Steadily establishing themselves as reliable purveyors of winter metal (their term), Wolfheart over the course of eleven years continually delivers high quality aggressive music that has appeal to most of the underground. On their seventh studio record Draconian Darkness, the emphasis is on making the heavier parts heavier, the lighter parts more serene, thoughtful, and melodic – all the while using the knowledge and tools at their disposal to create more memorable material than ever before. Once again guitarist/vocalist Tuomas Saukkonen kindly graces us with his latest thoughts upon the new record, how working with producer Saku Moilanen aids the final songwriting that much more, signing with new label Reigning Phoenix Music, how touring has been going post-pandemic, the possibilities of developing an alcoholic beverage for the band, and what’s on the horizon for Wolfheart, Before the Dawn, and Dawn of Solace over the next year or two.
Dead Rhetoric: Draconian Darkness is the latest Wolfheart record. Given the consistency in terms of creative output that the group delivers, what aspects do you seek to develop further or possibly improve upon through each successive effort? Where do you try to push the band in terms of sound and style, now that the band has been together for over a decade?
Tuomas Saukkonen: It does become increasingly challenging, to top all the previous albums while writing a new one. This is the seventh album of Wolfheart, but there are also eight albums with Before the Dawn, three albums with Dawn of Solace, three albums with Black Sun Aeon. I actually counted them today, and this is my 22nd album. Of course, you always want the latest one to be the best in every aspect. It’s a lot more focus with a lot more work. Every album has a different way you want to top the previous ones. It’s not like a constant and simple race with just one lane. Every album needs more time and more focus now.
I’m going to be 44, it means that to develop any new skills to become faster or more creative or more anything, that also requires a lot more work than when I was 25 when I could learn a new instrument by looking at it. It’s a different mindset, a lot more focus in general. I don’t have any criteria – like what I want to do for the next Before the Dawn album or the next Wolfheart album. Whatever we decide to do with the new music, it somehow has to just be better than the previous ones – the playing, the production, the recording, or something, it has to be the best to deliver it.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel like you are in constant learning mode to even improve the smaller aspects of an album that the average fan may not hear on first listen?
Saukkonen: Yes. I don’t think I would be able to create that big of a contrast as a musician anymore. There would be talk in social media about how fast I became for example. If you dissect the songs from every album track by track you could pick up where the development has been.
Dead Rhetoric: Where did you want to go with the lyrical content? I know many times you’ve explored concepts of history that you like to delve into.
Saukkonen: It was pretty much the same, but I ran out of history (topics) when it comes to Finland. We did the war history with Wolves of Karelia, we did the mythology and the pagan times of early Finland with King of the North, that’s the whole Finnish history. We are an extremely young country. I wanted to keep the theme, a way of writing up, and also have a connection with the previous one. The new album is the flip side of the coin. King of the North was about the time when human beings were respecting nature on a very high level, we were worshipping animals as demigods and rulers of nature. We were worshipping thunder, rain, whatever that was connected with the nature and weather to provide for us the way we provide for our tribe, our family. The way we see ourselves in relation to nature. Man has completely fucked that up – we just kill and burn. That’s what Draconian Darkness is – our contribution to this earth, we are slowly bringing this to everybody. The album theme is not about this moment or the future, human beings have been very stupid for a long time. There are a lot of historical references, going into the future, end of the world thing, but it’s a very broad theme. It’s mainly about the behavior of the modern man.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve been working with Saku Moilanen as part of the Wolfheart team in multiple capacities – be it orchestration/keyboard work as well as behind the boards as a producer, mixer, and master person. What do you enjoy most about his abilities in both capacities and how he is able to provide that extra set of ears to flesh out the sound of the band?
Saukkonen: First of all, he’s a super talented songwriter. He has his own band Red Moon Architect, a doom band where he is composing, he is a really talented drummer, a jazz level piano player, he plays guitar, and he has his own death metal project online. In every aspect when it comes to instruments, composing, arranging, he can have super input. He’s not just a sound engineer or a producer who mainly focuses on the sound, he can actually contribute to the songwriting itself. We have recorded ten albums together, even with Dawn of Solace and he’s done some Before the Dawn work also, we’ve known each other for 15 years. We know each other well; the communication is effective. Incredibly blunt, no filter is needed, it’s also like a friendship. We spend a lot of time together, some of the communication is super easy. Working together, we both know where we are heading. He doesn’t have an authoritarian way towards things – I was in his studio today working on new Dawn of Solace songs, I can ask him how my ideas sound and I get totally honest feedback. He’s the ideal person to bounce around ideas because he doesn’t just say anything to make me happy because he is on a payroll to keep the clients happy. In every aspect I think he’s the ideal producer for me.
Dead Rhetoric: How important is it to have that outside opinion that you trust? Because sometimes you can be so guarded and safe with your own ideas, is it good to tear them apart through this extra person who can be objective?
Saukkonen: It is super important that I get this kind of feedback. So many times, I hear people say I am a perfectionist and I have a strong vision. To me, it’s not like every time he doesn’t like my idea, I automatically change things. Being able to work in an environment where there are no filters, and one of ten times when he says my ideas suck, things will change. For one album there are many things that can improve. As a songwriter I get way too protective of my ideas. Naturally I lose the ability to see things from a different angle. Most of the time I have some emotional connection for the song also. I wouldn’t be able to step outside from the box. I don’t have a fresh set of ears, having somebody who has huge talent for the songwriting and arrangements. He provides an alternative, go there instead, maybe go here instead, we see if it works out or not. His ideas bring more ideas from my head also. It’s an ongoing process. If nobody says anything, there is never a new idea.
Dead Rhetoric: The first single / video is “Grave” – an obvious choice to these ears, and I love the dual language aspects to the track as well. What can you tell us about the video treatment and any special memories / challenges with some of the shots / scenes?
Saukkonen: We spent five days in Iceland, and we shot footage for three music videos. That was by far the easiest day of them all, it was super pleasant. We didn’t have any issues with the weather. The first shooting day there were actual warnings for a snowstorm. I didn’t know that term existed. The wind is so harsh that the lava stones that are lighter than the regular stones started flying. The car rental company told us there were certain areas that we were not allowed to go to because the insurance company will not cover the costs, you will lose all the windows. I love going to Iceland, we’ve done previous videos there also.
Dead Rhetoric: How does it feel to be a part of the Reigning Phoenix Music roster? They seem to have a great mix of seasoned people who have decades of experience across other labels that could work to your benefit in understanding how to properly promote and position the band in the right channels…
Saukkonen: I think we are super lucky to be able to jump in for the new label. Napalm did a really good job for us; we spent five years on that label. At this point of our career when it’s our seventh album, we’ve been around for eleven years, now or never we need fresh ideas, we need new people, we need new ways of working to make things happen. It’s insanely competitive, this business. The only way to make it is to have the right kind of people behind you to work. Like you said, it’s not just the roster with Kerry King, Meshuggah, Amorphis, Helloween, bands like that – it’s the relationship with super professionals from different labels. They bring a lot of different working cultures from different labels and different environments. Napalm works like a Swiss clock; I had no complaint at all. In the end, we were just part of the machinery, we didn’t feel like we had somebody bringing something new to the table. Like we are seeing now with RPM. There is a new label coming to the market to begin with, and that’s a rarity nowadays.
Dead Rhetoric: Your prolific ability to deliver music in multiple outfits as well as various styles of such high quality doesn’t come as easy as one would expect, correct? Are there specific habits, traits, or work ethic aspects that you have to employ to get all the workload for these bands done in an efficient, timely manner?
Saukkonen: Yes. Writing music is the easiest part, but that’s such a small part in the running of a band. That’s the reason why I am a full-time musician now. Not that I could play that much, it takes so much time to run all the bands. Especially Wolfheart, because we are so active tour-wise, but also now with Before the Dawn coming back – we did an EP this year, we are playing festivals. Every week there are flights to book, schedules to arrange, deadlines to meet, social media to handle. That qualifies as a full-time job at the moment.
Dead Rhetoric: You were able to do a decent amount of touring as well as perform at festivals over the course of 2023 into 2024. How did these shows go, what were some of the highlights and do you feel like Wolfheart is in a better position going forward with your following back on track after the prolonged absence from touring due to the pandemic?
Saukkonen: There’s also good and bad shows and festivals. Especially 2023 was the most back to normal I was hoping for. The ticket sales and the audiences were coming back in bigger numbers. We still lost some of the festivals in Europe last year, it was a brutal time especially for some of the bigger festivals. If you don’t run the festivals two summers in a row and you do the marketing and everything, then you lose too much money to recover. It was a really good year for both bands because Before the Dawn hasn’t done any touring for twelve years. We did the tour together with Wolfheart, which was a headlining tour, which was a big step. We were able to go to Australia for the first time with Wolfheart, there were a lot of cool things happening. We are expanding, touring looks really, really good now.
Dead Rhetoric: What keeps you motivated as a musician in the metal genre?
Saukkonen: I like playing metal music. As long as I don’t come up with anything better to do, I will probably keep writing heavy metal.
Dead Rhetoric: If you had the opportunity to develop a high school or college-level course on any subject matter of your choosing outside of your expertise as being a musician or gardening, what course would you develop – and why do you think this subject matter is important for the younger generation to learn, absorb, and process?
Saukkonen: That is an absolutely excellent question – I’ve never heard that one before. It would be something about the balance of the nature. And also, not just like in the purely environmental sense. I would like to teach the basics of how to live outdoors for a week. How to make fire, how to catch a fish, what kind of stuff you could eat that is safe and healthy. Modern human beings are way too far away from nature. You don’t have to be Bear Grylls or anything and survive a month on a mountain but know the basics. Once you do those things, you see nature differently and you learn to respect those things. I would teach the future generations to be more related to nature.
Dead Rhetoric: Now that Before the Dawn has launched your own American Pale Ale beer via Masis Brewery, would there be any plans for a specific alcohol-fueled Wolfheart drink – and if so, do you have any ideas for the contents?
Saukkonen: Maybe, we need to first see how the Before the Dawn beer does. If it sells really well, I’m not much into beer. I did taste it, but to me it’s all the same. It would be cool to do something similar, but not yet. It’s too close to the Before the Dawn thing, they will be selling the beer at all the festivals we are playing this summer. Maybe something different than beer, our drummer is a huge whiskey fan so I think Wolfheart would need something more than noble in a way. Beer fits well, it’s fun – we play the shows we want to play with Before the Dawn. Wolfheart is at a different level, so it needs to be a little bit more sophisticated. Whiskey or gin – we have those highly awarded distilleries here in Finland. One of the distilleries has a gin that won the best gin in the world award twice. It’s a long way to go there.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for all things related to Wolfheart, Before the Dawn, Dawn of Solace, or any other activities under your umbrella that we can expect over the course of the next twelve months?
Saukkonen: Well, first we’ll get the new album out with Wolfheart. Then a Finnish tour, a European tour with Dark Tranquillity and Moonspell, plans to do North America in February and March 2025, another European tour before the summer then European festivals in the summer as much as possible. During that time, in January or February roughly there will be a new Dawn of Solace album out. Hopefully we’ll get to start with the new Before the Dawn material as well. Juho will also be busy with Swallow the Sun, they will have a new album out in September, so he and I will be busy touring for the next year. Looks like I’m busy…and we will do the second North American tour before the end of 2025. A very busy next eighteen months.