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(Winter 2006) by George Dionne
Hailing from Oulu, Northern Finland, Prayer formed in 2003 after frontman
Tapani Tikkanen wanted to do something he was more passionate about. The
key band members were put in place shortly thereafter, and the band began
recording in 2004. Last year Prayer released their debut album Wrong
Address (read CD review).
The album is packed with lots of layered choruses, over-the-top guitar solos,
and charging chord progressions, in the vein of 1980's AOR and arena rock.
Not only is Tikkanen the frontman and guitarist for the group, but he also
composed
the entire Wrong
Address album himself.
Tikkanen shared his thoughts with Rock Is Life via e-mail.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Prayer, how would you describe the
band's music to me?
TT: Well, there’s a first time for everything,
right? Our music is a mixture of melodic rock, AOR and hard rock.
RIL: How long has Prayer been together? How did you get together?
TT: Prayer "was born" two
and a half years ago, when I contacted Jari Huvila (keyboards) and told him
about my plans. He knew rest of the guys,
we met, we talked, we played and it felt good. Everybody wanted to give it
a shot and now we are here. Our biography is on our web-site for the whole
story.
RIL: How did you settle on the band name?
TT: Prayer felt good, it sounded
good, it looked good and this whole project has been for us like a dream
come true, like a prayer that has been answered!
Before Prayer I had many ideas, I tried this and that...but then one day,
boom...this is it! In our case this has nothing to do with a spiritual stuff.
RIL: The majority of music on your latest album Wrong Address is reminiscent
of the 1980 arena rock/AOR scene. Is that style of music popular in your
home country of Finland or is that something you enjoy?
TT: I love this kinda
music myself. The boys like it ,too. This is what we wanna do, we love twin
guitars, strong keyboards, big chorus lines and
so on. I believe this genre is becoming more and more popular all the time
in Finland and everywhere. And like I've always said, the fans of
Foreigner, Toto, Boston, Rick Springfield, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake etc. have
not disappeared anywhere! We are all still here and we will always
remember!
RIL: What bands influenced your songwriting?
TT: Well, I just mentioned
a few of my heroes. But, let me put it this way, there have been hundreds
of bands and artists during these years that have
given me inspiration, strength, power, energy to go on.
RIL: Will there be a world tour to promote Wrong Address or just a local
one?
TT: We ain't been tourin' much yet, but
I believe after the second album we have much more to give. We have done
a few gigs here in Finland
and they have been just great, lot of people, lot of fun. We also wanted
to make this second album as soon as possible.
RIL: Have you ever been to the U.S.? What was that experience like?
TT: Like
I said, as a band Prayer ain't been there yet, but personally
I’ve visited the U.S. many times. I’ve been to LA, Hawaii, Las
Vegas, San Francisco and those trips have been unforgettable experiences,
I love USA! Ever since I was a kid I dreamt about it, I had American flags
and posters of Kiss and Journey and Boston and Elvis on my wall!
RIL: I read on your website that you’re already beginning
to record your next album. How far are you and what can we expect?
TT: Yeah, we have
recorded the drums and now we move up to bass and guitars this week. There
will be eleven songs on the album and we will keep a "Studio
Diary" on our web-site . The new material is absolutely
awesome! I know, this is what every band says when they start talkin' 'bout
their new album, right? But, this time it happens to be true! We won’t
be changin' anything too much though, our trademarks will be there
for sure, but I can tell you we have a very good feeling about this one!
RIL: You wrote all of Wrong Address, will the rest of the band be able to
contribute on the next album?
TT: I've written all the songs, but on this
album we have done the arrangements on most of the songs together.
RIL: How different is Prayer from your earlier bands IC-Rock & Tanna?
TT:
IC-ROCK was more like a hard rock band. It had three guitars, vox, bass,
and drums. We where influenced by these southern bands Molly Hatchet, Skynyrd,
Outlaws and also Thin Lizzy. We did two albums and played all over the Finland.
TANNA (which is my nickname) was a very successful band. It played melodic
rock and we sang in Finnish. We did four albums and did hundreds and hundreds
of gigs. We started out as a four-piece, later on the keyboard player came
along.
We didn’t have too many riffs or solos, music was very simple after
all. PRAYER is more mature, more professional, more worked up, I might say
and I am proud of that, but I also know that we wouldn’t be here without
those "schools of hard knocks."
RIL: You wrote three albums for "the craziest football club in the
world, F.C. Rainbow." I assume this is what we would call soccer. Tell
me a little about why the team is so crazy, and how you landed to gig to
write for them.
TT: FC Rainbow is a soccer team that really rocks!
Every player is a musician or a roadie or has something to do with rock´n´roll. We’ve
been playin' together since 1990, we have fun together, participate
three or four tournaments a year and I can tell you, there are some crazy
guys in this team!
So, we have done some music together just for laughs and fun. Everybody thinks
it’s a waste of time and money, but we don’t care...
RIL: Is Hanoi Rocks as big in Finland as they claim to be?
TT: I don’t know how big they claim to be? I understand big talk
is a part of their image and I leave it up to you to decide what is true
and what is not. I respect those guys very much, because they have laid
it all on the line and Mike and Andy always wanted to live that rock´n´roll
dream, nothing else mattered.
I am living that same dream, maybe in a different way, but this feels just
as great and I know that PRAYER is headed for good things.
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TAPANI
TIKKANEN
