Insights into Tuomas Saukkonen’s Music: An Interview

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As announced, the concert report is now followed by an interview! Tuomas Saukkonen took the time to give us a sometimes very personal insight into his creative sphere and I was surprised myself at how long we talked about topics such as mental health, music as a processing tool and the tour! But feel free to read this follow-up to the Rockharz interview for yourself.

Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for the amazing pictures!

Shieldmaiden’s Voice: The reason why I wanted to interview you again so shortly after Rockharz is that I thought that in our last interview there were a couple things worth further exploring. So my first question is a bit different than usual: How much of yourself is in the songs you write?

Tuomas Saukkonen: The level varies. The most of me is probably in the lyrics. For the music itself always stays the same, more or less. I always write for myself, it’s like a soundtrack. It’s either music I would like to listen to or I would like to play live. The lyrics are the biggest divider in this: Some lyrics aren’t personal at all. For the past WOLFHEART albums I’ve done theme albums where there is nothing of me in the lyrics. The latest album is about Finnish mythology and the one before that was about the Winter War between Finland and Russia. But then again, there are songs on the previous albums where I don’t feel comfortable playing them live.

SV: Would you say that the music is an extension of yourself?

Tuomas Saukkonen: Yes, but it is a protected reflection of myself. I open myself up a bit more in the lyrics because people can read them, but music is completely free for all kinds of interpretation. There were two couples who came to me during this tour to tell me that they had one of my sons as their wedding song and those songs are horribly sad. They are not about love or being happy and the lyrics are very straight forward in being gloomy and depressive. But that shows that some people will hear my songs to be happy even though I wrote them to be sad.

SV: What kind of role does mental health play in that context when you say that the songs are gloomy and dark?

Tuomas Saukkonen: I think it’s my way of keeping my mental health. Finnish men, or men in general, we don’t really talk. It’s a characteristic for Nordic people that we don’t open up. But with music, I’ve been doing just that for the last 20 years which means that I get to constantly process that side of me. To me, it works really well!

SV: In the last interview we had, you said that there is a reason why your songs are so dark. Would you mind giving us an insight as to why?

Tuomas Saukkonen: I think that is the reason because I think it’s healthy to be open to the darker side. If you’ve been diagnosed with depression or other things, then that’s different, but for as a regular person, you should be aware of your dark side. Everybody has one. It doesn’t go away just because you don’t think about it. All of us have fears and sadness that you don’t want to deal with, but they are still there. With the music, I get to process that on a weekly basis.

SV: Does that mean that your life has improved since you have found this outlet?

Tuomas Saukkonen: Not really because I don’t remember a time in which I didn’t have this outlet. I don’t have any comparison. I was seven years old when I wrote my first song and I started playing guitar. Back then it felt super boring to learn the songs of others, I just needed to understand why I was supposed to got to this place once a week and learn something someone else wrote. In the end, it was just more fun and exciting to come up with stuff on my own. After two months of lessons, we had to present part of a song we had learned in order for the teacher to see where we were at and I had my own songs. Well, it wasn’t really a song, but more the first four chords I could manage, but to me it was huge because I had created something on my own. In essence, I’ve always been writing music for as long as I remember so that I don’t really have a comparison!

SV: What did it feel like to have the pandemic infringe on that freedom of yours? It just came and musicians like yourself were robbed of the opportunity to present and live their music.

Tuomas Saukkonen: It wasn’t too bad for me. There was a lot of stress because of the company behind the bands which didn’t do well because we didn’t have any money coming in while still having expenses. I could easily survive without playing shows, I like touring to a certain extent, but it’s not the reason I make music. During the pandemic, I made three albums so in reality, I was even able to make even more music. Usually, when you go on tour, you completely interrupt the writing progress and the studio work. The stress was different as it came from the business side of music rather than from the music itself. When it came to writing music, it was a big time for me, but overall a horrible time to be a musician. 

SV: Have you noticed any changes to you music when you compare pre-pandemic, pandemic and now?

Tuomas Saukkonen: The biggest difference for me is the touring. Before the pandemic, touring was pretty much a given and during the pandemic, I realized that I could pretty much go without touring. It took a while for me to get back into touring-mode. The first European tour that we did a year ago was really hard for me, because it took me a long while to get into the right mindset and get comfortable being on the road. In the two years at home, I developed routines I’d never had before, after all I’ve never been off tour for than two years in a row. The beginning was really weird and the first festivals were horrible. From being alone so much, but in a good way with a small, isolated group, to going to a festival where you are in contact with so many people was just an overload of interactions. I though I would be super happy to be back on stage, but well… That was actually the case for a lot of musicians I’ve been talking to. It was very stressful to many people. 

SV: You spoke earlier about the emotional connection to the music that you have. What does it feel like to bring these songs on stage and have people connect with you on that level as well?

Tuomas Saukkonen: I don’t try that. There are certain WOLFHEART songs that I would never put on a setlist, which is one of the reasons I have DAWN OF SOLACE as a third project. I don’t need to sing any songs and we barely play any gigs anyway. When I don’t sing the lyrics myself, I don’t have the same connection to them. Plus, I play drums in BEFORE THE DAWN, so I can further distance myself from the rest of the music. If it gets too personal, I don’t really feel like I’m telling something about myself while a couple hundred people ago crazy. The contrast is just too stupid and horrible. 

SV: During this tour you’re playing over 20 shows with each band, meaning that you have twice the work. How has that been going for you?

Tuomas Saukkonen: It was a better plan on paper! Schedule-wise it’s a perfect plan but due to the fact that we only brought one technician and we have no off-day in-between, it feels more like work.

SV: How exhausted, but happy are you right now?

Tuomas Saukkonen: More happy than exhausted! It’s a good thing that we’re doing this interview before the show, because after the show I would be more exhausted than happy! [laughs] it changes through the day, but it’s going well. I was sick in the beginning, had a pretty high fever and you don’t get better that fast if you’re exercising two hours a day so that was really frustrating. 

SV: What has been the best experience about this tour so far?

Tuomas Saukkonen: There are a few things I’d like to mention: It’s a weird tour because with this tour I’m bringing back BEFORE THE DAWN that hasn’t been touring for 12 or 13 years and having that has been very special. Especially since Pyry, Juho and I played together the last time in 2013 and that wasn’t the happiest occasion because it was the farewell of BEFORE THE DAWN. I never thought that we would be on the same tour ever again. 

But it’s also the first ever headlining tour for WOLFHEART and I have been very happy with the outcome of the ticket sales and stuff like that. It was more of a management decision to have us do this tour now and before we only played supporting tours and for a while it looked like we were stuck in that limbo. It’s quite difficult to rise in the music business and in general, you need to show numbers to promoters and other people in the business. If it’s not your headlining tour, then those are not your numbers. Due to the fact that the album is a year old, we knew that there was quite some risk to this too. But it’s been going really well!

SV: You mentioned BEFORE THE DAWN, but I also think that HINAYANA compliment the line-up quite well! How has the atmosphere on been? Are you all happy to be on the run through Europe?

Tuomas Saukkonen: One of the reasons we asked HINAYANA to come along was that we only wanted good people! We did our previous European tour with them as an opener and we played in North America twice where they also opened. So we knew them quite well already. The chemistry can be quite tricky and it only needs one complicated person to have it all fall apart. Me and some of the other guys are getting too old to be that flexible. You just want to have good people around you that create more positive energy rather than trying to tolerate an asshole.

SV: What is the best about the tour from a musical standpoint for the fans?

Tuomas Saukkonen: It’s tricky because it’s such a varied audience! I recognize people from BEFORE THE DAWN shows 15 years ago, but I also see quite young people with WOLFHEART shirts singing songs that are 20 years old, but were released by BEFORE THE DAWN. I think, if you’ve been following myself, musically, it’s like a best of from the past 20 years.

SV: I feel that because I discovered BEFORE THE DAWN in late 2014 when I was like 17 or 18 and I was so heartbroken that you guys were broken up and I honestly never thought I would be able to have experiences like this now. But look at us! It has come full-circle in a way, for me at least!

Tuomas Saukkonen: Weird things have happened! The comeback of BEFORE THE DAWN was the best part about the pandemic and at the same time, the pandemic was the main reason for the band to even come together again. 

SV: And you also have a new singer. I’m really looking forward to seeing him, I’ve only heard and read good things about his performance!

Tuomas Saukkonen: I don’t know if it’s going to be the case with you tonight, because a lot of people were very worried when they first heard him since everybody wanted a certain line-up to come back, with Lars as a singer, but he retired from the band a long time ago. That was never an option. People were so worried that they sent me mails and messages that I needed to reconsider the choice and that this was not the BEFORE THE DAWN they knew. In reality, BEFORE THE DAWN is what we say it is and it’s not an open discussion. You can see it in the audience as well: During the first song they’re quite skeptical and when they hear Paavo singing, especially the older songs, the atmosphere changes completely. 

SV: For me, personally, I really like the old stuff, especially since Deathstar Rising has been so influential to my personal music taste and career, but listening to the newer stuff, I don’t think that the essence was lost. It’s a different style, but to me, it’s more about the feeling in a way. It’s gonna be my first time seeing him live, so we’ll see about that. Although, as always in life, you grow and change and music should reflect that. So in my book, that’s the way you’re going! In essence, I’m open minded! [we laugh]

But now that we’re here and meeting during this tour, what is something you wish for for the future of both bands?

Tuomas Saukkonen: I would like this kind of atmosphere to continue where everybody feels happy about what we’re doing. I saw the difference two years ago. It was probably more frustrating for everybody else than me because I was able to just go into the studio and write music, I had that outlet constantly since I’m the main songwriter for both bands. The gigs are what the other guys get out of this whole package. When that was taken away, there was a lot of unhappiness, stress and frustration. So I would like to this kind of mood that we have now to continue, no matter what happens. We took it for granted that we were able to do what we love. And it’s not only the pandemic, but also everything else that is going on.

This was a very nice way to end this interview! I’m very grateful Tuomas once again took the time to answer my questions so thoroughly. Make sure to check out all his bands, it’s definitely worth it!

While I’ll be attending one last concert at the end of this year, you’ll probably won’t get to see that particular content until we’re a couple days into 2024! So take care and remember: If you like my content, share and comment on social media. And if you don’t like it, just recommend it to a person you hate and let them suffer!