Interviews

Leverage have recently released their second album ’Blindfire’ so I hunted them down for a chat via e-mail to ask them some serious, hard-hitting questions - and some other stuff as well!

Suzi - Hi Guys! How are you? Hope you are all keeping well!

Pekka - Doing good thanks, can't wait for the summer!

Tuomas - Same here. No complaints

Suzi - The new album ’Blind Fire’ is awesome! It has a distinct sound of it’s own that is heavier than it’s predecessor ’Tribes’. Do you know what direction album 3 will take?

Tuomas - None whatsoever, I hope it’ll start clearing when we’ve played some more live with what we’ve got now. Personally, I think there’s something about playing live and feeling the vibe we have on stage that guides the writing of new material in the background of the mind. That’s definitely one reason why ’Blind Fire’ is heavier than ’Tides’, we sound heavier live than on the albums, and are very comfortable with that. Also, we’re growing together as a band, and that will naturally shape our music in the future.

Suzi - I listen to Blind Fire in my car as loudly as my glass windows can handle and the 2 stand-out songs for me are ballads: ’Don’t touch the Sun’ and ’Learn to Live’. They are powerful, moving pieces of work and I’d just like to know the stories on how they came about?

Torsti - Writing "Learn to live" was a strange episode. I was working in my studio and the melody of the song just popped in my head pretty much the way it ended up on the album. I drove home like a mad man to record a fast demo of the song in my home studio. I was singing the melody all the way home so that i wouldn't forget it . The demo was made very fast and I immediately sent it to Tuomas to write the lyrics. I had some sort of basic story what the song is all about. I told it to Tuomas and he did a perfect job writing the lyrics. It was probably the easiest song to finish i have ever written. Usually it's just a lot of hard work.

Tuomas - ’Don’t touch the sun’ was one of the first tunes I wrote for the new album. I was playing around with something that turned into the intro, then I figured to continue with the main theme or a riff that I had already, and so forth. I found myself humming ’Don’t touch the sun’ in what was becoming the chorus, I had no other clue of what the song would be about at that point.

’Learn To Live’ by Torsti sounded beautiful right away, and like he said, he had a basic idea of what the song could be about and I went from there with the lyrics.

Suzi - Explain your writing process.

Torsti - Hard to explain. Usually I let my instinct take its course and see where it leads me with the song. The hardest part of the process is to finish a song with the right dynamics and drama in it. Tuomas has been writing all the lyrics for my songs since he does it just so much better.

Tuomas - It varies. Sometimes I get started with a chorus line, that’s been the case with for example 'Follow down that river’, whereas for instance ’Dreamworld’ had the work name ’New York’ just for having one. I have a ’bank of riffs’ in my head, some things that have not been used yet, so many times I might have a song as in some chords and a melody, and then some riff that I’ve had already a while just seems to fit in. The weird thing about the way I write songs is that very often I start fiddling around with a synth sound that inspires me, I can’t really play the keys, but songs like ’Twilight Symphony’, ’Hellhorn’ and ’Mister Universe’ got started that way.

Suzi - Purely for my own, personal interest; your grasp on the English language fascinates me. I studied German in school and could get by, just. I could certainly never even contemplate holding conversations or writing song lyrics in it! How did you get to the point where you can? How did you become so fluent in the 2nd language? (or did my teachers just not do a great job ;) )

Tuomas - I started picking up word in English well before going to school, I listened to my parents’ Beatles albums like crazy, and I wanted to understand the lyrics. As far as some of their stuff goes, I still don’t get them, but anyway. But it was the love of rock music sang in English that inspired me to study the language throughout school, too. I played american football for a long time, and spent a lot of time with US players and coaches. I also have a minor university degree in English, and am qualified to teach in English, I took those courses as an extra part of my school teacher training.

Suzi - You list your musical influences as the great rock acts from the 70s and 80s: Journey, Van Halen, Malmsteen etc. But what was it in rock that attracted you, rather than another genre? What is it about this particular style of music that is so alluring?



Pekka - Speaking for myself, I think what started the whole thing was the fact that a couple of my like-minded friends had bigger brothers who were really into rock music and collected albums like crazy. Hard and heavy rock obviously had a wild sound compared to whathaveyou and we were really into what the bands looked like too, image was initially almost as important as the music.

Torsti - When i was younger i was totally into this guitar hero thing. You know guys like Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert (still am by the way!). The 80s is defenitely the decade when the bible of guitar playing was written as far as i'm concerned. I still think that in the 70s and 80s bands wrote some of the best heavy rock ever written. I'm still an old school guy basically.

Tuomas - Like I said, I was a huge Beatles fan as a tiny kid. That all changed when my older cousin introduced me to ’Rising’ by Rainbow. Around that same time I also dropped the piano lessons and started begging for a guitar. Of course, the looks and the images of the rock stars was a big thing, too. I was a huge Kiss fan also at one point, and I thought the guys of Van Halen were the coolest ever and so on.

Suzi - Toumas; tell me about the phone call that introduced you to Pekka Heino and his lungs.

Tuomas - This is a strange story. I taught a guy I kind of know to play some guitar. He was still very much dealing with the very basics, a nice guy that just wants to strum a bit. I happened to play an early demo of what would become ’Superstition’ to him with a very good singer on it. He said immediately that the singer he plays with is at least as good. Thinking of his pure amateur guitar skills, I was like ’what the hell?’ and just out of curiosity asked him if he had any audio on the singer. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. So, the next time he came in he had an mp3 recording on his cell phone, from his ’band’s rehearsal’. So we went to listen to it, at the beginnining it was some acoustic guitars struggling to get a Bon Jovi song going with very little success. Then the singer started, and I was shocked. I was like ’what is this guy doing with these guys?’ It turned out that this fellow called Pekka was getting together with these people every now and then just to hang out, drink some wine and play some tunes, totally on a leisure basis. Later, I got to meet him to play an acoustic cover gig, and just happened to ask him whether he’d like to check out some stuff I had written.

Suzi - How pivital to the initial success of Leverage was ’Inferno Magazine’ and their having issued a 2 track EP to their subscribers in April 06?

Tuomas - I don’t think it was major. I think a lot the subscribers of Inferno are ’purists’ with their holy metal and it’d be interesting to know how many of those discs were actually spinned even once before we started to gain some small name. But I guess it was good that they had it, because then they could check two of our songs out after they had heard something about us elsewhere.

Suzi - How old were you guys when you joined your first bands?

Pekka - I think I was 12 or something when first "bands" were put together. The first real band, in terms of having the instruments and a training place came up when I was 15.

Torsti - I was 14. Tuomas was my first guitar instructor. He had nailed all the cool guitar stuff of that time and he was the only one in my town who could play it. I wanted to learn it all. I played in several bands in those days but nothing worth mentioning came out of those bands. A lot of fun though.

Tuomas - I was 13 when we started playing gigs with a 50’s rock’n’roll style band. That music was very popular among the youth in Finland for a few years at that time, for some strange reason. So with that ’fashion edge’ we were signed when I was 14 and I played on record before I turned 15.

Suzi - I think it is quite unusual for a band to have two guitarists who (appear to) share lead, as well as having keys. Usually it’s one lead and keys, or 2 guitars and no keys. It’s a very cool, very effective sound that I’ve not heard since the prime days of Queensryche. Did you set out to achieve that sound in the beginning, or did it just lead that way through the musicians you knew?

Torsti - I think this is great thing since we all have our unique way of playing . There are a lot of different flavours in the lead spots depending who's playing. It was clear from the very beginning that all the 3 of us will be playing leads.

Tuomas - I love the fact that we have that ’big sound lineup’. It is a challenge for our live sound engineer, but it enables us to sound the same live as we do on the albums. Torsti and Marko are both great players, and it is great to have versatility in the solo department.

Suzi - What’s your thoughts on the current music scene?

Pekka - I don’t follow that much, to be honest. I buy tons of music all the time but very rarely anything new. I'm kind of filling the gaps, trying to find the stuff I missed back in the day. If we're talking about current rock music scene, from what I've understood it's been slowly gone into better direction, allowing bands like us to release music! All in all I think melody is appreciated again which is the way it should be.

Torsti - I try to follow it a bit. I think it is eventually music's loss that the radio formats and the industry is keeping the variety of music released these days kind of narrow. A bit too much "hear it once and throw away" type of thing.

Tuomas - The scene in Finland is flooded with heavy guitars, which is getting boring. Besides that, I try to keep my ears open, and even though I’m not a regular customer in record shops anymore, I like to check out new interesting styles of music whenever I have the time.

Suzi - How does the music industry impact your relationships?

Torsti - I don't think it has any impact on the relationships in the band.

Tuomas - I hate the industry but love the guys in the band.

Suzi - Pink Floyd have been quoted as saying they just wanted to get rich and famous. Then, when they had succeeded, they didn’t know what to do next. What is it you want from Leverage?

Pekka - Personally I just wanna continue making the kind of music I love, which is luckily the case right now. For me, making music is certainly not a tool to get rich and famous, far from it.

Torsti - Agreed! I think it's dangerous to get too much involved thinking about stardom and getting rich.

Tuomas - I want to have a few great albums that I’ve had the privilege being a part of making in my bookshelf when I’m sitting in a rocking chair one day, I believe we have two good ones made so far. It’d also be nice to see the world some and meet some interesting new people through playing in this band.

Suzi - What are the plans for Leverage 2008?

Pekka - Keep touring and performing to people who dig the band and our albums. Spread the word around a bit.

Tuomas - That’s about it, there’s a lot of work to do.

Suzi - Pekka, what was your reaction to winning the Melodicrock.com 2006 Vocalist of the Year? Did you feel any added pressure to perform after winning it?

Pekka - I was really, really blown away as I had followed the website for so long from just a fans point of view. It's still kind of hard to believe. But I really didn't feel any pressure at all, I just went in and did the best I could.

Suzi - With two Pekkas in the band, do you use any good nicknames to tell them apart?

Pekka - We pretty much use our surnames. Then there are plenty of names that make no sense at all to anybody outside the band. Actually they mostly make no sense to us too...

Torsti - Some nicknames the guys have can’t be mentioned here.

Suzi - Do you have names for your instruments?

Torsti - No.

Tuomas - I’ve called them bad names sometimes

Suzi - Who takes the longest getting ready for a show?

Pekka - Taking a shower, changing shirt and warming up doesn't take that long, really. But I’d say Lampinen because the way he mostly prepares for a show is by drinking, and he likes to start early...

Torsti - These days I try to warm up my fingers a bit. 15-20 minutes is quite enough. It depends on the night really.

Tuomas - I hate the time between the soundcheck and showtime. So whatever I do could be done in 10 minutes, but has to last hours. That’s why many players drink...

Suzi - Who do you think gets the most attention in the band?

Pekka - In good and bad, I guess that would be me. That's usually what's expected if you're a lead singer and I have no problem with it.

Torsti - I think Pekka is a great front man for the band.

Tuomas - Pekka, the rest of us pretty much don’t seem to exist. That’s the mark of a good frontman.
 
Suzi - Pekka, you sing for two bands (how are the Brother FireTribe boys by the way?), does that mean you never get holidays?
Also, speaking of Brother Firetribe, I heard a rumor that there are BFT frisbees now! (which made me giggle knowing how you lot love a good frisbee). What novelty item can we expect to see on Leverage Merch stands in the future?

Pekka - Oh I have plenty of time right now as BFT doesn’t tour at all. And yes, there’s some strange merchandise out there from what I’ve heard...Leverage has patches, key rings and T-shirts obviously right now, who knows what we might come up with...Our name kind of calls for a sponsorship or endorsment with some beverage company...Leverage Beverage Lager would be nice!

Suzi - Where do you most want to tour with Leverage?

Pekka - It would be really cool to tour outside Finland at some point if the circumstances are right and there's demand for us. I don’t care where as long as there are people who want to see us.

Tuomas- Anywhere where there are people wanting to see us.

Suzi - The all important question guys: any plans to perfrom on Eurovision?!

Pekka - If it’s up to me, no frigging way...

Torsti - Hope not!

Tuomas - Would not.

Suzi - Thanks again so much guys for taking the time out to chat to me. Tuomas, Torsti, great to meet you, Pekka it was lovely to catch you again! Have a terrific week guys, keep in touch and all the best for the future of Leverage!

Pekka – Thanks Suzi, the pleasure was all ours! All the best.

Tuomas - Thank you!