
Poets of the Fall, 20th Anniversary Tour, A Special Tone – Interview with Marko Saaresto
This week begins Poets of the Fall second leg of their celebrated 20th Anniversary Tour. For the occasion, Marko Saaresto graciously accepted to answer a few questions… again 🥰. Marko the wordsmith even during interviews… I cannot help but keep smiling at his answers. Thank you, poet!
Now, even though I have planned to go to three more gigs this year, after reading Marko‘s answers, I feel this buzz within and, me, myself and I are jumping all over the place with expectancy for Copenhagen, for starters 💃. Anyway, less is more, so come and spend some quality time in the company of one of our favorite poets.
👉 Tickets to the shows here
👉 Priority Pass here
Poets of the Fall‘s Second leg of the European 20th Anniversary Tour starts this Thursday, ARE YOU READY?! Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen & Stockholm! 🎶🥳🥰
twisters and sleeping dog
[Misfit] How did you prepare for the 20th Anniversary Tour? How hard was it to make it extra special?
[Poets] Now that I think of it, it was a fairly long process. I suppose it started a couple of years back already, and in a way we were working towards it even during the Ghostlight tour. The path from there to here is wrought with difficult terrain, self doubt and ideas that were not plausible. But as we edited and rethought our ideas, slowly it all started to come together. The setlist is always kind of tricky. You want to play as much as you possibly can, and yet you have to have a relatable dramatic structure to the show, and of course, there’s the duration to consider, so some material needs get cut out. I guess, it’s good we’ve been at it for so long, because we’ve already gathered a fair understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Still, you always want to keep things interesting and throw in a twister or two.
[Misfit] The 10 minutes Intro is so original. It feels a bit like some of the tour diaries you, Marko, wrote on Ghostlight tour. What did inspire you to do this?
[Poets] We thought like, okay, we’re Poets, right… Should we have more of that vibe in the show, and it kind of flowed from there. And you’re right, we discussed the tour diaries as a possible source for the text in that part. I mean, I wrote way more than was ever posted. Instagram only lets you post, what, 1600 characters. I recall my musings had to be edited here and there, as I whooshed over the 1.6K mark by a few thousand nearly everyday. But that’s all bygones. We let the sleeping dog lie and wrote new stuff for the 20th anniversary shows.
[Misfit] Now that, I can relate to, with the word count and all… I’d love to read the Unpublished Tour Diaries of Marko – Poets – Saaresto ’cause your mind works in such mysterious ways which I find – and I know I am not alone in thinking this – truly inspiring.
What inspires you?
Who inspires you?
Are you inspired?
– excerpt from gig intro, relaxation way, spoken by none other than Marko –
a special tone
[Misfit] How did you expect the audience to react to it? – personally, I find it bold for a rock concert and I simply love it.
[Poets] Super glad you like it. It’s been well received. We just really wanted to have something set up a proper mood for the evening and give it all a special tone. I’ll admit it was a bit intimidating as to how it would be received, and we’d probably altered it had it not been received well, but now it’s become an integral part of the show. And since we now have an intermission in the show, in order to play more music for everyone, it’s only fitting that it extends to that bit as well.
[Misfit] Many of us would love to have such a recording in our collection 😉. Any chance you’d consider releasing it after the tour is ended? Please say yes, but don’t lie…
[Poets] We do have quite a bit of unreleased material, and we’ve talked that possibly at some point we might release some of that stuff. Still, everything takes time and unimaginable amounts of preparations. things we thought would only take a day or two or a push of a button, suddenly erupt into something akin to building a house. So, would we consider? Yes, absolutely.
[Misfit] Yet another thing we get to look forward to it seems like 🥰
[Misfit] About the setlist… song swaps and ever growing setlist, I have a theory about it. Did you read it? What do you think, how far off am I?
[Poets] Sorry, you lost me… Was there a party last night and now I’m the only one who doesn’t remember what happened?
[Misfit] Looks like you didn’t get the memo 😂 and no wonder. I was merely referring to the article I wrote about Warsaw gig and the little theory on the setlist I wrote at the end of it… But you know, there’s always a party in my head going on when Poets of the Fall‘s playing… My mind may not be as finely tuned as yours, but I’ll try and remember to send you an invite next time 🤪
Poets of the Fall, 20th Anniversary Tour – Gigs Diaries: Warsaw, Poland 04.09.2023
[Misfit] Why is there no song from Clearview in your setlist? Drama for Life would be a very nice fit (just don’t remove Choice Millionaire again please 😘).
[Poets] That’s a good point. To be honest we haven’t really thought about that after the set was decided on. We did originally plan to have songs from each of the albums on the setlist, but then there are time constraints to it all and mostly we just want to make a set that really works, so sometimes you have to drop some babies along the way. There’s still a chance though that some Clearview songs will be played at a certain interesting, delicate point in the show. No promises though. It’ll be a happy surprise for everyone, including us, if that happens.
light headedness
[Misfit] I will ask again: would you consider adding Hello Cabaret in your setlist, or is it just not live material?
[Poets] We’d love to do that song live, but I have to hand it to you, it’s not the most live friendly tune there is, no matter how much we love it. Maybe one day we’ll figure out how to make it work as a part of the set. As a singer, one might add, that the song is written so that you “hover over your passagio” throughout the entire song in different vocal modes. I’m usually very light headed after singing it. That’s “I think I need a nap now” -kind of light headedness.
[Misfit] Sure, I totally get it… and yet, such a beautiful song to bench 😇.
[Misfit] Not sure I can make it to Paris, but you are playing at the Alhambra where great names such as Duke Ellington, Steve Lukather, Robbie Williams and Morrissey – to name but a few – performed. This is no small feat for Poets of the Fall! How does it feel to be playing there?
[Poets] It’s just great. It feels like touching time, like existing there and now simultaneously. A sensation that borders on too elusive to put into words and too vital even to experience.
[Misfit] I’ll be in Paris after all… could not pass the opportunity to experience your music in such a venue.
[Misfit] What last few words would you give to Misfit Heart’s readers and Poets of the Fall’s fans?
[Poets] Talk to yourself -yes, there, inside your mind – like you’d talk to your best friend who came to you for encouragement. Peace.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. I wish you guys an amazing second leg, see you in Copenhagen and Stockholm ❤️… and on the third leg, in Paris, obviously 🤭.
Thank you for the magic, Poets of the Fall.
Until next time.
Yours truly,
Claire.🌸
Still debating whether you should go or not… stop that, and get your tickets now, you’ll have an incredible time – believe you me 🥰🎶. The little things… that make the world…
Priority Passes are almost all sold out… Stockholm 9 left – skämtar ni… kom igen, kan man få det utsålt! , Paris 17 – allez les amis, on se bouge là! Manchester 4 left – switch off the light, get it over with, come on! and Nottingham 20, henlo… really, what you’re doing? If you can’t, you can’t but if you can, you’ll have a blast ❤️❤️🔥.
👉 Tickets to the shows here
👉 Priority Pass here
Poets of the Fall, 20th Anniversary – Surprise Chat with Markus “Captain” Kaarlonen


One Comment
Tonia
Thank you for the interview. I loved the diaries last year, it was so fascinating to follow Marko’s thoughtы and just his general flow of ideas. I also really enjoy details about the creative process, performances, especially since I don’t play any musical intruments and have no idea about vocals, these insights are really interesting. I suspect that a lot of Poets’ songs are not easy to perform live though they do it so effortlessly and flawlessly that you forget about it. This year specifically because it is the anniversary tour I thought a lot about how much time, effort, energy, skill it takes to do what they do at the level they do it.