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Interview with Ville Tuomi of Suburban Tribe, by Margarita Khartanovich
We spoke to Ville Tuomi from Suburban Tribe about their new album, dark Finnish music, Ville Valo and 'Happily Ever After'.
Suburban Tribe stands out from traditionally dark Finnish music. How could you explain this devotion of Finns to heavy dark rock?
Yeah, that’s kind of worrying. There is a Finnish band called Stamina and their new album is way too dark, like the whole world is going to be destroyed. Maybe, it is because of cold and dark environment that we have here in Finland – seven months of darkness could depress anyone. Melancholy is just our typical feature. Even Finnish folk songs and fairytales are full of murders. I remember one story for children in which there is a family living in the forest with two kids. And one day the mother says that they don’t have enough room in their house for all of them and so the father needs get rid of the children, leaving them somewhere in the forest. He does that several times but the kids are always back knocking at the door: “Please, let us in”. Good story to raise children!
Now I see why Finnish kids are so calm and obedient. In one of your interviews you mentioned that traditional Finnish music has actually nothing to do with heavy metal. What is it then?
Iskelma! I don’t know any English equivalent for this word. It is very catchy music but not pop, “new wave” in a sense. Our grandparents listened to it but then it came up again when we were growing. Tapio Rautavaara would be a good example here. By the way Ville Valo is a huge fan of him.
At the same time my generation was growing up on punk and heavy metal. When I heard 'The Number of the Beast' by Iron Maiden, I was like WOW! You know I got impressed so much that started to wear long hair and that was at the age of 10!
Is Suburban Tribe more rock or pop? Or is it somewhere on the borderline between these two genres if such a borderline exists at all?
Somebody could call Suburban Tribe poppy and radio-friendly. There were ups and downs. And we are not getting any younger – we have to think ahead. We are now at this point when we think that every album is our last one but we cannot stop doing music as that is what we are good at. We recorded three albums with EMI, and we made two pretty heavy albums up our own street. The first album was a huge success; they are still playing those songs on the radios after 10 years. Nevertheless, it was challenging to keep to the first album style. Everybody hoped to push us that way. We went totally opposite direction. But now we came to this point. It has been two or three years since the last album, and we were thinking which direction we should go. So we decided to come back to the style of the first album, the style we are known for, catchy, melodic, and make music for our fans. Besides, there are too many heavy metal bands in Finland already.
I have noticed that the popularity of Finnish bands spreads abroad according to a certain route: Germany – Eastern Europe – Russia – UK – USA. Do you agree with this observation?
Yeah, I do, though now the bands are going to China as well. It is a huge market yet a black one too. We are living in a difficult time. Last year HIM sold 50 000 copies in the UK which is what? Nothing! Finnish Government tries to support some young bands and big ones like Nightwish and HIM but still..
We are trying to make our living: we have changed to a smaller record company and have more radio-friendly songs now. The music business is changing, and we have to adapt to it and be ready to develop. Of course, we play a lot of gigs but firstly, the competition in Finland is enormous and, secondly, it is very periodic – you play for two or three months and then you stop. Touring abroad is definitely an option here. However, at the moment our company is Finnish so let’s see if we are going anywhere this year.
Why did you change from EMI to Cobra?
I don’t know..Well, I know (laughing). It’s not good to deal with a big company in fact because we get simply less money. Besides, a small company reacts faster to what we are doing and we can discuss things together. It is all much easier! In Finland we don’t even need a record company, really. We don’t need distribution channels – we can go and sell copies at any street corner. Seriously, this amount of records can be sold without a record company.
You have released your new album 'Now and Ever After' recently. How did you work at it?
Six songs were written one and a half years ago and were ready for rehearsal. As for the rest, we were thinking for quite a while which way to go and what record company to choose. We booked a studio and almost the next day we received a call from Cobra, showed them our songs, and that’s it. All guitar parts were recorded in Roope’s house with a nice fireplace, sauna and wooden basement where we spent 2 months. Children were running around, and sometimes Roope’s wife came downstairs: “Come up, guys! The dinner is ready!”
It was so different from our previous experience when we were working our asses off as the studio was rented and we had to be quick. I remember how I had to get up early and ride my bike to the studio. It already started to snow and I got sick in the middle of the recording period. We had to put it off for a week, and this time it was so much more relaxed even though we had deadlines. That’s why the songs in the album are kind of unshadowed, very melodic and sincere. There is also a theme of getting older.
In the video for ‘Now and Ever After’ there is an old couple that gets carried away by a dark angel. Why?
The concept and idea of the video is based on the actual event that happened here in Finland. They wrote about this accident in Helsingin Sanomat. There was this couple of old people that had lived all their life together. And they were sent to different asylums and got separated. They decided to end their lives together.
Do you believe in “happily ever after”?
I believe that it is possible to get old with one person you have lived the whole life together. Everybody is searching for love – it is a driving force, some search for happiness. There is always like you want something more. I’m never satisfied. But why need something more? One should be happy with what she or he has and concentrate on that! What I’m doing now is my dream job. It’s been my occupation for 15-20 years. I decided that I would be a rock’n’roll singer when I was a kid watching Elvis Presley and practicing my moves in front of the mirror. I don’t even know notes. I learnt by mistakes though I took some signing lessons. I also did some classical ballet for a while.
Do you perform some of ballet tricks on the stage?
No, not anymore. But it helped to learn how to perform in general. A sort of introduction to the stage. I have a long relationship with performing – did that a lot at our family get-togethers.
Did they put on the chair and make you sing for Santa?
Yeah yeah, I did that!
At least there was some reward after all this public humiliation – Christmas gifts.
(Laughing) Exactly.
Why do you sing in English and not in Finnish?
For me real music was always in English except for Iskelma. It comes naturally. Well, when I listen to a song, I perceive it in general with a special attention to the music, tunes, how they perform and then I'm like..what are they singing about? In the time when I knew not a single word in English, I made up funny words that didn’t even mean anything and then I sang them. Certainly we also want to be recognized abroad. Singing in Finnish can sound fun and exotic for the foreign audience. I heard some band doing that in Germany.
How would you describe rock music of the 21st century?
I would say it has become more mainstream. It is easier and more acceptable to be a rock star. For example, in Finland it is already a big challenge to do anything else but rock.
I know that Ville Valo is thought of as a certain rock hero here in Finland. Do you share this opinion?
Well, he has opened a lot of doors, for sure, especially in Germany. I have known Ville Valo for a long time already. He used to come to Tavastia to see me performing in my band called Kyrria. He’s been a big fan of Kyrria. I’m glad that things are going so well for HIM.
Is Suburban Tribe reality for you or an escape from reality?
We are already grown-up musicians and treat it more professionally. Though still when we are in the bus going to a gig we are like kids again. Yeah, that’s what we want to do! Of course, we have families and all this stuff. We leave that all outside and live in our own bubble. And it is so much fun. We truly like what we are doing, it is our profession. But a kind of an escape as well, sure. We have to face reality when we come back.
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