THE WITHERING DARKNESS OF EVEMASTER

Updated: 04/02/04

Evemaster was conceived in 1996 by mastermind Tomi Mykkänen. A song had been written – one that did not fit in with the two other bands he was involved with at the time. One composition lead to many, and Evemaster became a full time venture. Featuring blackened death from the Finnish underground, Wither is the second musical expulsion from this collective of musicians. Featured on the new recording are session musicians from Nightwish and Children Of Bodom. Highwire Daze emailed Tomi Mykkänen to learn more about the musical darkness known as Evemaster. Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Evemaster and how long the band has been together.
I'm Tomi Mykkänen and I'm the mastermind behind Evemaster. I make all the music and lyrics and play guitars and bass in studio. In our live line-up I play guitar and sing backing vocals. Evemaster was born in February 1996 when I made the first song that didn't fit for neither of my two at the time active bands Mortal God and SoulSet. So I decided I needed to form new medium/band to channel this music that was coming out of my head. Our first demo was recorded on New Years Eve (master) 1996. First album Lacrimae Mundi was released in June 1998 and now after some time our second album Wither is out.

Describe the music of Evemaster to someone who has never heard it before.
The first demo In Thine Majesty and the first album Lacrimae Mundi were both in the same vein that being dark metal with some doom and black influences but still very melodic. The new album Wither is a lot heavier and not black-metalish anymore. It's more in the deathmetal-vein but still it's even more melodic than LM. And that is the main thing behind Evemaster; the vocals are harsh and aggressive so we back them up with lots and lots of guitar melodies/harmonies.

Which member of Evemaster is also in Children Of Bodom and how did he get involved with the band?
The session-drummer Jaska Raatikainen plays in CoB. He's not a real member of Evemaster, he just plays the drums on the album. He's also promised to be available for future recordings as well, but he's so occupied with CoB that he cannot be our gig-drummer.

With your music being so different from Nightwish, how did Marco Hietala become involved with the project?
Well, Marco's own band, TAROT, is a Finnish classic heavy metal band and we wanted to make a cover of their song Wings Of Darkness. So I called him and asked for his permission to re-make the song. He said that it's okay while being a bit surprised why we want to cover them. Haha! But anyways, we talked for a while and then it hit me ... it would be an excellent idea to have the original vocalist share the vocals with our vocalist and make the song even more meaningful. He was all for it so he came to the studio when needed and to the summer-cottage-booze-fest after that. Haha!

Where did you get the ideas and inspirations for the lyrics on Wither?
Some of the lyrics on older songs come from my interest towards shamanism and all natural beliefs. On the newer songs there are some more personal and social lyrics. I used to write these forecast-lyrics" but now I've tried to have more content on them. I'm very skeptical against organized religion and I think that people should be intelligent enough to make their own minds on what to believe in and how you should live your life. At least I don't need anybody telling me that. So all these things can be found in my lyrics. The idea for the next album is that it will be a concept album so there I might be able to broaden the lyrical content even more.

Has Evemaster ever played live or do you plan to do so in the future?
Yes we have. In 1999 we played 2 gigs in Poland; we had our own headlining gig and the other one was in Metal Mania Festival with such bands as Samael, Grip Inc, Anathema, Lacuna Coil, Vader, etc. etc. After those there's been quite a while but we now have a consistent live line-up and we are just starting to play more gigs. Actually our first gig with this new line-up was on last Saturday (6th of February)! We are at the moment lining up more gigs and we already have some confirmed. All of them in Finland.

Where in Finland is Evemaster from and what is the metal scene like there?
We are mainly from Lappeenranta, which is located in south-east part of Finland near the Russian border. Lappeenranta and surroundings is a pretty good place considering the scene. We have here such bands as Battlelore, Kotiteollisuus (sings in Finnish, really successful here in Finland), Mokoma (same as Kotiteollisuus), Carcosa, Scent Of Flesh, Twilightning, ... Also the quite famous ASTIA-studios are located here in Lappeenranta.

With Crash Music releasing Wither in the States, is there any chance of Evemaster coming over to play some shows?
Well, that depends quite heavily on the sales and Crash Music's will to bring us over there. Quite frankly I don't see it happening but you really never know, right? If the album surprisingly starts selling like strawberries (a lot!) then everything's possible. We'd love to come over there to show you some Finnish fun! ... and maybe show you Americans how the sauna really should be experienced... Hahah!

In addition to Evemaster, what other bands are you involved with?
I play in a "stoner-rock" band called Elephant Bell, in some dark-rock-with-prog-elements band called Shamos and in this 80’s influenced glam-fun band called Baroness. None of these aren't really that active at the moment so Evemaster is the priority. Me and Jarno also have this small label called Vortex Motions Records, which we are starting to make bigger this year.

What would you like a listener to remember first and foremost after hearing your new CD?
The greatness of the album!!! I want their first thought to be "oh it ended already. Have to have another spin.". We've tried to build the album so that it won't open totally at first listen but it must be listened to carefully 5-10 times to hear and understand what it's about.

What are the future plans for Evemaster?
We're starting the gigging and hopefully the sales are getting better and better abroad so we'd be able to play some gigs/festivals outside Finland. Also I should start making new songs for the new album, which we've thought of recording later this year (Wither was released here in Finland in May 2003 so it's about time to start making new material).

If the world were suddenly to come to an end, what song would you want to hear before the final explosion?
That would be either Green Carnation's Light of Day, Day of Darkness or Sleep's long version of Jerusalem to prolong the ending a bit and to set the right mood for it. Hahahaha! On the other hand why prolong it... Napalm Death's You Suffer or Dead would be blasting ways to go!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions!
Thank you Ken for this nice interview! Hopefully we'll see you on tour sometime!


EVEMASTER LINKS

EVEMASTER: Their Official Home Page!
CRASH MUSIC: The Record Label for Evemaster!
THE HIGHWIRE DAZE HOME PAGE: Return to the Main Page!

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