SOURCE – Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, how have you been doing, and what has the situation been like in Finland in regards to the pandemic?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – I’m doing good thx! Feeling great about the new album and how it has been received everywhere. It’s been quite a struggle with the pandemic here too and it still is. But things are going in the right direction now at least because most of the restrictions have been removed here in Finland. We’ve been able to play some gigs after releasing the new album. Although, we just had to postpone three shows after Rainer got the disease and Heikki is feeling sick right now…
SOURCE – It’s been seven years since Silvër Horizon. You have been busy with many other things, what made the time right to come back to writing for the band?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – Yes, unfortunately it took that long to get there with the new album. There was no intention to take such a long break. But when you’ve got a family and a day job to take care of it’s not always solely in your own hands to make the schedules 🙂 Actually, I started writing material for WTRAS already straight after releasing Silver Horizon so there wasn’t any real break from the music at any point. Somehow it just took so long. We wanted to release a couple of singles in 2019 -2020 so that our fans would know we are working seriously on the new album. Then came the pandemic which slowed things a little bit in the end. But here we are with the new album. Ready to rock the world 🙂
SOURCE – When All the Rivers Are Silent is the seventh and latest studio record for Diablo. Discuss the songwriting and recording sessions for this effort – and where you see the major differences in this set of tracks compared to previous Diablo albums?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – Songwriting process went pretty much the same route as before. I had the main responsibility for the music and arrangements and Rainer for the lyrics.The way we work is to record quality demo tapes at home, which is fortunately so easy nowadays. Then we send them back and forth, because we all live in different cities in southern Finland. I’ve built a studio room in our basement. I can play almost as loud as I want in the middle of the night there, which is actually very important because you can have your own time mostly late in the evenings.
About the recording session, everything else except the drums have been recorded at home. I don’t know if Mr. Bogren did any reamping to the guitars, but they sound awesome anyway 🙂 I like to record at home, because then you don’t have the clock ticking. So, for example, if you feel like the vibratos in the guitar solos are still not right, you can freely take your time and try to improve the next day. I still remember how it was when recording earlier albums like Icaros. I basically lived in the studio for 5 days with only a few hours of sleep per night and did my parts in a hurry with bleeding fingers… man, that was terrible!
For WTRAS I had two goals in mind when composing: 1) the songs should be a bit shorter and 2) song structures shouldn’t be too progressive compared to Silver Horizon. Both of these goals were born when playing the songs from Silver Horizon on the gigs. I’ve noticed that you get better response from the audience if your songs aren’t too complicated. And it is definitely for the audience that we do this all! Playing live is the bread and butter for me and probably for the rest of the band too. Of course, you get some good vibes yourself when doing the composition. Especially in the moments when you are getting goose bumps due to a melody or a riff and you realise that you’ve nailed it. But yeah, I think the differences to our earlier albums aren’t that big. In addition to these mentioned goals it is maybe the more careful focus on the transitions between riffs and definitely even more considered vocal melodies which makes a difference on WTRAS.
SOURCE – Your first video The Stranger came out this January. Why did you decide to use this track from the new album with a video? Are you satisfied with the end product?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – The first video was actually Grace Under Pressure which was released almost three years ago 🙂 Just a couple of months before the album release Tuomo from Sakara Records wanted us to do another video. The Stranger was chosen because it is a rather straightforward song with really strong lyrics and a catchy chorus melody. We are very satisfied with it. Personally, I think it is the best video from Diablo so far. Miikka Tikka, who is responsible for the outstanding artwork on the album, also did most of the hard work for the video!
SOURCE – Do you think it’s harder to be self-critical because you’ve been doing music for so long?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – Hah! I think if we were not extremely self-critical we would release records every second year, don’t we? I’ve always been very critical of the songs we make and so has Rainer. We rather take a bit more time to make sure that the quality of the album doesn’t disappoint our fans. Sadly, a slower pace in releasing music doesn’t necessarily suit radio stations and media who seem to want to get the most out of the bands as fast as possible. If you don’t fit that format then you might not get the attention when the time is right for the release. Or you are not able to get any of your songs on the playlists of the radio stations even if you get your album to the top of the albums chart like we have got with the last two releases. But I also think that slower release pace is actually one of the reasons why Diablo is over 20 years old. We’ve been able to put strong albums on the table and get hold of the fans we’ve already got. Hopefully we will get some new fans too with this release!
SOURCE – How have you handled the changes in the music industry from your earliest days as a musician to today’s landscape?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – Certainly it is harder to get recognition in the music scene now. It feels like it is not enough if you make interesting music. You need to be present in social media and so on. Personally, I’m not active in social media at all which is, of course, maybe a bit weird. But there are only 24 hours in a day which you must try to use as wisely as you can. Otherwise you won’t get things done. That’s why I have decided not to be active on the different social media platforms. Music industry has also changed in how artists can make their living. The paychecks from streaming services are not on the level where they should be. For me it doesn’t matter that much now but if I was trying to make all my living from the music then the falling record sales would really be annoying if the streaming services don’t compensate the artists fairly for the music.
SOURCE – Do you think that is a basic struggle for younger people – to have so much new music pumped out today compared to fewer releases back in the 80’s and 90’s?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – Yes, it must be somewhat exhausting to have so much new music coming out all the time. Of course, you now have maybe more time than ever to listen to music due to mobile phones and streaming services. But to really listen to the songs you should sit down and just listen like we did in the 80’s. Nowadays, it is so easy to skip to the next song or artist if the first 10 seconds of the song doesn’t convince you. Diablo albums are worth listening to from start to finish. There aren’t any leftover songs on WATRAS.
SOURCE – What concerns you most about the state of the world currently? Where do you believe the average person needs to put more attention and focus on to make things better for the society and world as a whole?
Marko Utriainen (Lead Guitar) – I’m very worried about the state of the democracies, freedom of speech and human rights. It seems now too easy to get people to believe in whatever bullshit if you just say it out repeatedly and loud enough. For example, the happenings on Capitol Hill after the last US election or the war in Ukraine, ordinary people are misled carelessly by the ones in power. How did we get into this situation? Is there anything to be done to fix this? I guess everybody should at least try to have more tolerance on different opinions to avoid aggressive confrontation.
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