Beyond the Dream – 01-07-2010

Interview with: Harri Kauppinen
By: Sabine van Gameren & Jussi Häkkinen

The band Beyond the Dream had recently released their third album “While The World Sleeps”. Staying a bit in darkness while the temperature is going towards the 30 degrees celcius, we met up in Helsinki’s infamous graveyard park for an interview with the band.

Beyond the Dream is a band that is currently famous in the underground scene, being on the border to break out into something bigger but when meeting Harri Kauppinen, the bands vocalist, we meet a modest yet ambitious rocker. Wondering in what way they are aware about the impact of their latest releases we started talking about “While The World Sleeps”. Obviously, Harri is very proud of it and he is not hesitating in telling about it:“’While The World Sleeps’ is the latest masterpiece of ours. It’s a rock n roll, guitar based album. The most of an guitar album we have done so far. And it is good!” Now, that conclusion we draw as well in our review and it has not stayed unnoticed. The band has quite a list of gigs done and coming. The band made a huge leap forward and now got a whole tour scheduled. “We are about to do our first tour this fall, as in doing gigs day by day. We have not done that before”, Harri tells.
When we talked about getting forward we wondered what would be the point that the band realized they are getting big. Of course it is hard to say and Harri seems to have trouble mentioning one point of that. Taking it step by step, each new album would be a milestone as he says. So far it has always been. Wondering what would be next now that the band have released three albums we stumble upon that wish that is beyond it all, one that practically every band has and seems to be a logical step for the band considering where they are now. “For now… Maybe a good record deal” Harri says, but he quickly continues to tell that touring a lot is also part of it.

So this all being said we go back in time to figure out how the band came to create their album. How are the boys making their songs is what we wanted to know and Harri explains that he does the lyrics and vocal arrangements himself. “Teemu, our guitarist does the most of the instrumental parts and send the files to me”, he says. In the beginning of the band he was responsible for instrumentals too, but nowadays feeling happy with this way of working. When the time comes that the band starts recording new material, the band have the songs ready. Harri admits that they not always rehearsed the songs very well, making the songs more of a prototype when they start the recordings. “That is why we are recording our songs in three or four months” Harri said about it. He adds that for the next album they will go for a different approach, recording it more live than before.
Recently, Poisonblack told us their way of live recording with the latest album and we are wondering how the band sees their ideas of live recording being similar to what Poisonblack had done or something rather different, but the idea did not seem to be that clear yet. So now we got to know the work on their next album has started and Harri tells that about six/seven songs are done already. “The studio is booked already. We start recording in November” he tells and hearing that there are some songs ready we wanted to know what we can expect. According to Harri it will be more rock and roll: “We are getting old and we are not so familiar with blast beats” he says laughing.
The band has a new drummer, Rolf Pilve, so most likely this will bring a little difference in their sound as well. Rolf had replaced their previous drummer (also a founding member) Ville who had decided to quit the band.

A little step back comes when discussing the visual aspect of the band. In their latest album, the artwork plays an interesting role in the way you experience the band. Harri seemed all happy to hear that this had not stayed unnoticed and he tells: “I wanted to do artwork which has drawings and lyrics at the same page, now we got the change to do it. My good friend Anssi (red.: Korhonen) draw it based on my ideas. I am not good with my hands so I could not do it myself, but Anssi did a great job.” Besides this he tells also about the promo pictures when he continues: “I like to work with concepts in artwork. I want us to be pretty in our promotional activities. I spend a lot time with those things”
The other visual aspects we discuss is the video clips they posted on their website. The word videoclip is enough to make him grin big time so we wondered about it even more. “Our video’s are filled with some kind of violence, blood and stuff” he said and we could not pass up this opportunity to ask about Jägermeister as it is quite prominent in their video’s. We joked if they got sponsored by Jägermeister but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s their favorite drink and that is why you see the bottle in the video Harri said. “I hope that we are sponsored by them someday” he continues and that might be a good idea as they seem to be promoting it with pleasure.

Running towards the end the of the interview we wonder if Harri can gives some advice and he comes up with what seems to be one of the most sense-making advice someone can give: “Remember to rehearse! It’s the main point. There are a lot of bands and singers who are not rehearsing their own songs. That’s just lazy. Remember to rehearse”.
With these words our interview ends and we have a nice impression of the band and what they can bring in the future, we hope to see much more of them and of course you will read that all on Tempelores.

Photo’s by: Sabinevangameren.com

Links:
Beyond The Dream MySpace
Beyond The Dream Official