Interview с Dreamtale : DARKSIDE.ru

It has been announced that Nisse Nordling will sing for Dreamtale at the upcoming Sauna Open Air festival in Finland in early June. What is Nisse’s background? How did you get in touch with him? And will he become a permanent Dreamtale singer?

Nisse has sung in lots of different groups, mainly cover bands. We’ve known Nisse for a few years by his reputation and actually we talked with him about the lead singer’s position at the same time when Jarkko Ahola joined the band. But what comes to his permanent position in the band, the Sauna Open Air festival will tell a lot…

It seems that no vocalist lasts in Dreamtale longer than one album. What is the main reason for that? And is it difficult to find a new singer for a heavy metal band in Finland?

Actually there have been only two vocalists in the band, Tomi Viiltola and Jarkko Ahola. On the first album (“Beyond Reality”, 2002) Rami Keränen, our songwriter and guitarist, did the vocal parts only because there wasn’t a lead singer in the band. Tomi had to leave because he lived 400 km away from the rest of us and it was difficult to organize practice and gigs. Jarkko Ahola left the band because his other band got a record deal with a major record label.

Have you considered bringing Rami back to the position of the singer? I really like the way he performed on “Beyond Reality”.

No, Rami doesn’t want to be a singer. He likes to concentrate on guitar.

Your latest single “Wellon” has climbed as high as No. 9 on the Finnish charts. How did that success change your life? And in general, how much is commercial success important for Dreamtale?

The only thing that changed was that we could hear our own song on the radio from time to time. No financial gain has shown. (laughs)

The title of your latest album, “Difference” (2005), sounds quite ambitious. Why did you choose to name the album this way, and what kind of difference did you want to stress with such a title?

The name came up because we felt that the songs on this particular album were different to each other. And it was not meant to be taken so seriously, it just sounded good to our ears.

How was it like working with Timo Tolkki as a producer? What kind of person is he nowadays, after all the troubles that he had to go through with Stratovarius lately?

Timo was a really nice guy to work with. He was really professional and patient. There were no signs about any troubles. I really would like to work with him again some day.

“Ocean’s Heart” (2003) was a concept album. Is there any concept in “Difference”? In general, what are the main lyrical themes on the new album?

No, at the early stage we decided not to do a concept album, because it makes a lot of pressure on lyric writers, because everyone has to keep the lyrics in one theme. I can’t tell any main theme, I suppose it’s the

same “hero” stuff as was on the earlier albums. Well, maybe a couple of texts are a bit more mature, and of course there are songs about sex… (laughs)

The acoustic songs on “Difference” are really interesting an impressive. Do you plan to continue exploring this musical field, maybe do a full acoustic album or to add an acoustic section to your live shows?

Doing acoustic songs is more interesting, ‘cause there you can catch different emotions and feelings and it’s more delicate. Adding an acoustic section into live shows is really a quite demanding operation, I think we have to focus on the electric part first but maybe some day…

A lot of people have noticed folk influences in “Lucid Times”. Where do they come from? Is anybody in the band interested in Finnish folk music?

Really? I haven’t heard that! But yes, why not. I suppose Rami wanted to do something a little different and that’s what we came up with. I don’t think anyone in the band listens to Finnish folk music, but we are omnivorous with music.

Why didn’t you invite Rainer from Diablo for growling vocals this time? He did a very good job on “Ocean’s Heart”…

Yes he did! But there was not that kind of songs that needed growling this time.

And how did you get Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) to sing “Where The Rainbow Ends” on your first album? Is there any chance that you will work with him again in the future?

Absolutely, if there’s even a slightest chance, I would like to work with him. What comes to “Rainbow…”, we needed a strong, convincing voice and our record company suggested Marco. So we called him and he did his part in less that two hours.

You are the oldest musician in Dreamtale. Is it easy or difficult to work with people who are many years younger than you are? Who is the wildest member of Dreamtale, and who is the quietest one?

No it’s not. Only differences between me and younger guys are outside music. Our wildest member is definitely our drummer Pete Rosenbom, he’s the one who always gets thrown out of the bar and he keeps us laughing on the tour bus. Mikko Mattila, our new guitarist, is the quietest one.

When and how did you first get in contact with Dreamtale? And how did it happen that you moved from the position of engineer/producer to the position of bass player after the first album?

My wife is a long time friend with Rami and that’s how I get to know him. After recording “Beyond Reality” Rami called me one day and said that Alois had left the band and asked if I knew any bass player. At that time I didn’t know anyone available and because they needed someone to play in the gigs, I promised to help them out. So here I still am…

Could you tell me a few words about your previous bands, such as Dead City Klowns, Yliannostus and Robust Duck? What kind of music were they playing? And are you involved i

n any bands apart from Dreamtale now?

Dead City Klowns played 1990s hard rock with influences from Guns N’ Roses to Alice In Chains. Yliannostus was a pure punk band, the earliest band I’ve played in. Robust Duck is group of friends who share an interest to Dadaism. At this moment Robust Duck is the only band which is active.

On the Dreamtale website you mention “Jagermeister with beer” as your favorite drink. Being a fan of Jagermeister myself, I would like to ask you: what kind of beer goes best with Jagermeister?

My favorite is lager; it neutralizes mouth after a Jager-shot nicely.

If I’m not mistaken, your deal with Spinefarm expires after this album. Will you continue with them for the next album, or will you search for a different label?

Currently we are looking for offers from other labels and we’ve got some pretty good ones too, but of course dealing with Spinefarm would be much easier because they are located in the neighborhood and I like working with them.

I’ve noticed that many Finnish bands, even though their records get international release and recognition, don’t get to play outside their country. This has been the case with Diablo, and this seems to be the case with you. What is required to bring Dreamtale outside Finland for a tour? And is there any chance to see you in Russia?

It takes a quite a lot of money, because we can’t be a headliner so we would have to pay ourselves

for our hotels and so on. We got an offer to play with Sonata Arctica in Europe for a couple of weeks and our costs for that tour would have been over 10,000 euros. So, it’s quite impossible for a little band like us to make a tour if the record company won’t pay. But hopefully we’ll see some day!

Special thanks to Konstantin Byleyev (FONO) for arranging this interview

Questions by Roman Patrashov
Live photos by Felix Yakovlev
June 22, 2005
28 июн 2005 the End

Dreamtale

Rainbow Never Ends