Featuring Sami from Beati Mortui Interview by Ruud Dreessen aka ebm-industrial.nl 27-03-2010 15:58
01- For the first question will be - Thanks Sami that you have found time to give answers to these questions,How are you doing?
Hey Ruud! Thanks for finding us out and for this chance to be interviewed to ebm-industrial.nl ! Yeah I'm doing fine, been busy with music and stuff but that's normal at this time of year.
02-Hello Sami what noise do you make in Beati Mortui?
In the studio I work with the synths, program and sequence the songs, do mixing and remixing for other artists. When playing live I used to play bass guitar but for the next shows I'm practicing electronic drums. I'll probably also going to play some synth lines along with e-drums, so for me personally its going to be interesting times.
03-How's the start of 2010 been for you thus far?
Well things here have been pretty interesting and work-oriented for the last 4-6 months as we've been recording, producing and mixing our second album. Now it's finally turning out to be finalized, only mastering and artwork still to be done. Looking forward to the release in May 21st. Parallely we're starting to prepare and rehearse for the live shows aiming for late summer and fall.
04-do you know the netherland?
Yes sure been visiting Amsterdam for couple of times just for holidays and parties. I remember being in parties called Gotham a couple of times which were held at a former cathedral. They were good parties, not sure if it's held anymore. Recently we played two times live shows with Beati Mortui in Enschede and Veenendaal. We were on tour with supporting german Das Ich back then. The places were crowded and it was a great time there! I hope to be there once again very soon. Greets to people of Atak!
05-For a lot of people, this is probably going to be their first full introduction to Beati Mortui so how about you tell us a little bit about how you guys know each other and how the band came together?
Our band was formed in 2005 in Helsinki, Finland and basicly we know each other since long time. We have history in playing in different styles of bands since long and before Beati Mortui we used to play with Jarno, our guitaris, in a black metal bands. Somewhere in the late 90's we got interested into dark electronic music and while being listening to it for some years and going to clubs and festivals, we decided to form a band of ourselves! At that time it was not so popular genre in Finland as most of our friends were metal heads. We had fourth member Piritta playing synthesizers back then but she got into forming her own group. Our singer Maria lives nowadays in Germany, so it could be said we have now also a bit of German blood in our music.
06- Do you follow the electronic music Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic do you have any other favourite bands?
Yes I surely do and have been quite tightly following for the past 10+ years. I'm also playing shows as DJ here and co-organizing a club so I'm quite nearly following whats happening in the electronic scene. But it's not the only style I follow, naturally also extreme metal have a place in my and also each of us individual tastes. We do also like other styles more softer like finnish pop music, alternative rock and so forth... so our taste is quite varied in that sense.
07-How is your relationship with other electronic bands?
In Finland there's not so much electro/industrial bands so we do work very closely together here and support each other. This means going to and organizing together live shows, doing remixes, having discussions and advices back and forth. Electro/Industrial music in Finland has still quite lot of growth potential and to make the scene bigger is also hopefully going to happen in the next few years. Internationally we've made also very good and close relationships with fellow bands and friends in the scene. That's happened through our record deal with Danse Macabre, touring in europe with Das Ich and also through Myspace and other social medias. This has lead to common live shows being planned, exchanging remixes and other forms of co-operation. For example in our upcoming album theres going to be several remixes created by our friends and fellow artists. And naturally we are very proud to have this happened!
08- Can you give us a brief run-through of Beati Mortui story so far?
I think a brief story with turning points in band's history would be the formation in 2005 and the release of first promo-cd in 2007. We got quickly very positive feedback from the scene and also remarkable achievements in Sonic Seducer's Battle of the Bands as being in second position and winning a Finnish song competition called "Darkest song of the fall". After that in 2008 we signed a record deal with German label Danse Macabre and released our debut album in May 2008. Also we played our first ever live show in WGT festival in May 2008 and after that have played in big festivals and clubs in Finland and also toured in europe with Das Ich. Now on the edge of releaseing our second album we'l wait and see positively what this year is going to look for us.
09- How did you start to make music and what is Gothic for you?
Well for me I started studying and working with music since I was a child. Since 10 year old kid I went to musical school, started musical classes with several insruments and continued to music oriented high-school also playing at the same time in different styles of bands and in classical orchestra. I've played all kinds of music from classical to rock, and black metal to industrial so music for me has always been big part of my life. The Gothic in music for me means different types of moods, feelings and certain types of arrangements in it. Mostly they are related to melancholic and darker side of feelings, minor scales and dramatic arrangements. Besides that the lyrical context usually deals with certain archetypics which could be categorized gothic in a sense. But I don't usually use the term Gothic because it is so varied and has several different means to each people. Most of finnish traditional music could be categorized gothic in a way, so most often it is just melancholic and slavic roots in the music itself, what makes it gothic.
10-What did you guys do for a living before Beati Mortui?
We used to have several other bands before Beati Mortui and have also now other bands we are working with. Also as the music industry does not make profits that could be used for living, we still have our day jobs where we make the bread to our tables and money for the musical equipment. So we haven't quit our day jobs so to say.
11- When did you form Beati Mortui? What inspired you to make music together?
In 2005 as said earlier and I think mostly we just wanted to make music we would love to hear ourselves. Music which would blend different genres like electro/industrial, metal, classical and so forth. Like trying to have our own view into the music. That was our passion to form the band, and it still is.
12- What are your top ten favorite Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic Club Songs of all time? Who are you influenced by? What would you consider your favorite cd's?
I think in Industrial Electro genre we share the same favourites being the work of bands like Suicide Commando, Hocico, Diary of Dreams, Das Ich and similar who has made a long and succesful career in the scene. Also artists like Diamanda Galas, DIe Form and such inspired us at the beginning. In extreme metal side which also was a remarkable influence to us at the beginning we like bands like Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir, Ulver, Kovenant and many of the old Norwegian style of metal. Probably the most listened CD in dark electronic has been Suicide Commando's Mindstrip and it's Hellraiser song. It kind of hit me at first when I heard it in a parties in Amsterdam actually. After that our souls were sold haha.
13- What are the future plans for Beati Mortui?
Currently we are waiting for the album to become from the mastering and dublication factory. It is released 21st of May in WGT festivals in Leipzig where we are going too for celebrating it! We'll see how the response will be towards it from the scene. During summer we are rehearsing and planning our live set and probably during August/September timeframe we hit to road for some live shows. Hopefully we're going to have some in Finland and abroad too! Hopefully in the Netherlands too! ;)
14- Do you have a record label? Are you a member of any music organizations?
Yes our music is released through german label Danse Macabre which is led by our dear friend Bruno Kramm of Das Ich. The records are distributed through Alive! in europe. We don't have any partners in US nor Russia at the moment, but probably would think about such in the future. Our music does not belong to music organizations like Gema in Germany, as it would be too expensive to pay for all the dublication and mechanization costs for compilations, releases, remixes and so forth. For electronic musicians in our genre I think it's not very feasible, unless you sold thousands of records and the mainstream radios would play your songs. For this style the mainstream radioplay is quite far, atleast for the very time being... we'll see about that in the future!
15-What are you currently listening to on your MP3 player?
The several tens of versions of mixes of our new songs haha... currently been listening quite much the latest compilations around like Endzeit Bunertracks Vol5, Dark Alliances and so as I work as DJ too I usually check most of the compilations out there. Suicide Commando's latest work is great which I bought immediately the day it was released, impressive work. Also latest Danse Macabre releases are heavily in a rotation like The Beauty of Gemina's latest album which is probably the best dark rock around at the moment. Faith and the Muse latest album is great and also as a relaxing opposite I like to listen to Finnish Iskelmä music quite lot nowadays, just from the radio at car.
16- By the way do you like my questions? tell me what you think about it! ;-)
Yeah good and very deep through questions! You have took your time to personalize them which is good. I'm sometimes finding it hard to get the exact words as my english sometimes is a bit rusty. But I think it goes by.
17- What is the main idea, the message you want to leave to people who listens to you? What is your motto?
I think since the beginning and in our albums we have shared a sort of common red line. Mostly it has been dealing with encouraging people to be what they are, do what they wish and to project our views of the world around us. It's like surviving through life and world although there are some hard times for each and every one of us. This is basically also auditable in our music as after sadness and despair there is a positive or encouraging end after all. People must confront themselves and survive as a winner of their lives, from the world they live in or from experiences they have in their life circle. So the music deals symbolically with real life rather than vampires or stuff like that.
18- What's the name of your band? where did the name come from? or what's the story behind the band name?
Beati Mortui is a latin term meaning "blessed are the dead". It represents the concept of ours very well as on a lyrical level we want to encourage to dive deeper into yourself on a psychological level to face the dark side and let certain parts of yourself to die to make a space for new life to gain.
19-If people don't know what you and your music are about, how would you describe Beati Mortui? It's simply stated as female fronted Electro/Industrial with blend of metal music. Some people call it Hellectro, Dark Electro, Aggrotech and similar but there are so many genre names so it's best described just as Electro or Electro-Industrial. And as we have a guitarist people usually connect it to Metal music haha. Although many electronic bands nowadays have guitars as well in their music, atleast when performing live if not in the album.
20- first full-length album "All But Dreams Will Die" where did the concept come from? and whats planned now that your album is finished? or anything else you're working on? Tell me why this title,"All But Dreams Will Die" Tell us a few words about the concept of this?
It kind of describes our view and motto as stated in the question previously, kind of fighting for something in your life which is important for you, and after all having won the battle. Many of the songs in the album deal with these kind of observations from the real world. And after all the name tells the realistic fact that we once live and we die. That happens to every living organism in this world, but if we work upon our dreams they continue living even if we die. It is kind of philosophic statement more to say, to live and work for your dreams. I think its a good motto aswell.
21- Some quick fire questions: gitar or synthesizer?
Both! But for this music I would pick up synthesizer, although I've played both.
22-band or solo
Band, I don't like solos. ;)
23-How is the current promotional tour going for supporting this album?
It ended a year ago while we played in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Spain and in Finland. We had great time, good response and met many nice people during the tour. We do hope to be soon again in these countries aswell as many others too where we have not visited yet !
24- What do you think of a modern Gothic and about Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic scene?
Well there's huge amount of bands nowadays because its so easy and less expensive to make music nowadays. So its quite hard to keep track of whats happening and of all the new promising acts. But that can also be seen as positive thing as people have better ways to express themselves and good way to connect with likeminded and share their arts, like using myspace or other sites in Internet. I think some negative sides are that many new bands tend to sound a bit the same because they are using similar software and hardware instruments and have similar sources of inspiration. I would like to see people continue supporting the artists and their music now and in the future, as record sales tend to go down year after year, it is hard for bands and artists to make their living out of music. Going to live shows and supporting the local scene and clubs is quite essential for the scene to live and grow.
25- What's your favourite track of yours?
If you ask from a writers perspective they are all my favourites, as otherwise we would not have released them haha. But for a person who likes to dig into our music, we had good response for Don't Look Back as it ended up second in Sonic Seducer BOTB song contest, song Winter won a Finnish club schatten board song competition and for example Cancer has always worked fine live. Probably those are a good start! And if you can wait for the new ones released in May, you have 12 new songs to choose from!
26-What and who gets you excited about music today?
I think well made and somehow surprising new releases of bands who bring something new to their music and try to create something personal and of their own. Also good live shows are always excited to see and I tend to go often to events with bands performing live and to festivals. That's where you get the most energy and excitement out of the music.
27-Our usual question - what is music for you?
It's a big important part of my life and has always been. Would not want to live without it for sure!
28- What was your best live experience so far?
We've had many so it's hard to give only one example. WGT in Leipzig 2008 was probably the most excited because it was our first live show, but we were too nervous of it to enjoy it the most. In Finland we got to support Hocico in a big venua which was a great experience, and also played in Finland's only big Gothic summer festival called Lumous. In the tour we got to play in various great venues and each of the shows were good in a sense. It opened a new world to us as it was so great we wish to do more haha !
29- Please list the name, age, school, and respective instrument of each band member
Maria is our singer and Jarno guitarist. We're all in our 30's or bit less and have studied in high school and also in local music schools. I'm doing the keyboards and programming in studio and played bass guitar in live shows before and now am changing to drums. I used to be a drummer when I was a kid so it is a good experience for me.
30-What are your views on the current state of this Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic scene in Finland in terms of creativity and audiences? And the scene in other countries?
The scene in Finland is actually positively growing at the moment and we have good this kind of fellow spirit among the artists, organizers and people involved. I think its going to right direction now compared to what it was like 5-10 years back. At least we have many promising new acts rising from the active people in scene. So the creativity is increasing surely but regards audiences it could be more for sure. Too many times in the clubs and concerts it is the same people who tend to participate to the activities and support the scene. It would be great to see many new faces founding this great music and scene! Regarding other countries its quite hard for me to say because I dont travel so much or my experience is only limited to some specific visits or concerts.
31- you have very nice numbers` tell me about lyrical compositions what you can tell about the done work? How does your music creation process work? How do you create a song?
Well usually the song writing works so that me or Jarno creates a simple demo or basis of the song which is send to everyone. Then we start to comment and develop the song until it starts to sound near to a working production. Maria creates the lyrics based on the theme or mood she gets from the song or uses some lyrics or tales she has already written before. Then we put the song together with the text and finally record the vocals which are mixed into it. Then it starts to sound like a finished song. So most of the time each individual works at his/her own and we use internet and phone calls to work out the process. Thats mostly because we live in different countries, we gather in Finland when we start rehearsing for live shows, or need to do some activities together like plan schedule and so. Maria has also written one song to our first album and is writing some more in the near future. She has very personal and creative touch towards song writing as me and Jarno tend to be more tied towards our own ways and forms of creating.
32-What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?
It's Electro/Industrial and the influences mostly come from the same genre and from Metal side. There are many sub-divisions of Electro which reflects to our songs too, like dark-electro, hard nrg, synth pop, rave music and so forth...
33-Since the music industry is more open now to purely electronic music has this made things easier for you?
Hmm I don't think it is easy even with more electronigs in the artists and songs.. I think and also experience its still a matter of hell lot of work with some creativity on top. ;-)
34-So what are their main influences as a band at the moment?
For the second album I think maybe the biggest influence really was the nature and the time of the year when the music and lyrics were created. Most of it was created during the winter which is the darkest season of all and it is actually really visible in Finland in peoples minds and general mood. People tend to be quite gloomy at Winter and then burst into life in Summer. We thought of making not so dark and melancholic but yet more positive album this time, but it ended up to be probably the most sad and dark mooded than we ever created. So all in all its quite much good description of how the time is when doing the creative process.
35-What is currently inspiring your material as an artist? tell me all about the Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic scene of Finland ?
I think currently the day is turning out to be longer and the weather is warmer compared to the icy cold winter so probably it will have some effect to the music too. Luckily our album is already finished so there aren't going to be too many positive songs around for the time being. About the scene I think I pretty much covered much of it in the earlier responses.
36-Do you think that people from the music press didn't expect you to grow up musically?
No actually I think the vice versa, I think press and the common audience left alot of space for growt as the debut was quite diverse and it left certain path to go forward and also many things could have done better. I'm hoping to meet some of the expectations with the second album! All I can say it is a huge leap forward to a darker world Beati Mortui presents, yet full of hope, passion and aggression to fight back!
37-what is the key to making music from Beati Mortui and what inspires you to keep growing as a musician?
What inspires us is the fact you never feel complete or even near the level of your own expectations. It is much as of what you demand from yourself what drives for constant development and creativity. If you feel satisfied in some level of progress for too long time, it probably could be the time to retire from the whole business haha!
38-How do you see the future of download / Copyright in area of goth-Industrial / Gothic / dark electronic music ? What are the best ways to develop it in your mind ?
I think the future is in the digital distribution and in clever ways for distributing the music. Services like Spotify probably are here to stay where people dont need to pay for music as it is advertisement funded. But somehow this should be turned out to be also profitable to artists themselves and not just the company owners or big labels and bands. I think for small and intimate scene like dark electro it is quite essential that people continue buying their music and going to concerts of the bands they like thus supporting the artists. Somehow the illegal downloads and piracy could be handled more efficient way and I think the future is in services like I mentioned, which enables labels to compete against piracy in some way or another. But all in all its up to the listeners decision themselves how they support the scene and the artists. I still love to own the physical CD's and collect as much as I can!
39-what was your childhood like?
I think it was pretty ordinary and much the same as with all other people who grow in Finland. Luckily my parents were encouraging and got me involved into music since I was a kid so the passion towards music and arts drives from the childhood surely! I hope this to be common for other kids too, as the younger you start the easier it is to learn and be master in whatever artistic profession you start with.
40-If there was one thing you want people to know about your band what would that be?
Hmm thats a good question and not so easy to tell ... ;-) Perhaps "they are the fine and personal sounding electro band from Finland" might be quite close to what we are.
41-Please let us know about your upcoming plans, some new releases you like to confirm here
Yes, our second album titled "Let the Funeral Begin" will be released in 21.5. through Danse Macabre / Alive! as a Limited Edition digipak version limited to only 666 copies! Be sure to expect the finest harsh electro/industrial from the cold shores of Finland! The release is accompanied by excellent remixes created by our friends in the scene, both top International artists and the most promising Finnish acts!
42-It has been a pleasure to interview you on your musical activity,Well,any last words to your ebm-industrial fans?
Thank you very much Ruud for the good questions and hope you had something out of the answers. I hope all readers to stay tuned and check out our myspace pages regularly. We'll be posting news of the upcoming album, track listing and also sample songs of it into the pages during April/May. Also live shows are to be announced so hope to be in touch and see as many of you in the upcoming shows too!!
43-and what is next on Finland agenda?
Currently we are working with our mastering engineer and graphic artists for the artwork of the album and also myspace pages are to be renewed! So it is interesting and excited times at the moment! When we have the final product at hands, it will be a relief and a result of over a year of hard work. Then we have some time for beers and celebration at the WGT festival! If you are coming there, please be sure to stop by at Danse Macabre label stand in Agra hall. Nice people are working there and you can listen to our album there as with many others new releases!
44-How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?
Yes, the best way to keep in touch and stay tuned is to check out our myspace pages regularly. You can use the following links to access the pages!
45-How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
For Beati Mortui I think every aspect has gone lot better since the early days. The production is more professional, the songs and arrangements are way better as are the vocals and overall sound. I think thats natural growth and learning by doing that each artist goes on and progresses in their career.
46-How is the new line-up working out?
We are working just fine by the three of us. As we are good friends since long time we know each other so well it is quite easy and productive to work together for the same goals.
47-And, finally, what does the next twelve months hold for the band?
I hope good response for the album release in May, lot of rehearsing in summer, our live shows starting in August/September and hopefully continuing towards December. Also we aim to release an EP early 2011 and hope to aim for summer festivals of 2011 ! So theres plenty of work to be done. ;)
48-Any last words?
I want to thank you Ruud for this inteview and send huge thanks and warm greetings to our friends, fans and supporters! Without you we would be nothing! Thanks!
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