Unfortunately for me I haven't heared to much things about this band called Tears of Magdalena until now; but when I saw a few lines about it in the french Metallian I thought that will be fuckin' interesting to get in touch with band members to see what is all about and to learn more things about the new opus called ¨Myths and Legends¨ released a while ago by the italian label called Scarlet Records. The one responsible for all the answers is Tomi, band guitarist; and look what I got for you.
1.Hello Tears of Magdalena. How are you and how are the things going on for you out there in Finland this winter?
Hello Raul! It’s been very interesting winter as a lot of things happened to us in quite a short time. We have had several gigs here in Finland and the feedback has been just excellent. The new line-up is fantastic and it’s very nice to work with Jevgenia. Also we have started to compose new songs and some samples can be listened very soon on our MySpace site.
2.It would be fuckin’ interesting if you could give us a few details about your band history and try to introduce us each member of it and tell us also if you have some parallel projects!
Tears Of Magdalena was formed in January 2007 in Helsinki. Tomi and Peuge had already project called T&T but they wanted to form a melodic metal band. In the same time Lena and Vasstago were looking for a band and they had same interests as Tomi and Peuge. Both parties met at Finnish musicians’ site, called Muusikoiden.net and they decided to form a melodic metal band together. For the first six months we were working under the name ‘Dream Liturgia’, however we thought that more dramatic name would be more suitable for the band and finally Peuge decided ‘Tears Of Magdalena’ among several suggestions.
Things happened very fast. We had made few songs when Peuge started to promote us for several record labels, and already then we received few offerings. However, we had to compose more songs and Peuge was continuing the promotion work. This resulted new offerings from other record labels and after negotiations we chose to sign with Scarlet Records. Furthermore, we managed to get Tero Kinnunen (known also from Nightwish) interested in our music and he wanted to start co-operations with us. Our debut album, Myths and Legends, was ready in June 2008. Right after recordings Japanese biggest record label, Marquee Avalon, also wanted to release our album in Japan. They just wanted to have a bonus song, which was only released in Japanese markets. Therefore, in July we had to go back to the studio and record one more song (October Rust). During this time Tommy joined our band as bass player (he had been playing with Tomi in one project before).
We had only two gigs during fall 2008, when we started to have serious problems with Vasstago, finally we decided to go separate ways. New male vocalist was needed and after checking out few candidates we realised that Tommy’s (our bass player) voice was beautifully matching with our songs. Then we started to have disagreement with Lena and finally we had to let her go. Fortunately, we got a hint about Jevgenia (ex-vocalist of Finnish folk metal band Kivimetsän Druidi) who was just perfect match to our band.
Our new line-up:
Jevgenia (lead vocals): 26 years old classical singer, soprano, ex-vocalist of Kivimetsän druidi. She started to play piano when she was 5, singing lessons with many different teachers since 14-15 years old. The most important former teacher was Heli Puustinen, Peter Nordman as the present one.
Tommy (bass, vocals): 24 years old multi talented and very ambitious musician. Tommy is also guitarist, composer and singer in his own band, called Kemistrÿ.
Tomi (guitars): 32 years old guitarist and composer, he also plays bass. During 20 years time Tomi has been playing and composing music in several metal bands.
Peuge (drums): 37 years old drummer and composer who has very long experience playing in several metal bands.
3.Tell me please why did you changed the band’s name into Tears of Magdalena, because I found that the old name(Dream Liturgia) wasn’t to bad at all and what it represent for you?
After the first six months we started to think that more dramatic name would describe our band and music better than ‘Dream Liturgia’. Several names were brought up and finally Peuge decided that ‘Tears Of Magdalena’ would be the most suitable name for us (also Lena Lee changed her artist name to Magdalena Lee).
4.You started with an idea of playing gothic/symphonic metal with clear female chant and male growls! So…, do you believe that you’ve touched your gain?
In the beginning, the combination of lead female opera singing supported by male growls felt like the most suitable style for us. However, later on we thought that also clean male vocals would enrich our music. Problem was that Vasstago couldn’t sing with clean voice. With new line-up we have realised that Tommy’s dark clean voice works even better with our songs than growls. Also, now we can use more imagination in composing. Actually, feedback from the audience has been much better now since we have been performing with new line-up:)
5.The things are going very fast for you! You’ve signed an incredible deal with the Italian Scarlet Records and your first album is finally out after a year of preparation. Do you think that you are a luckiest band or this is the result of a natural process and a general recognition?
Yes, the fact is that everything happened very fast. However, we were very ambitious from the beginning and we were ready to work hard for getting a record deal. The band consisted of different kind of experience, backgrounds as well as good connections/network which all helped progressing fast. Also, we seemed to have ‘perfect timing’ as there was big demand for melodic metal music. Top of all, we had some luck getting a deal on such early stage.
6.“Myths and Legends” is finally out as I’ve said before, and I would like you to introduce us in its atmosphere by telling us the necessary technical details about it.
Myths and Legends is powerful and very melodic metal album, filled with stories about myths and fantasy/gothic world. Our passion was to make dramatic and melodic tunes, which inspire different kind of deep emotions and also honouring basic heavy metal ground. These things came naturally when we combined dramatic opera singing and very melodic synths and violins with hard guitars and drums. Also male growls and female opera singing brought nice contrast.
7.You worked with very important persons to record this album could you present us all of them? And what were your feelings during the recording process?
Tero (TeeCee) Kinnunen from E-Major Studios played very big role in this project. He gave a lot of good ideas for our songs and recording the album. We learned so much from Tero and his professionalism and experience is just amazing. Also, Mika Jussila from legendary Finnvox Studio did excellent job with mastering the album. It was unique opportunity and a great pleasure to work with such professional persons!
Our dream was to make an album and of course making the debut album is crucial step reaching bigger audiences and stages. During the recordings feeling was fantastic and sometimes we were even thinking if that all was really happening to us.
8.Soon after that you played a few gigs and you’ve been contacted by one of the biggest home recordings in Japan, Marquee Avalon, who proposed you an interesting deal for the metal market out there. What it happened exactly and tell us how do you feel now that one of the most important metal markets in the world is going to “watch “ you all the time?
When we were signing the deal with Scarlet Records, they decided to start negotiations with Marquee Avalon. Deal offer in summer 2008 was the actual result of those negotiations. Getting into Japanese market is very good opportunity for the band and when we are dealing with a label like Marquee Avalon, you know that you are in “good hands”.
9.As we know already the Japanese market is a bit different, and you went back to the studio to record a bonus called “October Rust”, if I’m not wrong taken from Type O Negative’s repertory! Can you tell us why did you choose that song? Are you going to record some others?
The idea was to make a slow song for Japanese markets because we didn’t have any slow songs in the debut album. Actually, the name of the song was Vasstago’s idea.
10.You fired Vesstago because of personal reasons and you replaced him with Tommy, your bass player. What happened and tell us if Tommy was the best choice for you?
We had many problems with Vasstago almost from the beginning, but during summer 2008 serious trust issues appeared and he just couldn’t continue in the band.
Tommy tried some of our songs among the other candidates and we found out that his voice and singing style was matching our songs perfectly. Tommy has kind of strong dark-angel voice, which beautifully goes together with Jevgenia’s powerful dark soprano.
11.Just a few weeks later you got into some personal problems with your female singer Magdalena Lee and you decided to separate your ways! We could say that being a star makes people going crazy or what?
Actually, we started to have issues with Lena after 3-4 months after Vasstago had left the band. We were very disappointed that Lena started to play games behind the band’s back and her actions were unforgettable. We still don’t understand reasons for her actions.
12.If I’m not wrong the name of the band has nothing to do with her, am I right? And tell us more things about Magdalena’s substitute Jevgenia.
That is correct, Lena changed her artist name to Magdalena Lee after the band name ‘Tears Of Magdalena’ was decided.
Jevgenia is very talented young singer. She has powerful and unique dark soprano voice and she has beautiful personality, the whole band enjoys very much working with her.
13.As I can see we could saw that she is the most experienced person in Tears of Magdalena, taking in consideration that Jevgenia played also in Kivimetsan Druidi a folk metal band out there! Also she has touring with KMD and famous Korpiklaani, so… what do you think?
Yes, Jevgenia has great experience and she brings lot of new ‘blood’ to the band.
14.Until now I assume you received a lot of reviews! Are you satisfied with the feedback and the promotion work done by Scarlet?
There have been several reviews, and we are satisfied with the feedback. It seems that our music is more successful abroad than in Finland, which was a little surprise for us. It is interesting to read different reviews and thoughts about our band.
15.Are you going to make some concerts to promote “Myths and Legends”? Perhaps the summer festivals or a European tour?
At the moment we are doing gigs only in Finland however there are some plans concerning gigs also in other countries in future. Naturally, we have a lot of fresh ideas because of our new line-up therefore we are working with producing more material and we would like to finalize new songs as soon as possible.
16.Even if your album was recorded last year are you going to compose new songs for the next one? Could you give us some details about it and how it will go to sound?
We already have several songs for the next album. At the moment we are recording demo versions of them and first samples can be listened on our sites already in few weeks!
We want to make our new songs more powerful and diverse than old once but melodic tunes are included also. Of course we want to keep some old Tears Of Magdalena elements but, we are eager to move forward and the aim is to make a better album than the first one:)
17.Do you have some future plans concerning your band Tears of Magdalena?
Our goal is to start recording the second album by the end of this year. Also, we continue going for gigs as much as possible.
18.That’s all for now my friend! I wish all the best and I hope to see you live in Romania or in Paris were I’m leaving now. You have the last word to enclose the interview...
Thank you very much for your interest towards our band and for this interview! We would love to play in Romania and in France one day!!!!!
Hopefully you will like our new songs and we would very much appreciate having feedback from you:)