is he related to Chuck Norris.

Ari: Was this a question or…
Aku: I really can’t reveal this. Cos I’d have to kill anyone who heard, after telling. But yes, I’m very closely related to Chuck Norris. And let’s just say that the only reason different animal species exist in this world is because Chuck and I are letting them live.
Laughter.
Aku: Nah, I’m not related. It’s great that a myth like this is circling around. Just kick more power into it if it indeed exists.

Minna: Do you have the same kind of rug as Chuck has?
Aku: No, that’s what I’m missing. I’m missing that fine round house kick and the rug. By the way, did you know that hiding behind his beard, Chuck has a third fist?
Laughter.
Aku: I don’t have a beard, I can’t keep it in hiding.

Ari: But now, in the studio!
Minna: For once I’m going to have to say: Thank God our guest is here!
Ari: Yes!
Minna: Cos our stories started going to the kind of state, that…
Aku: Dispare.
Ari: You saved our live transmission, welcome!
Minna: Yes.
Marko: Oh, thank you, thank you.
Minna: Marko, good morning!
Marko: Good morning.
Ari: Let’s shake hands.
Marko: I’ll shake hands, even from this far away. There you go. Good morning to each class and caste, for everyone out there in the freezing weather and I hope you were able to tune in just in time. Getting here on time was such a close call for me. But I’m here on the exact right minute.

Minna: Did you arrive by car?
Marko: I had a really brilliant… I’m sure that taxi driver was from some Aladdin’s lamp.
Laughter.
Marko: I said I have to be there at 8:30 exactly, because the live transmission starts at 8:40 and he was like it’s going to be alright, I have a little trick, we can turn from the hot dog kiosk to the opposite traffic lane and by 8:30 we can be in Timbuktu if you want.
Ari: Like my aunt lives around the corner, let’s stop by there.

Minna: Well, let’s get to the point then. A song named Cradled in Love has been playing in our frequency as well for about a week now.
Marko: Yeap.
Minna: And it’s the first single from Poets Of The Fall’s upcoming album. So when is the whole album coming out?
Marko: The album is coming out in March. And from what I’ve gathered, if everything goes well and the tight schedule we have keeps, if we can make it in time from the hot dog kiosk, the blast should happen on the 21st.
Minna: Well then. Great, great.

Ari: Can you shed some light on the album, if you can? What kind of material is there going to be, in general?
Marko: Eh, well, there’s going to be familiar Poets, some more experimental Poets and the same kinds of fun songs as Cradled in Love and also some faster paced music that will make you go out of breath.
Ari: Mmmh. Good.
Marko: The album is called Temple of Thought.
Minna: That’s… Temple of Thought: A fine name, and a fine song too. I almost sank into nirvana listening to it [Cradled in Love] on my way home in the car. I almost had to take a look around where I was when the song ended.
Marko laughs.

Minna: And I checked out some fan reactions from your website, and someone had written like “Oh, how nice that it was somehow different, but still there was some familiar Poets Of The Fall in it”.
Marko: Yeah, yeah.
Minna: So if that has been the plan, then it’s worked out well.
Marko: Yes, yes it looks like it came together just perfectly. There was a lot of nervousness about how it’s going to be received.

Minna: Anyway, your website and your discussion forum is a quick and easy way to do an arm chair trip around the world.
Marko laughs.
Minna: Because there are different sections for different countries. Sections. Sections.
Ari: What was it?
Marko: What? Sex… what?
Minna: Like, this is the place for Germans, for fans who speak German and that is… I mean, there were so many different countries and people there.
Marko: Yeah.
Minna: It’s quite dizzying. Just think about it.

Ari: This Cradled in Love, then. A lot of other musicians and music business people and rockers have said that it’s been a while since a world class ballad such as this one has emerged.
Marko: Whoa, whoa.
Aku: Yeah, I’ve bumped into the same comments quite often.
Ari: What does it take, in your opinion?
Marko: What does it take?

Ari: Have you just worked without thinking about it that much, or… is it about some grandiose sound or where does it come from?
Marko: It’s really difficult to say. But I guess it’s about having three guys work on a song, and then everyone pours in their own thing and their feelings. One does something that inspires the other and that inspires back and it turns into a spool of energy and in the end a blast like this comes out. It takes a lot of pain of the soul and tearing to create something like this. So for once all of the banging your head against a wall has led to something great.
Ari: Professional victory.
Marko: Yes.

Minna: Has this happened in between of everything else? Like you’ve been touring and working on the new album.
Marko: Yes, that’s how it works for us usually, somehow.
Minna: And do I understand correctly, that your tour will continue in March?
Marko: Yes, it continues from March onwards, but of course with the new album. Because it’s kind of a… There were Signs of Life, Carnival of Rust and now Temple of Thought, the album to finish the trilogy. Hopefully there will be something special with that.
Minna: Because you’ve been touring under Alchemy title now…
Marko: We started with Alchemy, yes, and we’ll see what will come to succeed Revolution Roulette and Twilight Theater, if anything. Something will come, hopefully.

Minna: You have upcoming gigs in March, there’s St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia and there’s Ukraine.
Marko: Ukraine, yes. And I think some Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania… and what else? Where are we? Finland.
Minna: So what is the fan base like over there? And are the gig situations much different from our Tavastia, for example?
Marko: It depends on the place and the energy you can whip up but our gigs abroad are starting to get quite big already. Like one venue can hold several thousands of people.
Minna: Excactly.
Marko: Interesting choice of words, by the way.
Laughter.
Marko: Yeah. But it can be anything from 3000 to 5000 people in Russia and Ukraine for example. And some other countries have places pretty much like Tavastia and India has really huge arenas. It’s incomprehensible. But it’s really great.

Minna: Do they treat you like… uuuh, mega world stars? Do you have limousine rides from one place to another and…
Marko: Yeah.
Minna: And insane penthouse suites at the hotels and…
Marko: We usually stay at rather reasonable, nice hotels. Now and then we’ve had suites where you just walk from room to room and wonder how you’re going to find use for all this space.
Ari: You need to take a snack with you when you go from room to room.
Marko: Like I’m going to put my Pepsodent [toothpaste brand] over there and I’ll take my spare underwear to that room and I’ll put my gig wear to this 70-square-meter entrance hall. We’ve had that, but usually it’s just a decent basic kind of room.

Ari: When you get a suite like that… Does it ever cross your mind that you ought to behave accordingly, as an artist? Like, when I’m given a situation like that, I’m going to take it.
Marko: It does cross your mind. But if I take advantage of it is another story. We do have parties sometimes. But usually it goes to… if we hang out after the concert it’s just crazy laughing until the morning.
Minna: Is it just your core crew, or do you invite some local people?
Marko: It’s usually that. And maybe some people from the organizers. But a lot of times during the tour… People, I’m going to tell the truth now. So during a day we may have only about two hours for ourselves.
Hosts: Mmmh.

Marko: And we usually spend that time sleeping.
Minna: This is the kind of stuff one would never want to hear. One would like to think that it’s all like… someone’s feeding you grapes while you lie on a divan at the suite or something until you’re taken to…
Marko: I can tell you more about that when we go off air. I can tell you all the stories involving grapes.
Minna: Yesss!
Ari: So it’s not all about the kind of life Mötley Crue used to live?
Marko: No… I think if it was still the 80’s, then it might be a little more like that, but it’s not like that these days. All things evolve in some respect, things change and it’s pretty much all work and so.

Ari: How disciplined is the profession of a musician, during the tour? Is it a free rock ‘n’ roll life or does it go with a purely professional attitude?
Marko: You have to go with a professional attitude, there are a lot of things from promotion to concerts and you have to do it well and stay sharp. And at the same time you get really tired, you’re flying around and you’re awake at the weirdest hours and you meet a lot of people. You have to have a certain kind of work ethic there. But sometimes it’s like… like we’re professionals of waiting around. It feels like we’re always in a hurry to wait around.
Minna: Military service vibe!

Marko: It’s pretty much like in the army, yes. You learn to be very patient. But if you know how to let loose and take it easy, you do get some time for yourself in a way. But quite often it’s just going from one city to the next and you don’t really get to see anything of those cities. It’s a really good day if we’re arriving at Hamburg, for example, in the morning and you have a chance to go walking around the town until noon from when you wake up around 9-10 am feeling confused. And you get to walk around for a couple of hours. And then we have the sound check and after that, interviews. And we meet up with some fans and then it’s time to eat something and then you wonder what to do with the rest of the day. And then we start preparing for the gig and at some point you get to take a nap or something. And at night we have a crazy cuckoo party. And the next morning you’re all confused, like “oh, we’re in Berlin”. And the same thing continues.
Ari: And it sounds like it’s work.

Minna: But Marko has the same kind of speaking voice as his singing voice is.
Marko: Mmm.
Minna: And I could just close my eyes and slowly tilt to the side.
Laughter.
Ari: And fall over with a knock on the floor.
Marko [in a relaxation tape kind of deep voice]: If you at home have a moment to spare, please do close your eyes now and if you haven’t closed them yet or if you have, do close them again. And we’ll lull ourselves into the mood of the next song.

Radio spoof.
Cradled in Love.
Commercials.
Radio spoof.

Ari: It’s 5 to 9 am, the news coming up at 9 am and after that Sari and Minna O. in the studio.
Minna: Yes, we just heard the fine Cradled of Love by Poets Of The Fall. And it’s from the new upcoming album that’s coming out in March. Temple of Thought is the name of the album. Thanks a lot Marko for visiting us.
Marko: Thanks, it was a lot of fun and everyone have a fun day with some coffee and cinnamon rolls.
Minna: We gave him some coffee and cinnamon rolls just now, and a moment of breath before a photo shoot for promo pictures. It’ll be good to go to that setting with some crumbs at the side of your mouth.
Marko: That’s how life smiles at you.
Minna: Good! We’ll continue tomorrow. Bye!

Videos courtesy of voice.fi.

Watch (Part 1):

Metadata (Part 1):

• Size: 45.1MB
• Length: 06:26min

Watch (Part 2):

Metadata (Part 2):

• Size: 55.3MB
• Length: 08:01min

Translations (#1, #2) available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Part 1

Male host: Two pieces of Poets of the Fall: guitarist Olli and singer Marko, good morning.

Marko: Very good morning.

Olli: Morning, morning.

Male host: The new happy fathers to a new compilation album, Alchemy came out on Wednesday.

Marko: Our little one.

Olli: Yeah, one more.

Female host: Yes.

Marko: Should I hold this like this [hold's the mike like a baby].

Male host: We have to get a monitor for you from somewhere.

Marko: So that I can put my leg on it? I’ll just lift my hoof on the table.

Male host: In just a moment we’re going to watch and listen Can You Hear Me, one of… or the other one of the compilation’s new tracks. The video is premiering in our show this morning. Why a compilation album now? 2003-20…

Female host: 2011.

Male host: 2011.

Marko: It seemed like a good idea and they are two classical years, aren’t they? 3 – 11. Everyone does that, don’t they? … Come on now and say that they do!

Laughter.

Female host: Yes, yes.

Olli: Yeah, yeah.

Marko: I need support and strengthening to my theory.

Olli: And that was the start of everything.

Marko: That was the start of everything, 3 – 11. It’s almost like seven eleven… nothing like it at all.

Male host: An expanded seven eleven.

Marko: Yes.

Olli: So, we’ve made a few songs so far and we thought… what was it. Space financial…

Marko: Space financial statement idea.

Olli: Well, yeah, that we’ll take a look back on our hits and then move on.

Marko: We also thought a lot about the amount of albums we’ve done so far, and still there are quite a lot of people who like to listen to the songs they’ve heard before and already know, but they haven’t bought all our albums. So maybe it would be a good idea to put something together for them, a recap of our output so far and throw in some new music so that our HC-fans can get something new and exciting and fun out of it. Then it holds all our music videos so far and we’ve included some rather obscure ‘production stills’ where we… which we didn’t even dare publish before this, but… now they’re in there. Help.

Male host: Have you noticed at all something about the compilation? That it’s missing the DVD song list.

Marko: Really?

Male host: Yes.

Marko: Well… good of you to notice.

Olli: Woooa.

Laughter.

Female host: But is it our of principle…

Marko: No, but well… it would be a little too obvious to have it there because it’s all our music videos, so there’s no actual need for the song list there.

Olli: And you will see when you put the disc into the player anyway.

Male host: Yeah.

Olli: Wheeh.

Marko: Now I started sweating so much! Have to start stripping…

Laughter.

Male host: But really, was it like, when the whole package came out from the print, like “yeah, looks so fine.. But where are the…”

Olli: No, it wasn’t, no.

Male host: So it was a conscious choice?

Marko: Yes, the whole thing is designed through and through. But the one thing I did notice was that the sticker was crooked! At least in some of them, I don’t know if it’s in that one… but it may go a bit off somehow.

Female host: No, it’s very neatly here in this version.

Marko: Brilliant.

Male host: But it does have a small bump in the middle, an air pocket.

Olli: Oooh.

Marko: Air pocket? Oh Lordy…

Olli: There’s your challenge for the day, to try to get it out.

Male host: Without tearing the sticker.

Marko: Yes, yes.

Female host: Rub the air out of each one going out into the stores…

Marko: Yeah, they all go through our hands and we rub the stickers into place.

Male host: Ten thousand pieces is the amount for a gold album, quite a lot of rubbing for you, I’d say this is going to sell gold.

Marko: Let us hope so.

Olli: Yes.

Male host: Just like all your previous albums. New music coming up, Can You Hear Me is the opening track on this compilation and it’s been turned into a music video. And there are a lot of people in it posing for the camera.

Female host: A ballerina, and…

Male host: All kinds of people.

Olli: A boxer.

Marko: All kinds of people, different professions, different skin colours, different ages and all kinds of things yes. We found people that… actually it was in a very short notice which was really great. We asked people to join in and explained that we have this idea to show different people under the same sky and with this thought behind it that you should make most of your life and feel good about it instead of feeling bad. In the end, compassion is what gives the best solutions in this world and…

Female host: Where did you find these people?

Marko: We found some of them from our circle of friends, right off the street and even from some modelling agencies that we asked from… And we asked a lot if our friends know friends who… and many people were like “yeah sure, we’ll come and help you out”. And it was great to see all these people there, everyone was on time and functioned consistently as if they were professionals. So it was cool all in all.

Female host: There was an appendix accident during the shoot. What is this story?

Marko: Someone’s appendix popped. Yes, during filming we had an appendix accident, it was rather painful and ended up to surgery and we were a bit nervous about how to get the video done in time. On the other hand, that guy is such a tough guerrilla that he basically dragged himself on all fours to finish shooting.

Female host: So it was your director who this happened to?

Marko: Yeah, yeah. I have to lift my hat several times for his performance. And not just that, the whole thing was so brilliantly coordinated by our director-producer. It was just.. Tsk. All thanks to them.

Olli: Outstanding.

Male host: The band is seen wearing rock gear and Marko changes his outfit a couple of times over. Clockwork Orange influence?

Marko: Actually it’s a spin off from Carnival or Rust Zolter character who sings in the booth. I think it’s a brilliant character but I just never have the patience with the white face make up. I did it once since, in Elämä Lapselle concert [Charity concert for sick children] but then I thought that maybe the character can change a little, just like people evolve, so maybe it can live. I took the same bowler hat and the trickling make up. It’s actually funny when you dress up like that, your own bearing changes completely. When I look at the video, I don’t think it’s me in there. And when I wear the clothes, I feel like I’m some other character. Actually it’s quite fun, you go into this some kind of a different… can you say role? You get more out of yourself than in your normal clothes.

Female host: And at some point you switch into white. It gave me a kind of a… boy band feeling.

Marko: So did I!

Laughter.

Marko: Poets goes Backstreet Boys.

Olli: Yea, yea, yea.

Marko: But in the end… I was quite sceptical about it, as well as the other character. I was afraid they would look too peculiar and strange. But when I saw the result, they look pretty neat. I was like “wow, it was worth doing and throwing myself into it”.

Olli: Even I saw this kind of yin and yang thing, this balancing going on which I liked.

Laughter.

Part 2

Male host: Guitarist Olli and singer Marko as guests here at Wake Up Show, good morning.

Olli: Morning, morning.

Marko: What, do I have to wake up?

Female host: Yes, yes, we’re now in transmission.

Olli: Already?

Male host: Now that you’ve done your space financial statement and put your career into one disc…

Marko: Five more minutes.

Laughter.

Male host: It’s time to think back on the history of Poets of the Fall and so… What are the kind of things you’ve experienced and reminiscence about and laugh at in the tour bus, anything from over the years, like “remember that time in India… hehehe, we left that cow into the bus”

Laughter.

Olli: Well, the best sessions start from watching old photographs.

Marko: Oh yea, that’s absolutely true.

Olli: And through the pictures you remember the stories. But there are a few legendary ones for sure.

Marko: The kind of photographs that will never ever be published.

Olli: Even from India.

Marko: Ever.

Laughter.

Male host: What kinds of photographs?

Marko: They will never be published.

Olli: No, we’ll eventually become so desperate that we will publish them too.

Laughter.

Olli: Well…

Male host: Tell us a little bit, what is it about the India pictures then?

Olli: Nothing really, well…

Marko: Not necessarily in the India photos but in photographs in general, there are all kinds of things from over the years.

Olli: Exactly, exactly. There are a lot of stories…

Marko: Shadow pantomime for instance…

Laughter.

Olli: Yeah… oh yeah!

Male host: My imagination started running…

Laughter.

Male host: Marko went completely red.

Female host: He did!

Marko: It’s just hot in here.

Male host: Granted, it’s a little warm in here. Now, if not before.

Laughter.

Olli: I was on a dock, I had just taken a swim. And it happened to be a nice bright summer afternoon and a bright sun shining. I was drying myself and Captain was taking pictures from the other side of the dock, trying to get a good shot. And I was like “phew, I’m glad I have the towel here” and really like… (Olli lifts up his hands in the video).

Male host: The light hits from the back and everything’s in plain sight…. Oh, what brilliant photos…

Laughter.

Olli: Yeah, directly like “is that…?”  “yes, it is!” Even that kinds of pictures can be found, so… very unintentional though, no one gets purposefully bullied.

Female host: Olli, are you too quiet of a man on tour because, if I understand right, you were left behind in a bus once.

Olli: Yes, I got locked into the bus once…

Marko: You can’t really say he’s quiet.

Olli: No, I’m not necessarily all that quiet, but at that particular instance we were on our way to Turku for a gig and I was due on stage in a few minutes and I woke up in a bus that was locked up from the outside with a proper steel lock and I kept banging on it for a while before I realized I can’t get it open. Luckily I had my mobile phone with me, I called the guys to let me out right away so that I won’t miss the gig. And in the end I didn’t miss it. But there was a moment of dread there.

Female host: In this band you have to be loud not to be left behind.

Marko: Yeah, because we’ve also left Olli behind when we left with the bus once… We had a gig in Sweden, Göteborg I think. And we headed towards Stockholm or something. After some gas station stop we noticed like “where’s Olli?”. After that we’ve paid more attention on checking that everyone is in the bus.

Female host: Are there really so many of you there that you can’t see on first glance if everyone’s there?

Marko: We have all kinds of little nooks and mazes in the bus where you can have some own peace if you want, or you can withdraw into your own bunk or backstage department. You have to shout for everyone to be sure they’re in.

Olli: Yeah, at first glance you see two or three of us in plain sight who happen to be just about there.

Marko: Yeah, some of us sit in the front sometimes with our laptops or looking out the window or so. And the rest are somewhere else.

Female host: How does the story continue? Did you turn back to fetch Olli? Or?

Olli: We can’t really reveal that information…

Female host: Right…

Olli: So far I’ve always made it on stage on time. But once I forgot to turn on the amplifier. Actually it was for the encore. I forgot to… this can be found in You Tube by the way… I forgot to turn on the amplifier and I came on stage all cocky, like I’m going to start this song and then…

Laughter.

Male host: Isn’t it a More floor amplifier?

Olli: Yes, yes.

Male host: You were all ready to start playing and banging your head and…

Olli: And for a while you were baffled with why isn’t there any sound. And I had to take a quick spurt to the amplifier. Click, ah, the sound is on. Things happen, things happen.

Male host: Marko, during the song you were telling about the funny rituals you had at home when you were four years old… at the dinner table.

Marko: Oh, right, or actually on the living room coffee table. I was reminded of it because of this appendix hassle. My dad used to sell surgical instruments to hospitals and so of course he had to get familiar with how they work himself. And sometimes it meant having to watch recordings of different operations to see how they work.

Male host: So this kind of a childhood.

Marko: This kind of a childhood, yes. Many times it so happened that once our family was kind of used to watching then it was completely natural, like watching a cooking show or whatever. Because it’s nothing more really than a person cut open for a bypass operation or whatever. So we could even have snacks during the watching, or some food, cream crackers or sandwiches maybe while watching the surgical operations.

Female host: Yikes. And you were quite young?

Marko: I was about four or five years old. But then I turned out to be a musician.

Laughter.

Olli: Natural…

Marko: Natural, just like the 2003-2011 continuum.

Female host: You have no problems cleaning a fish then… or anything similar.

Marko: No, it’s not a problem, but I don’t like the smell of fish at all. I don’t eat fish because of that. I should probably go to some (funny sound) therapy to be able to eat it because it’s healthy. But I hate that lingering smell, it’s just…

Olli: But you don’t mind people being opened up and eating…

Marko: Well, I don’t eat people… Thanks a lot!

Olli: Just crossed my mind… No fish or people for you.

Marko: No, I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve watched through one surgical operation that I went through, via a mirror. It was a small superficial surgery.

Male host: How did it feel?

Marko: It didn’t really feel like anything…

Male host: Like eating a cream cracker?

Marko: Yeah, it was like eating a cream cracker.

Olli: Just without the cream crackers.

Female host: Did the doctor think you’re weird for asking them to have mirrors installed so you can see…

Marko: No, not at all. They see all kinds of things, so he probably just thought it would ease my nervousness to see what’s being done. So it was just interesting. And doctors themselves are interested in such things, that’s why they become doctors.

Female host: That’s true.

Male host: Haven’t you taken a look inside your own body as well, after being opened up with a knife?

Olli: Yes, but it was an accident. I didn’t mean to look.

Marko: Oeeew!

Olli: I have a very weak stomach anyway… I happened to glance while I was being opened up and when I saw my own…

Male host: And you happened to wake up from your anaesthesia? Oh… waah!

Laughter.

Olli: No, I had a local anaesthesia… but it was horrifying to see yourself opened. Quite an experience in its own way. But then, it has its own “how exciting” feeling.

Marko: I hit myself over there, I have an inch long scar, I knifed myself a few years ago. It started bleeding a lot and it was rather deep and I just examined it, how deep it is and I patched it up myself before driving to emergency. It needed a couple of stitches but… It was another incident which was rather fascinating.

Female host: What did you patch yourself up with? Glue?

Marko: Well, roadie tape.

Female host: What else! Musician.

Olli: That’s something you have in your cupboard, always.

Male host: Poets of the Fall tonight in Tavastia, although the gig is sold out already. And Alchemy compilation is in the stores now.

Marko: It’s in the stores and also available in our website digistore. www.poetsofthefall.com and click on digistore.

Male host: Thank you for the visit, I have to ask one more thing. Marko, you borrowed some paper and a pen. What did you sketch?

Marko: I’m always drawing these round heads, my old teacher called them nose guys but just some guys with round heads.

Female host: Is it a sign of nervousness or what?

Marko: I don’t really know, but it does calm me down, my hands are… I always do these when I’m on the phone too. My hands just start drawing, it’s cool.

Female host: Wow.

Male host: Thank you for visiting. It’s time for our news.

Olli: Thank you.

Listen:

Download audio file (RadioNova_interview.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from potfmedia.com

Metadata:

• Size: 10.5MB
• Length: 11:16min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Female host: Every fan’s dream package and it’s in the stores today. CD and DVD compilation carries the name Alchemy Vol. 1 and it includes 15 songs from the last few years, it has 2 new songs and we’re going to listen one of them in a while. Then it has all 9 music videos from 2005 to 2010 all on one DVD and picture galleries from the making of these videos and a lot of unseen photographs. Marko and Olli, welcome and good morning.

Marko and Olli: Thank you, good morning.

Female host: Are you happy with this “cake” that is going to be in the stores today?

Marko: Hopefully yes.

Laughter.

Marko: It would be good to be satisfied with it. The last minute panic hit me last night, like “oh god, it’s coming out tomorrow”.

Female host: It’s a pretty extensive package.

Olli: You really noticed that while putting it together – and naturally we did the work ourselves – that it was an enormous amount of work. Even though it has only two new songs, the other one of them was made in such a fast pace, with a “got to get this done!” mentality. It was really hectic, you wouldn’t believe how much work it was… actually if you compare with making a normal album, it was just the same amount.

Marko: The amount of work is very comparable in my opinion.

Female host: But do you think you are in that point of your career that now was a good moment to wrap up everything in the past and turn it into a compilation?

Marko: Somehow it felt like it. It felt like a good idea. We imagined to take a little break and played with the idea of putting together the compilation which we had dreamed of for sometime now. Like, shall we do it now when we have the sufficient amount of songs, it would make a nice package. And we also thought that we’ve done four albums already and there’s a lot of people out there who haven’t bought even one of them but they’ve heard our songs in the radio and in gigs and seen our music videos, so we have stuff which is quite familiar to many in Finland. And I am a compilation person myself so when I know some band, I don’t  always keep up with them so actively or buy their every album but when they release a compilation with their best songs, I buy that one and listen to it.

Male host: you also have a strong faith in the future of the band because you chose to name this Vol. 1. Doesn’t it indicate that Vol. 2 will be coming out?

Laughter.

Marko: We try to slip in these kind of omens or self fulfilling prophesies for ourselves.

Male host: So you’re not going to do what Lauri Tähkä just did?

Olli: You can never know about that.

Female host: Everyone who’s clapping their hands at the new songs because it means there’s a new album coming up soon or more new material, are they making the right conclusion?

Marko: It is the right conclusion. Two new songs on this album, just to choose what those two were going to be we already wrote a few others as well and we can work on those a little more before the new album comes out.

Both hosts: Yeah, yeah.

Male host: Now I would like to speak a little about your reputation. You’re well known world wide and I just went and searched with Marko’s name, Marko Saaresto, to see what comes up in Face Book for example. I found a fan site dedicated just for Marko. And it had a lot of names from India and the surrounding regions. And they were praising, like “the best vocalist in the world” and “incredible singer” and this insane worship from all over the world and then there was some Seija or Elina from Finland with a comment “thanks for the gig in Seinäjoki, it was great”.

Female host laughing.

Male host: You could see the different culture and we don’t always understand in Finland that when you cross the border to east for example, to Russia, the way people behave as fans is completely different.

Marko: You can see it also in… because we do everything on our own, with our own little hands and with our own little record label and so, being an indie band, each country is its own territory and what you do in one country usually has no impact in the neighbouring countries unless that one country has a very strong influence in the neighbouring countries when it comes to music culture. Like when something happens in that country, it happens in the neighbouring countries as well. That may be the reason why people here don’t see what it’s like in Russia.

Female host: When you think outside Finland, in which countries do you have your most fanatical fans?

Marko: I think they’re found in Germany, Russia… Indians are really great as well. And when it comes to Finland, Eastern and Southern Finland… you notice that the hairs are longer and head banging is wilder.

Olli: I just want to comment that the first gig in India in 2007… I’m talking about the first gig because the next one is coming soon I think. But it was so… how do I say, the reception there was a real stunner.

Male host: In which city did you go?

Olli: It was in Kanpur, in the middle of nowhere in a way.

Marko: Somewhere between Delhi and Taj Mahal.

Olli: You could put it like that.

Male host: Was it in a restaurant or…?

Olli: No it was a university festival in a campus area.

Male host: How many people came to listen?

Olli: Three thousand. They had a limitation on how many could come.

Male host: Yeah.

Olli: Only three thousand were allowed in.

Marko: And outside the venue there were about eight thousand people trying to find a chance to get in somehow.

Olli: The way we were received there was really incredible. But when you think about it, India is such a different country, so far removed from our own culture and also as a region, that you don’t really know what you can expect from there, you don’t know or hear stories about how other bands are received there. If you want to make comparisons, it’s easier to take Russia as an example, it’s much closer.

Male host: But was it like… when you landed in an airport in India and went through the customs, they were all “look who they are”.

Male host tries to imitate how hindi sounds.

Male host: You know, whispering to each other after knowing you.

Olli: No, actually…

Marko: I don’t know, I don’t think they did… but when you think about us having a few hundred thousand fans in India and the whole population is 1,2 billion people.

Female host: True.

Marko: There are plenty of people there who…

Male host: … are potential fans.

Marko: Potential fans, exactly.

Male host: Future fans.

Olli: The thing is, you don’t really know yet if an audience of 30 000 people or 150 000 people is a little or a lot over there. This is India we’re talking about.

Male host: Yes, true.

Female host: I visited your website which are very neat and read in the forum a little bit. There was something about your Tavastia gig on Friday, day after tomorrow. Some people from Turkey were writing that they’re coming to see the gig, and asking for help with accommodation. And someone had replied from Italy that “oh, you’re coming too, how fun, I’m coming as well” and someone from Germany joined in and said “it’s going to be quite an international meeting in Helsinki, what with people from so many different countries coming”. I felt rather humbled for you guys, that oh my goodness, people are travelling a long way just to see you live in Helsinki on Friday. I felt like crawling into a cabinet or something, just so I won’t catch a cold and jeopardize the gig.

Marko: You have a flu don’t you?

Marko laughs.

Female host: Stay away from mr. Kataja now because he had a stuffy nose this morning.

Male host: Yes, it’s in the preliminary stages of stuffiness. I’ll keep my distance.

Female host: So, how does it feel?

Marko: It feels really great that people actually travel from another country and it’s happened many times before, that people come to Finland. Or if we’re in Germany, people from all over Europe come and see us there. Even from as far away as Brazil. It’s quite baffling and fine.

Olli: It makes you feel humble to have so many fans who support us, that’s what we live from. To have fans, also very persistent ones…

Marko: And so many of them are persistent.

Olli: …who fly a long way and come see us live.

Male host: Exactly. The whole image for your band is pretty fine in my opinion, very much in the international level. Marko, is this all thanks to you because of your advertisement agency background?

Marko: I do have a background in advertisement but the credit goes to all other team members as well. I think there’s always someone to create the original vision and outlook and everyone else supports it. And our team has formed from people who share a similar way of thinking.

Female host: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this yourselves or if it’s intentional or just a coincidence that your publications always come out at the same time of the year.

Marko: We’ve been wondering about that ourselves sometimes.

Female host: Like we’ve been talking  earlier in this show about how cats start meowing in their heat at March and…

Laughter.

Olli: Marko will start meowing too.

Female host: It’s one of the signs that spring is approaching, Poets of the Fall is releasing a new album. Today Alchemy Vol. 1 can be found in stores. Almost to the day a year ago your Twilight Theater came out and Revolution Roulette on the March 26th of 2008 and Carnival Of Rust came out in the early days of April in 2006. So it’s quite closely, in a range of one month at the same time of the year. Is it only a coincidence?

Marko: Even if we miss a year, it’s still at the same time…

Female host: Yes.

Marko: It may be, you know, once you’re out with your first album, then you have the tour that last a certain amount of time, and once it’s time for making a new album you know it takes a certain amount of time to do that, and then you’re hooked.

Female host: Quite a boring explanation actually… I was hoping you had some lovely “sign of spring” philosophy behind it.

Marko: But it actually is.

Male host: Make it a tradition.

Marko: Let’s make it a tradition. In the fall we retreat into our studio and in the spring the new album comes out.

Female host: Welcome back in one year.

Marko: Thank you.

Male host: I really want to ask one more question. Have you… since you spend so much time together as a band, on your tours and all, are you also best friends outside the band as well or do you feel like once the tour is over, you don’t have to look at the same faces for a while. Or did everything start with a friendship?

Marko: It really did start out as a friendship and it has stayed that way as well which I think is brilliant. But we also have times very much apart when we don’t even call or SMS each other, so sometimes it’s a good thing that you don’t have to see each other’s faces all the time.

Male host: Ok.

Female host: CD and DVD compilation Alchemy Vol. 1 in the stores today. Today our gentleman guests brought three packages with them and if you call us right now you may be the lucky person to get yourself one. But before that we’re going to listen one of the new songs of this album, Can You Hear Me. Would you like to tell something about it?

Marko: It’s basically all about compassion being the answer for everything in the end. Enjoy life while you’re alive, don’t waste it on hating.

Female host: Marko and Olli, thank you for the visit.

Marko and Olli: Thank you.

Can You Hear Me plays.

Female host: This was new Poets of the Fall, Can You Hear Me. It’s 9.25 o’clock and our phone lines really heated up from callers after the compilation package. The fastest ones won, but all the rest of you can buy your own today.

Thanks to Lisa for recording! Sorry for the semi-crappy quality, but I had to convert it in order to provide it in the stream movie player below. The original WMV file is of better quality (see link below).

Watch:

Download:

Download WMV from potfcountyjail.com

Metadata:

• Size: 62.9MB
• Length: 06:36min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Host: One of our international success stories, Poets of the Fall. Tow of their members are our guests this morning. Olli and Marko, good morning.

Olli: Morning.

Marko: Morning.

Host: Why was this such a good moment to put all your hits together into one package? There are a couple of new songs in here too, but for all your fans this is a lot of delicacies put together.

Marko: Let’s say that this has been in our thoughts for a while now. That at some point, once we have enough material it would be nice to put them all together and it would in a way be a sign for that moment and then you can move on with new stuff to do. We all thought that now would be the time for it, it was just a feeling.

Host: A space financial statement.

Marko: Exactly, a space financial statement, now we do this and after that we look into the future and decide what to do next.

Host: How does the space financial statement look like then, thinking back on your career?

Olli: Well…

Marko: It looks very good, but when you think back on the albums we’ve done and they’ve all been rather different in our opinion and each one has taken us forward and we thought this would be a good moment and an easy project and we could have a breather.

Olli: Didn’t quite go like that.

Marko: No, it didn’t go like we thought. We really worked hard on this album as well. Even though there’s only two new songs in it and the rest of them were done a long time ago, it still was a huge amount of work. And right now we’re working on a music video to the song we heard a clip of just now. And it’s coming out at the end of the week. And all other projects on top of all that, then… it has been a lot of work. I don’t know, maybe it’s all about going in cycles and repeating these things and trying to discover those small, or sometimes bigger things that change what we do and keeps up our own interest.

Host: If I’ve understood correctly, you’re also very involved in this video project and you want to be aware of everything that’s going on around the band.

Marko: Yes, that’s true, we’ve got our fingers in everything that happens, for good or for bad. Sometimes it would be easier to let go a little and share more of the responsibility and decision making. But when you’re such a control freak that you are, every single thing seems so important that you have to be involved.

Olli: Right, and right from when we first started we had this do-it-yourself mentality and you haven’t really been able to change from it along the way. We’ve thought about it sometimes but it’s never really taken flight so that we actually would have done it. It’s important to be involved and have a say in everything that concerns you. That’s just how it works for us.

Host: Our viewers have sent some questions and one of them has to do with Alan Wake game which has some of your music in it. Here Petri wants to know how big of a role does the game have in your success and has it been a deal of a million?

Olli: Hehe, it certainly wasn’t that. It’s more of a marketing aspect when you get a chance like this.

Host: Even though millions of people play the game and the game has been a success.

Olli: It’s not quite that straightforward, there are many other things playing a part in this particular case, such as friendships and so… And we’ve always had good… I mean, the collaboration with Remedy Entertainment has always been very fruitful. That’s why I wouldn’t really say it’s been a deal of a million. But when you think about what it has given to us in return, you could say it’s a significant event in our case.

Host: Because through the game you’ve received a lot of audience that otherwise would never have…

Marko: Oh, yes, through that we’ve gotten… and especially in the beginning when we were completely unknown, the effect seemed enormous and things started happening literally overnight. Our e-mail overflowed when we got so much feedback from all over the world and it only took a few weeks to count that we had e-mails of all kinds from eighty plus countries. The first two months after Late Goodbye was released in Max Payne was practically all about replying to people’s e-mails. At that point I thought if it would be possible to become a full on musician. From there we founded our own record label and I realized I have to quit my day job because there’s just too much work and it would be a shame to leave this kind of a chance unused. Olli and Captain joined in after a while.

Host: Our time is ending soon, but I have to ask one more question. The biggest musical news in Finland is that Lauri Tähkä and Elonkerjuu quit in bad terms, the notification was sent to the band by e-mail and this isn’t the first time to happen either. We have examples like Nightwish and a few musicians have left HIM in all different ways. So how volatile is the band dynamics then?

Marko: It’s very volatile. You really have to cherish the whole thing. First find the right people and then cherish what you’ve got so that everything keeps together. Sometimes it’s a dance on a tightrope and sometimes it’s laid back because all your band mates are great. But these situations can happen and it’s a rather classic situation and it’s said that artists are impulsive people. Maybe in some other field of business things are easier and the rules are clearer but in this business it can be a balancing act.

Host: It’s like a passionate marriage.

Marko: It’s a little like a passionate marriage.

Host: Thank you guys.

Marko: Thanks.

Olli: Thank you.

Thanks to Lisa for recording!

Listen:

Download audio file (x3m_interview_cyhm_acoustic_live.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from potfmedia.com

Metadata:

• Size: 20.3MB
• Length: 21:45min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Kjell Simosas hosting the show named Stiftelsen [Foundation, in English].

Kjell: That was Oskar Linnros with the song 25, it’s 8 minutes past 3 o’clock, you’re listening to Stiftelsen, Hipsu and Kjell From Hell in the studio. We have celebrity guests over in our live transmission. Tomorrow their new compilation album, Alchemy Vol. 1, is out along with a DVD. The compilation album includes all their biggest hits. The band is called Poets of the Fall and they are one of the biggest Finnish bands of the 2000′s. We have Marko and Olli with us in the studio and they’re now going to play their newest single Can You Hear Me for us acoustically. Please.

Can You Hear Me live acoustic.

Kjell: So, so fine! Poets of the Fall, Marko and Olli, playing live acoustic here for Stiftelsen. We’ll welcome the guys into the studio now, and what you just heard was their latest single Can You Hear Me.

Commercials.

Kjell: Can You Hear Me was the name of the song you just heard, and it’s the band’s newest single. They are releasing a few new other songs as well with the upcoming compilation album which comes with a DVD as well. It’s out tomorrow, Alchemy Vol. 1. Marko and Olli from Poets of the Fall, welcome!

Marko and Olli: Yes, thank you, thanks.

Kjell: Oh no, sorry about that, maybe I should turn on your mikes as well. Even your voices aren’t loud enough to reach mine properly…

Laughter.

Kjell: …even if I were to open the window.

Marko: I could shout into your mike.

Kjell: And then it can be heard even all the way in Vaasa [A Finnish west coast town]. So how are you doing? It’s been so long since the last interview.

Marko: Oh yes, it has been. We’re just fine, waiting for the spring to arrive and all the things it possibly brings along.

Kjell: You are a rather positive band, or I have a very positive image of you, your songs aren’t so terribly gloomy even though there is something melancholic about them. So how do you like living in the middle of all this snow half the year? How do you deal with it?

Marko: I can say straight up and honest that I don’t like it at all. I’d like to live in some sunny place with blue skies and palm trees. One could sit on a hammock and write songs.

Olli: Well, I don’t know…

Marko: We’ve written a couple of songs at the beach in the summer, so…

Olli: Yes, we have, it’s become a tradition. I don’t know if living in Finland has that much to do with the style of our music. I’d say the same kind of sensibilities and melancholy would be found in it even if we lived under the palm trees. On the other hand, all of us have lived in Finland for quite a while now, so perhaps we’ve been moulded Finnish somehow or something such.

Marko: These changing seasons are a factor when it comes to having the full kaleidoscope of emotions in the songs, the high points and the low points and everything in between. A rollercoaster ride.

[Kjell translates into Swedish what the guys just said, it would be just repetition so I'm not going to translate it here.]

Kjell: Talking about summer, the compilation album is coming out now and it fits so well into so many different situations. Like if you’re going to a party or to summer cottage. It’s a golden opportunity, if you can’t be bothered to take all your CDs with you, to take a couple of compilations and it will get you through the weekend.

Marko: Yeah, great idea.

Olli: That was a sales speech we hadn’t even thought about.

Marko: Yeah, thanks very much for this.

Laughter.

Kjell: Right, sure.

Olli: But it’s true… that’s how it is.

Marko: Taking a phone call to our marketing department…

Kjell: Well, in your opinion then, to what situations is this compilation best suited? Summer cottage yes, but any other situations?

Olli: I was just thinking that even though my parents have all our albums but it will be handy to have just the one in the car and our compilation could be that one.

Marko: I mean, that’s exactly…

Olli: It’s a whole package of what we’re all about.

Marko: Yes, I totally agree, because when I listen to music, it’s usually in the car while driving. And that’s when I get the most out of the music as well, all the feeling and so. All our albums are suited for listening in the car but the compilation is a retrospective cut through of everything we’ve done so far. It suits very well to be listened in a car.

Kjell: What kind of music listeners are you? The kind who listen about half a song and then skip on, like “No wait, I know another one!” or…

Laughter.

Marko: Captain is like that.

Olli: Yeah.

Kjell: …or you have to listen it to the end once you’ve started, or how do you listen?

Marko: Aaah, well… You’re not like that Captain, you’re listening to this anyway.

Olli: Oh, totally!

Laughter.

Olli: I… Well, we’re all, as musicians, we have to concentrate in the music a little differently. Or it depends on if you like the song you’re listening or not. Let’s just say that the ones we like, we listen very intently to from start to finish. And still, I claim to get really great kicks from listening to songs and I like to relax and take the time just to listen. But on the other hand, I have to say that if we remember that some song had some really great thing in it and we’re at the office working, it’s likely that we go through a lot of songs quickly. Like “no, no it wasn’t this one, not this one either… it was this one, here it is! But actually there’s a better thing in this other song…”. It depends on the situation so much.

Marko: And sometimes we listen to music quite purposefully and it tends to get a bit analytical. But when you listen according to feelings it can be very impulsive. Like “this is how I’m feeling now, I have to listen to this now”.

Kjell: Are you guys into You Tubeing? I mean, if you’re at a party or something and… it’s enough for someone to open the Pandora’s box, like “have you seen this sneezing panda video?”. And that someone goes and finds it in You Tube and you’re close by and go over to say “I know a really good one too, it’s from a Polish comedy show” and then all of a sudden four hours have gone by because everyone wants to show the one they think is the best.

Marko: We’ve talked about this at the studio a few times… how much of our workday can we spend on You Tubeing and how much should we spend on actually working on the songs.

Olli: We kind of have a fine line between when it’s entertainment and when it’s actually finding things that we can implement in our own work, so… but most of you tube videos are just videos and not necessarily music, but it’s usually the funny stuff you look for in there.

Marko: It’s all about giggles.

[Again Kjell translates into Swedish what the guys just said, it would be just repetition so I'm not going to translate it here.]

Kjell: Now we’re going to listen to one of the older hits from Poets of the Fall, Locking Up The Sun, before we continue with Marko and Olli in the studio.

Kjell: Poets of the Fall, Locking Up The Sun from a couple of years ago. The band has an upcoming compilation album hitting the stores tomorrow, and it also includes a DVD. It’s a must have for every Poets of the Fall fan and for those who aren’t familiar with the band from before it’s a prefect buy, Alchemy Vol. 1 is the name of the compilation. What is the latest compilation that you bought?

Marko: The last one I bought was some Marilyn Manson compilation. I have a lot of his albums but it just caught my eye and I picked it up in case it was a good selection of songs so I wouldn’t have to… See, I’m still a bit old fashioned and I listen to CDs in the car and I can’t be bothered to burn a selection for myself from many different albums. I’m rather challenged when it comes to computers.

Laughter.

Kjell: I listened to that exact same collection just this morning.

Marko: Brilliant.

Kjell: Quite a coincidence.

Marko: Yeah.

Olli: I got myself the Billy Idol Greatest Hits.

Kjell: Ok. How did it taste like?

Olli: Very good, he’s the kind of artist that I haven’t really… I suppose I was a little bit too young when he had a lot of hot songs coming out. It was the kind of music that a boys a bit older than me listened to at the time. So I never really checked it out. I decided to educate myself a little, but it was a very good album.

Kjell: Forever young Billy Idol.

Olli: Yes, yes.

[Again Kjell translates into Swedish what the guys just said, it would be just repetition so I'm not going to translate it here.]

Kjell: Now, I don’t know if you’ve read about this scientific study yourselves, but it was done in Sweden and it turns out that out of all musicians drummers are the most intelligent ones.

Marko: I think I’ve read about this some time ago…

Olli: Yeah.

Marko: … and it’s not true.

Olli: It’s most certainly not.

Kjell: I was just thinking how it is in your band.

Olli: It’s a rather even match between the singer, the guitarist and our producer wizard, so…

Marko: Keyboardist, singer and guitarist, but not necessarily in that exact order. It depends on the day.

Olli: Yes, it’s a rather even match.

Laughter.

Marko: That’s the elite.

Olli: We’re top intelligent in any case, so…

Kjell: Yes, yes.

Olli: You can’t escape that fact.

Kjell: But the drummer doesn’t get to step on the podium this time?

Marko: Unfortunately not.

Olli: At least not to the number one spot.

Marko: The first three are announced but the rest is just a gray mass of people.

Laughter.

Kjell: Ok, Club Fairplay is assembling here…

Marko: Good day from the Club Fairplay, heheh.

Kjell: What kind of roles do you have in the band, I’m not talking about who plays which instrument, but who is who?

Olli: In my opinion we’ve always had a very clear division. Marko is the boss and everyone listens to his opinion and the rest of us scuffle in the background how to work things out. But everything has always worked really well between us all. We listen to each other.

Marko: Our roles are the following: I sit and pout in the tour bus, because I’m not allowed to speak. I have to be able to sing in the evening so… and everyone else is shouting and laughing behind me.

Laughter.

Marko: Little circle going round and round right behind me and they’re having all the fun in the world while I just look out the window, ung.

Kjell: So, if you’re the one who usually makes the decisions, then who is the one to challenge them the most?

Marko: If it’s about the three of us, we probably have a funny situation where Olli is the ‘go-between guy’ and Captain and I are the polar opposites. We have a different way of dealing with things and then we have these… on the other hand it’s a good thing because in a way it makes all of us grow. We have our moments of “why do you think like this?” or “how can you think in this way?” or “are you even giving this any thought?”. Because that makes you have to think and it’s a growing experience.

Olli: Yeah, it’s like I always agree with everyone. I’m that guy.

Kjell: The yes man.

Olli: I’m the yes man, absolutely. Of course I have opinions of my own and they may differ a lot from those of the rest but like Marko just said we have to work through these things and it’s usually a good thing.

[Again Kjell translates into Swedish what the guys just said, it would be just repetition so I'm not going to translate it here.]

Kjell: Like I said before, the new compilation album is out tomorrow. What is going to happen to you guys next? You have a few gigs coming up at least. And after that?

Marko: Oh well, we’ve been looking at our schedule and figuring out what would be fun to do next. We do have some gigs coming up but we’re going to make some new music as well, for ourselves and perhaps for other people too, during this year.

Olli: Yes, that’s right, we basically have… actually we have a holiday for the next week after a long bout of work and I’m sure it will do us good. And after that our calendar says “start working on the new album”.

Laughter.

Kjell: Alright!

Olli: But we will have to proceed rather slowly on that because we do have the gigs and then all the other basic stuff, promoting and we have a few song commissions waiting for us, we’ll see when we can get down to working on those.

[Again Kjell translates into Swedish what the guys just said, it would be just repetition so I'm not going to translate it here.]

Kjell: Check our more at www.poetsofthefall.com and a compilation album is out in the stores tomorrow. Marko and Olli thank you very much for visiting. This is Radio Extrem and now it’s time for some news.

Listen:

Download audio file (nrj_interview_live_kof_cyhm.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from potfmedia.com

Download live performance only from poetcountyjail.com

Metadata:

• Size: 29.2MB
• Length: 31:11min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you once more!):

[Translator's note: 2 male hosts and later also a female host in the studio. I couldn't tell which male host was speaking at all times so I gave up on it. I suppose it's not the key factor here anyways.]

Let us welcome a mature, manly, mature in a manly way, manly in a mature way, Poets of the Fall!

Host: So, they are here, welcome into the studio Poets of the Fall.

Marko: Thank you, good morning.

Olli: Thanks, good morning.

Marko: To every caste and class.

Host: Good morning, it’s Marko and Olli visiting The Morning Boys. I hope our intro wasn’t too much on the pompous side.

Marko: It was brilliant.

Olli: Nothing can ever be too pompous for us.

Marko: Glory to all things grandiloquent.

Host: Right, that’s right. What we’re going to do here, like I mentioned earlier along with Max Payne, tomorrow your first ever compilation album of your career can be found in shop shelves. Why do this nearly compulsory best of right now, at this moment?

Olli: We actually thought about doing one right after our first album, but…

Laughter.

Olli: We were finally allowed to do it.

Host: Okay.

Marko: A little like King, way back when… made one album and a compilation after that.

Laughter.

Marko: Nah, you start playing with the package and when you think you have enough material you want to put together some kind of a retrospective version for publishing for people who haven’t really found us yet.

Host: So, was this really your own idea to put this compilation together or was it, to put it nicely, a happy joint effort from both the record label and yourselves?

Laughter.

Marko: I have to say that this was fully the record label’s idea and the rest of the statement can be put into brackets: we are our own record label.

Host: Aaah. There now!

Laughter.

Host: But the package is a very nice one, the compilation has a couple of new songs like all compilations usually have these days. Then there’s a DVD included with all your music videos and photos and the likes. You really have put some work into this. A little more than just something rather basic.

Marko: Yes, yes it’s all about alchemy… Coelho, Coelho could I please have your selling figures… one can only hope. [translator's info: Paolo Coelho is a Brazilian best selling author of the novel The Alchemist with over 65 million copies sold].

Laughter.

Marko: But you have to think about the fans who already have all our albums, it’s very nice for them to get some new material. And we enjoy making new material as well, so you can’t really keep yourself from including it to the album.

Olli: And the thing is… ehrm, I kind of lost the gist actually because you said it so well… What was I supposed to say?

Host: Just ramble on something, it doesn’t really matter what…

Olli: Oh yeah, once I have the chance to do so…

Marko: It’s just like playing one of your solos.

Laughter.

Olli: So… So… with the amount of work we put into this album again, it just made me think that it’s really not about cashing in with this compilation album. It’s a lot of hard work.

Marko: That’s totally true, before you thought you could save some time and work on other new songs but when you start with the work, it just piles up until it reaches the ceiling. We don’t really know how to take it easy with any of our projects.

Host: You have a huge amount of fans in Finland as well as abroad. And every fan has their favourite songs. Was there any difficulty to pick out the songs for this compilation album. Because I’m sure there are some fans out there wondering why their favourite wasn’t chosen.

Marko: One of our fans made a clever remark in our website: if you really would like to have one of your personal favourite in there, you will also have to choose to drop one song out of the list. I think it ended the discussion.

Laughter.

Marko: So it was difficult for us too to choose, but we included our so called hits, the songs that have been given a lot of radio play, in your channel as well. Also some most popular fan requests at gigs and our own favourites are there as well.

Host: Our channels plays anything you guys publish, your music is really good stuff.

Marko and Olli: Thank you.

Host: Even if you were to come up with a folk song, we’ll play it.

Marko: This is a moment for a group hug.

Olli: We’ll do a folk song in just a couple of moments.

Host: Did I just say that out loud? Because now you’re going to take advantage of it…

Other host: How sickeningly sweet.

Marko singing.

Host: Now we’re going to take a break to brush our teeth and continue in a moment with the guys… let’s find out which sphere we’ll end up in.

Host: During the break, let’s listen Poets of the Fall, Illusion and Dream.

Host: It’s 19 past 9 o’clock, you’re listening to Radio NRJ, and this was Poets of the Fall, Illusion and Dream. The song in question will be found in the new Poets of the Fall compilation album which is coming into stores tomorrow. Alchemy Vol. 1 is the title of the CD. And in a while we’ll be hearing Poets of the Fall live, it will be worth it to stay tuned.

Commercials.

Female host: The ending of the band Lauri Tähkä and Elonkerjuu has been the number one music news of today. We’ll continue with Marko and Olli from Poets of the Fall and ask them if they’ve ever even thought about ending the band.

Host: Poets of the Fall in the studio and now we’re going to hear some completely new music from this fine band. This song is from their new Alchemy Vol. 1 compilation album, Can You Hear Me. Please.

Can You Hear Me live performance.

Clapping hands.

Host: So fine! Poets of the Fall. This from the new compilation album, some brand new music, Can You Hear Me. And it sounded very good.

Female host: And now I have to ask, is this the earliest gig you’ve ever had to do? Because usually gigs are done rather late in the evening.

Marko: Yes, well usually they’re so late that they’re almost this early.

Laughter.

Host: Right.

[Everyone talking at the same time, can't make it out]

Marko: Oh yes, absolutely, nothing but water.

Olli: What are you talking about?

Laughter.

Host: Who claims to be sober around here? Yeah, well… Like Annika there mentioned and it’s been in the news and the whole nation is shocked by this huge music news, which is that a band named Lauri Tähkä and Elonkerjuu has announced to quit altogether. Lauri Tähkä has said he’s no longer inspired to do music any longer. As colleagues, how do you take in a decision like this?

Marko: Well, ehh, the first thing that comes to mind is to wish all the best and a lot of strength to Lauri and good luck to whatever he wants to do from now on.

Host: Solo career.

Marko: Solo career, right…

Olli: But these things happen, you can’t help it.

Marko: No, you can’t, and you think about it yourself sometimes too. It can be an arm wrestle to try and find new perspectives to what you’re doing and find the inspiration and so far I’ve always been able to find it again.

Female host: But where do you find it then? Do you have to really dig it out by going to a retreat or by travelling abroad?

Marko: From travelling, exactly and from convent retreats and from standing on my head and yoga levitation…

Host: When is the India phase coming up?

Laughter.

Olli: We’ve already had the India… we’ve already been there! And we’re probably going back too.

Marko: Yes, our India phase was at the end of 2007 and after that we made Revolution Roulette album in which we were able to hide the…

Marko beat boxes.

Laughter.

Marko: … in between. Drum comps and such things.

Olli: But yes, sometimes you have to struggle with that a little bit, to find the motivation. And also to find a good spirit, because us three guys working together for years now…

Marko: In the same booth.

Olli: In the same booth, it’s a given that there will be disagreements.

Host: You already have 4 albums behind you, all of them of equally good material, it must take some thinking how to put all three notes back in harmony together.

Olli: Yes, yes.

Marko: Yes, it does. And when it comes to writing lyrics, the simple fact is that you have to actually live a little now and then to have something to say, because I don’t want to write anything without substance… there would be nothing in it for me. You have to have something to write about and things start rolling from there.

Host: And the compilation album is a good way to buy yourself some time to live.

Laughter.

Marko: Exactly!

[Everyone talking at the same time, can't make it out]

Host: What? It was just an observation.

Female host: Just to return to the topic of Lauri Tähkä, he notified his decision to his band mates via e-mail.

Marko: Ok…

Female host: What is your opinion about this? It’s like a classic SMS “break up”, I don’t want to be with you no more.

Marko: Well, I don’t know, maybe it’s a classic way to end things… We’re in the habit of talking face to face about a lot of things. I think with us you would be able to tell way beforehand, that this would be about to happen sometime soon and we would be able to prepare ourselves for it as well.

Olli: Was this like an open letter or just..

Host: No, apparently it was just an open e-mail message to all band members. Not to the whole world.

Female host: Yes, and the band members have made it public right after it. So there.

Host: Marko and Olli, we’ll continue with you in just a short while but now, the latest news.

Host: Thank you Annika for the latest update on news, soon we’re continuing with Poets of the Fall and because I’m also a fan of Poets of the Fall I would like to give them a surprise song request in a moment. We’ll see if they can do what I ask from them. Here’s some music from an artist who is going to perform at NRJ Live later tonight here in NRJ studios. Michael Monroe, Seventy-eight on Tuesday morning.

Host: Michael Monroe and Seventy-eight, Michael Monroe on NRJ Live today starting at 7 pm. Stay tuned.

Host: Still in the studio, Marko and Olli from Poets of the Fall.

Host: Very good morning to you gentlemen, your compilation album is in the stores tomorrow, go and buy it. And you guys are going to have a few gigs soon as well. Tavastia is calling this Friday, then you’re also going to visit St. Petersburg. How do you like Mother Russia?

Olli: We do have some differences of opinion on that… I like it very much. This is going to be the sixth time we go there.

Host: Okay.

Olli: It feels like things just get bigger for us every time we go there. We are bigger names than we were before, every time we go.

Host: But that’s great.

Marko: It’s very noticeable.

Olli: Everything functions surprisingly well over there.

Host: Or does it, Marko?

Laughter.

Host: Marko is looking downwards.

Marko: Well… Olli, why don’t you keep on talking.

Laughter.

Olli: This may have something to do with the fact that last time when we were travelling from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, Marko’s flight was booked for the wrong month…

Female host: What?!

Olli: The thought was to leave him behind for a month… so the end result was he had to catch a train by running.

Marko: That was quite an…

Olli: A moving train, up the hill. It was a bit of a hassle and maybe affected Marko’s… enthusiasm.

Marko: Have you ever ran, with all your luggage, to catch a moving train, like in the movies?

Female host: Ha ha ha, no!

Marko: Thrown in your luggage and jumped in.

Host: Think what a romantic thing… what an inspiration to write a song.

Marko: It’s really such a long story with all its details about what happened along the way, I got a ride from James Bond and all other things. In some ways it was really cool though.

Female host: In some ways. It makes for great memories. Afterwards.

Marko: Yes.

Olli: And if we were to write a book to buy some time, it could be all about our last trip to Russia.

Marko: Exactly.

Host: Yes, yes, yes.

Host: Would you ever consider publishing any Russian language material?

Olli: Well, we’ll do anything for money.

Laughter.

Someone tries to imitate how Russian sounds like.

Olli: Maybe we would be able to pull it off.

Marko: Possibly a chorus at some point in time…

Host: You’ve been in the business for a while now, since 2003 and you’ve had a lot of gigs during this time. So where does the energy for all this come from, to perform engagingly like you guys do? Where does it come from every night?

Marko: It comes in between backstage and the stage. It’s a stretch of about 5 meters, sometimes more, sometimes less. That’s where it is.

Host: Like a buffet of energy?

Marko: Seriously, it’s a funny thing, you can be upside down on a chair and complaining “I’m too tired today to do anything, save me, waaah”. And when you walk to the stage and it’s starting, the playback tape or intro tape starts rolling, you walk towards the stage and do your rituals and 2 meters before the stage, whoosh, something happens.

Female host: What’s the ritual?

Marko tries to suppress laughter.

Olli: Well, we chant some words we’ve come up that same day and…

Female host: But not like, everyone in a circle, hands in the middle and “Wooooo Poets!”

Marko and Olli: Yes, yes, yes.

Olli: But the word changes all the time.

Female host: Ok.

Host: Well now… earlier we promised a possible surprise request…

Other host: Or you did anyway.

Host: I promised, yes… I don’t know if you want to go along with this or not but…

Marko [in a deep voice]: What?!

Host: I would like to put in a sweet and shy request… because in my opinion the best Poets of the Fall song ever is King of Fools. Would it in any way be possible…

Someone [in a funny voice]: Please, please, please…

Host: … to get an acoustic live version of this song?

Marko: Quite an interesting questi… I mean request. Of course it’s possible. Or we’ll see how it goes. Because we haven’t played that song since 2006, so…

Female host: Oh.

Host: Oh dear.

Marko: We’ll see if it’s still etched in our spine.

Host: You will absolutely have to include it in your set list. Notice me starting to give advice here..

Marko: Yes, we do notice…

Host: I’ll just shut up now and concentrate to listen.

Marko: The next step is to get in touch with a psychiatrist…

Olli: And if you feel like it, just sing along, it’s fine.

Female host: I was just wondering if I should…

Olli: In case Marko forgets the lyrics.

Female host: …to find the lyrics for you online so you can function as a theater whisperer.

Marko: Whisperer, but in a sign language if you don’t mind… from across the studio.

Female host: With notes.

Host: I promise to be all quiet and enjoy the music. Now Poets of the Fall, King of Fools.

King of Fools live performance.

Host: Oh my.

Clapping hands.

Female host: Beautiful.

Host: I have to say, this felt so good, thank you so much Marko and Olli. Poets of the Fall Alchemy Vol. 1 in stores tomorrow, go get one for yourselves.

Other host: Thank you very much.

Marko and Olli: Thanks.

Listen:

Download audio file (metrofm_radio_110314.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from potfmedia.com

Metadata:

• Size: 18.2MB
• Length: 19:58min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Kimmo Sainio and Juha Perälä hosting.

Host: It’s Metro FM Morning at 9.12 o’clock and the morning show guests have arrived to chatter with us for a while. Marko and Olli from Poets of the Fall, good morning.

Olli: Morning.

Marko: Good morning.

Host: How long ago was it, I was just trying to count back, has it been just about a year since we last met. Back then, your album Twilight Theater had just come out. Do I have it right?

Marko: Yeah, nearly at the same time in recent years… I mean, last year.

Laughter.

Marko: It came out sometime in recent years.

Host: So this is like a yearly reunion then.

Marko: We breakfast together once a year together.

Laughter.

Marko: Because you have a quite a table setting here, I’m sure every listener wouldn’t mind having some of this the first thing in the morning. Makes you wake up nicely.

Host: Yes, Perälä, I think we should quote the famous commercial “I’m sure you’d like some too”.

Perälä (host): Yes. Kimmo, would you like to tell everyone who actually brought the breakfast items?

Kimmo (host): Oh yes, our new intern went and got it for us.

Perälä (host): Whaat? Whaat?

Kimmo (host): Nah, just kidding… let’s get down to business now. Something really great is happening day after tomorrow. Your first compilation album is coming out.

Host: Is it like the first album?

Marko: It’s almost like the first album…

Host: Ok, well it’s good that that’s how you feel about it; I was just thinking how all the best songs will be in one CD. But what else does it include? I was under the impression that there are a couple of new songs too.

Marko: Two new songs and all our music videos that we’ve ever published are included on a DVD in the same package.

Host: Okay.

Olli: And then there are some photographs from different video shoots that haven’t been published before and…

Marko: For a good reason.

Olli: Yes, well it’s…

Host: Is it some home video stuff?

Olli: Let’s just say that the photos are too embarrassing to be published at all, but we had to.

Laughter.

Marko: Rather homey stuff…

Olli: They’ve been snapped at the back room between takes…

Marko: Among other things.

Olli: There will be some from the actual shooting locations as well. All kinds of photos.

Marko: Anything we could scrape together… “Guys, we really have to get something together…”

Olli: Yeah, yeah, we have to find anything!

Marko: “We’ve got these photos here, can we use these? No, but let’s use them anyway.”

Host: Gentlemen, can you tell me how a compilation album is actually put together? Do you put the best selling songs in there or do you put your own favourites in?

Marko: There are some of our favourites, and also favourites of our fans, either single publications or song requests that we get for the gigs. That’s what we’ve chosen. We get all kinds of advice from outside sources, for example about how many songs to put in it so it’s not too many, and how we should form the full package. We have about 50 songs, so the choosing goes rather well. But it includes our singles, our most played songs, our most requested songs and our personal favourites. And when you have to choose between songs, those factors were the ones that mattered.

Olli: Actually it was rather difficult to pick the songs because we wanted the songs from all those categories, singles, most played, most requested, our favourites. It easily made a very long list, but I think we were able to come down with a nice tight package.

Host: It’s great that you’re taking into consideration what the listeners and fans want but when you’re on a tour and playing live sets, you probably choose the songs that you like to play and… how do I say this nicely…songs that the fans may not listen to so much. So when you’re choosing songs for the compilation, you pick songs the fans want to hear, but also the ones you like to play and then before you know it, all your songs are back on the list again?

Laughter.

Marko: Yes, that tends to happen rather easily, but a gig is a very different thing from an album. And the idea of a compilation comes from…. After having worked for a certain number of years and a certain number of albums have come out and you want to take some certain things from each one and… there are a lot of people out there who like the band but haven’t bought all our albums or just don’t buy music in such large quantities. I for one don’t always buy every album of every artist I like, or follow up on every band I like with a close eye. That’s when you want to buy the compilation album because it has the best songs, the ones you’ve liked for years. That’s the kind of system that a compilation album is… and then it’s also nice to put in some new music in there so that also HC-fans get something new out of it, because they already have every song we’ve previously made.

Host: I’m sure Kimmo will soon play your new single, but before we listen to the song…. It must be like that, compilation is a very good idea, there are many bands who have been doing music for years, even decades. And usually the bulk of the people know just the latest stuff. So when the compilation comes out, just like you said Marko, is a good way to find new listeners by giving them some material they haven’t heard before and then they catch on to the older stuff as well. Have you noticed if this has happened with your old… or can you say “old” when it comes to your band? Do your think your older albums will start selling again in the wake of this compilation?

Olli: I really don’t know if that will happen yet, but surely it’s always a good thing when albums sell well. But you usually don’t think it from that perspective because all your songs are close to you and familiar and in some ways always fresh, even the first ones. But there are many people who have found us only with our last album but haven’t really bothered with the older songs. So now they may find Late Goodbye and go “wow, this is a great song”. It’s always a positive thing.

Marko: When it comes to our latest album, I know of people who played Alan Wake, heard War and sent us a message in twitter about having bought all our albums because that one song was so good. Like “I found you guys from this, but I bought everything you’ve got”. It’s possible that such will happen. Hopefully.

Host: We’ll continue in a moment, but now it’s time to listen to one of their new songs. Can You Hear Me on Metro FM.

Host: That was new music from Poets of the Fall, Can You Hear Me. One of the two songs in the new compilation album which is due to come out day after tomorrow. Isn’t that right?

Marko: Yes, yes.

Olli: Yeah. Greetings to Captain. It sounded very good.

Host: An excellent song, Marko and Olli from Poets of the Fall visiting the morning show. Let’s talk a little more about the compilation album. When you look back the years, what do you think, have you changed as a band since when you first started out? With four albums that have come out and the compilation coming out now.

Marko: We’ve now got huge bags under our eyes, and completely black too. We have to use light pencil make up at least 2 bottles per day…

Host: Don’t you have anyone sponsoring you about this…

Laughter.

Marko: Light pencil sponsors…

Host: Oh absolutely…

Olli: I’m sure we’ve changed to a more mature direction, and more intelligent and more wise and better songwriters…

Marko: That’s always a good thing.

Host: More handsome too.

Laughter.

Olli: Fortunate for men, they just keep getting handsomer and handsomer.

Marko: Handsomer, yes.

Marko: And what else can we come up?

Host: I still had a mouth full of coffee, I expected you to praise yourselves a little longer… but no more of that apparently.

Host: You’ve been involved with computer and console games from the start, there was Late Goodbye and Alan Wake has War, right?

Marko: Yeap.

Host: I also noticed that Rock Band has your Lift song?

Olli: Yes, we got it in there… they contacted us from across the pond, a company that produces more content for Rock Band. They asked for Lift, and after we got all the legal things sorted out, which took about three months of negotiations, things started moving on…

Marko: Light estimate, three months.

Laughter.

Olli: But anyway, a happy thing for us because the request came from their end. We’re glad to be a part of it.

Host: We’ve asked some Rock Band players, especially if they’re a musician and they have their own song in there or sports people, like Ami Asikainen who’s featured in a boxing game. He told us that he’s rather lousy at playing himself in the game. How is it with Rock Band? Have you tried to play Lift on it, as a band?

Laughter.

Olli: No, we haven’t tried.

Marko: No, not yet.

Olli: We haven’t tried it, but we thought we’re really going to have to get it to the office so that we can try it out. But I’m pretty sure I’m going to do a worse job on Lift in the game than for real.

Host: I was just thinking, Lift has a really great beginning with the guitar riff…

Host tries to sing the riff.

Host: Well that didn’t go that well.

Olli: No, it went quite well.

Host: But I was thinking… I’ve played Rock Band a little, with the guitar, when you go with the most difficult version, it will probably be difficult even for you Olli.

Olli: Oh yes, absolutely guaranteed.

Marko: The solo may give some trouble.

Laughter.

Olli: Yeah, yeah, it’s a completely different thing… It’s one thing to play it with a real guitar… You have to do it differently in the game.

Host: You have to keep your eyes on the little balls.

Olli: Exactly..

Marko: The similarities are like with playing a guitar and a harmonica.

Laughter.

Olli: Excatly. But on the other hand I like playing games, so I’d like to learn to do it with the game as well.

Marko: Then you can play it like that in our gigs too.

Laughter.

Marko: The rest of us can go have coffee in the back room.

Host: Gig is about to start and you’ve got the Rock Band guitar and everyone else keeps telling that you really can’t go on stage and play with that… But it could be a good idea, have some fans over and first they play the song with Rock Band and then you guys will do it.

Olli: Yeah, yeah.

Host: And the fans will probably do it better.

Marko and Olli: Most likely.

Host: We’re going to have to take care of it. How about the up coming gigs, the spring is almost here and summer isn’t far away either. Open Air music festivals will start putting out info about the performers. How is your schedule looking after the compilation album has come out? Where are you going to have gigs?

Marko: We always give out info in the last minute… Like “oh no, we were supposed to put this out…”

Host: Going to be in a hurry…

Marko: I wonder if there’s going to be any audience in our gigs…

Olli: We have a few gigs coming up. This week we have Tavastia. Then a couple of gigs in Russia in April. Ukraine in May. In the summer lots of open air festivals in Finland.

Marko: Something in Germany as well.

Olli: Yeah, we have plans to that direction. The autumn is undecided, we’ll go according to the situation.

Marko: We should be going to India all the time.

Olli: India has been offered to us a lot…

Marko: We should be going there at least once every week…

Olli: Yeah, we’ll see if we can fit it in. We really have to do a balancing act between different things time wise. The initial idea is to start working on the next album in the beginning of April already.

Marko laughs.

Olli: But we have to do some touring at the same time, so we don’t really know how it’s going to go. But let’s just say that we’re rather open to different things all the time, come what may and what we have time for.

Marko: I really have to tell to listeners that right now I’m sitting on a chair that is four meters high and it’s red. The carpet is red as well. I used to rock climb for years on both sides of the year 2000, before Poets of the Fall, and this chair is giving me the feeling of sitting 55 meters high up on some edge. I keep supporting myself with the table in front of me so that I’m not going to fall down. And I keep thinking where to clip myself for safety.

Host: Marko, you wouldn’t happen to know Veikka Gustafsson [well known Finnish mountain climber], would you?

Marko: I don’t know him, just met him once. I know a lot of other climbers though. I’m not quite extreme enough to have climbed in the same place at the same time with him.

Host: What’s the highest place you’ve ever climbed? The tower of the Olympic Stadium [in Helsinki]?

Marko: No, I think the highest rock walls I’ve climbed have been 50-60 meters high.

Host: That’s quite… without safety ropes?

Marko: I happened to be sane enough back then to use a rope.

Laughter.

Marko: The things I have soloed, so called, meaning climbing without ropes and safety measures, are quite a lot lower than that…

Host: Tell me, I’ve really got to ask now, you being musicians and do-gooders. With the situation in Japan, are there any plans going on as of yet to hold a charity concert with all profits go to aid Japan? Have you happened to hear anything in your circles? Because usually they set one up rather quickly.

Marko: No, but the idea is a brilliant one. Maybe we should do something about it.

Olli: Yes, that’s true, it should be done.

Host: I mean really, think, first they got the tsunami, then 3 power plants failed, then they got a volcano eruption. Just waiting for the Godzilla, I guess…

Marko: Yes, exactly…

Olli: Yes, well, it’s quite a lot…

Host: Now that you [the other host] threw Tokio into the mix, what place has stayed in your minds in terms of concerts?

Marko: Ehhh…

Host: What kind of places have you performed in that have…

Marko: I think the most memorable stuff happened when we first started. And at some point it’s turned into… there are so many gigs that [changes his voice] excuse me if I can’t remember every single one. But in all that fog…

Olli: I have a memory from an open air festival last summer, we were playing Illusion and Dream, and I happened to turn so that I was facing back stage. And it was Perälä [the host of this show] over there singing along and got the lyrics right. I was like “wow, we’re really on top now”.

Marko: You can replace me anytime, while I go to the Bahamas and lay in a hammock for a change.

Host: No, I really do know some of your songs. Is it a surprise to you? Be honest. Most of the time hosts just give lip service about your songs, that they’re really great… Is it a surprise that I actually know them?

Olli: Oh yes, yes. Because, usually you have some artist as a guest every day and you get more than your share of having to listen to music. One thinks that you really get enough of it here at work that you just want to listen to birdsongs at home… or silence.

Marko: I happen to listen to birdsongs when I drive.

Olli: So for real, it is a surprise. A very positive one.

Host: Now that we got into this yankee stuff, telling each other how great the other is, I want to honestly say that in Ruisrock [open air festival] in 2006 or 2007, maybe even 2005… Anyways, you were performing there and I remember your warm-up. Marko was doing, not an actual song but just different sounds, I thought it sounded pretty damn good, I still remember it. Do you remember what year it was? Have you performed there often? Was it 2005 or 2006…?

Marko: We’ve been there almost every year. I don’t remember which one is could have been…

Olli: Which stage did we play on?

Host: It was the one that was a little… not Beach Stage or Field Stage but in between those two…

Olli: Pavillion Stage.

Host: I think it was that one.

Olli: Like it was facing the beach, huh?

Host: Yes, yes.

Olli: Was it a rainy gig, did it start to rain? I wonder if it was two thousand and…

Host: Yes, yes…

Marko: I think it was rather hot there…

Host 2: I remember the gig and the pictures from it, I think it was 2007 or 2008.

Host 1: There was TikTak performing at the same time. Now I remember. And Apulanta, but they’re also there every year…

Olli: Yeah, yeah… the same names every year.

Laughter.

Host: Anyway, it sounded really cool, I think the topic got a bit out of hand, but, Kimmo [the other host], take control.

Marko: Save us.

Host: Really got out of hand a little, but… We’ve had some really good stuff here for this morning. Isn’t it so that the album release party, the compilation release party actually, is on Friday at Tavastia club in Helsinki.

Marko and Olli: Yes.

Host: Are there any tickets available? I mean, if I’m going to advertise it a little, like “Hey, it’s a money well spent to go check this band out of Friday!” and then it’s sold out.

Marko: It’s sold out already as far as I know.

Host: Okay.

Olli: Yeah, that’s how it is.

Host: It will still be worth it to hang outside the door…

Olli: You can always try.

Marko: Welcome anyway.

Host: I’ll be sure to try to get in with Perälä somehow… with our press IDs.

Olli: And if you know the lyrics, you’ll be sure to get in.

Marko: We’ll be there.

Host: So Perälä will have to sing in the queue to get in…

Olli: Most likely, yes.

Host: I’ll try to be able to put up with it then…

Olli: Perhaps on the stage too.

Host: Oh… oi, what?! Wait a minute… well, everybody to Tavastia on Friday.

Marko: Does this mean I get a night off?

Olli: So, Marko won’t be in Finland at that time…

Marko: Not even at this moment.

Host 2: Haven’t they had some kind of a disco lately in there? So if after your gig the club has to be emptied from all underage crowd, I’ll do some singing and everyone will definitely leave. And the disco can begin.

Olli: We can do that.

Host: Juha Perälä song Late Goodbye. Everyone leaves. Thank you very much Marko and Olli for coming here…

Marko and Olli: Thanks.

Host: … to our morning show and see you on Friday. Or if not then, then maybe one year from now, again. I mean, if you’re starting with the new album on April…

Olli: The goal is to get it out next year around the same time. We can book an interview now already.

Host: Thank you, we have an agreement then. Let’s move on with some Travis and slang news coming up in a moment.

Thanks to Lisa for recording the interview!

Listen:

Download audio file (radioaalto_110304.mp3)

Download:

Download MP3 128kbps from poetcountyjail.com

Metadata:

• Size: 15.5MB
• Length: 16:37min

Translation available thanks to Dark Side of Light (thank you!):

Female host: And we’ve also got Olli here! So wonderful you could make it.

Marko: Do you want to give a holler?

Female host: You can holler us from over there.

Olli: Hey!

Marko: Yeah, Olli may shout into my mike.

Male host: Olli is an official observer on the red sofa.

Female host: It’s really so nice that you could come. First things first, how are you?

Marko: We’re just fine, keeping busy with a lot of things with our best of album coming up… in a couple of weeks, is it?

Female host: On the 16th.

Marko: On the 16th, and it’s given us a lot of work to do and well, on the other hand a lot of really nice stuff to do, such as shooting the video…

Female host: Okay.

Marko: …for our new song and such.

Male host: Even though it’s a best of, you have some new songs in there, one or two?

Marko: There’s going to be two new songs there.

Male host: Yeah. One of them is the single Can You Hear Me which we’ll listen in a bit, but let’s not go there just yet.

Female Host: You have time for going to visit Russia and Ukraine in a little bit. I’m really fascinated with the star culture they’ve got over there, so tell us a little bit about what it’s like to visit those countries?

Marko: It’s like when you first land to the airport they basically have a limousine, no actually they sometimes do for real, waiting for us. And I can tell everyone right here and now that they’re really impractical when you have a big crew of people, because the roof is so low. It’s like a cigar pipe with a row of windows and everyone climbs in from the one door it has and once you’re all in, you look at the décor and the lights and you just wonder, “hmm, what have people been really doing in here before us…”

Laughter.

Female Host: Is it safe to touch anywhere?

Marko: Exactly, is there any other option except to float?

Male Host: Russia doesn’t yet have a long history of foreign bands coming in to perform, so this kind of culture is still rather new in there. Does this freshness still show when you go over there?

Marko: Perhaps it does, at least when it comes to us there’s been really fanatic fans over there, in a sense that they come and welcome you everywhere, in the train station or airport with a big crowd when you arrive. They wait in front of the gig venues and outside our hotel and restaurant if they know where we’re staying. Some people even climb over gates and barb wire or such to wait for us by our tour bus. The security over there is really good though, apparently experience has taught them to do that part well. They have 20 or so of these short hair, black suit men with buttons on their forehead [translator's note: I think he meant ears, as in communications system].

Male Host: So it really is like it’s shown in world famous star documentaries that the cameras flash right from when you come out of the plane and fans with banderols and lots of security. Is it really?

Marko: Yes, it really sometimes is.

Male Host: Wow.

Marko: Sometimes you get to walk down the street without any hassle but sometimes it’s impossible. And when I say without hassle, I mean people running after you….

Female host laughs.

Marko: … screaming.

Female host: But no one tries to grab you.

Marko: Oh yes they do.

Female host: But a truly non hassle moment would be when no one’s hanging on to your sleeve.

Marko: Yeah, no one’s grabbing me right now.

Female host: What is it like to be able to play a little in this kind of a princess world and then  not have it 24/7, that you’re able to leave it behind?

Marko: It’s actually really important to get there, to see this side of things too, to get these experiences and understand how surreal it is. Because in Finland, through all your life, it just doesn’t happen to you and you don’t come across it except by watching MTV or movies. But when you go out there and you’re the target of all that, it feels pretty freaky.

Female host: You are that Britney Spears for a moment.

Marko: Well yeah… and in India I pretty much was Britney Spears, so…

Laughter.

Male host: Would you like to talk a little more about that?

Marko: No, it was just a commercial of Britney Spears’ new album blah blah and the next thing in the national news was that Poets of the Fall is in India right now.

Female host: That’s so great!

Marko: So it was a bit like… us and Britney Spears, how come are we in the same news broadcast in the first place?

Male host: Yes, the reality in Finland can be quite deceiving, because pop stars can go out without getting harassed, except maybe for the world’s biggest stars, also international names can go about rather freely. So the reality of it out there must be times… it must be a completely different world.

Marko: Yeah… I remember this funny episode from last winter when I had been booked to wrong flights and I got a replacing flight for a couple of hours later and from there I was in a huge rush to a connecting flight on from Moscow to Finland. No, actually it was the flight connecting to a train trip. My flight was delayed a little on top of everything and it was about an hour and 10 minutes drive to the train station. When I landed, I had 40 minutes. I really had a local James Bond meeting me at the airport, he told me we have a slim chance and should we try it. I was like ok, let’s go for it. It really was an incredible James Bond experience, this guy drove so incredibly fast in central Moscow as well as in the highway, it was 160 km per hour or something. And all kinds of other little things happened on the way as well, so…

Female host: Handguns and all?

Marko: Well, it was astonishing, when you meet this guy wearing a leather jacket and he escorts you to a black Mercedes and…

Olli: I just want to add that the rest of the band was already in the train because our flights were fine. We were just waiting for Marko and didn’t know if he was going to make it on time or not. I was looking out the window, I didn’t see where Marko was coming in. But we did know that our bass player was going to stay behind too if Marko wouldn’t make it.

Marko: Because the bass player is the basis for everything.

Olli: And I realized that the train was moving already. At the same time I heard Marko jumping into the train. It was literally the exact same moment the train left the station. Everybody clapped their hands at it.

Marko: Actually we tried to get into the train from the other end than our car and seats were in but the local bureaucracy didn’t allow for it. They simply pushed us out from the moving train. And then we started running along the moving train with all our luggage. Luckily it was going slow enough for us to run 14 cars ahead and throw our stuff in to the right car and get in. And last spring’s famous throat infection is what I got from that, so…

Female host: You can’t be in a bad shape though, if you managed to pull that off.

Marko: Apparently, maybe gigs help you in that respect, you go crazy on the stage for one and half an hours on many evenings every week and it keeps you fit.

Male host: Hey, this is some really great stuff Marko, we’ll continue in a moment, and now we’re going to listen one of the new songs in the upcoming best of album. This is Can You Hear Me.

Male host: This is how the new Poets Of The Fall sounds, Can You Hear Me is one of the new songs in the best of album and it’s coming out on 16th of this month. Marko Saaresto, the singer of the band is here as well as the guitarist Olli, sitting on the red sofa and observing. We’ll continue with them in just a moment. But before that, let’s play some more music,  here’s Robbie Williams.

Female host: You’re keeping busy, the album is coming out on March 16th.

Marko: Yeah.

Male host: But let’s talk about something else, the yellow press have a big scoop on Finland’s Idols and a dramatic twist in the plot yesterday. A huge favourite and expected winner Lasse dropped out yesterday on the grounds of his band losing all credibility if he continues to be involved in this type of competition. Marko, how much do you think about such issues within the band, about credibility and such. Do you have any limitations on what you get involved in or not?

Marko: Yes we do have some limitations. I think when it comes to having credibility, it’s a thing apart from the limitations, but it’s also something that we come across time to time. Because the questioning of credibility always comes from somewhere outside and it happens to most public figures and artists now and then.

Marko: [funny sound] Oh, oops, something happened with my throat, I wonder what that was…

Laughter.

Marko: But as far as limitations of what we do and don’t do and what we get involved in, it’s pretty much based on what we want to do or what we don’t want. It has to be an internal decision, it can’t come from outside somewhere, someone’s opinion of keeping a reputation. If you want to do something, you do it, and the reputation comes after it and everyone sees this world from their own perspective… it’s only a myth that if you do something you’re going to lose your reputation.

Female host: Earlier today we talked to Jimmy Constantine about our youth, and what it would have been like if we already had Big Brother back then, or Face Book when we were 15 to 20 years old.
Would your image be very different from now, if those things existed before? Because now, you have a sort of a clean image, you haven’t been getting crazy with your clothes off and..

Marko: Oh no, we have.

Female host: … and you’re not known as that BB-Marko.

Marko: You’re right, I’m not.

Female host: But would you perhaps be…

Marko: My ass has been on national TV.

Laughter.

Female host: But would you have been BB-Marko? Would you have done stupid things in FB, Olli? If things would have been as they are now when we were young.

Marko: Would you like to answer into my mike?

Olli: Yes, I probably would have… I’ve done crazy things as I’m sure everyone has. Maybe things would have ended up to FB as well. But would it have been such a bad thing? Maybe it would have just been a natural thing to do… oh I don’t know! So…

Female host: But think about it, how you perceive BB celebrities… it’s really not that positive. What if your image was something similar to that?

Olli: Well… everything is possible of course.

Marko: Olli is rather happy with the way things are now.

Olli: That is… yes, yes I am.

Female host: How about you Marko, would you be BB-Marko?

Marko: I don’t know…

Male host: Or might you be Idols Marko?

Female host: Yeah.

Marko: I really don’t know. It’s possible I might be Idols Marko. If I was young enough for it. But I still doubt it. Because I’ve always been in different bands, since I was 15.

Male host: But there are some contestants in Idols these days that have that 10 years of a band background. And when you haven’t had the big break, you try out in idols.

Marko: In some ways I am a dare devil, at least used to, not that much anymore. I’ve become serene. I don’t really know if I would have gone for it even though I’ve always thought the people who go for it are kind of courageous. My ideology has always been pretty much the same it is now, so maybe I wouldn’t have done anything too crazy, at least publicly. On the other hand it’s important to have your own peaceful life and to be allowed to make those mistakes that are important for everyone in terms of growing and gaining life’s experience.

Female host: Without everything displayed online.

Marko: Yes, without everything going up online. In my opinion a lot of it is private and not meant as entertainment. It’s just a part of any person’s own growing and life story.

Female host: Why don’t we all take each other by the hand and form a circle of middle-aged people…

Laughter.

Female host: …and commiserate the young people today because their life is so very difficult.

Marko: Oh oh oh oh…

Female host: When we were young things were so much better.

Marko: We had it so easy!

Female host: Now you need to get some media education, boys!

Male host: This day in the studio has been full of rather confusing things… For a while it has felt like being in a scene of an AD/HD movie or something. Not now, but we had Jimmy Constantine and Michael Monroe as guests earlier today and what we have here now is from a completely different movie…

Marko: This must be Gandhi, or something such.

Female host: This situation is really pretty incredible, Marko and Olli from Poets Of The Fall, Sami Kuronen and Kristiina Komulainen [the hosts' names], we’re here holding hands in a circle! Thank you! Yikes!

Laughter.

Male host: Ok, who’s going to light the candles, shall we draw a pentagram or what are we going to do?

Female host: Inhale the good air and exhale the bad….

Laughter.

Male host: One more quick question before the end, the upcoming Sunday is Shrove Sunday…

Marko: Is it?

Male host: Will Poets Of The Fall be riding down the hill on a pulk/sled?

Marko: No, we won’t be.

Male host: No?

Marko: No.

Male host: Why not?

Marko: I don’t know… we’re going…

Laughter.

Marko: I was going to say, we’re going downhill anyway. But then I thought no no no. We’re going up the hill anyway. Actually, I bought this piece of graphic by Kristiina Lehtonen of people walking up a sled hill. It’s absolutely brilliant.

Female host: I’m sure it’s sufficient for the occasion.

Marko: It’s a size of a post card, a graphic art piece which I bought as soon as I first saw it.

Male host: So next week you’ve got the shooting of a video, and a week of vacation after the album release and after that all hell breaks loose.

Marko: Yes, we’ll be getting very busy after that. I have to say that I’m very pleased how things have for once gone so well with the scheduling of things that it seems we’ll be able to breath a little while we’re doing what we do.

Male host: Just in a few words, all your earlier music videos have received very positive feedback and they’ve been very stylish. What’s in store with the new video?

Marko: It’s going to be a very sweet, rather simple video in its main idea. It promotes tolerance and compassion and I hope many people will embrace that because in my opinion it’s a very important thing in today’s world. Maybe even the most important thing.

Female host: Thank you Poets Of The Fall, thank you Marko and Olli. Have a great spring and enjoy the album release.

Marko: Thank you.

Female host: Then some Amy Winehouse.

Tina: Since you are maybe not so well known by our readers so far, could you please introduce yourself and the band briefly?
Marko: Sure, I’m Marko, I’m the vocalist, the others are Olli, he plays the guitars and Captain who works with keyboards and programming etc. I’d also like to introduce our trusted tour musicians Jani, who plays the bass, Jari, on the drums and Jaska, playing the guitar.

Tina: You are very successful in Finland, have already received many awards there and your albums have reached gold and also platinum status. How is it for you to have to start in Germany from the beginning? And is it maybe even fun to sample the whole thing from the beginning as it were?
Marko: We are on our own indie label, so going global is slower for us than being on a major label, we have to take it country by country. Sometimes it goes on in leaps and bounds and you get many countries simultaneously, sometimes it takes a bit more work to become a household name in a given area. We already have a good fanbase in Germany, so I think it’s steadily snowballing in the underground, in the right direction. Germany is also one of the best places to tour, everything works there.

Tina: You have given up much for your love of music. Marko sold his property, Captain provided his living room for a studio and Olli his car for an office in the beginning. Have you been in doubt about the decision at any time or was the passion for the music big enough to believe in the success?
Marko: Passion colors everything, that’s much is true, of course there are times when we’ve thought otherwise, but you carry on, and your rollercoaster starts to climb uphill again. So far it’s been the ride of a lifetime.

Tina: You come from different musical worlds, Marko from the rock, Olli from the jazz and Captain from the industrial area. Is it difficult to combine your different influences? And do you think that this musical variety form your music?
Marko: I think music is first very intuitive. Even with our differing backgrounds and life experiences we still have a similar taste in music. It’s probably true that having three individuals working on the ideas usually enhances the outcome.

Tina: For me, your new album “Twilight Theater” is more melancholic than the parent ones. Is this the “famous” Finnish melancholy and do you handle only your own experiences and feelings in your lyrics or are you inspired otherwise as well?
Marko: For us, music is about feeling, which is to say it’s supposed to invoke emotions. For you it’s melancholy, for someone else it’s hope, some may find parts hairraising, yet another says it’s so soothing they wanna fall asleep listening to it. The experience is always true and always subjective. Personally I think there’s no such thing as Finnish melancholy. It’s just a figure of speech, a stereotype, a myth we believe because we’ve never actually thought about what’s being said. Melancholy is melancholy in any country. For me writing music and lyrics is about my own experiences and about my interpretations of other peoples realities, uh, now that’s high flying, anyway, I get inspiration everywhere, within and without myself.

Tina: Do you write the lyrics and the music together or has everyone in the band his own area for which he is responsible?
Marko: We all work on the music, the lyrics are my problem.

Tina: And do you have already in mind while writing the lyrics how you want to put the song musically?
Marko: The music usually comes to us easier than the lyrics. I’m mostly writing and rewriting the lyrics long after the song has been composed. Although I do usually get a feel for the final lyrics in the very first version of the composition. Most lyrical ideas are intuitive, then reason kicks in and the whole editing process begins.

Tina: You produce your albums and record them by yourself as well. In addition, you built up your own label “Insomniac”. Did you make this decision so that you don’t have to compromise and can make exclusively your own decision?
Marko: Yes, that’s exactly it.

Tina: Your first single “Late Goodbye” was written as a soundtrack for the computer game “Max Payne 2″, your current single “War” is the title track for the video game “Alan Wake”. Do you have a special relationship to computer/video games and how did they become aware of you?
Marko: Sam Lake, the man behind the games in question, is one of my closest friends, so working together came about naturally, and we do love writing soundtrack music. We have since written music for other similar products.

Tina: The videos for your singles are always very profound and engaging. Is it important to you that the video tells the right story to the particular song which maybe animates the viewer to think about it?
Marko: Thank you. That’s exactly why we pay so much attention to our videos. In fact we’re very fussy about everything we put out there. We aim high and sometimes we even reach those heights.

Tina: Your record “Twilight Theater” was released on 29. October in Germany. When will you come to Germany to present it here live on stage?
Marko: Oh, we can’t wait. We have some really great people working for us in Germany, sorting everything out, and as soon as we start hearing that more and more people want us to come over and play, we’ll be more than happy to do so.

Be sure to enable captions in the player menu on YouTube to see the subtitles!

Part 1:

Part 2:

You can also download the video from the PoetCountyJail site!

ps. In case you don’t know the spoken language. It’s finnish.