A greater insanity!
Today on September 7th, 2007 at 13:00 it began. The studio sessions for Lovex's second album - or actually we were just departing for studio. We guys packed up all the instrument and amplifier equipment at the rehearsal place and then we headed again towards Helsinki and Inkfish studio. When packing, we were somewhat wondering how much more equipment we now have to take with us compared to our situation sometime more than two years ago when we left for the Inkfish studio to record songs for the first album. When it comes to me, at least, most of the money we have gained with our first album, has been spent directly on instruments and amplifiers and hopefully it can be heard on the next album in the form of improved sounds. I'm no longer contended with the sounds of Divine Insanity because of its clinically clean sounds even though it's otherwise a nice album.
The preparations for these studio sessions began already a year ago when we started writing new material - while still playing gigs. At first we didn't have enough time to write music and the work actually begun only during the summer when we sat down to decide when to go to studio and when to release the next album. Since that day this orchestra has been rehearsing and sitting in our home studios writing new music every day, except for those days when we've been on tour. The song-writing still continues because with this album we'll be in the studio for a month, then there will be gigs here and there and we'll try to record as many demos as possible before the second - and last - studio session, which will take place sometime in January-February 2008. At the moment we don't know yet the general style of the album because we've only made decisions on less than half of the songs and we have many different kinds of songs. At least I can say that our second album will be considerably different from the first one and stylistically it will present several different genres.
The writing of songs has been occasionally very difficult because there have been so many gigs and because of them we haven't have enough time to concentrate on the composing work. Only during the last couple of months the amount of gig has been cut down at our own request and it has clearly made the song-writing a lot easier. Touring is great, of course, but we've played altogether at least 170 gigs before and after the release of our debut album and it may be that there will be in total 200 of them before we can really start playing the songs from our second album. In my opinion that's far too many gigs after the release of just one album - even if we had had a tour around the world. I don't know if there is any other band in Finland with as many gigs under its belt with just one album released. Of course, we've tested some new material on gigs but we all agree that unless we now start recording a new album and refresh our setlist, we'll soon be pretty much pissed off.
9.10.2007
Back to basics: to the studio session itself. Now there's no more stress, this is absolutely fabulous. When writing music I've been under such amount of stress that I've sometimes felt self-destructive and I have had some other pretty sick ideas going on in my head. That's been quite hard for both myself and for others. The life hasn't been as smooth as it might have been and at times all the stress has made me feel so gloomy that now, when thinking back to those moments I wouldn't like to remember some of those minutes and I don't have the guts to share those moments with anyone. On the other hand, it may be that all the pain and suffering may inspire some great music but at times the price has seemed far too high. After all those dark moments it feels great and relaxing to finally be able to start recording those songs, which remind me of those obscure moments. When playing those songs I can say that I survived those bad times and now I can again enjoy the life to the fullest and I'm also stronger and a bit wiser than before.
This time it feels that the studio sessions will be more relaxed than the previous ones. Back then I sometimes felt like crying because all the anxiety involved. This time the phase of agony took place fortunately before entering the studio and now it seems that this process will lead us towards something splendid and the anxiety has been left far behind. The songs represent new and different Lovex but they still sound like us. I'm feeling great and I'm here at the studio waiting for my turn. Meanwhile Julian is banging his new, good-looking Julian Drain Custom drums, made by Kumu. The drumming sounds great and he plays well. The producer for this record is Erno Laitinen, who was the assistant producer of Divine Insanity. Now he's alone responsible for the production of this album and it seems that he nicely agrees with the band about the music. Because of that the songs are easier to record, because the band's own production-related ideas pass his filter quite easily. And yes, those 170 gigs and all those numerous hours spent in our rehearsal place have maybe made us better song-writers.
11.10.2007
Everything seems good, still. Today we should finish with the drums and then we'll start polishing the guitar and bass arrangements. We're feeling really calm compared to the times of Divine Insanity. There's no more messing around and the songs seem to be in better shape. I must admit that making music is great at those times when everything is running this smoothly. To be continued... Vivian Sin'amor
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
And out of the ashes it rises to a new splendor.
So it happened that the Eurovision Song Contest didn't turn out to be the success we had planned it to be. When we were there on the stage together with Hanna and Thunderstone, I was pretty sure that we had won because our performance in the “super final” had been pretty good and because we really believed in our song. When the hosts told the fact that we're only third, it was quite a shock. We were pissed off. Really.
All the respect to the winners but we still strongly believe in our song. But you can't always win and that's something we obviously can't tolerate. Consequently, six deeply depressed and gloomy-looking guys ran to our monitor technician Mike's room to grieve together over the defeat. There were also people from the record company, technicians, loved ones and friends. You might think that such a company would be a noisy one but there was a silence of a grave until we started searching for a special bottle, which Mike had prepared for us - be it for victory or loss. To give you an idea about the contents of the bottle I could say that a huge amount of Fisherman's Friend breath mints had been needed.
We sipped that delicious drink and little by little everyone started to relax. People started to make little jokes about the defeat and sarcastic comments on the overall competition, with an appropriately bitter tone. And as always, we survive even the most difficult circumstances with self-irony and humor. We spent the rest of the night at Hotel Caribia partying, getting to know all kinds of people and during the night many more or less confusing things took place. As an example of confusing things I could mention the 60's-styled rock dance movements on the dance floor, which I and Sammy so perfectly mastered... It was such an outrageous act that there were people as well as other obstacles falling over... Well, the rest of the things are such that they can't be mentioned in public and those "less confusing" facts aren't of interest to anyone.
We celebrated like winners through the night and even in the morning some of us were sitting in a taxi together with a legendary character of Finnish music business searching for some illegal underground pub. It was a night to remember and definitely lots of fun. Thanks to all those people, who partied with us and especially to Thunderstone guys, who were very funny and nice to party with.
In the morning, that is around 14:00, we climbed into the bus and started slowly driving back home. It had been quite a journey, because we had arrived at Turku directly from the student cruise, which wasn't the easiest one. The morning was quite hard. Because of what happened the night before, we weren't in the best possible mood. We felt depressed and definitely still pissed off. The drive back home was spent in a gloomy mood eating junk food and swearing because of the voting results. The fact is that rockstars just can't understand, why their song doesn't win even though it's definitely the best. Well, of course the reason is that everybody doesn't have so good a taste when it comes to music, as we do…
Then it was Wednesday and 16.2. and I was to travel to Germany with Theon to promote our Divine Insanity album, which was released there on the very same day. We had our promoter Inka from EMI Finland with us. She shot plenty of video material during the trip to be used for all kinds of purposes in the future. We flew to Berlin in the morning, visited Sony/BMG office to make a couple of phone interviews and a few other interviews as well. I can say about the German interviewers that they want to know a lot more about one's private issues than the Finnish reporters. It's really annoying when they cross that certain border of politeness and start asking too personal questions. Sometimes they get so personal that I can't help laughing at certain questions and I’m, like, "how can anybody ask such a thing?". For example, "What's your favorite thing when having sex?". Is there really somebody who wants to know that? I do like interviews and they're usually lots of fun but sometimes I just can't understand why some people are so curious about my private life.
There were lots going on in Berlin. We went to visit a show of StarFM, which is one of the biggest rock radio stations in Germany. In front of the door there was a horde of German fans and it was nice to see them there. We went upstairs to the studio and while walking in the corridor we heard a rumor that Stone Sour would also be interviewed in the program, just prior to us. Stone Sour, that’s the new band of Slipknot's leading man, Corey Taylor. We were, like, "What?". "Are they really here?".
Once we entered the studio there was Corey Taylor himself standing right in front of us. We really respect him for his vocal talent. I didn't know what to do. Theon casually introduced himself shaking hands and when it was my turn, I just said hi. He patted my shoulder and told us to have fun, before exiting the studio. It felt quite unreal to meet such a famous star like that, completely by accident.
The best was yet to come. While we were talking to the host of the radio show, it turned out that Stone Sour would play a gig in Berlin the very night. We asked our record company for help and they managed to get our names on the guestlist of the gig. We were really excited, had a huge smile on our faces and had a very relaxed and nice interview session with StarFM and really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you, StarFM.
After the radio interview we heard that never before StarFM had hosted a guest with such a huge amount of fans waiting in the lobby as we did have. That was very nice to hear because they have been visited by lots of famous artists. In the lobby we wrote autographs and chatted with the fans. It was nice to see that we really have German fans and now we’re even more eager to start our tour in Germany.
We returned to the hotel and then headed for the nearby steak restaurant to enjoy delicious food and some wine. With our stomachs full, it was time to move on to see the show. Stone Sour gave quite a performance and even though the sounds were a bit trashy, I was very happy to see the gig. Corey was a real showman even though he wasn’t in perfect health. Thank you, Stone Sour. After the gig we went back to the hotel, had a little nightcap and then we went to bed.
After a nice night the next morning rarely is too good. Especially, when you must wake up at six o’clock. We had a shower, enjoyed the breakfast and felt ready to continue the promotional work. Our next stop was the airport because we were to fly to Munich. This time there were no problems at the security check and we soon landed in Munich and took a taxi to our hotel. The taxi drove past the home arena of FC Bayern München. The stadium is enormous and a really amazing sight because of its massive structures. If you visit Munich, I recommend that you check out that building.
We visited another radio station, NRJ München, did an interview and then it was time to visit the headquarters of Bravo music magazine. It’s the biggest European magazine for youngsters with emphasis on music and entertainment. They sell an amazing number of copies and naturally their office is enormous, too. Bravo magazine has existed around 50 years and has a central role when it comes to promoting fresh names in Central Europe. It happened with the Beatles and it happened with HIM.
At the Bravo headquarters we had a photo shoot and did some interviews but the best thing was when the editor-in-chief spent time with us, offered refreshments and introduced us to all those 50 employees. He also showed us pictures where he’s posing together with “small” stars like Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Slash etc. And he also told us very interesting anecdotes about the meetings he had had with Michael Jackson. I must admit that I was a bit jealous, when he kept on talking about Jackson, Oasis - and especially when I was looking at the photo where he’s together with Slash. After all, Slash is my biggest idol ever. It was a real compliment that a man in such an important position was flexible with his agenda and had both time and interest to entertain us during our visit. Thank you, all people at Bravo magazine.
We spent the rest of the day at the hotel doing interviews for different magazines, Metal Hammer, for example. In between the interviews we had dinner and after the last interview we remained in the restaurant and enjoyed those quality drinks, which Munich region offers. The evening just fled and we were naturally pretty tired after a working day of thirteen hours.
In the morning, it was again wake-up at six, a fast drive (200km/h) to the airport and boarding on our flight to Helsinki. We had some hours of rest at Helsinki airport before taking the plane to Oulu, reaching the bus and starting the journey towards Kemi and Levi, where we were to perform next but that’s a different story.
Vivian Sin'amor
Friday, January 26, 2007
Hello everybody
I decided to update this diary so that you'd know, what has happened lately and what we are thinking about it as there's been a lot going on.
The songs for the Eurovision Song Contest are ready and they'll soon be broadcasted for everyone to hear at Radio Suomi. The names of our songs are Anyone Anymore and Wild and Violent. I hope that you like them. Anyone Anymore is my personal favourite and it would be great to win the whole contest with that song. Still, we still have a long way to go and therefore we will need your help, dear fans, for a few times still.
In addition to finishing the contest songs we've been in Germany for a couple of times. The first trip was a three-day promotional visit during which we gave interviews for several magazines and had some photo sessions as well. The most exciting thing was to visit music channel VIVA's very popular talk show called "Live!", which was naturally sent out live. It was the first time when we had to try to speak English instead of our dear native Finnish in a live broadcast. Eventually it went quite nicely although at first it really felt tedious. The host only spoke German and we got a simultaneous translation - with some delay - from the interpreter into our ear monitors. Because of that delay, it always took us five seconds after the host has finished his question before we were able to answer. As you know, we only know a couple of words in German. As a whole, that trip went very nicely with no extraordinary incidents. I think that a more exact diary about that trip will be published in the next issue of Suosikki magazine, most probably with some photos.
The next trip was a five-day visit to The Principal Studios, located near Munster. That place is an enormous mansion in the middle of peaceful countryside. It was so cosy a place that we could easily think of recording a whole album there. This time we only recorded one song and it was an extremely soohting experience. The mansion was so nice that it might have become our new home. For example, there's a private movie theatre with a selection of 350 movies and the music archives contained tens of thousands of songs. Of course, it was possible for us to have a jam session whenever we felt like it. The living room was about 300 square meters and it was equipped with silver screen, pool table, computers and other nice things to keep us in good mood. The recording equipment was of top quality and the crew there was very friendly. Still, I must admit that I missed our regular producer-recorder Erno Laitinen and his moustache a bit.
During that trip we greatly enjoyed all kinds of German delicacies. They do have better sausages there. Also the cheese selection was delicious as well as greasy and German wine and beer were both very tasty and nicely priced so now I believe in those stories I've heard from other travelers. At the studio they had this great service that we got to write a shopping list each day. Then Tony, who did a bit of everything at the studio, went to the store to get our groceries and we never saw any invoices. For example, we had fresh bread rolls every morning for breakfast. We thought that it was a bit too much for us because we would have been quite happy with normal bread but well, we might have gotten used to it. Still, I missed rye bread and Finnish cheese snacks. I'm a big friend of cheese snacks and I don't understand, why the German manufacturers ruin the product by adding some kind of nut flavoring.
The recording and production went really smoothly and, in our opinion, the material is very good. It was great that the producer accepted almost all of our ideas and we were allowed to adjust the guitar sounds by ourselves - and nobody had any negative comments. It felt like there wouldn't have been any producer but that we had done all the producing by ourselves.
The scariest thing took place on Thursday January 18, which was our last day in the studio. On that day there was a powerful storm going over Germany and 30 people perished. Four of them were killed on the same region, where our studio was located. R.I.P. We didn't suffer from the storm, save for one electricity shortage but still, the storm was scary enough. During daytime some of us went to the yard to watch the storm and I have never seen a storm like that in Finland. According to the news the wind occasionally reached the speed of 50m/s. In continental Finland, even the worst of the storms are in general just half of that. Anyways, it wasn't safe to stand on the yard too long, because the storm got worse all the time. In the evening when we were watching a movie together we felt the whole house shaking and there was a horrible noise because the wind extracted tiles from the roof. Sometimes it felt like there'd been a thunder just above us. Through the window we saw how the cars in the parking lot were swaying and shaking like toy cars. Fortunately, the storm calmed down for the night and just before we had to hit the road.
The day of our return was quite hard. We finished working in the studio at 1 am German time. Then we packed our personal items and went to bed. The alarms were set for 3 am. After a quick shower and getting dressed we entered the minibus and drove 1½ hours to the Düsseldorf airport. Once there, we headed for the security control and that was where my journey was about to end.
There wasn't too much time left to the departure when it was my turn to pass the metal detector. All coats, bags etc. went through the x-ray machine. The metal detector gate started beeping when I passed through it. After that, a man wearing a military-looking uniform asked me to spread my arms and examined me from head to toe with a smaller metal detector gadget. When he reached my shoes he started talking to me in German and I informed him that I only spoke English. He then asked me to remove my shoes. So I did and they put my shoes through the x-ray machine and then started examining them, all guys together. There were like 10 guys wearing uniforms - and inspecting my shoes. At one point one of them came to ask me when my flight would depart. I told him that it would be in fifteen minutes and then became a bit worried because the guy answered "Hopefully you can make it".
They had to call their boss and he came, took my shoes and carried them away. A bit later one of them came to inform me: "Come and see". Well, I followed them to watch the monitor of x-ray machine and they explained that there's something in the shoes, which they can't recognize and that's the reason why they can't allow me to pass. I looked at the picture and saw those little morsels they were talking about. At that point I realized that the sole of the shoe must be cracked and there is pebble inside the sole. It took them painfully long to check the shoes. They asked for my passport and the boarding card again and started making phone calls, every now and then checking my passport. It was only five minutes before the scheduled departure time when they returned my shoes and said "Only stones, only stones". Nothing else but little stones. Then I had to run. I was pissed off but of course relieved. Even though Germany is a nice country it's still great to return home.
When we arrived at Helsinki, our own crew was there to welcome us. We jumped into our bus and drove to the Hartwall Arena, because we were to play a gig there at NRJ Radio Awards happening. It was a nice party at the Arena and our gig went very nicely. I and Theon presented an Award for the first time in our lives so it was something nice and new. It was also our first time to participate a very official and well-organized press conference. We were sitting there behind a table with microphones in our hands and the group of reporters asked questions, one by one, and we answered them. It was nice as well and definitely the correct way to organize meetings with the press. In the end of the evening, after we had enjoyed the refreshments offered by NRJ, it was time to get back tobus and start our journey to Tampere. And then, eventually we were home, tired but happy and with lots of new experiences.
Vivian Sin'amor
Friday, December 8, 2006
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
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
Friday, November 24, 2006
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
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
Saturday, September 23, 2006
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
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
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
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!!!
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