Tarot

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Interview : Zachary from "Tarot"

When and how was your band created?
There was so many different metal bands, put up together by me and Marco before Tarot and actually the band called Purgatory was the original Tarot. Lineup was Marco, Pecu, I and Harri Veteli. That was 1984. Harri left the band by personal reasons until we got our first record deal.
Later our second guitarist Mako.H. who played first two albums decided to left the band because we didn't went along very well anymore. In same year 1987 we met Janne Tolsa in some gig and we ask him to join the band. I think rest is history.

Were is the name of the band coming from?
Late in the year 1985 we got our first record deal and the record company asked us to change our name to something easier to pronounce for Finnish people and in some drinking session we ended up with the name Tarot. Nothing special in that.

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
We all prefer so called old school metal bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, etc. You can find our roots straight from there.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician / singer (in Finland)?
We always have had great metal bands in Finland, but not enough professional people to do all these things around the bands, we have been on our own. Today it is different, Universal and Spinefarm/King Foo entertainment are very good examples of it. Finnish metal scene is so small that normal people ignore it, they are listening only folk or dance artists, that's pity.

How could you qualify your style of music?
Now you ask me difficult question, maybe it is this NWOBHM(new wave of British heavy metal).

Have you ever considered the possibility to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
We all stand for the heavy metal and I hope we don't ever have to play nothing else for the living.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
If you need specific answers you have to ask them from Marco, he makes our lyrics. Lots of songs tells about sci-fi mixed in some mystic stories and dark side of human mind and some of the lyrics are personal, or so I have understood. That's all I know.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
I think it is Do you wanna live forever from the album To live forever. That was the album where Janne played keys first time in our band and with that song everything locked up together so greatly.

Do you tour regularly? Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
We are touring as much as it is possible in Finland and if I know correctly everybody likes more playing live. Studio work is always very stressing and sometimes even frustrating, you will never know how the new songs are doing when record is out.

During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
Composing the songs are hardest part, but when you have done the finishing touch, you can listen the whole song and start to dig it. Normally after studio sessions you have to take some distance to the albums, but with this Suffer our pleasures album the whole band loved the album straight after finishing it.

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
As I said before we listen older stuff mostly, alright there's so much great new bands, but it is really hard to find a time to listen them. Normally Judas Priest's Painkiller do the job.

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song?
I can't say only a one song, but there's couple of the best of the best, Deep Purple's Burn, Black Sabbath's Heaven and hell, Rainbow's Kill the king, they all have the elements what good metal song have to have , great melodies, solos, lyrics and rage, what more you can need?

Internet is something interesting for musicians because it gives them the opportunity to touch a larger audience but it is also a threat for them (regarding the copyrights). What is your opinion regarding this medium?
In my opinion internet is great help for the bands like us, with bigger bands this pirate shit is bad surely, but in our case it really doesn't matter.

What are your actual and future projects?
We are expecting good future from those releases in foreign countries and hoping to get touring in Europe. We have been starting to write a new material and if everything goes well, we can start to record them sometime late next year.
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois / 2003