Do Interview

1. For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Well, Dö is a dark stoner doom trio from Hellsinki, Finland. The three bastards behind the wall of sound are Big Dog (General Development Officer of Riffs and 6 strings), Peat Rex (Chief Executive Officer of Rhythm and Tempo) and Deaf Hank (Executive Vice President of Low-end and Oral Messaging).

The band that later became known as Dö, was summoned already back in 2007. At first we played something close to desert stoner, but due to some lineup changes we became a trio, lowered the tempo, and Hank grabbed the mic. The rest is history.

2. So far you have released 2 ep's, how would you describe the musical sound that was presented on both of the recordings and also how do they differ from each other?
We play doom, but of course we bring our own flavour and interpretation to it. So maybe you can call our music Dööm.

Sometimes we're slow. Sometimes fast. Always brooding. Always dark. At one moment we punch you right in the face, and the next we soothe you with melodics and light psychedelia.

Soundwise we want to keep things organic and unpolished. Both EP's were recorded live. Well except vocals, guitar solo's and couple of atmospheric guitar tracks, but otherwise we just played them on record. We took propably only three takes per song, to get that one take, that captures the emotion and energy we wanted. So none of our songs were written in studio. They were played over, and over, and over again at the rehearsal dungeon before we started to record them.

Both EP's were also recorded and mixed by the same guys. Esa has experience in recording much more complex projects than ours, so getting our live recording session working was easy with him. Samuli, the mixing wizard, has great techical skills, and a long experience e.g. in black metal and doom bands, so he knows really well what works for us and sounds good in our music.

And how these two EP's differ from each other? They are both Dööm, but you can hear our grown confidence and anger on "Den".

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Inspiration to lyrics come from many sources. Usually from things that are happening in this fucked up world, which then lead to contempt of religions and politics and people's stupidity, which then lead to desperation, grief, depression and other negative emotions. You know, the basic stuff. But remember that the owls in our lyrics are not what they seem.

All and all, we see vocals as one instrument among the others, and lyrics need to fit to the overall atmosphere of the song.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Do'?
"Dö" means "Die" in Swedish, but we're all Finnish speaking. It kinda sounds brutal, yet not too serious (to anyone else except Swedish speaking people, though). For some it also sounds propably like vomiting. And it makes a hell of an awesome logo.

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
On the stage, we create a capturing atmosphere that lasts the whole show. No awkward silent tuning breaks. No babbling between songs (that's also because our songs are so long that we have challenges in squeezing even few songs into normal set lenght). Just continuous lung resonating noise.

We've only played couple shows so far, because unlike many other young bands, we wanted to ferment our songs and style, and wait the right moment to let all that built up pressure erupt with full, destructive force. Now the time has come.

6. Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Definitely. We'll inform those, once we know more. At this point, the gigs will be in Finland, but a small tour somewhere abroad would also be great. Too bad we simply don't have resources to organize that by ourselves. So if there's someone interested in helping us bringing our noise to your country, don't hesitate to contact us.

7. The new ep was self released while the first one was released by a label, are you open to working with another label again in the future or do you prefer the DIY method a lot more?
Yeah, the first EP was released, and sold, in C-cassette format by a small label, but that's about it. Otherwise we did everything by ourselves.

And with "Den", we decided to use the DIY method again –including the cassettes, which we are doing, because we want our music also in a format we can touch and feel.

This DIY things is actually pretty cool. For us Dö is more than music, or brotherhood. It's something that allows us to use our creativity and execute all sorts of stupid, crazy ideas. Hank's the PR guy, Big Dog is our graphic designer and Peat Rex takes care of the hands-on tasks.

But even though we're not involved with a label at the moment, it doesn't mean we're not interested in finding one. On the contrary, there's more tunes to come, and we want to achieve great things with Dö, so all contacts from labels and record companies are welcomed. And we might also soon approach them more avidly ourselves.

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of stoner, doom and sludge metal?
The first EP that was released in spring 2014 got a warm welcome and positive reviews, especially outside Finland.

"Den" has brought us dozens of new Facebook likers from all around the world. And it's been downloaded hundreds of times from Bandcamp during the first few days. So it's pretty safety to say, that we're not the only ones who like our anger bursts.

We share our music for free, because we think it belongs to everyone. We're not gonna get rich with our music, but seeing that people like it is priceless. Seeing the download figures is propably the best reward we can get at the moment.

9. When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
No idea if there's ever going to be a full length album. Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe we just keep on releasing EP's.

Like mentioned, for those who want their music in physical format, we're gonna release a small amount of "Den" C-cassettes, and a special homegrown CD that contains both our EP's.

We thought about vinyl too, but for that we'd propably need a label and a distributor, because the minimun order amounts are quite big.

Also a 7 or 10 inch split with some great band would be nice.

Musically we don't have clear plans yet. Let's see what happens, when we really start to write new stuff and fuel our inspiration. It's definitely going to sound like Dö. Propably we dive even deeper into darkness.

10. What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The three of us have listened to rock and metal ever since we we're kids. Peat Rex started with Twisted Sister, Big Dog with WASP, and Hank with KISS. During the years we've listened our share of the classics from various genres.

These days we listen a whole bunch different bands. For example Big Dog listenes everything from country music and 60's psychedelia to bands like Mastodon and Bongripper. Hank listenes a lot of small new bands he finds from Facebook groups and posts. Lately he's also been listening e.g. Wolvhammer, Satanic Warmaster, Caskets Open and Seven Sisters of Sin. Peat still listenes Twisted Sister.

11. What are some of your non musical interests?
Peat Rex digs alcohol, candles and GTA V. When Big Dog isn't drinking, he spends time with his dog or fixes motorcycles. Hank's the family guy, and beer drinker – but not at the same time.

12. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Stay classy.