URBAN
TALEBy
Nicky Baldrian
Finland
of all places throughout the world, would be the last place you
would expect to find a quality melodic AOR band, a country that
spawns more death metal and grunge bands than it does AOR,
breaking the tradition is URBAN TALE and you may recall that I
spotted these Fins way back in issue 1of British rock magazine
Fireworks, where I wrote an article about them and we also
included their song the classy ballad "One Day" on the
cover CD. This led to the band recording their debut at Roasting
House studios in Sweden and a deserved deal with Frontiers/Now
And Then Records.
Their
debut self titled album has been recieving rave reviews
everywhere, an appearance at The Gods in November last year
followed which included an additional set of a tribute to Journey
where the band joined by all the stars of the show played a
stirering set of Journey classics. They also recieveed major
praise from national rock magazine Classic Rock where they
recieved a healthy score of 4/5, not bad for a debut album, so it
was with this that I caught up with singer Kimmo Blom and
keyboard player Timo Pudas and here's what went down...
Nicky : -
How Old were you when you decided that music was your destiny?
Kimmo Blom: When I was 21 I had to decide what to study. I chose
music because all the other options seemed to be compromises. I
must say that the decision was rather easy after all.
Timo Pudas: I never really decided it. It just happened so. I was
going to be an engineer but during the year I spent in University
of Technology I used more time in band rehearsals than in school
and that was it.
Nicky : -
Can you tell me about origins of Urban Tale and why you
originally decided to become a Journey tribute band, especially
at a time when AOR in Europe wasn't being accepted too good?
Timo: Originally the idea of this band saw daylight in 1996 when
I talked with Erkka about forming a band and doing some great
rock music. Time passed and we got the other guys interested and
first song we ever made was made in finnish language. (You don't
want to hear it.) Later on we decided that it would be better to
do songs in english because finnish lyrics didn't seem to fit
naturally to our music style. In spring '98 Erkka got idea of
doing the tribute to Journey project and that brought life back
to the band. Journey isn't too well known in our country but we
all liked the music of those great american AOR bands. We
practised a lot on summer '98 and learned 28 Journey songs and
after some small outdoor and club gigs and two concerts the band
had started to sound like a band, not just another project. In
fact we never really were a Journey tribute band but a band just
doing a tribute
to Journey.
In spring
'99 we started to do our own songs. At the beginning those
sessions were just a mess. There were too
many strong opinions and we had to try every single idea even if
we already knew they didn't work. During the time the process
became much easier and we started to have a slight vision of what
Urban Tale could sound like and ideas that were brought
torehearsals were more re-arranged and easier to work with.
Nicky : -
Your single "One Day" did very well and has become like
a signature song for the band, tell me about the song?
Timo: The idea of the song saw light on the backstage on a
wedding gig when Erkka told me that "you should write a
majestic rock ballad in style of Chicago". I got immediately
some ideas in my head and when I got home I couldn't go to bed
until I had written those ideas down. Next day I did a sequencer
demo of the song and took it to next rehearsals and the band
liked it. Kimmo wrote really great lyrics to the song and we got
all parts together quite easily. Few months later we got together
with producer Lauri Järvilehto who produced the song and we
released it on our self-published single which got really good
reviews on melodic rock/aor webzines and magazines all over the
world. "One Day" was also featured on Fireworks #1
cover cd.
Kimmo: "One Day" was the second song we ever wrote. At
that point I was longing for somebody who lived far away so that
explains the lyrics pretty much. The melody came easily to the
text and even though I feel there are some clichés involed it's
still a powerful ballad with "bigger than life"-feel.
Nicky : - Are you pleased with the reaction your debut album has received so far?
Timo: Yes
we are! Most of the reviews I've seen have been very nice to read
and we have received a lot of emails from people who have bought
the album and liked it. Of course we have received some critics
too and it hopefully helps us to do our next album even better.
Nicky :- Will you be setting up any further shows to back this new record?
Timo: Will
will play everythime we get a chance. We love being on stage and
are looking for opportunities to play in different countries.
Nicky : - Tell me about the album and the songs?
Kimmo: I'm
very satisfied. Needless to say there are some things I would do
in a different way now that it has been almost a year when we
started those recordings. I must say that this first album is
also a self-study musically and lyrically. I love it because it's
simply an album I would buy for myself and enjoy. (Glad I'm on it
so I got one for free!) Seriously, it's hard for me to pick up a
favourite track because every song has it's moments. I'm very
lazy in writing lyrics but generally I feel good about the
lyrics.
Nicky:- How did you hook up with Frontiers and how did the recordings go at Roasting House?
Kimmo:
Working with Roasting House was just GREAT! The city of Malmö is
great and the whole staff in the studio. I loved the way Theo and
I worked together. He has a strong view how things should be done
but still allows "artistic" freedom when it comes
naturally and serves the song itself. I felt very comfortable
most of the time but because I'm a singer I had my bad days as
well.
Nicky : - Will we have to wait as long for the second album?
Timo: We
have a lot of new material and we have already started the
pre-production process. The next album will be a killer and we'll
propably start recordings on summer 2002. Until that we hope we
could do more gigs all around and promote the first album.
Nicky : -
Obviously Urban Tale are influenced by AOR but I'd like to know
as a keyboard player who are your favourite players and who are
Kimmo's favourite singers?
Timo: I've been influenced by players from many different genres.
On AOR side of music the first and the most important influences
were David Foster and David Paich. Sometimes I enjoy listening to
jazz music and my favourite jazz pianists are Herbie Hancock and
Bill Evans. As a keyboard player I also enjoy listening to
electronic music and the from that style of music I'm most
inspired by William Orbit. In general there are too many good
players to mention here but I listen to many styles of music and
try to learn the essential things of them. I believe that if you
want to create melodic rock music that sounds original you
shouldn't listen just melodic rock bands but find some good
influences from other genres too.
Kimmo: There are many. I grew up listening hard rock and metal
and singers like Phil Lynott, Ronnie James Dio, Geoff Tate, Bruce
Dickinson, Geddy Lee etc. made a huge impact to me. Later on
singers like Steve Perry, Fish, Steve Hogarth, David Sylvian,
John Farnham came along. Right now the greatest singer to me is
my teacher Petri Bäckström. He's gonna be a huge tenor - star
in the future I'm sure. He's helping me to develop my instrument.
Nicky : - What else have you got up your sleeve for the future?
Timo:
We'll get soon our first video for "King Of Hearts".
How it happens is a story itself: Kimmo and Erkka were in Romania
in an international song contest called The Golden Stag. They won
the rock section and we got some very good live material. Those
tapes will be edited by an english director and we'll get the
finished material in December. We are going to get the clip to
our homepage in mpeg format. You can read more on the song
contest from our website: www.urbantale.net
Nicky : - What's the music situation like for melodic rock in Finland? I heard a good new band called Free Spirit do you know those guys?
Timo:
Finland really isn't the promised land of melodic rock. Bands
like Toto or Bon Jovi have their own listeners and you can hear
them sometimes even in the radio but that's it. All stations have
their playlists and it's hard to get music played outside them.
When we have played our own music or AOR/Melodic Rock covers in
clubs we usually get very positive feedback like: "This is
the music I like, why don't we hear this more often?" I have
heard the name Free Spirit but I didn't knew it's finnish band.
Have to check that out.
Nicky : - Do you do anything else outside of music?
Kimmo: I'm
trying to keep myself fit. It means that I go to the gym and ride
my bicycle. I also enjoy good food, books and the company of
friends.
Timo: I enjoy running, bicykling and skiing and being in nature.
I read sometimes a good book or go to movies or theatre and of
course spend time with my family.
Nicky : -
Where do you see the future of melodic rock going? Do you think
we will ever see bands getting gold records again or do fans just
want to hear the old bands playing their classics? If this is the
case where does this leave the future of melodic rock for the new
young bands such as yourselves?
Kimmo: It's hard to say. personally I feel that we are writing
songs for everybody not just thinking about our "genre"
that much. Everything comes and goes but the old days won't be
coming back. Melodic rock is evolving and when the right spot
arrives someone will make it! You can't blame people not buying
every new release from bands that are looking back and not ahead.
We have a great tradition to cherish but if we want to make it we
have to live this day and try to convince people that melodic
rock is coming back to stay. Songs itself will then tell whether
the band is a hit or not. This is nothing but a clear fact. Urban
Tale will stand firm and develop it's own style and face the
future with pride (huh, huh).
Nicky : -
Finally is there anything else you would like to say?
Timo: Big thank you to all of our fans for supporting us and
giving us very encouraging feedback. Hope to see you all on the
gigs.
