URBAN TALEURBAN TALE
By Nicky Baldrian
Urban Tale are a great new band from Finland, I recieved a single
song cd from the band the other day featuring the song "One
Day", Timo Pudas plays the keyboards on this beautiful piano
led ballad in the style of Hugo, The Storm, Survivor and Steve
Perry with soaring vocals from Kimmo Blom. This was enough to get
me very excited which led to this interview, just on the strength
of one single song!! I'm looking forward to hearing more material
from Urban Tale very soon, and I am hoping that the guys have
more magic to unleash under their sleeves. I got together with
keyboard player Timo Pudas to find out more about Urban Tales
origins.....
Nicky:-Tell me about Urban Tale.
Timo:- The band was founded in spring '98 as a result of an idea
of someone doing a Journey-tribute in Helsinki. Knowing each
other from various other projects it was clear that we all shared
a common interest in big-sounding american bands (especially
during the 70's and 80's). Tributing Journey was a great
challenge as well! After two big shows and a couple of smaller
ones we decided to try writing some original material. After
awhile the songs "Hold On" and "One Day" were
recorded. However, the production didn't please us so it turned
out to be just a demo-session.
After writing more songs and keeping our project alive we came
along with Lauri Järvilehto, a producer/songwriter who wanted to
re-produce "One Day". Lauri's ideas were fresh and
brought a brand new flavour to the song. It pleased us a lot.
Thanks to Internet we've been able to get our music heard all
over the world and the feedback has been very supportive. Right
now we're looking for a record contract and more channels to open
up a market for us. Here in Finland it's almost a miracle to get
a deal when you're singing in english. That's why we are looking
away from Finland knowing that "the truth is out
there!"
The new millennium starts with a new studio session with Lauri
Järvilehto. Hopefully "One Day" will be heard on the
air around the world. We've already had some offers to do gigs
for example in Sweden next summer. Whatever happens in the future
can be read on Strutterzine as we will keep you all up to date
with the latest happenings.
Urban Tale is:
Kimmo Blom: vocals
Erkka Korhonen: guitar, backing vocals
Tuomo Kovalainen: bass, backing vocals
Timo Pudas: Keyboards, backing vocals
Kari Välimäki: drums, backing vocals
Nicky:- Tell me the inspiration
about this song and how it came together?
Timo:- It was early spring 1998 and we were on backstage talking
all kind of shit. I guess it was a wedding gig we were playing
on. We had talked earlier how great it would be to do some own
music and play it to people and we decided to do something about
it. It was a good gig and when I came home, I was in the mood of
doing a song and I already knew what One Day would sound like. I
made a simple sequencer demo of the song and gave it to Kimmo who
made the lyrics. He was feeling very nostalgic at the moment,
like missing his teen years and he wrote lyrics that were
beautiful and fully loaded with emotion.
Nicky:- Agreed the "One
Day"is filled with pure emotion, is this the case with your
other material, is it all drawn from personnel experiences?
Timo:- Pretty much every song has something to do with our lives
at least on some level. Most musical and lyrical ideas are drawn
from our experiences and thoughts.
Nicky:- Tell me about the
Journey tribute, what exactly did you do?
Timo:- We are all huge Journey fans and we did the project mainly
for our own fun. It was great to be able to present this music to
the people in Finland. After all Journey was never a major hit
here. We rehearsed a total of 28 songs, did two large shows and a
bunch of smaller ones. We were able to create a small base of
following with the strength of those shows.
Nicky:- Journey, are obviously
one of your influences, but who else inpires you?
Timo:- This band draws influences from a very wide range of music
from classical music to Jazz to metal bands. Our favourite
bands/composers include Toto, Marillion, Sting, Frank Zappa, Dio,
Chicago, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis,
Chick Corea, Allan Holdsworth, Mozart, Stravinsky, Wagner, just
to name a few...
Nicky:- When you were young was
music your dream?
Timo:- Yes definitely. Whether it was after seeing a cool Kiss
poster in the school's music room or hearing a Jeff Beck album,
it was always there.
Nicky:- What do you think of the
new Journey with Steve Augeri? Do you think it'll work?
Timo:- We HOPE it'll work. We've never been too picky about
line-ups or personnel changes although it felt a bit strange to
hear that Steve Perry had left Journey. Fortunately after hearing
"Remember me" from the Armageddon soundtrack and
especially witnessing their live power in Bakersfield, California
last summer it seems that they are as strong as ever. We have
heard that their new material kicks ass, and their album will
prove that.
Nicky:- What's is your favourite
Journey track?
Kimmo: Definitely "Separate Ways"
Kari: Escape. Period.
Tuomo: It would be "Colors of the spirit" from
"Trial by Fire"
Timo: "Open arms"...
Erkka: Too many great ones! Maybe "Girl can't help it"
Nicky:- What's are the next
steps for Urban Tale?
Timo:- We are currently searching for a suitable record label,
international or domestic. We are also going to do a summer tour
in June playing in five major Finnish cities along with other
gigs. We have written about 15 songs. One song is under progress
right now and "One Day" will be released as a
radioplay-suitable promotion single in April.
Nicky:- You mentioned earlier
that you have more songs recorded, can you tell me about those
songs?
Timo:- The song we are working on right now is more pop-oriented
with a powerful chorus. The other tunes are on a "production
demo"-level.
Nicky:- Did you ever record any
of the Journey songs you played live?
Timo:- Not in the studio. Even though we recorded and filmed our
both major live shows, we currently have no interest in taking
those songs into production.
Nicky:- Of the
eighties scene what would you say was the most happening band?
and which were not in your opinion?
Timo:- As we mentioned earlier, there were so many great bands
during the 80's and it's hard to pick one above (or below) the
others.
Nicky:- What was the first and
last records you bought?
Kari: First was "Wired" by Jeff Beck and the last
"Live in Seattle" by the John Coltrane Quartet.
Tuomo: My first one was "1984" by Van Halen and the
latest is "Californication" by RHCP.
Kimmo: My first was "Crusader" by Saxon, latest
"Marillion.com" by you know whom..
Timo: The first was Jean-Michael Jarre's "Oxygene" and
the latest was "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister.
Erkka: I think the first album was "Asylam" by Kiss in
1986. The last one is "Infinite" by Stratovarius.
Nicky:- What is your dream?
Timo:- Everybody has their own dreams on a personal level, but as
a group we want to get our music heard and played around the
world. Touring would also be great, you know "Join the band,
see the world..."
Nicky:- If you could describe
your music as part of a womans body, what part would you choose?
Timo:- Well, that would be a well-shaped and nicely round ass...
Nicky:- What's are the girls
like in Finland?
Timo:- They are beautiful, independent and so loveable...with
great asses, you know, inspiration from real life!
Nicky:- What is your popular
alcohol of choice?
Kari: I like beer.
Timo: Good red wine.
Tuomo: Beer.
Kimmo: I like Martini and tonic.
Erkka: Beer, Period with water and good whisky, such as Chivas
Regal.
Nicky:- What kinda food do you
eat over there? Or do you eat the girls?
Timo:- Domestic Finnish food is quite heavy, but fortunately
there are lot's of ethnic possibilities such as Indian, Chinese,
Mexican, Pizza... The girls will do as well..(LAUGHS)
Nicky:- Are you going to pass
out with excitement at these questions?
Kari already did. (LAUGHS)
Nicky:- Tell us your most
humorous story?
Timo:- There's always wild stuff that happens and it's really
hard to tell a story since a lot of the things are so
"inside", like lost luggage, broken sound systems,
drunken singer sprawling "porn-film-approved" German in
public and some nude swimming in our hotel's pool in the middle
of the night...For example: Period, oops, you didn't see me,
right? Oh shit, Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Is it really
safe to pee on an electric fence? (LAUGHS)
Nicky:- Any last words?
Timo:- Seriously, thank you for this interview and we hope to get
you guys to hear our stuff real soon!! Amen