ALRIGHT, SO PLEASE DROP US A LITTLE INTRODUCTION TO DÖ. HAVE
YOU BEEN IN OTHER BANDS BEFORE? WHAT LED YOU TO CREATE THIS BAND?
We are Dö, a dark stoner doom trio from Helsinki, Finland.
The band that finally became Dö was created in 2007. Back then the name was not
Dö, there were four of us, we didn't use the supercool artist names, and we
played desert stoner.
Then, after few years the singer left to study abroad and
Hank took the mic. At that time we also dropped the tempo and the style we call
"döömer" began to take its form. About two years ago we parted ways
with Peat Rex, our original drummer and Joe E. Deliverance stepped in to bash
the drums. "E" stands for "epic", by the way. You'll
understand it when you see him playing live.
Joe D. also has the most serious previous band history from the
three of us. For example he was the original drummer of Omnium Gatherum, and he
also played in a band called Masteroid few years ago.
Hank has played in high school punk and metal bands, and Big
Dog has some background from childhood in playing balalaika, banjo and guitar.
But he actually started to play guitar more seriously in his adult age, so he's
either some kind of prodigy, or a freak of nature.
WHATS YOU MUSICAL INSPIRATION?
Music-wise döömer is a deadly, yet tasty mixture of the
music we three listen and have listened. We share the love for heavy tunes, but
we all have had and still have our own personal favourite styles and bands.
Big Dog grew up with 60-70s psychedelic folk, 80's metal and
90s grunge and stoner. Now everything that is heavy goes, but you can
definitely hear the influences.
Hank's the teenage punk rocker, who is currently going
through a black metal and psychedelic season. And Joe is a hardcore heavy metal
fan listening to the sickest death and black metal bands, but he also has a soft
side as one of his favourite bands is Mew and he is also into weird electro
music and synth pop also. Although a dose of Martyrdöd is always welcome!
We bring all these influences to döömer, as our differences
feed the creativity. And it's nice that people hear different styles in our
music, even if we don't put them there on purpose.
But musical influences are just one part of döömer. The
other part is emotion. We're not punk, nor a political band, but we scoop
emotional inspiration from daily politics, environmental issues and human
nature, and channel the negativity and frustration from them to our music -
especially to lyrics. At the moment there's plenty to scoop from.
HOW DOES IT FEEL LOOKING BACK? HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE
EVOLVED UNTIL NOW AND HOW DOES THIS NEW RECORD REFLECTS THIS CHANGE?
Sure we have evolved. Maybe not as players that much, but as
musicians and as band, we've grown a lot. With every song and release we try to
take a step forward.
In our type music it would be easy just to repeat the same
format over and over again only by coming up with new riffs, but we want to
bring something new on each release, whether it's an acoustic song, more clean
singing or handing a mic to a drummer.
We don't use many ingredients, but we try to use them
wisely.
HOW CHALLENGING ARE THE CREATIVE PROCESS WHEN IT COMES TO
WRITING AND RECORDING A NEW RECORD?
Actually it wasn't that challenging. When we started to
write new material in the beginning of the year we decided to make two great
songs instead of three or more good songs. So we concentrated on the first two
that really stood out from the jamming sessions.
Because each Dö song is born in jamming sessions at the
rehearsal den around a riff that either Big Dog summons out from his SG, or
Hank beats from his Ripper. So none of us brings a ready song for others to practice.
That method just wouldn't work for us. Neither would long studio sessions.
That's why we once again trained the songs well before the recordings and
therefore it wasn't hard to play versions that had the just right intensity and
feeling.
But as we see music as our dark and dangerous playground, we
don't want to limit ourselves too much, so maybe well lock ourselves into
studio next time if we feel like it.
SO WHAT QUALITIES DOES A LYRIC NEED IN ORDER TO MAKE IT AN
INTERESTING SUBJECT MATTER FOR A DÖ TRACK
On the first two EP's lyrics were pretty much something that
Hank just threw together. But on "Tuho", and now on "Astral
Death/Birth" the lyrics are more serious and have something to say.
These days the lyrics reflect our attitudes and feelings
towards religion, bigotry, human nature, the destruction of the environment etc.
You know, the basic stuff.
So far we've been using mostly English, 'cos it's been
somehow easier to write in English. But then again it's also easy to write
something totally utter bullshit and clichéd. Music is not about limitations,
but there are few things we try to avoid: no fancy, complicated words and no
forced rhymes. Hate that shit.
We also don't want to explain the lyrics, because you don't
explain poems either. Just remember that in Dö lyrics the owls are not what
they seem.
DO YOU PLAN ON BOOKING SOME SHOWS OUTSIDE FINLAND?
We have all kinds of plans, but let's see what happens. Only
thing we can say at the moment is that we aim to get on the road before the
final flash.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE LOCAL SCENE
The local scene is alive and kicking. Maybe there's not that
many new doom/stoner bands popping up at the moment as there was a couple of
years ago. But most of the active "small or mid size" bands are world
class acts. But still, even though Finland is a metal country, proper
doom and stoner are somewhat underground here. And that's great.
ANY COOL BANDS I SHOULD CHECK OUT BEFORE WE SAY GOODBYE?
You probably know all the cool bands better than us, but if
we'd recommend just one, it would be our brothers in booze, Black Royal. Their
new Dying Star single is an absolute killer.
Goodbye.
-Doomsdaysjesus
Comments