Underwater Sleeping Society – 07-03-2009

Interview with: Underwater Sleeping Society
By: Sabine van Gameren

Underwater Sleeping Society is on the road; they released their new album “The Dead Vegas” and now it is time to bring their music to the people. As I meet up with them in Den Bosch, Netherlands the band surely made an impression on the streets already driving in a fragile, pink tour van. Pink?! Yes, Pink is the new black! They proudly named it “Tyttö”, which is Finnish for: Girl.
Okko Nieminen (vocals, guitar), Olli Varis (keyboard) and Jussi Hietala (bass) joined me to a pub down the street for this interview.

Finland’s most publicly known label for indie rock music is Fullsteam records. When hearing the music of a band like Underwater Sleeping Society it is queer to think that they would be signed there as well. Horribly wrong, since the band is signed under Backstage Alliance, a quite young label in Finland. Olli explains that Backstage Alliance comes from a fusion between Merceedees and Wolfgang records. “We got in touch with two guys, Jussi and Paavo when Backstage Alliance had not been formed yet.”
Underwater Sleeping Society was part of Merceedee’s back then. “It was a small indie label back then that fits more into the image of Fullsteam.”
Nowadays there are two divisions in the Backstage Alliance; the hard rock division, which has artists like Bloodpit as keyartist and the indie rock division where Underwater Sleeping Society falls under. Whether the band is happy with this is a bit in debate as Jussi comments with a suppressed abhor: “All the money goes to the hard rock division.”
After a short silence Olli adds: “We make the better music, but we don’t get the money.”

About the album
This bitterness fades away as soon as we start talking about the recordings of their latest release “The Dead Vegas”. It seems like the band got what they wanted in the end as they started talking about it proudly.
As soon as I hit the topic of the new album the band starts telling that they recorded the album in the Seawolf studio’s on Suomenlinna, an island located close to the harbor of Helsinki. “We practically lived there for three weeks” says Okko with a smile on his face. They made clear they are happy with the way they worked on this album, the mixing of the album is done in Göteborg, Sweden and the mastering in New York. “It was quite an international project”, says Olli.
Before you start wondering yourself about how it was possible to do it this way, as they did not seem too happy about the budget they gained for it. Jussi tells “After all we did get the money, but we have to pay it back.”
The album before “The Dead Vegas” was a 2007 release, when the band was still under Merceedee’s. In between, the band has played many live shows and have been playing abroad as well before they started working on “The Dead Vegas”. Much new experiences and the band must have been progressed a lot. “I think, in every area we are better. Better sounds, mixing is better, singing is better”,says Olli. There is not any band that would say any different about their latest release so Okko goes forth on this by explaining more: “We wanted to make the songs more simple and catchy. Easier for the listeners.”
None of them seem to feel very comfortable in coming out for it as it would be a commercial step. In the end the record is only out shortly and the future can only tell more about the success of the album. Okko seems to have no idea in what direction it will be going. “I don’t know if we succeeded, but I would not call it better or worse, it’s just different than our former albums.”

About the songs
As we were talking about the album in general mostly, there came a point where we started discussing the songs on the album more individually.
The album starts off with “Saw You At My Funeral”, a title that might caught people’s interest and make them wondering more about the story behind it. Okko seems to understand that without being asked and starts explaining a bit about the lyrics: “The lyrics started from a dream I had. I was a ghost at my own funeral, which was very weird. It was a strong dream, such a one you will remember for a long time.”
Olli adds that the song actually started as a folk song, but progressed into what it is now. Furthermore he says: “Okko did some chords, the verse came in studio. Jussi had that really cool c-part which we added there.”
The fact that the title is an eye catchers for the album seems something they like. “The lyrics carry the song” says Olli while Okko just adds that he is happy with it as it is now.
“Hurry or Wurry” is the second song. Jussi immediately starts telling about his small guitar. “We played it on our last European tour’s soundchecks” says Olli. Okko tells that it was born on a party but had a different chorus back then. To demonstrate it was different, they start humming it enthusiastically. About the new chorus he says: “I made the chorus at home in the last minutes. We were not sure if it is good enough. I started to like it later.”
The band seems to work this way often. “Trapdoors”, for example is also a song that has parts in it who are made long ago. In this case the melody. “It was called ‘Nighttime’ back then” says Okko.
The next one on the album is one where Jussi and Olli agree about as being their favorite song: “Body Blues” It started way harder but they had to keep it down a bit. “When six guys start to play it sounds really heavy” explains Okko. The song got mostly born during rehearsals. While Olli and Okko both agree that the C-part is what they like most about the song, Jussi is just enjoying his beer. “We really succeeded with that song”, concludes Olli.
When we started talking about “Painting The Dead” we got interrupted by the house parrot (no joke!), but soon Olli carries on to tell that it was actually called “China White”. Quite some changes have been made to it, since the band was afraid that it would sound too hard. “We were afraid that it sounded like The 69 Eyes”, jokes Olli. Everyone laughs and Okko quickly adds: “Then we decided it sounds like Trail of Dead”
“Counting Stars” is a song that lights a little fire in them. Olli: “It sounds like modern rock! It is something that might be international, like The Killers.” With this being said the ambition of these three guys in front of me to get that international exposure seems more clear than ever before during our interview. As most of the lyrics, these were also written in the studio. “I like to let the music guide me” said Okko.
As soon as the ballad “Antiques” comes up, the table changes a bit into a pets place. “I think the best part of the song is the sheep part” says Okko and suddenly all three of them were imitating sheep.
“Accidents” is the song that gets most airplay on Finnish radio as the band tells me. The song started as a joke in the rehearsal space. Olli: “It is very simple compared to our normal stuff.” As the band is getting a lot of airplay of it, it might be their big hope for a hit. Even though the band seems to have a lot of fun about this, it seems to be a commercial choice to place it on the album as well. “We needed a hit on our album”, says Okko, but Olli says it straight: “We need the money”. In the end the band seems to enjoy the success of the song and really likes to play it live. “Every place we go, when we play that song, people start dancing” explains Olli.
Much deeper than “Accidents” is “Golem” which is about a monster. About the story behind it Okko tells: “It is wandering around, knocking on the studio in the dark January nights. It’s a metaphor to bad, bad relations. Like: a guy beating his wife.” The band is not really happy with the way it was recorded. Olli even admits that it is his least favorite. Okko has some more to say about it: “The tom-toms came later. They are not on the record. I only did the noise part and then the guy in New York who mastered it had to double it there. Now there are the tom-toms from the beginning. How it should have been recorded. I am not happy with that. The live version is much better”.
“This Might Have Happened If We Made Your Home Ours” is based on a true story. It is Okko’s favorite as the story appears to him. One of the exceptional songs where the lyrics were written before the studio. Okko tells: “It is about a house in Porvoo, where I was suppose to move in but I decided to move to Helsinki. Three weeks later, the house burnt down. One guy who lived upstairs set the place on fire. He confessed that he did it. Fortunately, one guy who moved into that building said to me that he liked to live minimalistic. He actually saved the guy from upstairs. But well, this is just what might have happened as it was my house. I could have lost everything.”
About the last song on the album “The End is Just A Dawn” there is less to tell. Okko said he could not remember what he was thinking or why he liked it. Then, he sets up an angel voice and says: “I promise I won’t do it again” which made everyone laugh.

About what more
After hearing all about the album , the tour of the guys still has many more dates to go. What will we hear from them soon? As the topic of video’s comes up there is a bit of confusion. According to Okko there are three video’s coming up: “Counting Stars”, “Hurry or Wurry” and “The End Is Just A Dawn”
“Hurry or Wurry” will be just the band playing, he tells. But the other two will be animated. The confusion is about the one which will have puppet animations in it. Olli thought to remember that It was “Accidents” instead of “Counting Stars”. We’ll have to wait patiently to see what will come up.

Links:
Underwater Sleeping Society MySpace