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Another Finnish band tries to find their place in the metal scene - Lullacry. Their 2nd album Be My God is the first release outside Finland and Century Media who signed them soon got them on the road. When the tour stopped in Bochum, I took the chance to talk to them. I started talking to singer Tanja and bass player Heavy, later Heavy and Sauli changed duties, so that the bassist had the chance to have dinner before their show.
As far as I know there is another album, your debut which is just released in Finland.
Right, it was available in a few countries as import, but mainly in Finland. If you are very lucky you can find Sweet Desire somewhere.
Are there any plans to make it available again? Also to release it outside Finland?
We will see.....
Perhaps you should bring some copies and sell it at the merchandise both when you'll tour again...
Maybe, if we have some copies left over.
The record company didn't press it anymore...
So, just some left in stock.... That's a pity.
Yes, coz people ask for, send emails, but it's out of our hands. Sorry!
Even if people outside Finland don't know you, you had the chance to play some festivals in your country and got reviews even in non-metal papers, also some TV coverage...
Yeah, we played a couple of festivals last summer and also some gigs.
How was playing at the festivals? Even if the Finnish know you a little longer, you are still newcomers!
We played on a big festival called Nummirock. It's more a heavy metal festival, but no longer these days.... But it used to be a heavy metal festival in the past. It was really fine, we played first on the opening day and I was thinking "Oh my goodness, nobody here..." But from somewhere they just came and watched.
Now you are on tour with Edguy, but this is the beginning of the tour. Day 2?
Day 4!
How were the reactions so far? It's the first time you tour here!
It's really cool for me, coz I haven't been anywhere, just Den;mark, Sweden, Norway and Estonia. It's my first time in Germany and I'm able to go to Italy, Spain, France and other places. It's a huge thing! Amazing!
And you are musically a little different...
Yeah!
from the rest of the package. Personally I think that it makes it more interesting.
There are ups and downs, coz....
They are all power metal...
...And you are more like..... Have more rock influences... It's kind of hard gothic rock... However you wanna call it.....
We have to work to convince the audience, more than the other guys, coz fans come to see Edguy and they are more the type of Edguy.
But I think that it's a good possibility to get the attention from these scene, coz many might not listen to your CD after reading a review. They might think that it's not their kind of music, but if you can convince them live, it's a different story.
So far so cool, we can't complain. Every show so far was sold out.
It's Edguy's first headlining tour, but they did a lot of support jobs.
That's what we heard.
So they have a following.
But this is a good opportunity for us to tour, to meet fans and spread the word.
Here people come in for the first band, even if there are 3 supports. Maybe there are just 2 people watching, but everybody gets in to get an impression of the first band.
I like to play at the small clubs, there is a better atmosphere and the people stay and watch the show.
I like the small clubs as well and I think that your music is kinda club music, even if it works with bigger crowds. You have this vibe which fits into the clubs. What are your influences? What are you listen to?
For me it comes from the 80's! Dio is God!
He's great, definitely!
That kind of metal I like.
Our drummer Jukka is... The rest of us is into heavy metal, but he's more into progressive metal like Dream Theater, etc. But I think that the main thing where our influences came from is the 80's metal. I mean we are a kind of up-dated version of the 80's metal and add some heavier riffs. Maybe some... I don't know... We read some CD reviews and there they compared us with Kiss and Hellacopters....
I think there are a lot of different bands you got compared with. Some people say that you sound like a more rocking version of HIM with female vocals....
Yeah.... A lot of different bands got named.
But that sounds good to me. You said they compared you with Kiss...
A lot of times people say that I sound like Doro.... Actually, I don't know.
I haven't heard that and I don't think so. People always try to compare singers and there are not so many female rock / metal singers.
In Finland they compare me with Tarja of Nightwish, but we are totally different!
I agree, you have nothing in common.
Okay, we both are female! *laughs* I don't think that the gender is important, if it's a girl or a guy...
But still these days you got a little more attention, if you have a female singer, coz still there aren't as many girls singing. Even if these days are more ladies fronting than in the 80's. At that time it was Doro, Lee Aaron and Lita Ford... That's it more or less...
And Girlschool!
And the Rock Godess! But still, it catch the attention of people.
I get a lot of emails where girls tell me that they started a band.
If I would have to compare you, I might compare you with Cristina of Lacuna Coil...
I heard that before.
.... She hasn't that dark voice, but she's is also very emotional and has a certain power. That's what I miss when I listen to Tarja, the emotions! She's trained and is good in this opera kind of vocals, but for me it sounds cold, without emotions. I like their music which has a lot of emotions, but I can't stand her way of singing. If I would have the chance to see Nightwish and at the same night somewhere else Lullacry, I would choose to see you. I won't say that you or your album is better, but personally I prefer your style.
Okay, I got it.
You are more emotional and music is about emotions.
Right! the most important thing is to play from your heart and it doesn't really matter what type of music you are playing.
If it comes from the heart.
Exactly, that’s what it's about! I think that Nightwish do play from their hearts, but it's a different situation in a band like theirs, even the singing is so technical.
I like their music, but from the vocals I miss emotions...
Yeah. But I don't know...
Other people tell me that it's full of emotions...
And even if you play from your heart, some people can't get it. So, that leads us to the fact that there are listeners for every type of music. Because certain music touches the heart of the listener.
And people hear songs in a different way.
That's true!
It's a good start for you so far and with Century Media you have a good business partner.
Of course, it's a good basis to start from.
See how far you can get, perhaps next summer some festivals...
We are talking about festivals, perhaps Wacken....
There are not there many mentioned yet and I don't remember all, but there are some big ones where we will play.
Some in Germany!
All of them which where mentioned yet.
That would be cool!
Wacken is like.... To get there... Uhhh.
A good chance to introduce yourself to a bigger crowd.
Oh, yeah!
The Finnish origin became a kind of trademark for bands with a high quality standard.
We have to thank HIM for it!
I remember that I saw them on their first tour in Germany in front of 30 people..
You have to start somewhere.
Yes, and now they are playing in front of thousands. But sometimes I think it's good to be not that big, popular.... Coz they can't go out without fans recognizing them. Perhaps the band can, but not Ville. Two sides of a story... The good and the bad.
Ville told me a couple of horror stories about. One from Germany about a girl which followed him, caught him and cut a curl of his hair. She had scissors and he was shocked.
I met him a few times and I remember this kind of stories.
I can't imagine that. For me.... In Finland nobody cares! Here they have posters and everything and ask to sign stuff.
But that's a good sign, if people ask you to sign their stuff. For most people Be My God is your debut.
Yeah, it's nice.
That's really nice... I think the culture is a bit different and so... In Finland if a fan shows up it's different, they are a little shy. Here it seems to be a normal thing to do.
Man are kinda afraid of me, or something....
I think it's great to have contact with the fans who bought the record and who hear our music. It's kinda getting first-hand information for us.
And even these days not everybody can use the internet and so it's good to talk to people. And if you talk to them they will tell someone else. Word of mouth is stronger than everything else!
These are the people who bought our record and we like to talk to them. To me it's really important to spend time with the fans.
Right, that's very important to us!
Some bands don't think so.
Without these people, the fans you won't have anything! You work hard to do your music and I can understand that some might be anxious about...
That's the main thing, we work really hard.
We are not big rock starts or anything, we are just normal guys who like to play music and if somebody likes it, we really appreciate it!
In my opinion it's better to start slowly than to get hyped and get big from one day to the next. So you have a loyal following build up slowly which follows you through ups and downs.
That's true
Fans appreciate if they can talk to the band and if the band doesn't act like super starts.
In Helsinki there are a lot of this type of fans. They listened to us from the beginning and it's really cool. They buy our records and shirts and sometimes we give them something for free. They can't believe it, but they really appreciate and we would be here without them!
That's cool! So you have fans who will be lifetime fans! Wow!
At that point we had to stop, coz it was time for them to get ready for their show. I really enjoyed the conversation and we could have talked forever, I guess.... Looking forward to see them on stage and to talk to them again somewhere in time.
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