Heavy Metal Pages / Poland 1/2003
Snakegod is a young and promising band from Finland. Finns seems to follow their neighbours from Sweden, and offer us a consecutive interesting band, after the remarkable Stratovarius and sweet-till-pain HIM. My interlocutors are: Jari Tiura, vocalist and Marko "Make" Ruokonen, who plays guitar.
Hello Snakegods!
My name's Michael and I'm die hard fan of Whitesnake's "1987" & all music made by Mr. RJD - so your "Invitation" is just for me :) Let me ask you a couple of questions about the band & the music:
1. About your name - am I correct with reading it - "Snake" comes from Whitesnake and "god" from Dio ? Is there any story behind it ? Is it your first name ?
MAKE: Our first name was Snakebite, many years ago, when we played Whitesnake songs. But when began to compose our own material, we wanted to changed the name. Also because there was already a band called Snakebite in the UK. They played Whitesnake covers as well.
JARI: So our current name actually comes from our earlier names. After Snakebite, we called ourselves Snakegarden but it didn't really feel right. Still, we wanted to keep the "snake" in our name somehow, so we decided for Snakegod. About God/Dio - of course we thought the same like you do now but Dio wasn't in our minds then in that way. Still, all respect to him. Later on, we discovered that the Snakegod is a God in Egyptian Mythology.
2. You mentioned that the album cover was made without your knowledge. And what about the logo ? Are you going to change them in the future ?
MAKE: Yes, the cover was made by MTM-Music. When we signed to the Finnish label Mastervox, Mastervox said we could choose a cover designer, which we did. Then Mastervox licensed the album to MTM and MTM didn't like our choice and decided for this cover. We saw it only a few days before it was printed. We also have another logo, which is good. It was made by Jani, our keyboarder.
JARI: We still have Jani's logo in store so lets see if we use it next time. But we will definitely take care to have more influence on the art work in the new record contract.
3. Have the bandmates been playing different types of music - in bands before or side - projects ? If you're all dedicated to hard rock, what do you think about such types of music as nu- metal or black metal ?
MAKE: I have played all kinds of music, Pop, Blues and Rock. Nu-metal is ok (but without Rap). I personally don't listen to Black Metal at all.
JARI: We all have been in different projects of different styles. Jani, who also went through the whole classical piano study, has played with many bands, and he still also plays with others. And also Pete had other bands before. We have different backgrounds but I think that is good. Nu or Black Metal hasn't our interest at all.
4. What could you point as the worst thing of the album ? Where can you make biggest progress ?
MAKE: We all think the worst is really the cover, and if you read our reviews, you see that everyone thinks the same. It just doesn't fit to our style and image. I also feel that we have developed musically and technically and are much better now. The "Invitation" album was recorded in spring 2000, and released in September 2001, so there are 2 years between the last song writing and the new material. And in those years we got of course more experiences and developed. I think we have much better songs for the second album.
JARI: I think on the album are many great things (except the cover) and I'm happy we recorded it like this. But I also think the music has developed now, and we can always make it better as long as everyone keeps their own progress rollin'.
5. In my opinion, you can improve the production, which is dull a little. It took me 3 times to listen to the CD to find your music great. Maybe I just don't like the HIM-ish sound - but you can give more dimensions to your music; let it sound like Dio's "Magica", or something !!!
MAKE: Same story like with the cover, we didn't have any influence on the production or mixing/mastering either, it was done by Mastervox. We were not even informed when the mixing took place, although we wanted to be there. But that will definitely change in the future. I like the sound of Dio very much. Dio's two first albums were superb.
JARI: You're right, production, mixing and mastering are all very important and each of them can influence the sound and style immensely. We just recorded some new demos and we all feel that they sound actually better than the ready album. I hope we find a great producer to help us.
6. Could you tell us the way you write songs ? What comes first - the melody or some lyrics ? Who's the main songwriter of the band ? Is the band "democratic" ?
JARI: We are quite democratic and the songs comes from here and there, meaning sometimes one has a ready idea or sometimes we all develop it together. Usually Make brings some riffs and Jani develops the atmosphere around it, and then I join with a vocal-melody. Sometimes the lyrics are ready first but mostly we write the lyrics after I have made my vocal-melodies.
MAKE: So basically the riffs come first, then the chords and then the melody and lyrics.
7. Lyrics - are the songs connected somehow ? What would you like to "teach" your listeners through your music ?
JARI: The songs are not connected, if you mean like a story going through the album. And there is also nothing really to teach, we wouldn't even want to try. We think lyrics shouldn't be too ready. They should leave some space to the listener's own fantasy. We'd like that our listeners understand to make their own life better by themselves, and enjoy good things when they come. Specially nowadays our lyrics, and specially the new ones, are quite up to date if you look at the situations in Russia or America. There is a lot of pain. People should care more about today. This is the day you live. Make it worth by taking some responsibility.
8. To Jari - I guess that you quoted Tolkien (JJT) at the end of your special thanks. Is it the kind of literature you like best ?
JARI: I suppose you refer to the line "All I know and all I dream, it's meant to be a paradise for you and me" - J.J.T.?
This line is from our lyrics and J.J.T. are the initials of my own name.
9. Concerts - what is the hard rock scene in Finland like ? Are there many clubs, where you can play ? What about the audience ? Or, can you organize your concerts only as a support for stars ?
MAKE: Here are many good bands but not enough suitable clubs.
JARI: I think Finland is not really a tour country due to the small population (5 Million), and people don't go so much to concerts anymore like 15 years ago. It seems to be easier to tour abroad. Our German agency plans a tour in Germany for next spring. Ten German and one Austrian bands have already offered to support us, which is great.
Playing as support is also more a habit outside of Finland and usually very expensive for the support band. Here in Finland we played as headliners a couple of times.
10. What are your concerts like ? Do you play similar versions of the songs, or improvise ? What covers do you play ?
MAKE: We play live the same way like on the album. We usually don't play any covers in concerts, only sometimes, depending on the situation, like at Jani's birthday party, we played a couple of Dio's or Whitesnake´s songs:" Stand up and shout" ,"Last in line", "We rock", "Ready an´ willing", "Gambler" and "Fool for your loving".
JARI: Maybe I shout a bit more on stage than on the album. We enjoy to put all strong feelings into a concert and give the best on stage. We also use a special intro-CD which Jani composed. And we play also new material in the concerts. Some of the album-songs we don't play live at all because they don't fit anymore with the new material and style. For example "Snakebite" is such a song.
11. What is your most secret desire to achieve in the music business ?
MAKE: Hey, you know the answer to that one! :-)
12. Are there any new songs written after the debut album ? Do they go to a different or the same direction ?
MAKE: We have actually many new killer songs. There are many same elements but some things we do differently nowadays.
JARI: The material for the 2.album is 99% ready. It is a little more melodic and includes very progressive songs.
One of the new songs, called "Fault-line" is already on our website www.snakegod.com . Check it out.
13. A few words to encourage Polish hard rock fans to search & buy your album ....
MAKE: On our website is a "Shop"-page with all distributers and internet shops where you can find our album. The German www.hart.de does the import to Poland. There are also MP3s on our website. We are sure you'll like our music!
JARI: The Dragonight Agency International, which has their head office in Poland, is also our promoter and they do a real great job! So we hope to do also some touring in Poland, and be sure, we will play it hard for ya!!!
Thank you very much ! I'm waiting for the next music from you and hope to see you on tour !
Thank you too and greetings to all our fans in Poland!
Michael
Live for metal, die for Dio !