Interview with TYFON'S DOOM

The Band: Tyfon’s Doom

Country: Finland

The Man: Tommi Varsala (all instruments)

https://tyfonsdoom.bandcamp.com/releases

https://soundcloud.com/tyfons-doom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3ztx3CBJWo

Interview by Vpower

Tyfon’s Doom is a Heavy Metal band from Finland, created by musician Tommi Varsala, a one-man band. As you will read he can manage to do by humself all the efforts that a band involves. And he does it right! This year he has released a demo with four fantastic songs but fortunately there is more to come in the future. So, let’s know the artist and his project a little more.

  

Hello Tommi, thank you for this chance to chat with you and know more details about your great project

Hi Alberto, it was a kind of surprise that you asked for an interview but I’ll gladly answer some questions so bring it on!

Tyfon’s Doom is a one-man band. A Heavy Metal band, in fact. I know some bands with only one member but all of them play extreme Metal, call it Black Metal or Death Metal, but I never knew of one playing Heavy Metal. What is the story behind Tyfon’s Doom and why you chose that path?

If you haven’t heard any one-man heavy metal bands, I really recommend you to check out High Spirits. That Chris Black’s project is something that really inspires me and it is actually one of the reasons why I ever came up with an idea of starting this project. I’ve just always wanted to play Heavy Metal one way or another and since I don’t have a band, I do everything myself. I have made a lot of songs but the idea of releasing four of them as a demo came really suddenly.

Cool, I will follow your recommendation about High Spirits. Did you get the cooperation of other musicians in the composition process or Tyfon’s Doom is 100% your creature?

100% mine including the album cover which isn’t really nothing to show off, haha.

Awesome. You play old school Heavy Metal, what are your main influences?

My greatest musical influences are of course Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy, the greatest bands ever. Moreover, as you wrote in your great review, I take a lot of influence from Heavy Load. Their last two full-lenghts reflects the best the kind of Heavy Metal I want to play. On the vocal side, I really wanted to sing like Dan McCafferty from Nazareth (as if that was ever going to happen) but as a result I ended up singing like Quorthon, haha.

Hahaha, true, there is much of Quorthon’s spirit on your record. In April 2015 you released a demo with four songs. An awesome work every Heavy Metal lover should review. How long did you work on it?

Since this one was the first release I have ever made, it contains songs and ideas from much longer period. First three songs were composed during the autumn 2014 but the guitar tracks in Stay Down was made somewhere around 2012. I just happened to find an old guitar pro tab and decided to record it. Early on this year I found out a better way of recording those songs, so I re-recorded all of them except Ravenous Hunter and that is why the sound quality in it is much worse than in others. On that point I didn’t even know I was going to release those songs as a demo, so one could say I worked on that as long as I’ve made music.

The songs are complex and addictive, it surprises me a lot that as a multinstrumentalist you don’t have weak points! You display a high skill level on every single instrument

I propably should have mentioned somewhere that there is a drum machine pounding on the background so weak point found! Among some metalheads that might drop some points but the drum tracks aren’t very difficult to play so I’m pretty sure I could play those but with current recording equipment real drums would never sound this good. Guitar tracks, on the other hand, are the real deal. In addition, there are pieces of piano playing in the chorus of Stay Down. Mixed a bit low volume but definitely adds more epicness to the track. High skill is a result of hard training.

However, although I like all your execution I would chose you as a guitarist for my band. What is your favorite instrument?

Guitar it is. I have really never been anything else than a guitarist and I’m certainly the most confident with it. With everything else it's kind of somebody has to do it -thing.

I feel some epic  flavour in your songs, you were looking for that sound or it’s just that I’ve been smoking too much lately?

I don’t think you have to be worried about your smoking. That kind of sound was exactly what I was looking for. That epic flavour propably comes from the powerful choruses and twin guitar leads.

What are your lyrics about?

There’s no specific theme and partly even I don’t know what they are about. I usually make the music first, then comes the title and after that follows a little lyrical drunkenness and time for poetry. Sometimes I like to do a little stories and sometimes those lyrics tend to be about my feelings about something.

What is the hardest part of being only one people in the band?

I think being the only one is much easier than with a group. No schedules and no difficult compromises. On the other hand every member of the group is an expert of their own instruments. So being the guitarist-bassist-drummer-vocalist-composer among all the other things (mixing etc.) demands a lot from you meaning that there’s damn much to learn.

Sure, I think it’s a great challenge. And I suppose the advantage is that you take the decisions by your own, althugh it might be seen also like a drawback…

Well, I just have to trust my decisions. I make a lot of songs but not every one of them end up being a gem. Sometimes if I’m unsure about the song I’ve made, I might ask an opinion from some of my Heavy Metal-liking friends but usually it’s pretty easy to tell if the song is worth releasing. Baseline is that I don’t release any filler songs.

A very important rule, we can feel it in your demo, every song is great. What has been the reaction in your environment to your curious approach?

Most of the people I know is not even aware of what I’m doing altough the ones that do are really supportive. At this point Tyfon’s Doom is kind of underground amongst underground.

May be it’s tie to change that, the good art should be shared to be enjoyed by people, at least in my opinion. Is Tyfon’s Doom a long term project?

If nothing unexpected happens, it is going to be a really long term project since I really like making exactly the kind of music I want.

Great! We can put a mark already in our Internet browser. Can we expect a full-lenth album in the future?

That is very possible but it’s going to take time. Next release will be EP or another demo evolved to the higher level in every way.

Well, as long as you keep delivering this gourmet material I don’t care it is an EP or song by song. Have you ever performed any show with Tyfon’s Doom or are you thinking about it?

Unfortunately I have not. Though it would be really awesome but there is kind of a little lack of musicians. Few friends have signed up to play with me and make this project a live band but at this point it’s just a thought. Let’s see…

I’m sure if you continue with the hard work the snow ball will grow bigger and bigger, and then everything will come easier. Tommi, thanks for your time and congratulations for your fantastic music, the big thing about Tyfon’s Doom is not the story of being only you there, the most important is that your compositions are excellent and transmit an awesome feeling.

That’s great to hear and thank you!