Interview with Tuomas Saukkonen of Before The Dawn

We've met Tuomas Saukkonen, vocalist and mastermind behind Before the Dawn, at this year's Wacken Open Air and were able to talk about the new Before the Dawn album, his different projects and Robbie Williams.

finnbands: First of all: Is there anything you want the people in Germany to know about Before the Dawn?
Tuomas: A lot! Basically every song we have recorded so far. Tough question in the beginning ... *thinks for a while* ... next?
I just came off stage and that is quite a wide question. I would all people like to get to know our music, just even a little bit to get a hint and then to decide if they like it or not.

finnbands: Before the Dawn started as your solo project, then turned into a band and got back to the state of a solo project. Nowadays it seems that it's again a band...
Tuomas: Kind of, yeah. It was supposed to be a band already with the "Deadlight" album, the previous one, but we had to kick our drummer when we were in the studio. So I ended up playing drums, all the guitars, keyboards and my vocals. And then we just finished mixing the new album. It's going to be out in four months I think, in October. And that was supposed to be like a band album, but we had a new drummer, who didn't do that well in the studio. So I had to play the drums again, the guitars and keyboards. It's not a band as I would like it to be, but...
finnbands: ...it's on the way.
Tuomas: Yeah. It's on the way to be a band. It is actually a band but I still have a bit more responsibility. A bit more than I would like to have. But also I like to do things properly, though. I don't want anybody to fuck up.

finnbands: It was the first time you were playing here at Wacken Open Air...
Tuomas: Yep.
finnbands: How would you rate your gig today?
Tuomas: The audience was very good for us, so I think it was like solid ace in that point of view. But from my own point of view it was like 6,5. I had some major problems with the guitar. And the monitor guy was ... send by Satan.
finnbands: Oh, really?
Tuomas: He destroyed us. So there have been a lot of difficulties. That gets me very annoyed, 'cause I work as a stage manager myself in Finland in bigger festivals, so when I go on stage myself I would like things to work also. So that was a bit bummer to fly from Finland to Germany to notice that my amp is fucked up.
finnbands: A friend of ours saw you serveral times and she said that it was a good gig besides those technical problems.
Tuomas: Yeah, luckily it didn't show that we had a crappy stage sound. It was very fun to play. It's also because I don't drink at all, so I won't get a little bit drunk to forget those technical things and just concentrate on the audience and stuff more, but since I'm sober all the time I'm too aware of things. I'm happy now. I wasn't happy five seconds after the show or ten seconds before the show, when I was yelling at the backline guy. But now it's okay.

finnbands: Your first single from the upcoming album is called "Silence". What makes this song special enough to be the first single and to represent the whole album?
Tuomas: Luckily, the boss of our record company is not here, 'cause he wouldn't want to hear what I'm about to say. It is not a very good song to represent the album at all. We kind of decided to have that song, 'cause it's the only one that had something like the ability to get on the radio list in Finland. Cause "Deadsong" was played there serveral hundred times and in Finland we don't have anything like metal radio. So if there's something like my type of vocals, it's way to heavy. It doesn't matter how good the song is, it doesn't get any airplay.
It's a very good song in the album and it's a very good song. But for representing the band or the new album it's one of the most wrong songs. But luckily the single was only released in Finland, so it was only this compilation thing (Stay Heavy Records' "Dirty Black Summer" EP) and not like our own single. And we gonna have a video from the new album which is my single song choice. There will be a video in three months and that will represent the album extremely well.

finnbands: Your upcoming album called "Soundscape of Silence" will be out in October as you have already said. What can people expect and where do you see the difference to the previous four albums?
Tuomas: I try to avoid those clichés that it's better and heavier and more melodic that people always say. It actually is a bit more varied than the previous ones. Mainly because I have already recorded 40 Songs in the name of Before the Dawn, so I had to step out of my box to create new ways and new types of melodies. I avioded repeating myself. There are some interesting choices but it still sounds like the band ... but there's some fresh stuff.

finnbands: As you have already said you've recorded the drums and the guitars on your own while being in the studio. You play other instruments as well and you do quite a lot of songwriting. It seems that you are blessed with a lot of talent and somehow one can get the feeling that you are able to achieve everything if you want to. Where do you see your weakness?
Tuomas: Where do I see my weakness... What you said about achieving everything I want, it's like totally false. In this world that we are living in at the moment it doesn't really matter how good you write the music or play it or produce it or stuff. It's all about labels and politics and somebody's favour. It's all about those connections and not actually in my hand.
finnbands: Yeah, but you are doing something you want to do.
Tuomas: Yeah, I'm living the life I wanted. Actually when I was ten years old I saw this coming. And I'm very happy to earn my living doing exactly what I want, but still there's lot of frustration. I had one band signed to one label. I don't want to mention names because we have maybe some laws just coming up. But it was a bad deal and I had to bury the whole band after the debut album. It was a very good band in my opinion and there is no future for the band because of the label. They fucked me up. So that happens quite often and it doesn't really get me in a good mood. It buries the whole art I have been doing. So when I look back, all those hours in rehearsal places, studio and all the money was like a total waste. But now I have really good record companies behind me and I might be able to achieve at least something I want.

finnbands: Does music of other bands have an effect on your own music?
Tuomas: Yeah.
finnbands: And if so, do you try to avoid those influences...
Tuomas: Yes.
finnbands:...or are they rather welcome?
Tuomas: I try to avoid too obvious influences. If it's too obvious to hear it's not good, because I don't want my music to sound like people coming up with "this cool Opeth kind of riff and blah blah blah". We usually have working titles for new songs and there was one named "In Flames" for the new album. Usually we have more, but for example "In Flames", which is totally influenced by old In Flames and Dissection. That can be heard but that's a point of that song, because it was the "In Flames" song from the beginning. I try to avoid. But I get influences from all types of music, 'cause I don't know why but I love insanely much of Robbie Williams. I was about to buy a poster of Robbie Williams without a shirt ... but that was too gay. I would have wanted but I noticed that this is a limit and that poster is beyond. Coldplay and all those Pop bands and very aggressive Black Death Metal. So it's of course like with everybody. I think nobody can deny that they get influences, 'cause everyone gets influences. I steal a lot of drum things, that's what I do. I'm shameless, because that's the thing you can borrow, but not melodies or structure. When I hear a cool drum theme or something, it's going to be a part of my songs.

finnbands: You are working on many different projects / bands at the same time.
Tuomas: I have three projects with a record deal and a fourth on negotiation and still in the studio.
finnbands: Can you tell us more about the different projects?
Tuomas: "Before the Dawn" isn't a project anymore since it's about to release the fifth album quite soon.
And then there is "Final Harvest". It's Thrash Metal combining things like Thrash Metal from the States with Black Metal from Norway. You know the band called Grimfist?
finnbands: No.
Tuomas: You will get a basic idea of it if you listen to them. The basic thing is very rocky Thrash Metal with a bit Death and Black Metal.
And then there is "Black Sun Aeon" but it's a bit doomier. The plan is to have the first album out in January/February. We just have our first single out now. There is Tomi Koivusaari from Amorphis doing some vocals. This is quite cool, because he hasn't done any for the last ten years. He plays guitar only at the moment, but he used to do the growls on "Tales of the thousand lakes" and now he likes to step back to the mic again. And then there is Fernando Ribeiro from Moonspell and some other guys doing different stuff. But that is more like a project, the others are proper bands.
finnbands: And the project without the record deal?
Tuomas: The fourth one is called "Teargod". It's a bit like "The Gathering" style but a bit heavier sound with a female vocalist. No doublebass drumming, no heavy stuff at all.
finnbands: So, a bit more decent stuff.
Tuomas: Yeah, lots of strings, piano, acoustic guitars and some distortions. Nice music.

finnbands: Would you consider one of them as your main project or are all of them equally important for you?
Tuomas: Officially of course "Before the Dawn" is the main project, but unofficially of course I would say important are all the bands. In my opinion they don't compete at all, because half of the bands are just studio bands and they play gigs only if there's time from Before the Dawn. All are in the same level for me. It would be stupid to have something like hundred percent and thirty percent. The one that is going to have thirty percent is going to suck if it's not done with the same passion than all the rest of the bands. They are all number ones to me.

finnbands: It's sometimes not that obvious for me why one musician needs so many projects at the same time - maybe you can explain this need to me...
Toumas: I really do need, because now I have already done the new "Before the Dawn" album. I don't have no use for new songs for at least one year. I recorded a master and a mix of "Final Harvest" album. It's like Death, Black Metal stuff. So I don't have nothing in that front coming up. I have two albums in progress which both are going to be ready within two months. And I'm already working with the fifth one to get something for the winter. Because we have the whole winter without music. So all the four albums I've started in spring are already composed and most of them are recorded and mixed. I have a constant problem, I have too many songs. And when I have a song ready I need to have a purpose for the song. I never like just to make demos so that I have something, if I need something. When I have one song recorded then I just need to have somehting around the song. One song usually leads to one album, which leads to many albums in progress.

finnbands: Due to your many projects it seems that a major part of this year consists out of recordings in the studio for you. Doesn't that get boring at some point?
Tuomas: No! I think it's because I have very cool guys working with me in the studio. Juho, the guitar player of the solo guitars in Before the Dawn, is recording all the albums. So it's like two friends messing around ... with somebody else's money. In this case it's my own company that is going to pay the bills and I have quite amount of money loan from the bank, so ... well, it's the bank's money ... not mine. So I don't have any stress with the money, because it's not like mine. I just have to pay it back some day. So it's not boring, because we can make own schedules and it's very easy to escape from the studio. I was supposed to be in the studio the past three weeks, but we decided to have a vacation, because it's so nice weather in Finland. It doesn't get boring, because we record when we want and if we don't want, we don't record. And when it comes to mixing, I have two good friends mixing all the albums and with one of those we have these theme days in the studio. We have "Ice Cream Day" and "Movie Day". And on that movie days we sometimes just concentrate on Bruce Willis movies or someone decides that it's fun to watch the crappiest movies we can find. It's like one "Crappy Movie Day". That keeps all things quite restful. It's not like from eight to four working. It's quite relaxed.

finnbands: How do you manage so many things at the same time?
Tuomas: I don't do that many things at the same time, luckily. I just do things all the time. Making the impression that I have all the things going on at the same time. When I get something done I'm already like doing the next thing. So it's not that hard.
finnbands: Okay.
Tuomas: These are things that you wanna do...I can't think of any difficulties in doing this. And I think the best thing of having a lot of things in my mind is that I can work with my friends on very flexible schedules. If I have like one idea for a new ... actually I have my new Black Metal project in my mind. I wanna make this very evil sound in music. Like extremely evil sound. Not for any girls.
finnbands: No melody at all!?
Tuomas: No! No melodies and no keyboards. Very evil and nasty stuff. And when I come up with a song I just call Juho and couple of days after we record it and then it's done and then I can just do something else for the next couple of days and I don't have to book studios and look in my calender and have to do that at that time. It is very easy to handle many things, because there are no schedules and pressure. Only some deadlines with some albums, but I think that's natural. It has to be finished at some point.

finnbands: I heard that you did some kind of music based social project with kids or youngsters.
Tuomas: Yeah, I studied to become a social worker as profession. I don't know the English term for what I supposed to be. But I didn't have the time to finish school due to all the bands I already had at that time. All the friends I had at my class together started this youth program to help kids that have trouble with school, parents, law or something or already have criminal backgrounds. And they came up with the idea of making songs with the kids. Something to hold on, because a lot of this kids have some musical background and they asked me if I want to join one of their songs.
finnbands: How did it develop? Did they already record it?
Tuomas: They already recorded the song and I only did my vocals and helped with the clean vocal parts. The whole thing was that the kids should actually play the stuff and not like watch others play. That they are more involved, not just sitting in the studio and watch some others do. Because it is their song.
finnbands: They wrote it also?
Tuomas: Yeah, it actually means much for the kids.

finnbands: We have already talked about yourself in the age of ten and now we are coming back to that time.
Tuomas: Okay.
finnbands: What kind of advice would you give yourself if you could meet the little Tuomas in the age of ten today?
Tuomas: I think it's gone well enough that I don't need to give any advices. It just went okay. Of course there could always be more money and more success and more blah blah blah. But there also could be very nasty situations with labels and stuff. I know a lot of bands in Finland, especially my friends play in, that won't ever get to anywhere, because they have so crappy deals. Like seven albums for a very shitty label and that's just like the end of the band. It could be a lot worse, so it's been okay. I wouldn't like to change anything. It could always be better, but I think that would be a bit too greedy to ask for. I have already achieved everything I have put on my list. It's not actually a list, but one point was to play at Wacken Open Air. I have made already seven albums, directed my own videos and DVD. I played with two of my idol bands, Katatonia and Moonspell, many gigs. Many good things have happened, so it would be a bit stupid to go back and ask for more and to think that this could be better, because it could be a lot worse. I would tap myself on the back.

finnbands: Any "famous last words"?
Tuomas: No. I hate those. Those are the clichés like "Stay heavy!".
finnbands: You don't need to say something like that, but you can say "Buy my album!" *laughs*
Tuomas: That's a cool thing to say. That's not desperate at all.
finnbands: So, nothing left to say?
Tuomas: Just put the website there, so people can search for the band or something. I don't like to have any statements. Those are a bit lame always ... coming from me at least. I'm not a statement guy, that's why I don't speak on stage at all. It's just not my thing to compress good things in small sentences. I do talk a lot but I don't want to talk in front of the audience or if I have to come up with things like "Last words?" or "Tell me something about the band!" Well, we play Metal and blah blah blah. I think that is quite obvious. Just put the link of the website in the question "something about the band" and "last words" so that it's something like a circle.
finnbands: Okay, we are done.
Tuomas: Okay. It was fun.
finnbands: Thanks for the interview.

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