Interview with Vince / White Flame

about "Yesterday's News" and the days in the studio

Whilst my last trip to Helsinki White Flame's vocalist Vince and Kari of North & South, White Flame's lable, took me to Suomenlinna to show me the legendary Seawolf Studios. The four guys from nowerdays Tampere recorded their debut album "Yesterday's News" there during spring 2007. It will be released on August 22, 2007.
Over there Vince told me a lot about the recording sessions and so we decided that he is going to write a report about this period of time. Or let's say - when I was back home I asked him some questions about this.
So go for it:

finnbands: Your first full length album "Yesterday's News" will be released on August 22. Therefore you went to the famous Seawolf studios where "famous" bands like Tarot or The Rasmus recorded their albums as well.
How was it to use such a legendary place for working on a debut?
Vince: Well since this was my first album recording session, I didn't really have any clues about what places are legendary and what aren't. But the second I saw the place I had a good feelin' bout it.
The vibe was right for our kind of freaks. And that place had the best acoustic for Jony's drummin'. I don' t think he is ever going to wanna record anywhere else in Finland.

finnbands: What makes this studio so special that at least most people have heard of it, when they are interested in Finnish music scene?
Vince: First off it's in an island. So You'll be havin' none of the distractions like You'd have recordin' in the big city. I mean, it wasn't like somebody's girlfriend was comin' over, or our mates asking out to drink beer... Nah, we could just stay in our fort and concentrate on the important stuff. Although I must say we might have opened a bottle or two there also...

finnbands: How long did you finally stay there and how was an average day like?
Vince: The Seawolf sessions took place on a three and half month period, and sometimes we'd stay there for weeks and weeks. Our average day, if we ever had one, started around noon with drinkin' coffee, tea or beer and having a bite to eat. Then we'd sit around and wait for Leiden and Majuri (our
producers) to come from the local bar- HA! We used to put in long days, goin' all the way to 2 A.M. But it suited us. We are night folk us boys.

finnbands: What was the weirdest experience in the 3,5 months at Suomenlinna?
Vince: > I'd like to say one certain musician lubing up his rear end.... But I won't! Other than that it was propably me doin' my laundry. I went to this local laundry room and put just about all my clothes in the machine.. When I got them out I wanted to put them in the dryer so I could get something to wear. But the fucker just wouldn't start. I tried everything, but all I got as a result was local people comin' to ask around about who the hell I am.
So there I was in only my shorts and leather jacked looking like an idiot with a bag full of clothes dripping water on the other side of the island. And i had to look like that until the next morning since I had no other clothes dry.

finnbands: When you stayed together in that small place for such a long time: was there anything you missed besides your girlfriends (those of you who have girlfriends)? And what bothered you the most?
Vince: Well I can't really speak for the others, and since I'm single (hello there ladies!) I didn't have such problems. But I can tell You that at some point we had a house full of horny men, and a whole lot of Sigma vs. Omega wasn't helping. But we all definitely missed the sweet and delicious Kebab from Hebun. But we had a shop surprisingly close and me as the head chef (or kitchen bitch, witch ever You wanna call it) we tried to manage.
I think we were mostly excited about the music so that was the only thing we needed. Oh, and Jägermeister.

finnbands: How important was partying compared to serious work?
Vince: You know I'm always up for some good olf fashion partying so we try to make sure our work doesn't get in the way. So that's why most of the time we'd work first. Like when Sammye was recording his tracks Hannu (Leiden) made him play faster and better, because Ylis, the local bar, was going to close at eleven.
And You know it wasn't like all of us were working all the time. Most of the times one or two of us were playin' NHL and drinkin' while the others were layin' something down.

finnbands: Have you had time to do some sightseeing? And do you know about the historical background of the island?
Vince: I think all the sightseeing we did was on the way from Helsinki to Suomenlinna on the ferry. Believe it or not, mostly we spent our time indoors. (It was freezin' those times-come on!) I did go to look around like once or twise, but I wouldn't say it was an educational exploration. But i did go for a walk when I needed to finish the lyrics for Close to You.

finnbands: Maybe you want to tell the story with Sammye recording the bass lines when he had to hurry because the bar would close?
Vince: Oh sorry, I was too fast. =D But yeah, we got some lessons about priorisation from our producers. Normally You'd think that the producers would have to look after the band's drinking. But they put us to school about the studio life. Sammye wanted to work in shorter stints, but I think they just took three sessions to record all his tracks. And I think it was the last day and Hannu just kept sayin' "Can't You play it right faster". He had places to be, I guess.

finnbands: There is this story about Sammye. So are there any funny or interesting stories about Anthon, Jony or you? (Finally I am not sure if Jony was there with you. You never told about him!)
Vince: There was this one time Anthon was drinkin' really late. I mean Reeeeeally late! And he had some guitar solo to play the next morning. Maybe ten or eleven o'clock. I woke up maybe half past twelve and went to listen. He was still tryin' to nail the solo and was playin' when I came in to the room. As he finished I told him it sounded like some dude with the planet's biggest hangover and shakies hands tryin' to be Steve Vai. He just replied "then we got it right".
Needless to say, he had to do a re-take.
Jony was there only for his own sessions because unlike the rest of us, he actually has a life outside White Flame. I think they call it a "day time job"...

finnbands: Did you do any fun stuff recording that might never appear anywhere? Any stupid covers like Children of Bodom's "Oops I did it again" or any other nonsense?
Vince: Oh we did a couple. But I wouldn't say "never" on all of them. At least one got released, You just have to find it =D We did one live jam that resulted with some covers, but those will probably not be seein' daylight anytime soon. But if the folks at certain ointment companies are interested, we got a song for you. And then there's one, but that'll get us in too much troubles...

finnbands: When you have a look on the final result of the album now, after some months of hard work (and maybe a little fun): How would you describe the result?
Vince: The best debut album to come out of Finland. Plain and simple. We put a lot of work into the album. More than what first timer usually are given the opportunity to. But I honestly believe You can hear it. The amount of detail in the songs. And the wall of pure sound! I gotta hand it to Petri (Majuri). He is the best man in this country to work on sound. When You listen to the album, You find Your self thinkin': "is this American? This can't be Finnish".
And the visual aspect also. I love it when there is a lot to read and check out in the covers. So we wanted to do something that would be interesting.
Makin' a newspaper was the perfect idea for that.



finnbands: And when you compare it to your expectations?
Vince: We knew what we were doing. We knew it was goin' to be the best album of 2007. So when we found out it was true we were at the same time very excited, but also like "I told You so". We were aware of our potential.

finnbands: How far have the songs been when you entered the studio and how many song writing did you do during the studio period?
Vince: Everything was ready except for the lyrics for GUN and Close to You. Our producers emphasized on pre-production, so we had all the material ready and already demoed by time we went in. I believe that You shouldn't go in without the material that You are sure is album material. I hear about these bands goin' in with thirty minutes worth of music. Why? Couldn't You postpone the sessions until when You have enough material and when You've rehearsed it so good that You can just walk into the studio and start recording?
Because we were prepared by demoing the songs beforehand and rehearsing them to our backbones, we had more time to focus on the little things. You see, it's the little things that make songs interesting. And that's the stuff You have to leave time for, because they are usually hard as hell to make. Just listen to Close to You's choirs and violins. It ain't easy, but when you put in the effort, it will be worth it in the end.

finnbands: What's your favourite song on the CD? And why?
Vince: Oh You can't ask me that =D It changes by the minute.
But then isn't that the beauty of albums. If they're done right, that is. You can put the whole rainbow of emotions on to an album. So if You're sad You listen to one tune and if You wanna party You listen to another.

finnbands: Your second single "Kill the Radio" was released in the end of May and reached #1 in June.
Did you expect that?
Vince: Actually no. We had a feeling it would go on the TOP 20, but other than that... WOW! We aren't exactly the media's pet so it was a surprise that so many had still found our music. But I guess it just goes to show that people could relate to our music and the message we wanted to send out. There's a lot of pissed off people out there who hate the play lists on radios and TV music shows. We had the guts to say it out loud and it seems some on liked that.
That someone definitely wasn't MTV though =D

finnbands: In the beginning of August (and yeah, I know that this has nothing to do with the CD or the studio but this might be quite interesting) you have had your first gig abroad on a festival in Estonia. (Maybe this has something to do with the studio, but nobody will get it.)
So I'm very curious to get to know everything about it!
How was the trip? How was the gig? How was the audience? How was this for you?
Vince: While You guys were visiting Seawolf Studios with us, we got asked to go and do a show in Estonia with Havana Black. And this was a Thursday. The gig was on Friday. So all of a sudden me and our boss from North&South had to start roundin' up the guys. First I called Jony to see if he could cancel his work day. His boss was happy-if by happy You mean mad because three other employees had already cancelled for that day. But he got off. Then I called Anthon. He was at some bar gettin' hammered and had no idea if his passport was still valid. Luckily he said that, since I was in Helsinki and he reminded me that I would also need to get my passport from Tampere. So next up was my roommate Klaus. Oh, I think I did call Sammye at this point. He was up for it, he always is. He's a swell guy in that way. But back to my roommate. He was in a bar as well. This got me worried, because the guys were supposed to come and pic my passport up at six o'clock. I was thinkin' what if Klaus would go to some after party or if he wouldn't wake up when the guys would come'a'knocking. But he sent me a message saying he had but six alarms to wake him up. So the lads were able to get my passport. And luckily Anthon's pass was valid for one more month. We were set to go.
In the morning me and Kari from North&South headed for the pear. I got the tickets and in twenty minutes the rest of the band parked Jony's car and brought our stuff. The ferry wouldn't leave for another 45minutes, so all we could do was wait. I had a coke and Jony and Anthon had a beer. Havana Black had several. As soon as we got in the ferry, I had mine. We all felt like shit because it was too early and we were too sober. The whole trip to Tallinn we tried to convince Sammye that the saleslady from the Tax Free Shop was a hottie. At first he didn't think much of her, but he came around eventually.
We were told that it would be a quick buss trip to the place we were going to, Hiidenmaa. I don't know about You but I wouldn't call 1,5hours quick.
And if that wasn't enough we had to take another ferry that took one more hour. And then more sittin' in the bus. We were gettin' a tad worried at this point: Where the hell are they taking us? The only thing that kept us sane was warm beers and long drinks. But fortunately we had lots of them both.
Finally arriving in Hiidenmaa, we wanted to get things goin' fast. We were originally supposed to be the third band, but after a bunch of twists we ended up playing first. This was strange for us because we had also done our soundcheck first and there was another band's setup in place. But hey, what can You do but just change them back. A quick soundcheck vol.2 and we were off. Nobody in Estonia knew who we were or what we were about, but once the wheel turned we turned the heat on that place with the youth going wild for tunes they never heard in their lives. We were cool&burnin' all at once! And with a version of AC/DC's Back in Black the whole house was jumpin'! This gig showed us that Rockin' is Rockin' no matter where we go. Good to know, Germany...
After we finished our show we started some heavy partying signing singles, drinking vodka and beers, goin' to sauna and chattin' to the natives. We lost Sammye twise just to eventually find him in the house reserved for us.
To be honest I don't remember much of that night..
...but the next morning... Oh LORD!!! We had to leave around six in the morning because we had to get back to Finland for Jony's birthday party. I don't know how we got on that buss, but we did. All of us just slept all the way to Tallin. When we got there we noticed we still had some money left and figured it would be best to spend it wisely. On Jägermeister. So we bought a bottle of it. Each. (As I'm writing this I'm actually having some. Cheers to You, reader!)
Then we hopped on one more ferry to take us back to Helsinki. If we had felt bad going, we felt much worse coming back. But at least there were more pretty ladies to check out.
Back in Helsinki we headed for the car only to realize that we had so much stuff it would be very uncomfortable fitting us all in it. I wouldn't call it the most pleasant trip of my life, but at least stoppin' for burgers and releaving ourselves in the gas station restroom made it a bit better. And against all odds we did find our way to Jony's birthday. But that's a totally different story.

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