Poets of the Fall

Poets of the Fall
Poets of the Fall performing at Columbia Club in Berlin on 24 April 2008 – left to right: Tukiainen, Snellman, Saaresto, Mäkinen
Background information
Origin	Helsinki, Finland
Genres	Alternative rock
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Insomniac Remote Music
Associated acts	Old Gods of Asgard, Phoenix Effect, Playground, Pohjoinen Syke
Website	www.poetsofthefall.com
Members	Markus Kaarlonen Marko Saaresto Olli Tukiainen Jani Snellman Jaska Makinen Jari Salminen

Poets of the Fall (POTF) is a Finnish rock band from Helsinki, Finland. The group consists of Marko Saaresto (lead vocals), Olli Tukiainen (lead guitar) and Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen (keyboards, production). On tour the band is supported by Jani Snellman (bass guitar), Jaska Mäkinen (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Jari Salminen (drums, percussion). The band has sold over 100,000 albums in Finland.

History

Early years (2003–2004)

Finnish rockers Poets of the Fall - singer Marko, guitarist Olli and keyboardist Captain - started out their musical adventure from scratch in 2003. Marko sold everything he had to invest in pursuing the love of his life, music, with his buddies Olli and Captain. He moved into his parents' basement, when he couldn't keep a place of his own any longer. The guys then built a little studio of their own in Captain's living room for the recording and producing sessions, and kept an office in Olli's beat up old car. The result of the recording sessions was a blend of pop, rock, metal and industrial sounds. Later the guys were joined by guitarist Jaska, bassist Jani and drummer Jari. The band was founded in 2003 with the collaboration of Saaresto and Tukiainen who had written multiple songs for Saaresto's previous band Playground and performed with Finnish jazzband Pohjoinen Syke previously.

In 2003, Saaresto's friend Sami Järvi, a script-writer working at Remedy Entertainment handed Saaresto a poem he had written, asking him to turn it into a song to use in Remedy's video game Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. The song, entitled Late Goodbye, was used as the ending-theme of the game as well as a recurring motif, being sung and whistled by multiple characters. It was produced by Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen, who joined the band shortly after due to Saaresto and Tukiainen liking his work.

Kaarlonen being a former employee of benchmark-developer Futuremark, POTF were offered to have their song Lift included in the 2005-literation of Futuremark's benchmarking software 3DMark, which exposed the band to a wider audience than Max Payne 2 had done.

In order to keep complete control and freedom over the band, the members founded their own independent record label, Insomniac, on which they have released all their CDs as of now.

On 30 June 2004, the Poets released their debut single Late Goodbye in Finland which was followed by Lift on 9 September 2004. The songs charted No. 14 and No. 8 on the Finnish single charts and reached No. 2 and No. 7 in YleX's 2004-voting for "Best Finnish song". POTF were also voted "Fresh Newcomer of 2004" by YleX. The videos for both songs were directed by Tuomas "Stobe" Harju. POTF performed at Popkomm 2005 in Berlin.

On 18 December 2004, the Poets released a free download single on their website Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day to market the release of their debut album Signs of Life. After having been taken offline, it was remastered and reissued on the band's second album Carnival of Rust.

Signs of Life (2005–2006)

The band's debut album Signs of Life was released in Finland on 19 January 2005, followed by iTunes on 25 May 2005. It entered the Finnish Top 40 album chart at number one and has been certified platinum by the Finnish IFPI. The album was awarded the Emma Award for the "Best Debut Album of the Year 2005" and the band received the "Best Newcomer of the Year"-Award.

Accompanying the album, the band released a video for the song Lift, directed by Tuomas "Stobe" Harju, and used the songs Stay and Illusion and Dream as promotional radio singles. The album contains a password granting access to a secret page on poetsofthefall.com that hosts a remix of the song Lift, entitled "Dramadance Remix" as well as wallpapers made from the Lift-video and the album-artwork.

The title Signs of Life is a reference to the Pink Floyd-instrumental of the same name released in 1987.

Carnival of Rust (2006–2007)

Having won the "Best Finnish Breakthrough"-Award at the NRJ Radio Awards, POTF released their third single, entitled Carnival of Rust in Finland on 22 March 2006 with a release in Germany following on 1 December 2006. The single, which entered the Finnish charts at No. 2, features a radio- and an album-edit as well as a live-recording of Don't Mess With Me, the fourth track on Signs of Life, from the band's performance at Rockperry Festival, Vaasa, Finland on 15 July 2005.

On 30 March 2006, the band released the video to Carnival of Rust which shows a gas-masked woman visiting an old carnival, and also references every song from the band's second album of the same name, became hugely popular in Finland, winning two Muuvi Awards as well as the YLE Audience Choice Award as "Best Finnish Music Video of All Time". It was also voted "Best Music Video 2006" by The Voice. In 2009, the video was remastered by Elmeri Raitanen as his bachelor-thesis in visual and media arts at Lahti Institute of Design and reissued in high definition.

The Poets' second album Carnival of Rust was released in Finland on 12 April 2006 and has since been released in Sweden, Australia, Ukraine, Russia, Germany and on iTunes. It includes 11 new songs, a remastered version of Maybe Tomorrow is a Better Day, as well as the music video to the title track. The cover, which sees the return of the lollipop from the first album, was designed by Tuomas Harju.

Carnival of Rust also went straight to No. 1 on the Finnish charts. It has been certified platinum. It was selected as one of the best albums 2006 by Finland's largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, and was nominated for "Best Finnish Album" at the NRJ Radio Awards as well as "Best Rock Album" at the Emma Awards in 2007.

Revolution Roulette (2008–2009)

In 2008, POTF redesigned their moth-logo and also changed the font used to display their bandname. They also participated in the Voice's CD compilation Livenä Vieraissa, with a cover version of Chris Cornell's song "You Know My Name", and their own song "Diamonds for Tears". In the same year, POTF signed Phoenix Effect, the band of former Sunrise Avenue-guitarist Janne Kärkkäinen to their Insomniac-label and produced their debut album Cyanide Skies with Saaresto / Tukiainen performing additional vocals / guitar work. The album was released on 18 February 2009 in Finland and entered the Finnish album charts at No. 22. POTF also make a cameo-appearance in the video to Phoenix Effect's song "King See No Evil".

Poets of the Fall released their next single called The Ultimate Fling in Finland on 6 February 2008. The single features three variations of the title track (a radio-edit, an album-edit and an impromptu-version) as well as a live recording of Fire, the opening track of the band's second album Carnival of Rust which was recorded during the Poets' performance at Ankkarock Festival 2007 on 5 August. The single charted at No. 2 in the Finnish singles charts. Months after the release of the single, the band published the accompanying video which consists of fan-recorded footage of the band performing at various gigs.

The third POTF-album, entitled Revolution Roulette, was released in Finland and on iTunes on 26 March 2008. Its cover was designed by Tuomas Harju and features a giant padlock with a built-in roulette, abandoning the lolipop used on the previous album-covers. The record marks the first POTF-album not produced in Markus Kaarlonen's living-room, but the band's own professional studio. It went straight to the top of the Finnish charts and was certified gold two weeks after being released. The band also released the title track of the album as a promotional radio-single. Revolution Roulette is currently the only POTF album that has not been released physically outside Finland. While on tour with the album, the band played their first gig in the United States at Musexpo 2008 in Los Angeles on 29 April 2008.

On 18 September 2009, the band released a "Best of"-compilation in India.

Twilight Theater (2010)

In mid-2009, after finishing the Revolution Roulette-tour, the band announced they would be heading into the studio to record their fourth album whose genre they described as "cinematic rock". On 9 December 2009, the band announced that a song entitled "War" from their fourth studio album would be featured in Alan Wake, a psychological thriller video game developed by Remedy Entertainment. Along with "War", Alan Wake also features two new songs, "Children of the Elder God" and "The Poet and The Muse", which were written specifically for the game, and are performed by Poets of the Fall as the in-game band Old Gods of Asgard. In June, the band released a video for "War" (despite it being only a promotional single on radio) which reenacts scenes from the game in live-action. It features Finnish actor Ilkka Villi as the game's protagonist of the same name (Villi also served as the model used for the creation of the Alan Wake character) and the band, except Saaresto. The band portrays in the video some of Alan Wake's in-game antagonists, lumberjacks possessed by an evil force named "the Dark Presence". The antagonists are collectively called "the Taken".

On 18 January, the band announced that their fourth album entitled Twilight Theater would be released on 17 March in Finland and that the first single from the album would be Dreaming Wide Awake which debuted on Radio NRJ Suomi on 21 January and was released on 3 February as a limited-edition single. It reached No. 18 on the Finnish single-charts.

Twilight Theater was released in Finland and on iTunes on 17 March, followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 29 October. It went straight to the top of the Finnish album charts and was certified gold a week after release.

Alchemy Vol.1 (2011)

The band released a double-vinyl edition of their debut album Signs of Life on 19 January 2011, exactly six years after its original release. A CD&DVD-compilation entitled Alchemy Vol.1 was released on 16 March 2011. It contains the band's whole videography as well as the favourite songs of the band-members and also features two new songs, "No End, No Beginning" and "Can You Hear Me". The latter was released digitally on 2 February 2011 and is featured in the remake of Remedy Entertainment's video game Death Rally. The video to the song was directed by Mikko Harma and premiered on The Voice on 18 March 2011.

Temple of Thought (2012)

A fifth studio album Temple of Thought was released on March 21, 2012 to conform to the release-cycle of two years set by the previous albums. Its name and album cover was revealed on band's official Facebook page on 25 January 2012. Temple of Thought debuted at #3 on the Finnish charts.

The first single of the new album Cradled in Love was released for Finnish radio airplay on 24 January 2012. On 26 January it was released for digital download on band's official digistore. The band released the music video for the song "Cradled in Love" on 3 March 2012. "The Happy Song", an original song written for Alan Wake's American Nightmare, will also appear on the album. A 45 second snippet of the German radio edit of "Kamikaze Love" was uploaded by remote music on 24 February 2012. The single was released in Germany on 13 April 2012. A special edition of this album was released in Germany on 20 July 2012. It includes 3 bonus titles. The Temple of Thought tour (ongoing) includes locations in Finland, Russia, Germany, Romania and India.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Release	Charts	Certifications
2005	Signs of Life	19 January 2005 (Finland) 25 May 2005 (iTunes) 19 January 2011 (Limited Edition Vinyl – official webshop)	#1 (Finland)	IFPI certification: Platinum
2006	Carnival of Rust	12 April 2006 (Finland, iTunes) 12 September 2006 (Sweden) 6 October 2006 (Australia, Russia, Ukraine) 20 April 2007 (Germany)	#1 (Finland)	IFPI certification: Platinum
2008	Revolution Roulette	26 March 2008 (Finland, iTunes)	#1 (Finland)	IFPI certification: Gold
2010	Twilight Theater	17 March 2010 (Finland, iTunes) 29 October 2010 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)	#1 (Finland)	IFPI certification: Gold
2012	Temple of Thought	21 March 2012 (Finland) 20 July 2012 (Germany)	#3 (Finland)

Singles

Single	Release	Charts
Late Goodbye	30 June 2004 (Finland)	#14 (Finland)
Lift	9 September 2004 (Finland) 21 January 2011 (RBN)*	#8 (Finland)
Carnival of Rust	22 March 2006 (Finland) 1 December 2006 (Germany)	#2 (Finland)
Sorry Go 'Round (Limited Edition)	16 August 2006 (Finland)	#7 (Finland)
Locking Up the Sun	29 November 2006 (Finland)	#3 (Finland)
The Ultimate Fling	6 February 2008 (Finland)	#2 (Finland)
Diamonds for Tears	21 May 2008 (Finland)	#13 (Finland)
Dreaming Wide Awake (Limited Edition)	3 February 2010 (Finland)	#18 (Finland)
Can You Hear Me	2 February 2011 (Download)
Cradled in Love	25 January 2012 (Download)	#16 (Finland)
Kamikaze Love	13 April 2012 (Germany)

"*" = refers only to the song, not b-sides etc. featured on the single

B-sides

Year	Song	Included on	Ref
2004	The Beautiful Ones	Lift
2011	Can You Hear Me	Alchemy Vol.1
	No End, No Beginning

Compilation albums

Compilation	Medium	Release	Charts
Best of Poets of the Fall	CD	18 September 2009 (India)	—
Alchemy Vol.1	CD+DVD	16 March 2011	#9 (Finland)

Cover songs

Song	Original artist	Featured on	Ref
Tobacco Road	Dingo	Melkein vieraissa – Nimemme on Dingo
You Know My Name	Chris Cornell	Livenä Vieraissa

Videography

Year	Video	Director(s)
2004	Late Goodbye	Tuomas Harju
	Lift
2006	Carnival of Rust
	Locking Up the Sun
2008	The Ultimate Fling	Sami Mäkelä, Jussi Rautaniemi, Minni Wiitala
	Diamonds For Tears	Niina Miettinen
2009	Carnival of Rust (Special Edition HD Remaster)	Tuomas Harju
2010	Dreaming Wide Awake	Oskari Sipola
	War	Aleksi Koskinen, Akseli Tuomivaara
2011	Can You Hear Me	Mikko Harma
2012	Balance Slays the Demon	Remedy Entertainment
	Cradled in Love	Santeri Enstedt, Mikko Harma

Tours

Years	Tour	Countries	Concerts	Ref
2004–2005	Signs of Life-Tour	5 (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden)	62
2006–2007	Carnival of Rust-Tour	8 (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden)	126
2008–2009	Revolution Roulette-Tour	5 (Finland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, United States)	59
2010	Twilight Theater-Tour	3 (Finland, Germany, Russia)	24
2011	Alchemy-Tour	4 (Finland, India, Russia, Ukraine)	15
2012	Temple of Thought-Tour	7 (Estonia, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, India, Romania, Germany)	24

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Related work	Result	Ref
2004	Game Audio Network Guild Awards	Best Original Vocal Song – Pop	Late Goodbye	Won
	YleX's "Best of 2004"	Best Finnish Newcomer	Themselves	Won
		Best Finnish Song	Lift	2nd place
			Late Goodbye	7th place
2005	Musiikki & Media Events	Newcomer of '05	Themselves	Won
	Radio City	Album of the Year	Signs of Life	7th place
	The Voice	Top 106	Lift	10th place
2006	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Finnish Breakthrough 2005	Themselves	Won
	Emma Awards	Best Newcomer of the Year	Themselves	Won
		Best Debut Album of the Year	Signs of Life	Won
	MTV Europe Music Awards	Best Finnish Act	Themselves	Won
	The Voice	Best Music Video 2006	Carnival of Rust	Won
			Locking Up the Sun	12th place
	YLE Audience Choice Award	Best Finnish Music Video of All Time	Carnival of Rust	Won
2007	NRJ Radio Awards	Best Finnish Band	Themselves	Won
		Best Nordic Band	Themselves	Nominated
		Best Finnish Album	Carnival of Rust	Nominated
	Muuvi Awards	Bronze Muuvi Award	Carnival of Rust	Won
		Muuvi People's Choice Award	Carnival of Rust	Won
	Emma Awards	Best Rock Album	Carnival of Rust	Nominated
	Helsingin Sanomat	Most Beloved Finnish Rock Song	Late Goodbye	Nominated
2011	Emma Awards	Best Music Video	War	Nominated

In other media

Song	Featured in	Type of media	Annotations
Late Goodbye	Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne	video game (PS2, Win, Xbox)	Serves as the ending theme of the game and was written specifically for it. It is sung and whistled by multiple characters throughout the game.
Lift	3DMark 05	benchmarking software	The song is credited as "Lift Me Higher".
Locking up the Sun	Heroes	TV series	Advertisements of the show in Finland.
Carnival of Rust	Suden Vuosi (The Year of the Wolf)	movie
Themselves	Phoenix Effect – King See No Evil	music video
War	Alan Wake	video game (Xbox 360, Win)	Ending theme of episode five (The Clicker). During the episode, it is played by Pat Maine on his radio show during a combat sequence in a warehouse. The song is also included on the in-game soundtrack.
Children of the Elder God			POTF are credited as the fictional in-game band Old Gods of Asgard. The song was written specifically for the game and can be heard during a combat sequence taking place during episode four (The Truth), as well as during the beginning of the second downloadable-content-episode The Writer. In the latter, the song's guitars and vocals are edited to sound off key. The original version of the song is included on the in-game soundtrack.
The Poet and the Muse			Also performed as Old Gods of Asgard, it serves as the ending theme to episode four (The Truth), and is included in-game, as well as on the Limited-Edition Soundtrack.
Late Goodbye			referenced in the manuscript page The Sudden Stop 2 at the beginning of episode two (Taken).
Themselves			The band can be seen briefly on the Harry Garrett Show which can be watched by turning on the television in Alan Wake's flat at the beginning of episode six (Departure).
Can You Hear Me	Death Rally	video game (iPhone, iPad, Win)	End credits theme
Grinder's Blues	Rochard	video game (PSN, Win, Linux)
Balance Slays the Demon	Alan Wake's American Nightmare	video game (Win, XBLA)	With the band credited as Old Gods of Asgard, the song can be heard in Act 1, Part 3 in the drive-in's back office on a radio.
The Happy Song			Plays whenever Mr. Scratch appears.

External links

Media related to Poets of the Fall at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Official YouTube channel

Preceded by The Rasmus

Best Finnish Act 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards

Succeeded by Negative