Diablo - Interview Dani / V.U. and Marko Utrainen / Diablo
Hopefully we won´t have to wait such a long time anymore till Diablo will set the rest of Europe on fire with their brilliant music. I luckily got the opportunity to talk to Marko Utrainen (leadguitar) just before their gig in Oulu. He was in a good mood and so we talked about their music, touring, history and future ... so take a look at the lines below ...
V.U.: Hey Marko! First of all I have to congratule you for your hammeralbum Mimic47. It was very successful, but only in Finland.
Marko: Oh, yeah, thank You very much! It feels great that the album went straight to No. 1-position of the album charts.
V.U.: Did you count on such a success or are you surprised?
Marko: I guess we were expecting that it would definitely go to one of the first positions in the charts but the fact that it went to No. 1, that was a little bit surprising.
V.U.: Yes, when I listened to “Eternium” I already thought :“wow” , if the music of the following album will go into the same direction it will be the more successful. I hoped that Mimic47 would become such a great album cause it really struck me down, cause it was just great ...
Marko: Yeah, yeah, okay ... Everytime we have released a record here in Finland all the time it has gone better and better. I mean our second album “Renaissance”, I guess it was No.14 on the list and , yeah, that happened straight after releasing the record, so then when we released “Eternium” that went to 3rd position. So now we´re then succeeding to take the pole position.
V.U.: When you are compared to bands like Metallica, Pantera or Machine Head: Are you tired of being compared to these bands or what do you think about this because in my eyes you already found your own style and your own way?
Marko: Well, I guess you always have to be compared to something because otherwise people wouldn´t understand what it´s all about. So I guess ... yeah, it´s fine but we combine different styles of metal. So, then if you compare us to only one band or something, that´s not good. I guess we have always wanted to be openminded when making music so that we can combine different elements. I don´t know ... people have been asking in what kind of genre we belong. I don´t know, we compose all of metal.
V.U.: Concerning touring Germany: Are you menaced from german fans cause you didn´t play here yet? I heard some rumours going round that maybe you will go on tour with two or three other bands from your label Drakkar here in Germany. Are these just rumours or what can you already say about that?
Marko: ( laughs ) Well, actually this is the first time that I hear about this. We haven´t been informed about this ...at least not yet. I guess if there´s something going on in the early future ,then we will be informed. I mean of course we will try to come to Germany and to elsewhere in Europe as well because we wished to come already years before. For some reasons we haven´t been able to make it yet.
V.U.: What were these reasons?
Marko: I don´t actually know the reasons. There were some rumours, I guess it was a year ago, that we would play on Wacken Festival last summer, but I don´t know what happened. We didn´t play, so...
V.U.: Yeah, sadly not, because I was there ...
Marko: (laughs)
V.U.: Let´s go back to the very beginning of Diablo.
Marko: Okay ...
V.U.: More or less you exist since 1987. Is that correct?
Marko: Yeah, that´s true. When we started the band I was living in northern Finland in a little town called Kalajoki, Rainer also was living there. It is a small town ... so it was kind of a natural thing that we started playing in the same band. In the beginning my brother was playing drums and Rainer´s brother was playing bass. But then I went to Helsinki and Rainer went to Tampere, so we had to broke up that band, but then after one year we started to play together again cause we didn´t find suitable players in our hometowns there. As we knew each other pretty well from the early years it was kind of a natural to play together again.
V.U.: I read that you don´t like to tell the name of the band of your very beginning. Do you feel ashamed about your roots?
Marko: No, I don´t feel ashamed about this. I can tell you the name of the band, it was Armatage. We played some combination of pretty fast Thrash Metal like style of Testament or Sepultura . As you can hear from Diablo albums we don´t play any kind of fast Thrash Metal anymore.
V.U.: As I already know, yes ...
Then please tell me about the time when you changed your name into Diablo Brothers and please don´t forget the demos Twizted Harmony, Agressive Machinery and To Where Pain Is. Sadly nowadays it´s impossible for the fans to listen to this stuff.
Marko: Ah, yeah, the finished demo tape I did together with Rainer. There were only the two of us. We used the drummachine to manage the drumparts. It was more of a project which was called Diablo Brothers at that time. And then we found Timo Kemppainen to play drums and Aadolf to play bass. So with that set-up we did the two next demos Agressive Machinery and ... ah ... what was it called ...
V.U.: Ehm, To Where ..
Marko: To Where Pain Is, yeah... These were the two demotapes. I guess you really can´t get your hands on them anymore because they were cassettedemos only.
But they were actually recorded in the same studio in Tampere in which we actually done all the records. So we started to record in that studio already in the end of the 90´s. But we weren´t able to get a recorddeal at that time and then we took kind of a serious look at our music. We had to cut away all the stuff which wasn´t neccessary for the songs. So we cut the symthesizerstyle off it. And then we recorded The Princess. That was our promosingle with which we finally signed at Poko Records.
V.U.: What do think about now to re-record this stuff for your fans worldwide so that your fans can get in touch with that stuff?
Marko: I guess we want to leave it as it is because the songwriting was worst at that time, so better to leave it as it is...
V.U.: Okay, then we´ll leave it then ...
Marko: By the way, actually from Agressive Machinery-demo one of the songs is on a compilation released by Black Mark, a swedish label. I don´t know if it exists anymore but one of the songs was really on a compilation-CD. But I guess they weren´t then interested enough to sign a deal so we had to do a couple of more work before we got the record deal.
So if you can get your hands on one of the compilations then you can hear what kind of music we played at that time.
V.U.: So then I will go searching for that ...
Then let´s go to the actual stuff: How did you get the idea to cover Abba´s Dancing Queen in such a great way? I think it´s absolutely perfect ...
Marko: I was listening to ABBA when I was like 9 or 10 years old ... before I started to listen to Metal-music, so at that time I liked ABBA-stuff. It´s so totally different from Metal. I don´t exactly remember how the idea came out but we were discussing with Rainer that we wanted to do a coverversion of some song. So we decided that it should be something totally different from Metal because I think it´s no point in covering any metalband. It´s really difficult to bring something new to the song if it´s already metal. So we decided that we take something totally different and ABBA´s Dancing Queen came into the mind ...
V.U.: Then I already have a great idea for you, maybe: Do you know Scott McKenzie´s song “San Francisco”?
Marko: Oh ... no, I don´t know ...
V.U.: It´s a song from the Woodstock-era. I think if you would cover it with your own style it could really become great stuff.
Marko: (laughs) Okay, I have to try to find the song ...
V.U.: At the album Renaissance you did something like crossover at the song “Intomesee”. In my eyes it´s your worst song. Are you yet happy now having done this song or do you say: okay, it´s our history and better leave it all behind ?
Marko: Yeah, I mean it was kind of a crazy idea to ( laughs) use rap there, but ... well ... yeah, I guess we just leave it by that ... I think there was nothing wrong with the song itself but ... okay ... the rapthing isn´t really our style ... so let´s just leave it.
V.U.: Forward to the present time: Now you´ve got a deal with Drakkar. How did you get it: did you search for a new label or did Drakkar ask you?
Marko: After Eternium there were different companies with which we got in contact. These were for example Nuclear Blast and some other big labels. But Drakkar offered the best conditions for us.
V.U.: One thing about Mimic47: when I first got in touch with this release it really took my breath away. I´ve never heard such powerful and at the same time melodic stuff before.
How did you manage to create such unique and unforgettable music – especially you with your guitarplay which is absolutely unmistakably you?
Marko: Actually I don´t listen much music. I often sit down and make my own music. That´s where I also get new ideas. So I have enough time to compose new songs. After Eternium was released we did a lot of gigs in Finland, but we were not able to tour Europe. So we had over one year to compose new songs. We concentrated on the dynamic of our songs and also on perfecting the clear singing.
V.U.: The titlesong Mimic47 is about a finnish skiing sportsman who was envolved in a doping-affair. You were so angry about this case that you even wrote a song about that. But what do you think about the austrian Olympic-team at which nearly everyone was envolved into doping?
Marko: I don´t believe that there are many sportsmen doing it without doping which is a really bad thing ...
V.U.: Do you hang out together with the other guys of the band in your free time or do you part ways when not doing something for the band?
Marko: Actually we don´t hang out much cause we all live in different cities. It´s when we rehearse for a gig or for new arrangements. I´ve got a homestudio, Rainer too, and so we are able to create new stuff on our own. Via internet we discuss about our music and new arrangements.
V.U.: What is your favourite drink?
Marko: Oh, it´s beer, and mostly it´s Lager. But I don´t drink any hard stuff, only BEER !
V.U.: Uh, Lager ... I hope I will be able to convince you of good german beer at your Germany-tour which hopefully is soon to come ...
Marko: okay then ...
V.U.: and now it´s time for your last words ............ for now and to the readers of Visions-Underground ..............
Marko: If You like our records, then you will like us live the more ...
V.U.: Marko, Kiitos for taking the time to answer my questions. Many greetings also to the other bandmenbers ... I hope to meet you when you tour Germany ...
Marko: BYE !!!
Dani Z-H/ V.U.
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