POISONBLACK (Eng)
– Hi Tarmo. Thank you so much for answering to these questions. What are you currently up to?
Hi! We just got home from Summer Breeze festivals and had really great time there! Now we have two weeks off and then we start touring in Finland. We have also started already to write and practice brand new material during this summer. Hopefully we can enter the studio for recording a new album early next year, but nothing is confirmed yet, I´m sorry to say.
– You have just released “Of Rust and Bones”; how has been its feedback so far?
I think the feedback has overall been quite positive! I haven´t seen any totally negative reviews or heard any really bad comments from anyone. Many people have come to talk to us and they have said it´s our best album so far in their opinions. Of course you can´t please everyone, but I think mostly the feedback has been truly encouraging.
– I think we can find on this album some new elements as more bluesy and long tracks, where Ville can enlighten us with some great solos…
Yes, I think you have a point there! I remember when we started to work on the song material, we quite soon realized that some songs were quite long. We had a little discussion about should we try to edit them by re-arranging them a little bit, but we decided not to do it. Basically we just decided to follow our hearts and to do what felt right to us. I´m glad that we did because I´m really satisfied with the result!
– I could also found that “classic” influence in “Down the Drain”, where even the drumming style sounds quite 70’s.
I´m really happy to hear that because that´s exactly what I wanted to achieve on this song! I´m a huge fan of old school hard rock drummers like Deep Purple´s Ian Paice or Led Zeppelin´s John Bonham, for example. When Ville introduced this kind of bluesy song to us at the rehearsals, I knew right away that I would like to try to give some respect to these great pioneers of hard rock drumming with my playing on this song. Therefore I take your comment as a huge compliment!
– Due to this I could consider this album as “challenging” both for listeners and for you as artists, 
which I think is quite positive for both…
Yes, I think you´re right. There´s many different kinds of elements on this album, but if you have some patience and give songs some time, I think it will be rewarding and even after listening the album through several times, you still can find little details here and there you didn´t notice before. I think that´s one of the reasons why I like those old 70´s classics so much. Bands tried to create whole albums back then, not just one hit single or anything like that.
– Another surprising track for me was “The Last Song”: is really beautiful and has different elements and details. What’s the story behind it and why such name? I guess some people wonder if that’s really “The Last Song”…
Well, if you read the lyrics carefully you can understand why it´s called “The Last Song”. Like I mentioned before, we already have started to work on the brand new material and therefore I think it´s safe to say it´s definitely NOT gonna be our last song!
– Being briefly, I believe you have started a new facet; will you follow this way in upcoming releases or it’s just about letting things flow?
Well, at this point it´s really hard to say… usually we just let things flow and do what feels right to us. Then again I think that a little by little we have found our own style and sound and therefore I don´t see any major changes in our music in the near future, but like I said, we usually just let thing flow so you never know…
– I guess this is a difficult question because there are a lot of differences (though there’s not a radical change really) in “Of Rust and Bones” but… what do you think are the main differences between it and “A Dead Heavy Day”?
In my opinion there´s a much wider spectrum of different styles on “Of Rust And Bones” . There´s many great songs on “A Dead Heavy Day”, but listening it all the way through might get a little boring, you know? What I mean is that we had more courage to try different kinds of things on this album. Like using much more acoustic guitars and percussion, for example.
– Have you opened to a broader public with this new record?
At least I truly hope so! We don´t really consider us as a metal band and I think there might be a lot of music fans from different genres who might find our music interesting than just the metal-heads.
– Track 4 is named “Buried Alive”; does it have something to do with the live album/DVD by SENTENCED?
No, not really. Actually lyrics are quite old and Ville have written them long before Sentenced decided to quit and therefore even if it has the same title, it doesn´t really have anything to do with Sentenced´s DVD.
– If I’m not wrong, previous albums were produced mainly by the band itself and this one has been produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa. How do you think has this affected to your sound? How was this process like?
Yes, I think Hiili affected quite a lot to our sound on this album. He encouraged us to experiment a little more than we have done previously and many of his suggestions helped us to create more variation between different songs. It is also very helpful to have someone outside the band who takes care of things like schedules, for example, because then everything goes smoothly in the studio and we can concentrate 100% on music instead of worrying all kinds of stuff.
– I’m especially curious about the cover since is very different to the previous ones. How did they idea come up and what does it represent?
The cover art was created by a Finnish graphic called Teemu Hostikka. We just told him the album title and asked him to do whatever comes into his mind. We really liked the result and decided to use it. Especially the colors he used are quite cool in my opinion!
– Could you say “Of Rust and Bones” is your best album so far? And if so, why?
Yes, absolutely! I think we finally have found our own sound and style on this album.
– Why did you choose such title for the CD?
Well, on one hand there´s some really melancholic songs on the album like “Invisible” or “Down The Drain” and on the other hand some really groovy and rocking tracks like “Leech” or “Buried Alive”, for example. We wanted to have an album title that ties all the songs on the album together and we felt that “Of Rust And Bones” sort of explains what this album is made of.
– POISONBLACK’s lyrics tend to be sad, exactly as your sound. Could you ever change those topics? What are the main inspirations for the band when it comes to compose? I feel like all of them are quite personal and real.
Actually as far as I know at this point, Ville has already written lyrics about different subjects than what people are used to hear in our songs. You´re right about the ispiration. Most of our lyrics are inspired by real life. It´s kind of funny, because I don´t consider us as extremely
depressed or sad persons at all. I guess it´s just getting these negative things out of our systems by putting them into our music or something like that.
– People use to describe your sound as dark and melancholic (I think that’s your overall sound). Do you agree with that statement? How could you describe your music?
Well, usually when journalsts ask me to describe our music, I say it´s dark rock with melancholic lyrics. Therefore I think your definition is quite appropriate!
– Most of you have active side projects such as THE MAN-EATING TREE, KALMAH or CHARON. How do you guys deal the activity of all of them? Is POISONBLACK the main band?
We have made a mutual agreement that Poisonblack is no 1 for everyone at least for now. So far arranging schedules between these bands haven´t been any major problem. What happens in the future remains to be seen, but I´m quite confident that these other bands won´t harm our career.
– Personally, I think you have evolved a lot since your beginnings. What has changed since then both in a musical and personal level?
Musically I think we have changed a lot! Our first album was quite gothic and from there we have gone in more and more rocking and maybe a little more guitar-oriented direction. I don´t think we have changed that much as individuals, except we are a litlle older and hopefully a little wiser as well!
– This could be a bit “offtopic” question, but we always ask it to all the bands we interview: where did the name of the band come from? And, what does POISONBLACK mean nowadays in your life?
In the early days we called ourselves “Shadowlands”, but then we found out that a band with the same name already existed and we had to change our name. Back then Ville had a song called “Poisonblack” which was never finished for some reason. As far as I remember, it was our former vocalist J-P Leppäluoto who suggested that we name the band “Poisonblack”. I think Poisonblack is still quite crucial part of my life. After all, there´s not too many days in a year when I don´t do anything Poisonblack related. Of course we all have many other important things in our lives like families & friends, daily jobs etc., but still Poisonblack is always somewhere back there.
– Some years ago I read on a magazine an interview with Ville where he said “Lust Stained Despair” was going to be your last album; was that a group opinion? If so, what prompted you to change your mind?
I think it was more or less Ville´s personal opinion. He had a period in his life when he wasn´t sure if he wants to continue playing in a band or not. Especially touring can be quite heavy if you have little kids at home, you know? After giving it a little more thought Ville fortunately changed his mind and I think things are well in balance for all of us right now.
– I read you will tour Japan for the very first time. How do you feel about it?
Actually we already played there in May. It was really great experience! The crowd there was amazing and hopefully we have a chance to go back there once again soon! The only negative thing was that our visit was so short that we couldn´t really do any sight-seeing or anything like that.
– We have seen you guys in Spain with almost any album you have released. Will the upcoming European tour stop by in Spain? Are there any possible dates yet?
Unfortunately there´s not any confirmed dates, I´m sorry to say. At least not yet. I like playing in Southern European countries and hopefully we can play also in Spain once again somewhere in the near future!
– So that’s all, Tarmo. Thank you once more for your time and our best wishes. Now feel free to add any last words.
Well, like I mentioned before, hopefully we can come there to play to our Spanish fans soon! Keep it heavy until then!
