July 2010, Poets Of The Fall at Ruisrock. Olli and Jani interviewed by Anne and Kjell from Yle X3M radio station.
Translated to English text by Dark Side of Light.

Kjell: So then, that was Lady Gaga and Alejandro, now we have live guests, great.

Anne: We have live guests, Olli from Poets Of The Fall. During the Lady Gaga song he said that he can speak a bit of Swedish. Show Swedish words, what can you say in Swedish?

Olli: Hey.

Laughter.

Kjell: Whoa.

Anne: Anything else?

Olli: Well, what should I say? My name is Olli.

Laughter.

Anne: Totally great.

Kjell: You told us that your wife is Finnish Swede so shouldn’t you know at least some Swedish sentences, like “And this is your curfew!” and “Why does it look like this around here?” and so on. “Where have you been?” is the minimum requirement. 

Olli: I know the basics, but perhaps we’ll just leave them at home. 

Kjell: Ok.

Anne: “Stop right now!” That’s something you should know.

Olli: Yes, yes. Yes, yes.

Anne: Yeah. What kind of a day have you had so far and has anything happened? Anything exciting?

Olli: We drove all night from a previous gig in Varkaus. We got to go to a sauna in Turku, downtown, and we made the most of it, at Börs hotel sauna section, everything it had to offer. And now we’re here for some breakfast and soon we start to play.

Anne: Right. War music video. War being a song in Twilight Theater album, the video came out a month ago, how was it received? 

Olli: Very well, viewing rates have been positive and many people have seen it. Quite nicely.

Anne: What is the song about. In the music video there’s some guy with a… and there’s some dead animal and then they take it away… what’s up?

Olli: They’re intertwining the plot to Alan Wake game. In it, the writer himself from the game is trying to find his wife, Alice. And… well, nothing more, I guess, it’s quite, how do I put this, enigmatic, but then… or I don’t know if there’s anything more to the story there. Like that.

Anne: Where was the video shot?

Olli: It was shot at… where did we shoot it?

Jani: At Sipoo. It was shot at Sipoo, Box area. 
[Translator’s note: Sipoo is a small town next to Helsinki, Box is one of its suburbs.]

Olli: Yeah, right, it was.

Kjell: Ok. Isn’t it a Mecca for rockabilly people? Isn’t it the place where all the greasers, Elvis fans, live? Like, you will get your ass kicked if you hate Elvis.

Laughter.

Olli: Could be. 

Kjell: I’ve just heard, I’m from Newland myself. 
[Translator’s note: Newland is a county that consists of Helsinki and its surrounding areas.]

Olli: Oh, right, I don’t know. On that particular length of road where we shot the video we didn’t see any… A couple of bikers rode past us, but no one stopped by to kick our asses. 

Laughter.

Jani: Luckily we all love Elvis. 

Kjell: Ok, that’s good.

Olli: Exactly, exactly.

[Kjell translates what they spoke about so far into Swedish for their listeners.]


Anne: We will soon chat a bit more with Olli but before that we’ll play some Poets Of The Fall and Dreaming Wide Awake.

Kjell: And that was, as you know, Poets Of The Fall and Dreaming Wide Awake, and we’ve played that song a lot on Radio X3M, and it’s been playing a lot on other stations as well. Right now have at least some of the guys from Poets Of The Fall at a live transmission from Ruisrock. 

Anne: Like I said earlier, we have Olli here with us. But we have another guy here as well. Could we get an introduction?

Jani: Hello, I’m Jani Snellman and I play the bass in Poets Of The Fall. 

Anne: Oi! Real Swedish. Do you speak more? Tell us something.

Jani: What do you want to hear?

Anne: Tell a short story.

Jani: Well… that’s difficult, that’s difficult…

Anne: A rock story.

Jani: A rock story? Ok. I’ll tell this kind of a rock story. Yesterday we started out from Helsinki at 1 pm, and tonight we’ll be back there around 6 pm maybe. So almost one day [24h hours], 100, sorry not 100, 1000 kilometres and 2 gigs. 

Anne: Oh my god, that’s a good rock story. 

Jani: Yeah, that’s a rock story.

Anne: Ok, Ruisrock website says that you’re the most American sounding band in Finland. Is that like pressure or just yay yay?

Olli: It’s gotta be a yay yay. You can’t take any pressure from it. We do what we do and it sounds the way it does. If someone says that, you have to take it as a compliment. 

Anne: Are you pressured that you’re said to be the most American sounding band?

Jani: No, not at all. 

Anne: Really? I think I would be like “shit, we really have to sound very rock now”. 

Jani: How would I say… I think it’s like an honour to be called that. 

Kjell: You should have someone feature for you, on some single, to bring in some Finnish touch to it. Someone like… Matti Vanhanen [a previous prime minister] or Timo Kotipelto [from a Finnish band Stratovarius], his English sucks big time too. “Treamink wite avakeeee!”

Laughter.

Anne: Olli, the last time I interviewed you, some fans had put the whole interview, word for word, online. Is this freaky?

Olli: Well… but it goes with this. That’s what this is about. People get excited. And when everyone doesn’t understand the same language, you have to have it in this international English language as well. 

Anne: You have a big fan base, if I can say so.

Olli: It’s very widespread, from many different countries and well… yeah, yeah. If we could get them gathered into bigger crowds in each country it would make touring a lot easier. 

Anne: Do you ever go and read that stuff? Like “did I say that, oh no”. Do you read them?

Olli: Yeah, I read them. Yeah, yeah.

Anne: So you read the one I did with you before?

Olli: Oh yeah I did.

Anne: What did you think?

Laughter.

Olli: Hmm, well well… we can talk about that a little more when the camera goes off. 
[Translator’s note: The earlier interview that they’re talking about is this one: http://paste2.org/p/778703 and specifically line 69.]

Laughter.

Anne: Ah, I see, ok. 

Kjell: Anne!

Anne: Yes, yes, yeah, ahm, yeah… Let’s get on with this…

Kjell: [Translator’s note: He says something to Anne that I don’t understand.]

Kjell: But about fans a little more, there’s something I have to ask you. Have you ever had any fan sitting at your front door, waiting? Greeting you good morning, or something like it. 

Olli: Luckily no, luckily no. We’ve been able to protect our privacy so far, but we’ve received messages from some certain people who have tried hard to look up where we live. And it’s not very nice. But, that’s the downside. 

Kjell: You’re going to have to put a sign on the door… you’ve clearly failed at this when fans don’t know where you live. Big neon signs pointing to your front door and some kind of a stereo system to announce “Olli lives here”. 

Jani: We’ve been trying really hard to try to get a road sign on the West Highway that guides to our office, but it hasn’t been ratified by Espoo city construction office. 

Kjell: What a bunch of weird hard asses. 

Jani: Yeah, it’s a very weird policy they have, when you’re trying to play with big stakes, you should have your own road sign. 

Kjell: Wouldn’t that be a great band merchandise? Your own road sign. Think about driving along the Ring 3 road and you come across a sign that says Leppävaara and Helsinki centre. And it should say Poets Of The Fall too. A sign to their office. 

[Translator’s note: Ring 3 road is a half circle of a highway that surrounds Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Leppävaara is a suburb in Espoo, near Helsinki city limits].

Anne: I think I’ll make one once we get back home from Ruisrock. One with “Poets Of The Fall” and a lot of hearts. Eh, yeah. What kind of a gig would you never perform no matter how much money you got? What wouldn’t you do on stage no matter how much money you would get from it?

Olli: Hmm, we are… or, we like money, so in that sense we would possibly do anything at all. Umm, can Jani give you an answer for that?

Jani: Hmm… Violence is where our limit stands. We won’t do anything violent even for money, that’s for sure. 

Anne: Olli is still thinking if he would.

Olli: Yes, well… maybe some kind of a wrestling thing could go… but something real… Yeah, we probably wouldn’t eat bats either. On the other hand we could do some kind of a sacrifice. Some kind of a rite. 

Jani: Pagan summer rite. 

Olli: I guess there are only a few things we wouldn’t do for money. 

[Kjell and Anne translate what they spoke about so far for their listeners.]

Anne: Are there any bands here that you’re going to check out today?

Olli: I probably would have gone to see Scandinavian Music Group today, but unfortunately I don’t have time for it, I have to get back to Helsinki. 

Anne: What’s so good about that band?

Olli: Oh, I don’t know. I just discovered them. So, umm, I don’t know. You just like some things and don’t like some other. I don’t know how to specify it. 

Anne: It’s the singer.

Laughter.

Olli: That too.

[Kjell translates the last bit for their listeners.]


Kjell: Poets Of The Fall performs today at Ruisrock and as usual will be brilliant. So we wish good luck and thank you.

Olli: Thanks.

Jani: Thanks.