Poets of the Fall

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Poets of the Fall
From the left: Ollie, Captain and Mark
Background information
Origin	Helsinki, Finland
Genre(s)	Rock Alternative rock
Years active	2002 – present
Label(s)	Insomniac
Website	www.poetsofthefall.com
Members
Marko "Mark" Saaresto Olli "Ollie" Tukiainen Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen

Poets of the Fall is an independent rock band from Finland. The members are Mark (vocals/guitar), Ollie (guitar), and Captain (producer/keyboard/programming). The Poets released the singles "Late Goodbye" and "Lift" before releasing the full-length album "Signs of Life". The album went gold by selling 15,000 copies in only a couple of months and has sold more than 30,000 copies until now. It rocketed the Finnish Top 40 chart, being the number one in April and July 2005 and has spent there more than a year, which makes it one of the most successful albums in history of Finnish music in terms of having self-produced and self-distributed albums.

Poets of the Fall was formed in 2002 in Helsinki, Finland, starting with Mark and Ollie, and later joined by Captain. The song "Late Goodbye" should be mentioned as the beginning of the band's popularity, which was 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 got close ties with Remedy Entertainment, the producers 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 Mark in Stara.fi competition, "Newcomer of '05" during Musiikki & Media event, two Emma Awards for Best Newcomer of the Year and Best Debut Album of the Year and 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 was released in Sweden in September and then in Australia, Russia and Ukraine in October 2006. Poets are going to perform live in Sweden, Estonia and Russia by the end of 2006.

1 Band History
- 1.1 The Beginning (2002-2004)
- 1.2 World Recognition (2005-)
2 Discography
3 Videography
4 External links

[edit] Band History

[edit] The Beginning (2002-2004)

As stated above, Poets of the Fall began in 2002 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 the "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 select few get released, which makes each album seem like a compilation rather than using 'filler songs' like some other bands today.

Late Goodbye single

In 2003, Poets of the Fall was finally brought into a wider audience when 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 in 2004, 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 had spread worldwide, on over two million sold copies of Max Payne 2. On June 30, 2004, the "Late Goodbye" single was released. 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". The single went to the top 10 on the Finnish charts and stayed there for many months.

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

"Lift" single

On 9 September 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 the computer benchmarking program, 3DMark 05 and also 06. 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 POTF poetic style. In all of their work, they have presented a sense of style that carries over into their debut album.

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, Scandinavia, the UK, and European countries.

POTF was voted as the fresh newcomer of the 2004 year in Finland. "Lift" won second place in the best song of the year category.

On 18 December 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 visitors on their website was over 20 times bigger than normal for many days. It is still available for download here.

"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

[edit] World Recognition (2005-)

Signs of Life album

Signs of Life, the Poets' first album had been sought after, receiving more preorders than what was expected. After being released on January 19, 2005, it went up to number one in its first week on the official Finnish TOP 40 album chart. It sold gold in April of 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 was link to a secret page on the site, complete with password. 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 for a Grammy.

Signs of Life has also been released in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and South Africa. Other singles were released as radio promos from the album, "Illusion & Dream" and "Stay", following the footsteps of "Late Goodbye" and "Lift".

On 13 August 2005, POTF's second music video 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 was October 2005 when "Lift" was available for viewing online at their official site. It was pretty quiet for the group until January 19, 2006, when POTF won at the NRJ radio awards.

"Carnival of Rust" single

They were selected by voters as the "Best Finnish Breakthrough".

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", one of the more popular songs of Signs of Life. The live recording took place at Rockperry Festival, Vaasa, Finland on 15 July 2005.

In March, 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.

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, songs from the new album were played, new information was revealed, along with interviews of the band members.

Carnival of Rust album

On March 30, the "Carnival of Rust" music video was released for viewing on The Voice and MTV Finland. Their director from "Lift" continued to work with them for this project. The Poets' second album was released on April 12, 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", and 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, 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 went Platinum on December 11th 2006.