When and how was your band created?
Dramatuner’s story can be traced back to year 2003, and we still have songs and riffs in our live set from that period. That was also about the time also we found our current form.

Where is the name of the band coming from?
There is no special story behind the name. We just sat down for thinking (and drinking), and by the time our livers refused to filter any more alcohol we had come up with the name Dramatuner. You know.
..And on the seventh day band members ended their work which they had made and suffered enormous hangover.

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Kingston Wall was the first big thing for me. It has been delightful notice over the years that their compositions are actually really good. Another major influence is Porcupine Tree, for example In Absentia album is something so perfect, musically as well as sound wise. Steven Wilson has done amazing things also as producer, like on Opeth’s Deliverance. Camel and Opeth are also major influencers; their composition and arrangement are amazing, and somehow in same way. I guess Mr. Ã…kerfeldt has listened his fare share of Camel. Tool’s approach to music, especially on rhythmic sector, has been and still is very influential and Frank Zappa has show that anything is possible in music. Gordian Knot’s contrapuntal compositions are top of the line in this category, but they don’t quite fit into the influences category as I haven’t have heart to start rationalizing them. I’m probably afraid that it might somehow ruin the magical feeling of the songs.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
I don’t consider myself as musician, but perhaps positive side could be that here is plenty of good music to take influences from and the atmosphere is good for melancholic moods. Flip side of the coin is the fact that only very few musicians can perform original and interesting music, and gain financial profit from it. The volume of buying customers is just too small, and most of the support, especially financial, is directed to bands that fit directly to today’s popular mainstream. I can’t see the advantage in this kind of behavior, it just tends to create depressing clones of existing bands, clones with really short lifecycle.

How could you define your style of music?
Hmm, this is a hard one, and actually quite a problem for us. I guess Dramatuner is playing progressive rock of some sort, but from my point of view the definition of our music style is similar to that strange force that drags the shower curtain against innocent washer; unfortunately undefined so far.

During the years how has your musical style changed?
Maybe it has become bit more complex, but also more unanimous at the same time. As self-confident as it may sound, I think we have developed as songwriters, but then again the whole process of writing and arranging a song is much more time consuming for us nowadays, in some cases almost ad nausea.

How do explain these changes?
There is probably also a rational explanation for this, but perhaps learned something on a way. At least we have developed a bit as players. Nowadays we don’t have to skip any ideas or parts due the fact that we can’t play them. This gives more freedom to compose quite bizarre riffs and odd time rhythms. Mainly these changes can be explained by the way our listening
conventions have changed, and they have.

What are topics you treat in your songs?
Well, Veikko is the responsible over this, but I think our songs usually describe a mental life of slightly melancholic person, or sometimes they are just painting a snapshot of mysterious moment produced by twisted imagination. Sometimes words are created to be just “subtitles for the composed music”, something that might sound meaningless without the audio context.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
At the moment my favorite is Signal. Somehow it sounds really straightforward even though it’s pretty complex. It’s also pleasant piece to play, with some unorthodox ingredients like the soloing trumpet.

Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
My experiences from studio aren’t that delightful, so I must say live. Rewarding aspect performing live is also the expressions on people’s faces when they fall into the atmosphere of the song.

During the process of making a song, what is the moment that you prefer?
The final “fine tuning” part. This the moment when players are familiar with all the different parts of the song, as it has already been compiled couple of times, but final form have stayed unresolved. It’s the moment when wildest ideas usually prove to be the best ones.

A stupid question but… what is among all the songs you’ve been listening in your life the BEST song?
Hmm, it’s pretty hard to pinpoint only one, but I guess it could be Opeth’s Deliverance. This song is just pure magic. One of the fascinating things about this song is that it takes approximately 9 minutes until songs title is sang and at that point there is nothing left to be added, just one of the best instrumental outros ever. This song has also made me question the common misbelieve that there is only one Satan/Devil/Whatever. Sounds to me like there are two tightly co-operating fellows performing their task..

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
I think it’s excellent channel for information, even though the amount of information is confusing. What comes to piracy, at least I tend to actually buy the records I really like, even though I would have already downloaded it from the Internet. I guess the battle against piracy is already lost.

What are your projects ?
Be finally able to finish all the loose songs that have been hanging around for too long time now. And of course throw a gig or two. Perhaps to figure out the definition for our music style..

What “image” do you have of French music?
Earlier my image of French music was based on Jordy and Jet’aime, but luckily our bass player Heikki, who has lived in France for decade or so, has guided me bit deeper to this sector and made bands like Lofofora and Shout familiar. Worth mentioning might be also that our drummer Antti claims to be big S.A.S. De L’Argilière fan.