Mauri Dark’s autobiographical debut solo album Dreams Of A
Middle-Aged Man invites you into dark, folky, timeless, intimate, and
acoustic songscapes. Equipped with a baritone guitar and his deep, low
voice, Mauri Dark is an experienced musician and songwriter. For his
self-produced-recorded-performed solo album, he got to work with his
dream audio team. Associate producer Jussi Vuola is a band mate and a
musical blood brother. Mixing engineer / associate producer Hiili
Hiilesmaa is famous for his work with HIM, Apocalyptica and Amorphis.
Vlado Meller has previously mastered albums for Johnny Cash, Metallica,
and Michael Jackson, to name a few.
Mauri Kosonen, born in 1978. Based in Turku, Finland.
Singer/songwriter,multi-instrumentalist, established musician and
professional visual artist.
8 albums and 500 shows in 25 years with different bands.
Best known for 5 albums with metal duo Mystons.
Dreams Of A Middle-Aged Man is Mauri Dark’s first solo album.
What first got you into music?
I was about 7 when I heard KISS and saw their LPs and cassettes with their makeups in black and white photos. The primitive rock and the visuals really appealed to me. I started playing drums at that time and we formed some sort of bands already then with my big brother. I was the only one that kind of stuck with music. I think I became a teenager on the day I heard Nirvana’s “Teenspirit” on my friends portable Sony Walkman, the album ‘Nevermind’ had just come out. At 16 I started to play drums seriously in bands. And also started to make lyrics. At 18 I got a guitar and started making songs. I am still on that path, hopefully still improving.
Who inspired you to make music?
I think the main inspirations were all of the great, new bands we listened to. Time has proved we listened to good music as teenagers! Guns N’ Roses released their debut ‘Appetite for Destruction’ and ‘Use Your Illusion’ I and II albums. Metallica released ‘Black’ album. Red Hot Chili Peppers released ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’. Alice In Chains released ‘Jar of Flies’, ‘Dirt’ and ‘MTV Unplugged’ album. It got me into acoustic stuff together with Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged in New York’. Pantera’s ‘Great Southern Trendkill’ got out. All of these bands had excellent drummers that inspired me. I really got into The Doors as well. We also inspired each other playing in a band and imitating all the good music that got out then. Later I got much more into 60s, 70s music and acoustic songwriters like Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
I typically try to make good songs that work with just acoustic guitar and vocals. Lately I have been making only Mauri Dark songs that are very bare, honest acoustic Folk, Singer-songwriter songs with some Americana, Rock and even Country flavor. These are the typical songs now I make. They just come out naturally, you don’t have to push them or arrange them into something else.
What is your creative process like?
If you compare it to growing a plant, guitar composition is the dirt or ground for the song and life is the seed, lyrics and singing are the watering and time is the growth. Arrangement and recording are the harvest. So it is an organic process that takes time to evolve. The initial song idea comes usually with guitar and a lyric line or two of a certain feeling or mood of the moment. After that it takes a long time, sometimes years for the song to take its final form. Details get added and the lyrics are processed a lot, day and night, and the moment to capture the final song has to be right. Sometimes it is a bit hard too because the songs are there all the time processing in your mind until they are finished.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I would like to get produced by Rick Rubin. A lot of my favorite album are his productions.
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
A lot of my idols are dead unfortunately. Tom Waits would be one or Neil Young. For an unexpected combination with my acoustic music I would pick Rammstein.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
Buy or pay for music you listen to. Preferably buy physical or digital albums. It helps you to get better quality music in the future and helps artists make their craft as well as they can in professional studios with professional people. Making music, music videos etc. takes a lot of time and money and it is a bit hard in the long run doing two jobs to finance making music just for the love of music. When all the live events were cancelled due to COVID-19 it took down the last proper source of income from artists. I hope these times will change structures. Streaming services cannot keep forever stealing from artists for pennies in return. In the end it is also about what listeners choose. It is strange that music seems to be the last frontier in the internet that you explore for free. A lot of advertisement gets in between music and the listener due to this. That is not the way it should be. Everything else costs: photos, movies, series, audio books, you name it. Hope this will change, you can affect it with your choices!
Do you sing in the shower? What songs?
Somehow I have never felt the urge to sing in the shower, even though its good reverb there! Maybe I will take a guitar next time to the shower with me that would help, but best not choose electric one…
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
I would be doing visual art. I have been doing both for 25 years. Making public artworks as entrepreneur is the source for my income at the moment.
Where have you performed? What are your favourite and least favourite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?
I have played everywhere in Finland and in Europe in a lot of countries too. Altogether around 500 shows in venues from tiny to about 1000 people max. Anything with a decent sound system and professional and music loving people makes a good place to play. Rather an underground, DIY, collective kind of venue then sterile, big corporate venue. Right kind of audience really make the show. A favorite venue that comes to mind is Fontaine Palace in Liepaja, Latvia (a huge old armory storage owned by a Danish guy Louie Fontaine. Everything is made good there for the artist). Least favorite is probably now the streaming because I miss the atmosphere and connection of performing to people in a venue. Currently, due to COVID-19 limitations I have no upcoming shows. I really hope to play live soon.
How do you feel the Internet has impacted the music business?
Internet took down a large amount of the financial income from artists and record companies. Enormous amount of music is now easily available both in good and bad. Everything gets released. Record company A&Rs used to filter the quality and quantity of releases. Now the filtering is left to the listener. Except for the radios that are pre-filtered commercial and risk-free with everything sounding the same. Record-budgets have gone down. Music is recorded a lot in home studios, less professionally with worse equipment compared to professional studios, equipment, engineers and producers. Less of real musician interaction is being recorded compared to samples, programming etc. so there is less of the human chemistry in music that made all the bands (think Beatles) and albums in the past interesting, more human and more durable. Making music is a lonelier craft these days. If you think about the albums and artists that have lasted over time best, most of them were cut live in a professional studio with real musicians interacting with each other. Not a lot of music released these days will stand the test of time. In the positive side songs are still being made initially the way they always have and internet gives the possibility for the bedroom closet musician to become a worldwide superstar with a good song and talented performance.
What is your favourite song to perform?
‘Dreams Of A Middle-Aged Man’. I kind of always can get into the mood of the song and the song has a kind of purifying effect for me and the listeners.
What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
The most and lot of troubles I got for my life had something to do with alcohol. I was a regular weekend drinker since teenager. I now have been sober for 10 years and it is a much more trouble-free way of living.
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
One of the best advices in music was that a live gig is worth a hundred rehearsals. An advice I would have liked to have gotten from someone is: follow your instincts and intuition, they will tell you what is right for your life.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be? ·
The artists should be able to focus more on making just music and making a living out of it. The main thing I would change is that there would again be some control on the amount and quality of music that is released. And the artists ability to make money out of albums too through streaming. In the 70s and 90s a lot of alternative, new genre creating, groundbreaking music and albums were released that are still valid today because the record companies were able to take bigger risks due to better chances of financial income. This fuelled whole new forms and genres of music and albums that are considered classics today.
What’s next for you?
Live shows, I hope, once it is possible again and making new songs and music as always.
How important is the current COVID crisis to you and how do you think you could help?
If you think positive, during the COVID people have listened to a huge amount of music. Music really helps us through times of solitude and being with our own thoughts. The best way I can help others is to do the things that I am best at, visual arts and music.