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<< Interviews deze maand
archiveer onder : gothic metal
Het mooiste wat een artiest kan overkomen, is van je hobby je werk te kunnen maken. Zo begon Kaide (zanger van Blinded Rain) met een klein boekingsbureau en nam de plaat ‘Destination Unknown’ zelf op. Het gevolg: Fireburn Records werd een begrip. Daarmee is voor Blinded Rain de tijd aangebroken om succes te zoeken in de rest van Europa. Zanger Kaide doet het woord...
Text: Kim
You describe your music as dark hard rock metal. I think the music of Blinded Rain is in the line of band like Lacrimas Profundere, Gothminister and Dreadful Shadows. Do you know these bands, and can you agree on this, or otherwise how should you describe Blinded Rain?
Maybe it’s time to check out those bands because I can’t remember having ever heard their music. A lot of people said we sound like a quite wide range of comparisons, for example: David Bowie, Amorphis, Type O Negative and Nightwish. I would say Blinded Rain´s music hits you from the shade of twilight with heavy rocking riffs, haunting melodies and a wide sound world. I believe that all the things songwriters have heard will somehow effect the music he makes. I have always listened to many different kinds of music and maybe it brings some versatile elements to our songs.
I think bands of your kind are coming up more and more in Germany and England and not in Finland. Are there some more similar bands that are having their roots in Finland like you? Dark (gothic) metal band with male voices?
You can find a lot of gothic metal bands from Finland, maybe you could check out Charon; I just bought their latest album.
Blinded Rain’s existence began with a couple of songs you had written, but at that time those didn’t fit your former band format. Can you tell me some more about that band; what kind of band was it and does it still exist?
The most active band was Spirits and it does not exist anymore. We had two line-ups: one called Spirits Duo and the other one was named Spirits Band; both concentrated on playing cover songs. We were touring around Finland, did about 400 gigs and after that it felt like we have seen enough of that road. There was nothing dramatic at the end of the existence of the band; it was time to do something new, which means making my own music.
The title of your new album ‘Destination Unknown’ should perfectly fit as a CD title for a doom band, also the artwork; the trees and the man in the fog. Can you explain me want to tell the public with the title and the artwork?
As far as I remember the title of the album just came up in the middle of a hangover; thinking about making an album and what happens after that is a kind of long journey. At first it was only a work title, but in the end we felt like it describes the music and lyrics of album very well. The cover art has been created by Ritual; I was talking with him about different ideas in relating to the album, the music etc.. and we agreed that he would make a proposal after hearing the music. I think he did a great job with the front cover and I was very fond of it after I saw the first draft. You will find the world of unreal from the album and we just feel like the cover art fits very well to the scene.
You’ve worked with Tuomo Valtonen during the recordings. He’s also known from bands like Finntroll and Children of Bodom for example. How was it to work with him?
Tuomo is a very talented professional who has a huge amount of good stories to tell. It would be great to work with him again in the future. He has recorded and mixed a lot of metal albums (for example the Fintroll album), but as far as I know he has not worked with Children of Bodom. ‘Destination Unknown’ was mastered at the Finnvox Studio by Mika Jussila and he has also mastered the albums of Children of Bodom.
We can hear some choirs on ‘Destination Unknown’. Can you tell me what kind of expression you wanted to bring into the music with the choirs?
There are some songs on ‘Destination Unknown’ where the sound world is quite big. Choirs are just one part of it but the same principle applies to all elements: everything that sounds good and strengthens the song will be used.
You have some nice titles for the songs on the album, like ‘Sandcastle Star’ and ‘The Only Truth’. Can you tell us more about the stories behind these lyrics?
Nowadays it looks like there are more and more people who are ready to make almost anything for a second in fame. ‘Sandcastle Star’ is about a fictional person who will experience all the different sides of that game. ‘The Only Truth’ could have had a lot of meanings but after all I think it is about power and how you will use the power.
On your Myspace I also found a song that is called ‘1939’; what is it about? And can we find this song on former work of Blinded Rain?
‘1939’ can be found on the ‘Vampire’ MCD. That time was a very difficult part in our recent history. In 1939 Russia attacked Finland and Finland was defending itself alone against the giant enemy. ‘1939’ is not about the war it selves, but it‘s about a normal young Finnish man who had to face the hopeless situation, stay strong and brave without other possibilities.
You signed a deal with Fireburn Records; for how many records and will they do some promotion work for you outside Finland?
In this case it can be considered almost as a lifetime deal. I was running a small booking agency at that same time when we were touring with Spirits Band/Duo. Since the company exists it was somehow natural to record and produce the first album by myself. After having recorded the album I was thinking that we might try working as well as a record label. That is how Fireburn Records was born and has released Blinded Rain´s music and Tarujen Saari´s latest album Susien Yö – Delirium Lupus so far. Only distribution has been outsourced; everything else we did by our selves. And yes – we are also doing promotion outside Finland and at the moment we’re looking for a new distributor/label contacts for the rest Europe.
You’re only having a Myspace page for Blinded Rain on the web and not a regular website. Do you think it’s not necessary for a band to have a reguar website?
Well, Myspace is very handy nowadays but we’ve just made the decision to open up also a new regular website for Blinded Rain. It will be online somewhere around August-September.
You’ve done some gigs in Finland, but have you ever performed outside of Finland or are you planning some gigs in the rest of Europe?
Blinded Rain has not played outside Finland but hopefully will play a lot of gigs some day outside the borders!
You’ve written a studio diary on your Myspace and in it I read this: “Doing the singing parts may be a great fun and sometimes it may drive you totally crazy……Singing really is the thing where you have to have a good feeling when doing it. And when you do not have that feeling……here are some things that may come up: what a hell – sounds like lung cancer, where hell that breathing came from ? If you sing with that accent you better move to Calcutta! Do not eat – nobody can sing with the sausage in mouth, hey really - come away now!”
I am so curious: Are there perhaps also things that one should put in one’s mouth in order to improve the singing? Or is there a deeper meaning behind this remark?
Hahaha; that’s something from Tuomo Valtonen! From the Rock ´n´ Roll point of view I should say that you just need to put one litre of Vodka in mouth and sing happy…. but in real life there are some things that work at least for me. Hot water with honey - oh shit, I should not have said that…. now it sounds like I’m Winnie The Pooth….
Last question: What is it that makes it so special for you to be part of Blinded Rain?
The whole palette of being in the band: Rock ´n´ Roll and bad smell, bull shit talking, bad jokes, the weird feeling of loosing 90 % of your brains and making good music at the same time.
http://www.myspace.com/blindedrain`
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