We are going to Germany!!!

This piece of news is finally free to publish and it's very nice. As mentioned in the news, we signed a record deal with the German company Gun Records, owned by Sony BMG. The contract covers the whole Europe. For us the deal has been a reality since September 30, 2006, when the bosses of the company arrived at Helsinki to watch our gig at Club Ooppera. Let's go back to that day.

The day started in a very usual way when I woke up in Tampere. We were to leave for Helsinki already before noon. I was feeling a bit weak because of the previous day. In addition, we all were somewhat nervous in the morning, because for a long time we had known that very important people would come from Germany to see us live. Therefore, we now had the chance of our lifetime to either ruin it all or reach again a new level on our career.

In the morning, when I managed to drag myself to our bus, Christian a.k.a. Kike came to me and said that Marko is in the hospital. Marko is our front-of-house sound technician, who is responsible for how the band sounds to the audience. When working in that position, it is extremely important to know all the songs and the usual gig routines. When Kike told me that "Marko is in the hospital and probably can't come tonight", I panicked. I always feel stress because of everything possible. And this time, when it was about our most important gig this far and about our loyal technician not being able to make it, my heart started racing and I felt anxious and depressed.

Well, there's nothing you can do when someone keeps on fainting and isn't feeling too well. We couldn't do anything else but keep our fingers crossed wishing that the replacement sound technician would be able to do Marko's work. Marko had informed us that he would come in the evening, if possible but nothing was sure, yet.

With feelings of insecurity and fear, we started off towards Helsinki by our tour bus, "Urnos". As always, when going to Helsinki, we had our first break - to have some breakfast - in Toijala at "ABC" service station. A cup of coffee and a bread roll is a very good combination but if the previous night has been a long one, the unhealthy Finnish junk food tastes good. Despite of the delicious breakfast we felt quite tired and nervous for the rest of the journey.

When we reached Club Ooppera, the band started to prepare both mentally and physically for leaving the depths of Urnos. However, part of the band was still in the bus, when our hard-working crew had already transferred all of our backline and PA equipment from the bus to the club. We spent some moments outside the club greeting our fans, who had come there to see us and then our orchestra entered the club.

The club turned out to be a nicer place than we had assumed it to be and that cheered us up a bit. The "stage" seemed to be a difficult one because it was bordered in the front and in the back by sofas, which took away a great deal of the stage's depth. Because of this we made a somewhat extraordinary decision: Our Julian a.k.a. Juke and his drums were placed so that Juke had to sit on the sofa instead of the normal drum seat. The sofa was quite low so Juke was given an additional piece of foam plastic to sit on. It may sound tedious but fortunately it didn't seem to affect his playing.

After having seen the stage, we found our way to the backstage. It was comfortable in size and the refreshments were what we had asked for. I think that the restaurant manager is the guy, who won the reality show "Baari" on SubTV, and he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. He took good care of us and thanks to him, we definitely started to feel a bit better.

At soundcheck we noticed that the PA equipment, which we had rented for this gig, was really worth its price. The sound was clearly better than what the slightly less expensive equipment, which we normally use, is able to produce. Because there were no problems at the soundcheck, we started to feel more optimistic. After finishing the delicious pizzas we went backstage to get ready for the night's show.

The excitement kept on growing, everybody was silent and the atmosphere wasn't at all relaxed. It was obvious - no matter whom you looked at - that tonight's show was something else than a standard gig. We tried to kill the time by eating, drinking and struggled to maintain the conversation but with no success: we were all too nervous. Fortunately we got some good news: our front-of-house sound technician Marko arrived. He wasn't feeling too well and had fainted again a few times during the day, which added to our nervousness. If he fainted during the gig, there would be some problems.

Before the gig began, Jakke Lindberg, the boss of our producing company came to meet us. He said that the German visitors had arrived and that they were going to come to the backstage after the gig to tell their opinion. I was sick of excitement. My hands were shaking and the heartbeat was out of control. It was about 20 minutes to the gig, when we started putting on the ear monitors and had the final, calming moments of inhaling before the gig.

When it was the time to leave the backstage, our nervousness was out of this world. Our monitor sound technician Mike came to accompany us from the backstage to the stage. We saw that there was a nice amount of audience and they seemed to be in a good mood. Still, the excitement was unbearable until the first song began. All the nervousness vanished immediately, when the first chords were played and we were really having fun. The gig went on nicely, the singing was good, the playing was good and our mood was definitely very good.

The only negative thing was the small size of the stage, and because of that we couldn't jump or run around as much as we would have wanted to do but anyways, it was great to play there. At some point of the gig playing became even more enjoyable, because I spotted the German bosses in the audience and they seemed to be fully enjoying the show. Then the gig was over and we played the safe and familiar Guardian Angel as an encore. The club was about to explode because of the great energy, which radiated between us and the audience. Huge thanks to the audience for making this gig so splendid. I think that it was probably one of our best gigs we had played by that day.

After the gig we hurried to the backstage to rest a little, to wipe off some of the sweat and to enjoy the refreshments. It didn't take long for the Germans to come to the backstage together with the CEOs of our Finnish record companies (EMI and Bullhead) and the export manager. When Wolfgang Funk, the president of GUN Records entered the room, he looked very serious and his first words were "You suck!" For a second everybody was very quiet - but when Wolfgang burst in laughter, we realized that he had only been joking. Then they nearly drowned us with superlatives, they praised us and we were just listening to them and each of us was smiling very widely indeed. The Germans told us how much they had enjoyed our gig, how much they enjoy our album and that they were ready to sign a major record deal with us.

Wolfgang shared his stories about seeing HIM eight years ago playing at Tavastia for hardly 25 people. But already then he was completely sure about the band and wanted to sign them. That's what happened and I believe that you know the rest of the story... Wolfgang said that he's maybe even more certain about us than what he was about HIM back then. He promised that one day our band will be at least as big a name as HIM is now and that he's willing to do everything possible (and impossible) so that we could be a big success. Those words are meant to be taken seriously because we know that this man was the one, who has made in addition to HIM also Bullet for my Valentine and Within Temptation "big names". We spent a couple of hours discussing how much they'd be willing to invest in us and how to kick off the things in the rest of Europe. He invited us to visit his villa in Ibiza and we will remember that invitation. I don't think that Mr. Funk completely understood what he did but everything will be clear, sooner or later.

One of the fine features of GUN Records is that they don't want to be an enormous label with far too many artists. GUN Records prefers to have a limited amount of artists on their list so that they can fully support each and every artist of theirs. They don't want to sign bands just for to have them. Instead, they want to have artists with enough potential to grow to be huge. That is why it is confusing, surprising and flattering that Wolfgang counts us in that group. Let's hope that Wolfgang's instinct is still in its prime and we'll see what is going to happen. The band feels ready for some serious action. After all, this is one of those big steps that have been in our minds and plans from the very beginning of the band.

We're now living really exciting times and it is thanks to you, our fans, who have brought us to this position, where we are now. Hopefully you will follow us on our journey. Lovex thanks. See you again.

Vivian Sin'amor

Somewhere across the sea

We were entertaining people as well as ourselves on M/S Silja Europa 18. -
20.10.2006. It was such a special journey that we will remember it for a long time.
We spent all the three days on the ship and each night we played a gig in the same
place at the same time. The best part was that there was no carrying or installing.
It was enough that we made it on the stage at the right time and that left us enough
time for different activities like maintaining our fluid balance, gambling, playing
in the ball pit, gluttony and other such things.

Our orchestra had a chance to eat in the "messroom", which is the place where the
ship's crew has their meals and they have a continuous, free of charge service 24/7.
That's like a dream for us because we're as hungry as the seagulls. I believe that I
ate there about five times per day. That's a real treat because usually, when on
tour, we can eat only twice a day and so irregular way of eating isn't good for the
body. Normally we eat at the daytime coffee and bread rolls at some service station
and then in the evening we eat whatever the venue, where we are playing, has to
offer. Very often it's nothing too delicious.

The first of the three gigs was the 100th gig with this band member combination and
accordingly, the gig was a very special one. For once we had really been thinking,
which songs to play on the night's gig. Well, we had several "extra features", for
example we had a longish jam session with solos, a humorous heavy version of the
Silja Line theme music and a completely new song with a working title "Till we die".
The next time, when we will play it live is going to be when the tour for our next
album begins.The Silja Line theme was so funny to play that we decided to play it
also on the following two gigs. The gigs went well and also otherwise we were really
enjoying ourselves having good time with fire fart styled humor and the parties
lasted until the morning. Everybody was feeling happy and on the gigs it was really
visible - and the audience was very happy as well. We had The Voice TV's video
camera with us and they're now showing every now and then some clips we shot during
the cruise. We had to censor more than half of the material because of its
sensitivity but hopefully something funny remained to be aired. In case you're
interested, watch The Voice TV. Vivian Sin'amor

Good day, dear people

I don't like it if the band hasn't got enough time for its fans. Now I feel humble
because I've just realized the fact that if the band is yearning for a big,
worldwide success and if they want to have as much influence on the way the things
are done as we do, then there's simply not enough time to take care of those things
that were once taken for granted like writing messages on the forum, answering
emails, letters and messages sent through the IRC-gallery. And I know, it sucks.

At the moment the situation with the band is such that we're working hard to be able
to go abroad and at the same time we should efficiently try to produce new material
for our next album. Personally this feels quite stressful. The pressure is coming in
from all the directions. We should write songs for the new album, we should
constantly be on tour, we should continuously do some promotion, we should make new
music videos, we should have the new promo pictures done and we should plan and
organize everything by ourselves as far as possible and we should have time to
answer the questions on the forum, the emails, the letters and all other similar
messages, which our band may receive a 1000 pieces on the best of the days. And I
should find time to write in this diary, I should attend to the lessons at the music
institute and in addition to all this, I should somehow manage to maintain my
personal relationships.

I'm not complaining. I really like the fact that there is work but some people don't
understand - let alone believe - that we do all what we can for these things. They
start complaining that we no longer care about our fans and that there's piss in our
heads etc. That really pisses me off, because they're so wrong. It's only that a
person can't be in several places at the same time. That is why I would ask for some
understanding from our fans. After all, the most important thing for us is that we
are able to create good music also in the future. I hope you all agree.


We've been touring a lot and little by little this has become a sort of a routine
and that's merely a good thing. It means that if we think that a gig was a bad one,
the audience doesn't necessarily agree, they may even say that the gig was
excellent. There have been so many gigs that it seems that the 100th gig with this
band member combination will be on 18.10.2006 on M/S Silja Europa. We'll see,
whether there is going to be some special stuff. The most important gig this far
will be on 30.09.2006 in Helsinki at Club Ooppera, because big bosses from the land
of beer and sausages will be there. Hopefully we'll see all of you there partying
and cheering until the ceiling explodes.

That's it. In the future I'll try to write here more often.

P.S. Check out our MySpace site http://www.myspace.com/lovexmusicfinland that has
just been opened. There will be all sorts of material as soon as possible. Vivian Sin'amor

News 29.3.2006

Tsau Folks!

I thought I’d tell a bit about how the band’s doing, for those of you who are interested.

The beginning of this year has been a bit of a whirl since Guardian Angel started getting radio play. We’ve played about twenty gigs, given a lot of interviews and thousands and thousands of kilometres sitting in the tour bus are behind us. Also I’ve got to say that our new Net Site is online. It’s been fun but also tough and all sorts of other funny stuff have happened. .

It’s been terrific to see that we’ve been getting more and more fans all the time and the fans have been at all our gigs and been great. When GA rose to the top of the charts we didn’t, as a band, get really so excited about it because it had been pretty much forecast that after our first single did so well then it would do well too. When it was still no 1 after the second week we started to say, ” What about that then?” and walk around with great grins on our faces. Then things started going so fast that I’ve had trouble keeping up. We had to be everywhere and so much was happening and I wasn’t taking it all in. Just sitting there and taking my belt in a notch and watching the scenery going past and hoping that we wouldn’t hit a tree and all the fun would end.

Things are going well abroad as well. The video has been running on MTV North and the song should be getting radio airtime soon. Also Germany and Japan may soon be in our sights. We’re getting more and more gigs all the time, which is great because it’s the best thing about all of this and the main reason we do it at all.

The gigs have all gone well so far even though we’ve all had flu and stomach bugs etc. It was really cool that when we played Helsinki’s On the Rocks and The Student House in Tampere, although not many fans were expected, at both concerts there were good crowds who dug our music and had fun. S yet we’ve had no bad feedback from the gigs at all. Maybe it’s just too soon to say.=) Last week may have been the toughest I’ve had as a musician. We played four gigs and did the Huuma TV programme and I had a stomach bug at the beginning of the week. Friday night I didn’t sleep because I got home from the Harjava gig at 7:00 in the morning and just had time to grab a shower before heading for Helsinki and then straight after the job there it was off to Alavude for another gig. It was heavy going but I did learn that when planning the schedule, we need to leave some time for sleeping, so that we’ve got the energy to party.

The record has done well in the charts and people seem to dig it and that’s warmed the cockles of our hearts. It’s also been terrific to see that so many people like so many songs from the album. What’s come from the critics was mostly what we expected; that it’s total shit and other prejudice. Very little has been centred on the music, more the peripheral stuff, like our name or image. But anyway, if the critics had liked us then something would have been wrong. They slam nearly all the music which we dig.

The new web pages are now on-line, as some of you may have noticed. There have been a huge amount of visitors and there have been so many messages left that handling the visitors ’ book has really got out of hand. It’s great that people dig the site but it would be better if things were kept sensible as they were on the old site. Smart and sensible remarks have dropped in number hugely compared to the amount of daftness and an over-use of <3>

Anyway, enough of this rambling on. I’ll let you know if anything else of note happens or if there’s any information of interest when I can. Watch out for seagulls!!!

Vivian Sin’amor