QUICKIE OF THE WEEK

QUICKIE OF THE WEEK: A short interview with Teemu Salo (Ten After Dawn)

written by Marko Jakob [originally made for #coronachronicles Gothic Empire magazine]

Pix666: Hello Teemu. The most important question right at the beginning. Are you well and are you healthy?

Teemu: Hi! Yes, I’m good 😊

Pix666: I can still remember your performance at the Helsinki Dark Electro Festival very well. Was that your last gig so far? Were there any cancellations or postponements of Ten After Dawn concerts in the meantime?

Teemu: Helsinki Dark Electro Festival was great! What else can you think when you can play with such legends like Suicide Commando, with Solar Fake we had also 2 Russian dates just before that.. Yes, that gig was our last gig so far. Some dates and events where we supposed to play or were under negotiations just before this pandemonium are postponed or canceled, for example in Sweden and in Estonia and we just have to wait a bit with them. We have also few German tour dates coming with one German band soon to be announced I think. Still this is in Autumn 2020 so let’s hope that it will happen. Of course we take this pandemonium very seriously like everyone else, but like almost any other band we are ready to hit the stage as soon as it will be possible again. And safe enough.

Pix666: When will your next concerts with an audience take place, and do you think that these Dates can be kept? All these dates supposed to be this autumn.

Teemu: Yeah like I said let’s keep our fingers crossed that those Autumn dates can be kept. Because of this pandemonium some of the possible dates are still on hold, and some are already basically negotiated but will be announced a bit later.

Pix666: The Internet is currently flooded with streaming concerts. Do you also plan to do something like that for your fans?

Teemu: We have talked frequently about streaming concerts already long before this, and that’s because we could use then easily more acoustic instruments than usually on Ten After Dawn shows. We would like to do it semi unplugged I think. We are not all living in a same city, so maybe that’s one reason that we haven’t done it yet so far, as we would like to prepare for it and so on. Thinking about technically and recomposing… that’s not a big challenge for us as we all play these acoustic instruments, guitars and so on besides synthesizers. Of course I might do something ex tempore on FB or insta some day… Maybe we are just more thinking that a real streaming concert should be also well organized, advertised and so on. At this very moment. But never say never..

Pix666: Are you currently writing new songs? When will there be news from Ten After Dawn? Are all plans still secret, or can you already reveal some of them?

Teemu: Yes, I’m writing new songs and basically I think that we have now all the songs for the album. I hope that this album will be out still this year. At the moment this is what we do so for example streaming concerts, Instagram presence etc is not so important for us. Of course we should like every minute, but in the end we are not here for the pictures.

Pix 666: How are the other guys from the band, how are your friends and families? How do you stay
in touch with them, what kind of technics do you use?

Teemu: We are all good, of course now we use mostly FB, Whatsapp, Skype and so on like most of the other people do.. we saw with Erkka just 2 days ago while we had some weeks without possibility to hang out.. I haven’t seen Toni now for a while but we have used to talk and do band things via Net all the time even before this.

Pix666: You are from Finland – what is the general mood in the country regarding the Corona crisis??

Teemu: At this very moment the mood has begun to rise a bit because the situation seems to be better than before.. There has not been a huge panic as the situation has been even much worse in many countries, but of course people have been nervous because of this. And of course.. I think that no one could believe that this could happen to any of us right now. Bars, restaurants, libraries, gyms and so on are forced to be kept closed by our government, and soon they are giving them a permissions to open with restrictions at first.. All those who can work from home are told to work from there to maximize social distancing like everywhere else.. Only 10 people meetings were allowed at first, now the maximum is 50 persons. But this has been something that I couldn’t ever believe to be happen.

Pix666: Do you believe that this crisis will change the behavior of humanity in the future?

Teemu: It’s hard to say really.. our modern society has never been in this kind of situation before.. I think that if we really have to be more careful in the future because of this, then yes.. but at least before this people have always had a certain need to go back to normal as soon as it’s been possible. But anyway I think that after this we don’t take things so much for granted anymore. And as we all have noticed, people have started to think more about what’s really important in their lives. And in this life.

Pix666: What kind of things are you doing now, for which you usually don’t have so much time? Are
there specific things like video games or going for walks? What things do you miss the most at the
moment?

Teemu: Yes, for example walks in the forest and by the sea and so on.. it has been a good way to go out and keep good safety distance. We’ve been exploring some totally new and great places near Helsinki too.
Of course I miss concerts, restaurants and night life too, some friends and that part of my family I haven’t been able to see now.. But I’d also now time to write and just to be by myself.. I’m a Finn after all 😀 I’m very social when I’m with people. But when I’m not then I don’t miss them so much all the time 😀

Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting insights into your present life – Stay healthy !

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