Ulli Perhonen
DMD: Hi Ulli! Thank you so much for this interview and for allowing us to know a bit more about you.
To start, can you tell us how Snow White Blood was born and why you chose that name for the band?
Ulli: Back in 2013, our drummer Heinz looked for musicians online in order to form a band. Thomas, our bass player, applied for it, as well as our former guitarist who then asked me if I wanted to join the band as a singer. Finally, our current guitarist Chris joined the band last year.
The band’s name was the result of a few weeks' brainstorming phase. Everyone contributed ideas to a list and finally we chose "Snow White Blood" because of the name's potential and the possibility for a unique combination of metal with the magic of fairytales. In our music, you will meet Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and others.
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DMD: “Once Upon a Fearytale” is an EP that shows all the band’s talent. How did you choose the concept that this EP encloses along with its artwork?
Ulli: If you take a closer look, fairytales almost always contain a certain aspect of fear, which led to the play on words we used in our title “Once upon a fearytale”. We tend to focus rather on the dark aspects in fairytales in our music. When I looked for ideas concerning the artwork, I found images online made by Celine Boivin who then gladly supported me by creating and adapting the ideas I had in mind.
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DMD: We will now leave the band for a while to focus on you. How would you describe Ulli?
Ulli: Perfectionist, harmony-addicted, often a bit nuts. (laughs)
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DMD: Do you have a music idol?
Ulli: As I developed my love to symphonic metal with Nightwish, Tarja Turunen has always been a big influence for me, as well as Amy Lee, the singer of Evanescence.
DMD: Your voice is very unique and versatile. When did you find out that you wanted to be a singer and especially one in the metal world?
Ulli: Well, I’ve been singing in the choir for about 14 years, so singing has always been an important hobby for me. After I finished school, I started to look for a metal band in order to sing the style I listen to personally, to have a different experience of stage performance and to create own songs.
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DMD: What's your vocal range? What was your vocal training?
Ulli: My vocal training consisted of choir singing as I mentioned before and my voice ranges from F2–C5. If I’m in a good mood, I can reach G5, but lately, that pitch became a bit rusty. Those lazy singers, they should focus on practising more! (laughs)
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DMD: My personal favourite from this EP is “Shadows of Our Yesterdays”, it has the perfect combination of mysticism and fantasy. Can you tell us about this song and what it's about?
Ulli:“Shadows of Our Yesterdays” treats the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel. They are lost in the woods and try to find their way out, abandoned by their parents. Even though the siblings trusted them, the parents left them all on their own in the woods to their destiny. As all of our lyrics, you can either see them as a new aspect of a fairytale or you can interpret them as a metaphor – it depends on the listener and his imagination, and there is no such thing as “the only explanation” to the lyrics because it would destroy the image in another person’s mind. I think that fairytales can often be a way of showing up issues in a gentle way which have always been and are still on our minds.
DMD: For you, what's the most emblematic song of this EP and why?
Ulli: You know, I can’t even decide. I think they are all so different that I couldn’t name a single one.
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DMD: Were you involved in the lyrics or music writing of the EP?
Ulli: Yes, I wrote all the lyrics and vocal melodies.
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DMD: Regarding the public, how has been the reception of the EP?
Ulli: We had a great start at our release gig and we receive positive reviews and feedback from all over the world. This makes us very proud and happy and we thank everyone out there who supports us!
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DMD: You've performed a lot and there are still more shows to come in 2017. Would you like to visit Latin America one day?
Ulli: Never say never!
DMD: Do you feel like it's difficult to make your way in the music industry?
Ulli: It’s very difficult, yes. There are plenty of other bands that make good music, so it’s important to be good and unique, to be at the right place at the right time. People who don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes don’t realise how much effort, time and money you need to invest in order to keep everything going. We do our band stuff on our own as much as we can but even though it’s difficult, we do it with all our heart – if we know that people like the fairytales we tell, that’s our reward.
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DMD: I feel your songs are perfect. Are you planning to make any video out of this EP?
Ulli: I won’t promise anything but keep your eyes open! Something might be coming up …
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DMD: If you could have a duet with any singer, who would you choose and why?
Ulli: There are a lot of great singers out there with whom I’d like to sing a duet: Jaakko Hilppö (Tenhi), Mikko Heikkilä (Sinamore), Marcel Römer (Aeverium), and of course Tarja Turunen and Amy Lee.
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DMD: For now we're finishing. Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
Ulli: If you haven’t known Snow White Blood yet, let us enchant you with our fairytales! You will find the EP “Once upon a fearytale” on our website www.snow-white-blood.com and on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Spotify or Deezer. If you like it, please support us on www.facebook.com/SnowWhiteBlood. Thank you for the interview, it was a pleasure!