Poets of the Fall

Poets of the Fall

Poets of the Fall are an independent rock band from Helsinki, Finland that was founded by Marko Saaresto and Olli Tukiainen in 2003. The members are Marko "Mark" Saaresto, (lead vocals/guitar), Olli "Ollie" Tukiainen (guitar), and Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen (producer/keyboards/programming); during concerts, they are accompanied by a bassist, (Jani), a guitarist (Jaska) and a drummer (Jari).

The Poets released the singles Late Goodbye and Lift before releasing their full-length debut album Signs of Life. The album went gold by selling 15,000 copies in a little more than four months and has reached platinum status by selling more than 30,000 copies. It rocketed the Finnish Top 40 chart, being number one in weeks 4 and 7 of 2005 and has spent there more than a year (56 weeks), which makes it one of the most successful albums in the history of Finnish music in terms of having self-produced and self-distributed albums.

The song Late Goodbye should be mentioned as the beginning of the band's popularity since it is featured in Max Payne 2 as the game's ending song, as well as a recurring theme in the game. The second single, Lift, is featured in the computer benchmarking program 3DMark05 by Futuremark which has close ties with Remedy Entertainment, the developers of Max Payne 2.

The band has won several awards which include the 2004 Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Award in the "Best Original Vocal Song – Pop" category for Late Goodbye, "Best Finnish Newcomer" in YleX's "Best of 2004", "Finland's Mr. Pop 2005" for Marko Saaresto in Stara.fi competition, "Newcomer of '05" during Musiikki & Media Events, two Emma Awards for "Best Newcomer of the Year" and "Best Debut Album of the Year" and also the "Best Finnish Act" at 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Poets of the Fall want to make their music available internationally. They performed live for the first time ever outside Finland in Berlin in their first German gig during Popkomm 2005 and they released Signs of Life in selected countries. The second album, Carnival of Rust, was released in Sweden in September 2006 and then in Australia, Russia and Ukraine in October 2006. Poets performed live in Sweden, Estonia and Russia at the end of 2006. In March 2007 the band supported "Sunrise Avenue" on four gigs in Germany.

The band is currently working on the third album which is supposed to be released in spring 2008 and is still performing at the Carnival of Rust tour until September 2007.

Band history

The beginning (2003–2004)

As stated above, Poets of the Fall began in 2003 with the collaboration of Mark and Ollie. After a small amount of time, Captain came aboard. This brought three different worlds together to form POTF: a rock singer, jazz guitarist, and an "industrial-machine-trance-man". The group has produced enough music to be released on several albums. Well over one hundred songs have been written, but only the selected few get released. This fact makes each album seem like a compilation, the albums contain no 'filler songs' like most other band's do.

File:POTF Late Goodbye.jpg

Late Goodbye single

In 2003, Sam Lake, a scriptwriter of Remedy Entertainment asked Mark to write a song for their upcoming game, Max Payne 2. When the game was released, interest in Poets skyrocketed all around the world. Shortly after, Late Goodbye won first place at the annual G.A.N.G. awards in San Jose, California. The ceremony was televised on MTV International and G4TV, but the Poets were unable to attend due to arrangements elsewhere.

Since then, Late Goodbye has spread worldwide on over two million sold copies of Max Payne 2. On June 30, 2004, the Late Goodbye single was released in Finland. It contained many different variations of the title track (including the radio edit, album edition, unplugged edition, and piano instrumental), along with a bonus track called Everything Fades which can also be found on the band's award-winning debut album Signs of Life.

On June 28, 2007, it was announced that the song has been nominated by Helsingin Sanomat as "most beloved Finnish rock song".

The Poets were also runner ups later in the year for a performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics, alongside the chosen artist, Björk.

File:POTF Lift.jpg

"Lift" single

On September 9 2004, Poets' second single Lift was released, continuing to stay true to the band's style. Just like Late Goodbye, Lift too got a considerable amount of exposure as it appeared with Futuremark's computer benchmarking program, 3DMark05. The software spread Lift around the world in over eleven million downloads.

The additional track that was included with the Lift single, The Beautiful Ones kept the band's poetic style. In all of their work, they have presented a sense of style that carries over into their albums.

Fans from all over the world log onto the Poets of the Fall website everyday. Most of them are from Finland, U.S.A., Germany, the UK, and other European countries.

POTF was voted as the fresh newcomer of the year 2004 in Finland. Lift won second place in the best song of the year category, Late Goodbye reached rank 7.

On December 18 2004, the Poets released a net download single entitled Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day for about three weeks. After the song's release, the number of visitors of their website was over 20 times higher than on average days. It is still available for download at potfmedia.com.

"Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day..."

... Is all about hope. Hope, now, is a tricky thing. A real double edged sword. It is the sole power that keeps mankind on its feet. Heads up and at it. Even in time of crisis. An invaluable force of nature. But as hope can be true... it can also be false. We choose the way to go, but will the road set us free? I wrote the lyrics to 'Maybe tomorrow is a better day' in context with this duality. In other words, where there is hope there must be doubt. There is no one without the other. And so, devilishly, parts of the lyric can be experienced either as doubting or as giving true hope... it is up to you to give it meaning.

— Mark

World recognition (2005–present)

File:POTF Signs of Life.jpg

Signs of Life album

Signs of Life, the Poets' first album, had been sought after, receiving more preorders than what was expected. On January 17, 2005, it was announced that the album had been selected as the "Album of the Week" on the Finnish national radio channel YleX. After being released on January 19, 2005, it went up to number one in its first week on the official Finnish TOP 40album chart. It sold gold on May 24, 2005 and has spent 56 weeks on the list, reaching platinum sales on April 26, 2006. This makes Signs of Life one of the most successful albums in Finland released in 2005.

Also included with the album is a link to a password-protected secret page on the website. On the page, a remixed version of Lift (entitled Dramadance Remix) can be found along with several wallpapers from the album book artwork.

The album was awarded the Emma Award at the annual Emma gala for the "Best Debut Album of the Year 2005" and the band was awarded in the "Best Newcomer of the Year" category. An Emma Award is Finland's equivalent to a Grammy. Signs of Life has also been released in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and South Africa. Other songs from the album were released as radio promos, Illusion & Dream and Stay, following the footsteps of Late Goodbye and Lift.

On 13 August, 2005, POTF's second music video Lift was released for Finnish television airing. From this point forward, Signs of Life has been released on iTunes in the countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. It went straight to number one in the Finnish iTunes-charts. On October 1 2005 the Lift-video was made available for online-viewing at the Poets' official website. It was pretty quiet for the group until January 19, 2006, when POTF won at the NRJ radio awards. They were selected by voters as the "Best Finnish Breakthrough" .

File:POTF COR.jpg

"Carnival of Rust" single

On February 9, 2006, POTF made an announcement of their upcoming single to be released on March 22. Carnival of Rust included two versions of the title track (a radio edit and album edition), along with an exclusive live recording of Don't Mess With Me. The live recording took place at Rockperry Festival, Vaasa, Finland on 15 July 2005.

On March 12, 2006, the Poets' announced their tour dates of the "Carnival of Rust" tour. It was also brought to the fans' attention that their drummer, Tapio left the band to pursue his career in photography. Taking his place is Jari. They remain close to their former drummer and wish him the best of luck in his chosen career.

File:Potf coralbum.jpg

Carnival of Rust album

Before the next single release, it was brought to attention that the Carnival of Rust album went straight to the top on Finnish radio channel YleX due to fan votes. It was recognized as "Album of the Week" after remaining number one for three weeks straight. During the week of April 3, 2006, songs from the new album were played, new information was revealed, along with interviews of the band members.

On March 30, 2006, the Carnival of Rust music video was released for viewing on The Voice and MTV Finland. Their director from Lift, Tuomas "Stobe" Harju, continued to work with them for this project. The Poets' second album was released on April 12, 2006, after being delayed from its original release date, April 5. The album includes 11 new songs, a remastered edition of Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day, as well as the music video to the title track.

Carnival of Rust followed in its predecessor's footsteps on April 19, when the Top40 show announced that the Poets would have two albums on their list. After a week on store shelves, the album went straight to number one on the Finnish charts.

On May 10, 2006, Signs of Life was dropped from the Top40 list, where Carnival of Rust continued to reside on the higher end of the list, where it sold gold only three weeks after being released and platinum on December 11 2006. The album has been released in Germany on April 20, 2007.

Discography

Albums

• Signs of Life January 19, 2005 [23]
  Signs of Life
  January 19, 2005
• Carnival of Rust April 12, 2006 [37] September 12, 2006 April 20, 2007 [41]
  Carnival of Rust
  April 12, 2006 September 12, 2006 April 20, 2007

Singles

• Late Goodbye June 30, 2004 [17]
  Late Goodbye
  June 30, 2004
• Lift September 9, 2004
  Lift
  September 9, 2004
• Carnival of Rust March 22, 2006 December 1 2006
  Carnival of Rust
  March 22, 2006 December 1 2006
• Sorry Go 'Round August 16, 2006
  Sorry Go 'Round
  August 16, 2006
• Locking Up the Sun November 29, 2006
  Locking Up the Sun
  November 29, 2006

Other tracks

• Maybe Tomorrow Is A Better Day

(Free download is available at potfmedia.com)

Videography

• Late Goodbye (May 21, 2005)
• Lift (August 13, 2005)
• Carnival of Rust (March 30, 2006)
• Locking up the Sun (November 2, 2006)

Awards and nominations

Awards

Year	Award	Title
2004	Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards	Best Original Vocal Song – Pop (Late Goodbye)
2004	YleX's "Best of 2004"	Best Finnish Newcomer
2005	Musiikki & Media Events	Newcomer of '05
2005	Stara.fi	Mr. Pop 2005 (Marko Saaresto)
2006	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Finnish Breakthrough 2005
2006	Emma Awards	Best Newcomer of the year
2006	Emma Awards	Best Debut Album of the year (Signs of Life)
2006	MTV Europe Music Awards	Best Finnish Band
2006	The Voice	Best Music Video 2006 (Carnival of Rust)
2006	TV2's Musiikki-TV	Best Finnish Music Video of All Times (Carnival of Rust)
2007	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Finnish Band
2007	Muuvi Awards	Bronze Muuvi Award (Carnival of Rust)
2007	Muuvi Awards	Muuvi People's Choice Award (Carnival of Rust)

Nominations

Year	Award	Title	Rank
2004	YleX's "Best of 2004"	Best Finnish song (Lift)	2nd
2004	YleX's "Best of 2004"	Best Finnish song (Late Goodbye)	7th
2005	Radio City	Album of the year (Signs of Life)	7th
2006	Stara.fi	Mr.Pop 2006 (Marko Saaresto)	2nd
2007	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Finnish Album (Carnival of Rust)	-
2007	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Nordic Band	-
2007	Helsingin Sanomat	Most Beloved Finnish Rock Song (Late Goodbye)	-

External links

• Official website (available in English, Finnish and German)
• Official MySpace (contains four complete POTF-songs to listen to)
• MySpace of the American Poets of the Fall-Sreet Team
• MySpace of the Finnish Poets of the Fall-Sreet Team
• MySpace of the Spanish Poets of the Fall-Sreet Team
• German Poets of the Fall-Sreet Team
• Russian fan website / also English version
• Spanish fan website
• Lyrics
• Poets of the Fall Media
• Music Samples
• Finnbands.com-Interview