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Yearning - Interview with Juhani Palomäki

Classical jealousy !!!

The finnish Doom Gothic Metalheads of YEARNING, who have been working actively in the underground since 1997, already aroused quite some attention with their previous releases. Their music, which is mainly characterized through an impressive songwriting and technical variety, surely brought some people to the edge of suicide already. For a YEARNING- CD is not just another release, but the classical, perfectly worked out form of musical brilliancy, mixed with the typical way of finnish life- melancholy. YEARNING are able to let their listeners take part in their agony like only few other bands. Meanwhile, on their fourth longplayer "evershade" they do not move one step aside from their usual way, but still manage to appear fresh. So, enough reasons for us, to have a talk to bandleader and genius guitarplayer Juhani Palomäki, for getting to know more about present activities around YEARNING:


-Juhani, what are your musical influences and where do you find your inspiration, for writing lyrics? Please try to describe the musical style of YEARNING...

"We started as a Death Metal Band and as we changed our name to YEARNING, the basic sounds could be characterized as mainly metal, which we kept until today. I think you can see that in our drum- and guitar- playing. In addition to that, sinfonic elements are a big part of our music. During the last years we worked a lot with classical and progressive material, to integrate it in our music. The orchestral background in lots of our songs is a clear influence of classical music, which I work with intensively. So I´ m not able to let these things lay aside, even as I try to concentrate on other stuff. It´ s quite hard to put ourselves into a musical category. Especially over here in Finland lots of people discuss, if we play Gothic Doom Metal, classical influenced Metal or even progressive Metal. It´ s quite funny to listen to people trying to figure out about that... Our label, Holy Records, describes our music as Gothic Metal. I don´ t think I would automatically underline that statement. At least not at this point now. When we released our debut album "with tragedies adorned", comparisons to bands like My Dying Bride or Anathema seemed quite fitting. Right now the important points are surely to be found in the classical section. Therefore the label "Gothic Metal" is a bit difficult. I would call it classical Metal. I am inspired by literature an life in general, as I write lyrics for our songs. Everything can be an influence to you, especially unconscious fields are of big importance to me and bring a lot of inspiration. But there are still lyrics, that can directly be linked to situations, which have a general meaning to my life. On "evershade" I have described my feelings about a friend, who committed suicide last autumn. This brought me to some kind of introspective, thinking about stuff you don´ t usually think about. In spite of that, the lyrics are quite cheerful in general.

-On your first two albums you had a fixed, complete line up. This changed after the release of "plaintive Scenes". Meanwhile you took over all the instruments except the drums. Is that a big difference to you and what were the reasons for the other members to leave the band?

At this time there were lots of different opinions between us. Many small things, not even lying in the field of music. It was more like personal reasons, which were deciding - the former girlfriend of Toni, our drummer, belonged to the line up as well. As they parted, it led to big fights. The chemistry between all of us was not fitting any more and we found ourselves in the fatal situation, that at first Toni wanted to leave the band, then it was me. Luckily we could avoid the final split and the two of us were the ones to keep on playing as YEARNING. Even at that time I was the one to compose all the songs and to show the others, what to play. In the studio I therefore worked around the clock, except for the drum parts, played by Toni. That´ s why it is okay to me, recording all the instruments on my own. Of course I have to rehearse more often and intensively, but I cope with that quite well. At times it´ s even a bit boring, he- he."

-What do the two of you do in private life? Do you have a full time job? And what are your hobbies besides the band?

"Our every day life is quite normal. We both have a normal job and besides I study, which really takes a lot of my time besides music. But we always find the time we need to rehearse. We will have some live appearances, therefore extensive rehearsing is absolutely necessary. Some local bands are very interested in winning Toni as their drummer and he´ s just about to join a black metal band. But he still finds his time for YEARNING. Music is our only hobby. But side projects are not that important to me. Some time ago I sang in the band of our bassplayer, Nocturnal Winds. But nowadays I concentrate on YEARNING".

-Are you planning to work with a complete line up again one day or will you go on with the present situation, just you and Toni?

"Right now we have some session musicians, we will play some live shows with. All of them are good friends of ours and our rehearsals work really good. So we are able to present ourselves live. On "evershade" we recorded the guitar soli with our new guitar player and it is surely possible, that we might integrate the others to our line up. Nothing is decided yet, but I think, that this might be the best solution. So we´ ll see..."

-"Evershade" is your fourth album meanwhile. Do you have a concrete idea about what we will hear from Yearning within the next years? Any dreams of yours? New plans?
Maybe a big tour as a support act of Sentenced or Amorphis might be a good idea for you...?

We don´ t have any special plans yet, because we want to see, how things will go on in general. As I already said, there will be some live appearances, which we have to prepare intensively. Lately we have been a bit lazy in touring. We wanted to change that and present ourselves on stage more often, to get to be better known in public. Up to now we didn´ t think about touring as a support act, but maybe that could be a good idea. Don´ t be afraid: You will surely get to hear from Yearning in the next years."

-There are rumours about you playing live at the Tuska Festival in Helsinki this year. Is that true and what are your further plans for this year?

"We already played at the Tuska Festival two years ago and this year it´ s likely to see us again there. Until that date there will be enough opportunity to rehearse. And we surely look forward to playing there! It´ s a very special atmosphere and a great public, we like to be there. Further we will play some gigs in Finland and work on the new songs."

-What is your favourite song or album of YEARNING?

"Oh, that´ s a difficult one. I think, "evershade" might be our best album, because we went some steps ahead in comparison to our previous releases. Especially the production is very impressive. The orchestral parts are pointed out very well. It has simply been better this time. "Evershade", I think, is well done in every way. We are very satisfied with our work." Hm. Best Yearning song? That´ s really hard, I honestly like all of them and I can´ t point out a single one."

-There are many bands out there, that are not satisfied with the work of their record companies and think about a change. What about the work and support of your company? Are you satisfied with Holy Records?

"Over here in Finland there are not so many things happening, at least not concerning promotion. I think, they concentrate on the middle European market. Especially in France, because Holy Record is settled there. I don´ t have a detailed idea about their work, but it´ s okay with us."

-Even for a small band like yours it might be interesting to know, how many CDs you have sold right now. Do you have any information about that?

"Well, up to now we don´ t have information about that. "Evershade" was released in September 2003, so this was half a year ago. We will surely get some facts soon. I hope there are some people out there, who bought it. Our previous CDs sold quite well. Our debut album "with tragedies adorned" sold best. But we hope to sell even more copies of "evershade".

-Melancholy, sadness and nearly self- destruction can be found on all of your releases. Do you think, that this is the typical finnish way to express emotions? Do you have a special message in your songs, maybe in your lyrics?

"No, there is no special message. The typical melancholic sound of our songs is a result of the big emotions in life. Winter is very very long in Finland. It´ s completely dark over half a year. It´ s easy to get depressive and fragile that way. On the other hand it´ s a good time to write lyrics and songs. It helps to deal with your feelings and thoughts. Our music and lyrics are definitely influenced enourmously through that, that´ s for sure. I find it cool to mix traditional finnish music with orchestral elements. This contains a deeply depressive atmosphere and is very effective."

-What are your 5 favourite Metal albums?

"My 5 favourite Metal CDs? Oh, let me think - that´ s very difficult. I would say, that "gothic" by Paradise Lost has been one of my absolute favourites at that time. My Dying Bride is very good as well. Their "turn lose the swans" CD is brilliant. It´ s quite long ago, but nevertheless they have had a big influence on us in the beginnings. Then there is "masquerade infernale" by the Norwegians Acturus. I have listened to that one over and over, a very good album. Another highlight for me were Katatonia with "brave murder day", which was the best one in their band history. Great album! This was the fourth CD, right? Then maybe a finnish band. Yeah, definitely Amorphis - Karelian...no, the 2. one. What was it´ s name? Ah yeah: "tales from the thousand lakes". When we were teenagers, we listened to that one during the whole day. Very melodic and atmospheric.

-Finally one question concerning your recordings. Except for "evershade" all of your records have been recorded in the legendary Tico - Tico studios. What has been the reason for changing? I don´ t think it was dissatisfaction. Everyone knows about the qualities of Ahti Kortelainen...

Except for "evershade" we recorded all of our albums there and have always been satisfied with Ahti´ s work. Everything went well. And besides the recordings we also had a lot of fun. Actually there was no real reason for changing the studio. This time we were in Astia Studios in Lapeenranta and had some kind of time pressure, because Astia studios are quite expensive. We had to record "evershade" within 2 weeks, but it turned out to be good. In spite of the pressure we had no problems, everything went really super. We are very content with the results - but nevertheless it´ s possible that we work at Tico - Tico Studios again one day. Who knows...