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• Popgasm • Tour Diary 2007-2008 • Keikkapäiväkirja • Fairytale video shoot • Fairytalen video • Making of 1st album • Albumin teko |
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29.05.2006 — Samu Final Countdown We finally got the albums today from the factory... Somehow I went totally speechless, felt damn good. Somehow even I (!) was quiet and happy for a moment. Happy for the fact that I've been blessed to be a part of something like this and that it’s finally here. The album is more beautiful than I ever thought, the first child (of five guys...?) Well, of course the "asshole" MD of our production company found a mistake from the booklet right away ;) It'll be out in Finland on the 31st of MAY. So. Cheeses it's soon out and as much as I know myself, I won't sleep for a while again. The only thing we can still do is to believe that our record company in Finland has done and will do a good job promoting etc and people will buy it. So far we have had nothing but good to say about them. And yes. We signed a worldwide deal with EMI. Pretty crazy. We knew about the offers and stuff they made already in early march and I can't tell you how hard it was to keep the secret. And how hard it was to sit back and wait for the managers and CEO's to work with the stupid details. Week after week after week. We already told our management here to sign the deal with any terms, but luckily the adults kept their heads cool. They've done it before. I didn't sleep well for the whole time 'cause I was scared they'd get cold feet in Germany. I must have lost 5 Kilos weight... So the album will be out in Vatican City too. I wonder if Pope Benedictus likes Romeo... The staff at EMI Germany seems pretty cool and hard working. Of course we'll have the whole truth when the train's left the station completely, but everything seems to be in order. In the German way!! So there will be releases at least in Germany already in August and the rest of the planet will follow depending on how good we do there. I really hope we get to tour there soon... Added: 26.04.2006 — Samu Music video for Romeo It was a long night. It's 8 AM and I just got home from shooting the video for ROMEO. My feet don't carry me and I'm tired as a pig on a Christmas table, but still happy after experiencing something completely new again. Solar Films, a big Finnish independent movie & TV production company is making a video for our song Romeo. The director Dan Peled has worked with artists such as Redrama, Stratovarius and Nightwish, for example. He was a cool guy. Just sat on his comfortable chair and gave commands on what to do. Also the producers, Markus Selin and Mika Karttunen need no introduction here in Finland. It's a story about a hooker at work. Romeo could have been spoiled with a typical Romeo & Julia (or Julio) shit. But no, the guys came up whit something more interesting. The leading female role was played by Ms. Sini Säkkinen, a finalist of "Model School" TV format in 2005. We had our doubts after seeing all the "star flights" of all the "get famous fast" idol etc. formats, but this young lady was a huge positive surprise. She actually cries for real on one of the scenes and we have never seen any one work with such an attitude. I bet weäll hear from her. There were American cars, smoke machines, prostitutes (not real ones) catering with all the delicious stuff and some thirty guys an d girls doing all kinds of stuff. And we were treated almost too well. The whole gang worked more than around the clock. Respect! Maybe the coolest part of the video is where we get to show the pimp, that he shouldn't mistreat the girl Sini. It'll be fun to watch the way we get rid of the bad guy played by a Colombian gentleman, Jorge. Our beloved producer Jukka was also with us in front of the cameras. Even though his work is done after mastering the album, he’ll keep on being a part of the band. Even on the worst gigs. That's cool. The video will be released during May. At least in Finland... Added: 01.03.2006 — Samu Stockholm 24/02/2006 – The Album is in our hands We dreamed about something like this for years and we made our foreheads hurt but now we’re here. Our dreams weren’t half of this outcome we hold in our hands. By some miracle, we have been blessed to work with the top producers ands engineers’ of Finland and Sweden. That alone is a dream come true. I’m lying on a hotel bed somewhere in Stockholm and next to me sleeps our producer Jukka dead tired (and dead drunk) after a long session of a few days. Tomorrow we’ll have some more meetings with international distributors and publishers and then we’ll have a free night in Stockholm after a long long time. Our Mastering Engineer Thomas Eberger from Cutting Room Mastering Studio has done well with our mastering. Must say it sounds just great, and so say the professionals too. I slept half of the whole session although we drank a gallon of coffee. Luckily Jukka stayed awake even though he hadn’t slept one bit the night before. There was still the final touch needed in the mixes. He had just dropped his partner Aku Sinivalo home before the plane took of in Helsinki. He wore shades all day in taxi, flying and in the cafeterias. He didn’t want the poor traveling children to see the eyes of the devil… (I can tell you, those eyes would make the Devil himself scared!) We haven’t earned a penny so far with this. All we’ve gained is some clothes from Guess ands Acc3ss and a lot of debt from the credit card companies and our parents, but still this is the best thing after sliced bread. Far better. The folks here in Stockholm seem to like the finalized album too. Good! We had a showcase on Tuesday in Helsinki for European record companies and we hope it will take us forward. We have the greatest record company in Finland working for us. Bonnier Amigo Music, and especially their head Anne are really committed to get this done. But as always, the most thanx for the successful showcase belongs to the wonderful audience. You. Thanx, Thanx, Thanx. Feels as if there’s more to come… Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 31/12/05 Making the video - All Because Of You Once again back from Mango’s studio. This time we’ve been shooting a video there. The two days in front of cameras, changing clothes and posing has worn us out. Still it was cool and the feeling was excellent. The crew woke us up gently with cameras and powerful lights after just three hours sleep. We must have looked fresh... The video was written and directed by Mika Kurvinen and cameraman Antony Bentley. In the crew were also catering, make up artist and of course a beautiful model Janika, who plays a part on the video. The video reflexes our time in the studio, while we were recording the album. Filled with joy and pain that we really felt during that time, but we did not smash a guitar. We honestly didn’t... As soon as they get it edited we get a glimpse of the material. Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 18/12/2005 Christmas & stuff It’s been a long time since I wrote to the diary the last time. Sorry for that. We’ve been in a hurry. Well, the real reason is that we are a little bit confused from everything that has happened on the musical front. Even though we write powerful songs, filled with feelings it is difficult to put this into words. Three separate teams are mixing our songs at different locations in Helsinki. We have got a few samples and for once we are almost speechless. Works like a BMW’s gearbox! Jesse Vainio at Sonic Pump Studio did a great job mixing Only. Screw the plans; we need to rewrite them... The whole album should be mixed next week. What will I be stressed out with then? After Christmas we are going to shoot a video for All Because of You. Feels good. Mika Kurvinen, the director, has a vision for the script. It will involve rock, nudity and all weird stuff. Well, you’ll see it someday on the TV. Midem in Cannes, France, gives us also something to think about. For those who don't know, Midem is the biggest music fair in Europe. We’ll be there in mid-January and sniff global music atmosphere. We’ll be at the same places as the 69eyes. We’ll bring a huge magnet along and see which of the guys will come along with all the bling-blings. The Finnish radio-station YLEX has listed All Because of You at their most wanted list for three weeks in a row. Fu**ng great! YLEX plays our songs quite nicely, maybe more than we expected. Our promoter works his ass off to get it played somewhere else as well. We got rumors that the single is played on the breaks on ice-hockey games. Ice-hockey rules! We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We’ll see you all at gigs next year. Our humble thanks to you who have been voting and supporting us all the way. Your support means more than you can ever imagine. Thanx guys! Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu Last time in Mango for now (6th in a row) The sixth time at Mango and for now it seems to be the last one. The rest of the recordings will be done in Helsinki. I felt sad leaving Mango’s porch the last time. Sami hit the drums at the last session. He set the rhythm to Only, Fairytale Gone Bad and It ain’t the way. With sad, but still happy feelings we left Mango. We will remember this place in the future and recommend it to anyone who wants to make music in the middle of a forest with good feelings. We started the recording in the spring and now it is already fall. Half a year has passed, but we still need to remember that only a year ago we were knocking on record label’s doors to get a record deal. Now we have it and the album is almost done, just some mixing and mastering. We got 14 songs recorded and I hope they all will be on the album. The new era is starting. A Finnish radio station SuomiPop has started playing our 1st single All Because of You and some other stations have played it occasionally. All we can do now is to wait for the wheels to roll on. To get this album done was a bigger thing than I thought. It included (as probably always) great emotions. Everything from laughter to slamming the doors. We missed fistfights, it was close though... We created something that we all are proud of. Jukka, the producer, has done a man’s job as well as the rest of the gang. By the end we were melted together as a team, but All Because of You is a good example from "just press the record, we gonna play now.." It is so fresh and honest. The cocktail of feeling is great. It feels that the time has stopped. At this point all the big stars probably fly to weird countries to learn a mystic dance to relax. Raul is the only one of us that can dance, so the rest of us will just relax to get this process out of our minds. Raul´s dancing is from his dirty past of boy-bands. If all goes well we’ll need strength soon. And if not, we’ll need strength anyhow... Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 29/08/2005 Mango studio session number 5 Goddammit. I just came home from a few days studios session and I feel like a bunny on an unguarded carrot-field. I thought it would be impossible to have goose bumps after every session. At the beginning it felt like we get nothing done this time. It was raining like hell in Porvoo. I was sitting on the porch writing new lyrics to Wonderland and as soon as I got my computer on the lightning stroke. From the sky of course, but I got into the right mood. Jukka wasn't feeling well and we were all tired so everything moved slowly on. For the first time it felt like work and that is not always a good sign when making music. We recorded Fairytale Gone Bad (former Fairytale Destruction) and Wonderland. Some fill-ins were done as well. On Sunday evening we run out of time and continued to work at Helsinki Records. Basicly Jukka and I rewrote the both songs, but we we're lucky. Geeeeeesh he is good! We got a draft versions from Wonderland. I sit on my sofa and listen to the song. At least one good art-shit on the CD. Oh by the way, Jukka went to play a gig in Helsinki on Saturday evening and we secretly recorded a guitar solo to In To The Blue. It all looks like it will be on the finished album. Guitar solo’s are vintage stuff and they have been removed from most of the tracks so far. This night belongs to red wine and Wonderland. Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 18/08/2005 We're a band - We have a drummer!! Mr. Sami Osala has passed our drummer test and obviously we have passed his. Sami is a friend of Teijo's and Teijo had played some of our tracks to him. Sami was interested right away. He is perfect in all ways. He's not too young (Drummers are supposed to be the backbones of their bands) and he plays like a machine. Even tough he’s left handed. We have called to many drummer candidates before. This time the response was different. "Sunrise Avenue? Hell yeah!". All drummers, including Sami and Teijo seem to be native "pohjanmaalaisia" (Northwest coast of Finland) and on our future tour we have to go see on what kind of a field they have grown up. Two training sessions and a wet night bar growling and the dude was a full member of the band. ROCK and a humble thanx to Teijo. Teijo´s band changed the name to Killer Aspect. Cabin Crew already existed. They are on the same state with us and they play well and with right attitude. Thumbs up for the guys! Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 07/08/2005 Mango studios 4th session Feels like coming home. I really love this place. Raul buys six boxes of salt sticks. We put our hands on ten songs that are still in halfway; Into The Blue, new song Diamonds and Heal Me witch was skipped last time because Jukka didn't like the text. I thought it was really great, but they all laughed at me... I'll show them someday... Helsinki is in the spotlight right now. We're hosting the summer world championships. And the weather is just so great. It's raining like hell and they must abort many of the competitions because of safety matters. The message to the world; Helsinki is a really nice summer town. Gladly we have our own world in the studio. My lyric partner Michael Blair has written a killer text to sunny day and Jukka made it better than I've dreamed. In my opinion it's one of the best in the whole album. Janne's voice in the middle of the chorus in Diamonds makes me extremely proud. "You stay silent..." Hrrr. We bounce Sunny Day, Diamonds, Into The Blue and Choose to Be Me. A Finnish musician Jonnaemilia made a new text to Into The Blue since the original started to make me sick. It had no clue. Now it definitely does. From these songs we're gonna pick the first single together with our record Company Bonnier Amigo Music. Yea, and we managed to sign the contracts after I came back from Spain.... Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 09/06/2005 We have a deal!!!!! One hundred and two visits to record labels, producers and publishers and finally yeee, we have a record deal. BONNIER AMIGO MUSIC will release our first album during 2006, apparently on the first half. Bonnier is not a big player in Finnish music scene so far but they're coming strong. They have no rock signings, so no band is competing with us inside the company and this whole thing will be carried out with fresh hearts and huge experience. They seem to believe in us quite much and they want to put all efforts in us. Cheeses it feels good. The deal is really good. The only minus is that I'm gonna be in Spain for three weeks and we'll have to wait with signing the contracts until I get home. Hope they will not get cold feet. A lot of restless nights ahead... Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 05/06/2005 Mango 3 The third session in Mango studios. First the drums for the rest of the songs. Teijo plays like a grown-up. This time not having his lungs on the drums. We've made a new chorus to ‘til dying and Diamonds. We also record Choose to be me, Wonderland, Into the blue and a new slower one Heal me. There was a huge battle between Heal Me and Keep dreaming, another slow one, but after voting and some wrestling Heal me was the choice. Jukka said the final words. He has the responsibility and hopefully a vision of some kind. Of course there's always a place for an acoustic bonfire song as 15th track, but we'll see. Together we decided to name the album "ON GUULUU". It's an expression of a local kebab entrepreneur and it sounds so stupid in Finnish. We shake hands on it with Janne and Jukka at five am before going to sleep. On Guuluu!!!! We'd need a few good bounces for two record companies. We have got pretty far in our negotiations with two bigger players. We have meetings with both of them next week. Both of them have orally ;) offered a deal, but the signatures are missing. We open beer bottles and get to work. We bounce the songs, Choose to be me, Heal me, It ain't the way, and til dying. I think they're great. The amount of liquids Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 28/05/2005 A gig at On The Rocks We've played here five times before, but now we're all really nervous - more than ever. Nervous about how much audience we'll have and how they take our new sound guided by Jukka. And of course nervous about how we play after playing only in studio for the whole spring. Normally we don't think too much about how things go up on stage but this time we're all covered with cold sweat. Janne is usually the big brother especially for me. I'm the one who needs most of the support before tryouts. Raul is usually cool about anything, but now he's almost a pain in the ass walking around back stage talking all kinds of weird shit. Need a drink. I won't go up there otherwise. The club is filled with people. The wonderful angels didn't betray us!!! I can't get it how partly the same people cum see our shows time after time wearing Sunrise Ave. t-shirts. Angels. Cheeses this is Guuluu (sorry inside)! After the gig the back stage gets full of people and among them, there is also Elina from Welldone Agency, the biggest booking agent in Finland. She wants to meet us the following week. We all have a nice evening and this is good fuel for the studio-sessions starting next week. Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 28/04/2005 Mixdown @ Crystal Sound The first four tracks (All because of You, Destiny, Romeo and Make It Go Away) get their final form. And then it's my job to start arranging appointments with record companies. We need to get this thing is stores some day. Some of the majors' A&R guys came to listen to our stuff in Crystal Sound Studio mixing session and actually we were surprised how excited they were. At this point I've been introducing our music in record- and publishing companies almost a hundred times in Finland and in Sweden. Some of the receptionists know me by name from my former tourneys. "Samu again...." when I try to make appointments. It's actually not nice at all to sit in front of a label manager etc. while he's looking at you and quietly listening to your demo tape. At least when you've been turned down a hundred times like us. Few of the companies got really interested. Apparently Jukka and Mikko have done good job. Especially Romeo seems to be the hit for this moment. Maybe they can hear the good feeling we had while recording. Makes me sick that we still have no drummer. Teijo has promised to help, but it's not the same at all. He's got his own band, Cabin Crew, and of course if he'd have to choose between his own group, and us the choice is obvious. That's the way it should be. We've tried at least ten guys, but no one's fitted in the gang. Both musical and social skills matter. Whattodo???? Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 22/04/2005 Vocals to first 4 songs Damn, whatta pressure. And of course the Neumann microphones are broken. Now the lyrics should be in order and fine, now the text can't be changed no more. As we all know, we're from Finland and writing in English is not that easy. I really don't care if someone finds my lyrics boring or naive. The only thing in my mind is that I don't wanna sing anything wrong. Luckily our Swedish publisher contact Mr. Roger Östman has introduced me to a pro writer, Michael Blair. Together with him we go through the lyrics. My sleep gets a bit deeper the night after. I realized the Romeo lyrics have been complete bullshit. It was raining like hell in Porvoo and we were able to create a new text. I sat my feet hanging out from the studio window. Turned out just fine. Raul's falsetto is too damn nice. In the first verse of Romeo hi sings "Slowly crying game" without the last M-letter. Sounds as if the gay is crying. Raul's so cute. Added: 27.01.2006 — Samu 24/03/2005 The last day of the 1st session Jukka has spoken! He basically destroyed all the cool stuff & riffs we had made and to be honest, some of us had a long face for a while. He call our arrangements folk-shit and changed everything. But when we heard the results of his changed in the songs, we just shut our mouths and asked him to go on. Teijo was really sick. He was coughing like hell all night and Raul (the only one capable driving) took him to a hospital in the morning while the rest of us were in deep sleep. And the doctor’s verdict was pneumonia. If you wanna know how tough Teijo is, just listen to tracks Fairytale Destruction, Only or Sunny Day and remember that he was in 40+ fever while recording. Especially Sunny day Rocks. Feels as if Only should have had a slower tempo... We'll see. So the first session is part of the past. Four days, a gallon of beer, many bottles of wine and booze, pizza, pizza & pizza and at least ten boxes of salt sticks. Feels so good. I guess I’ve never been this happy. We still don't have a record deal... But right now we don't care. This is fun!!! Added: 29.12.2005 — Samu 22/03/2005 1st session in Mango studios At last. Operation rock-album starts. The team is Raul, Janne, producer Jukka Backlund, the money man Mikko Virtala (I wonder why it's so hard for Finnish people to make foregn friends with such names...;), drummer Teijo, engineer Mikko Raita (another name-monster) and Me. Mango is even better than we expected. It's in the middle of a forest in Southern Finland (Porvoo). There's a huge control room, several recording booths with a mirror ball in the roof, and bedrooms for the whole possé. And last but not least, a kitchen and a sauna. Perfect! Seems as if we're all conquering space in our new territory. Especially Jukka, Janne and I, we're like young male dogs around a bush that belongs to no one. Not sniffing each other’s asses, but you know what I mean! All though there's all these weird vibes in the air, I can feel something good in the air too. First we record drums to All Because Of You, Destiny, Make It Go Away and Romeo. Teijo (drummer) is really sick. He coughs like he's dying. But he won't give up. Jukka announces his first ideas. A new kind of verse for All because of you. Hmmm. Let's see. We put the sauna on. We've made all kinds of plans of how many fast songs and how many slow ones, etc. Jukka throws all the plans to garbage. This has nothing to do with E=mc2. Feels good to be a beginner. Jukka is damn restless. He downloads my new Mac full of p**n and all weird shit from the Internet. I guess it'll be like this for the next 6 months... Added: 29.12.2005 — Samu 05/01/2005 Cash Flow Ok, let's remember that I started writing things down after a couple of years of struggling with the music industry in Scandinavia... With no results. I'm on a running mat (it's moving pretty fast) and on my left side is my friend Mr. Mikko Virtala. He’s also running, not as fast though. Mikko has had our band's sticker in his car bumper for years. He's also helped us removing backlines and stuff from gig places etc. He's been a real fan. One of the very few. Anyhow, I give him a short brief of how much is needed and how quickly it'll pay off if things turn out fine (To be honest, I had no clue that time). Mikko goes home to think. If he's got any brain cells left, he should definitely not put any money in us. On the other hand, some one with less stuff inside his head would fit in this gang fine. The next day on the same running mats. Mikko says he doesn't believe much in making money with this kind of shit, but still he offers his hand as a sign of a deal. He had made some calculations (would be much fun to know whatta hell he calculated) and thought: Whatta hell, at least it’s better be fun then. Mikko sells most of his stocks and also puts his house on sale. We can call this guy devoted! Yippee. Now to book the studios.... Added: 29.12.2005 — Samu 18/12/2004 First Lines December 2004. We played a gig at On the Rocks, Helsinki, and after that we've ended up having a meeting with producer Jukka Backlund at his desk at Music Makers Studio. Jukka has been doing all kinds of things with music; songwriting, producing and he’s also performed a lot on stage. Before this event, we've been able to make most of the record companies interested in our music, but the final handshake is still missing. At first sight, Jukka is a total maniac. An artist. He seems to understand a lot about music and producing, a real professional, but as a person he's a real nut case. Could he really be excited about our music and us? Could this mean something more to him, more than a usual project? His hobbies are Flying (with airplanes of course) and playing Jazz. Quite a mixture... Together we sum up that we establish our own record company, since the stupid big ones can't see the potential in us. We'll create the whole album by ourselves and then we'll sell it to some bigger player for distribution. It'll take some 20 grand Euros and time needed is some 6 months. 6 months or more is no problem for any of us, but the 20 grand is missing... And so it the drummer. We're supposed to be a rock band and we have no drummer... Our friend Tiejo from Cabin Crew has promised to help us. he's damn good, maybe the best, but it's still not the same. After a few meetings we all decide to seek for people interested in investing the amount needed. Now we'd need to find a real idiot with twenty grand extra. A real idiot with extra cash. Straight from math's book... |