4-2-10 Originally published on Examiner.com by Tracy Heck
Alternative rock band Dommin are currently on a North American tour with Finnish rock band HIM.
Dommin is touring in support of their latest album Love Is Gone, which was released in February on Roadrunner Records.
The album is their second studio release and is comprised of newer material as well as material from their first album, the independent release Mend Your Misery.
Last night Dommin front man Kristofer Dommin took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me before Dommin took the stage in Cleveland.
Q: How's the tour going so far?
A: It's going good. We're only like a week into the U.S. portion of it. It's been overwhelmingly positive so we're certainly happy about it.
Q: You've been playing new songs. How is that going?
A: It's going really good. We switch it up every once in awhile but for the most part we're playing the same set. We're playing a couple of new songs in place of the set from the previous tour. We changed it up from what what we do on the album to fit the live element and create little intimate moments live.
Q: Any particular songs stand out?
A: We started playing the title track off the album Love Is Gone on this tour and that's been going really well. We changed the bridge on the song to kind of give it a real strange texture live.
Q: How did the tour come about?
A: The HIM tour is in high demand for support bands. Every band I know wanted to get on this tour. I think we just had a really good team. Our label, our manager, our agent everybody just really pushed to get us on cuz they knew it would be such a good bill and match for us and certainly the audience we want to be exposed to. The final say always lies with the band themselves. Someone told me Ville [Valo, HIM frontman] got a copy of our cd and liked it and that was the finishing touch right there.
Q: All the reviews so far have had your set standing out.
A: Yeah, certainly it's been a good fit. Definitely making a lot of new fans on this tour.
Q: What was your inspiration for the new album?
A: When we did this cd it was really more about picking from the songs we've been doing for the last 8 to 10 years as opposed to just writing for this album. We first went with the songs we were working on the last couple of years and got good feedback on our Myspace and live and then after we laid the foundation we started picking songs that were along the same vibe. It wasn't the original intention to kind of do a concept album but it ended up being one. There are genres the album touches on and the whole album has a basic concept and theme of love gone wrong.
Q: Autobiographical?
A: Yeah, that's really the only way I know how to write. From personal experience.
Q: What I like about the album is that no two songs sound the same.
A: Yeah I never want to make music where the second song is the same as the first and album two sounds the same as the first. I like not being held in a creative prison where I can't do a certain type of song because we're a certain band and we're not supposed to do such and such. I like to do what's right for the song. I take much more of a song writers approach to a song than a band approach.
Q: You said Myspace and Youtube were a huge reason you got discovered. Would you suggest that for newer bands?
A: I'm not sure how effective that is these days with so many social networks now but for us when we first got on there it was a huge help. Now people have gotten so saturated with that stuff they don't pay attention. In some ways new bands have it more difficult to find new ways to get your music exposed.
Q: Is there anybody that you'd like to tour or work with in the future?
A: Absolutely. Tomo from 30 Seconds to Mars actually played on our album on the cover song we do. I would love to tour with 30 Seconds to Mars. That would be a great bill. I think 30 Seconds to Mars, Evanescence, you know certain bands whose fans would be open to what we're doing. It just makes for a good pairing and a good night. I like when bands get together and it gives fans a chance not just to see the band they came to see but creates an entire night where it's like wow, something special just happened. I think that's what's going on with these shows with HIM. There's a special feeling in the air.
Q: Who was your biggest influence?
A: I listen to so many different things it's kind of hard to pinpoint. I'm a huge Depeche Mode fan and I'm sure that comes across. Type O' Negative, Rammstein, Nirvana. I love Fiona Apple. I"m a big fan of the old 30's and 40's crooners. I probably listen to that stuff more than I listen to rock music actually. So I mean I have a range of influences that I'm sure in some way or another come across in the music.
Alternative rock band Dommin are currently on a North American tour with Finnish rock band HIM.
Dommin is touring in support of their latest album Love Is Gone, which was released in February on Roadrunner Records.
The album is their second studio release and is comprised of newer material as well as material from their first album, the independent release Mend Your Misery.
Last night Dommin front man Kristofer Dommin took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me before Dommin took the stage in Cleveland.
Q: How's the tour going so far?
A: It's going good. We're only like a week into the U.S. portion of it. It's been overwhelmingly positive so we're certainly happy about it.
Q: You've been playing new songs. How is that going?
A: It's going really good. We switch it up every once in awhile but for the most part we're playing the same set. We're playing a couple of new songs in place of the set from the previous tour. We changed it up from what what we do on the album to fit the live element and create little intimate moments live.
Q: Any particular songs stand out?
A: We started playing the title track off the album Love Is Gone on this tour and that's been going really well. We changed the bridge on the song to kind of give it a real strange texture live.
Q: How did the tour come about?
A: The HIM tour is in high demand for support bands. Every band I know wanted to get on this tour. I think we just had a really good team. Our label, our manager, our agent everybody just really pushed to get us on cuz they knew it would be such a good bill and match for us and certainly the audience we want to be exposed to. The final say always lies with the band themselves. Someone told me Ville [Valo, HIM frontman] got a copy of our cd and liked it and that was the finishing touch right there.
Q: All the reviews so far have had your set standing out.
A: Yeah, certainly it's been a good fit. Definitely making a lot of new fans on this tour.
Q: What was your inspiration for the new album?
A: When we did this cd it was really more about picking from the songs we've been doing for the last 8 to 10 years as opposed to just writing for this album. We first went with the songs we were working on the last couple of years and got good feedback on our Myspace and live and then after we laid the foundation we started picking songs that were along the same vibe. It wasn't the original intention to kind of do a concept album but it ended up being one. There are genres the album touches on and the whole album has a basic concept and theme of love gone wrong.
Q: Autobiographical?
A: Yeah, that's really the only way I know how to write. From personal experience.
Q: What I like about the album is that no two songs sound the same.
A: Yeah I never want to make music where the second song is the same as the first and album two sounds the same as the first. I like not being held in a creative prison where I can't do a certain type of song because we're a certain band and we're not supposed to do such and such. I like to do what's right for the song. I take much more of a song writers approach to a song than a band approach.
Q: You said Myspace and Youtube were a huge reason you got discovered. Would you suggest that for newer bands?
A: I'm not sure how effective that is these days with so many social networks now but for us when we first got on there it was a huge help. Now people have gotten so saturated with that stuff they don't pay attention. In some ways new bands have it more difficult to find new ways to get your music exposed.
Q: Is there anybody that you'd like to tour or work with in the future?
A: Absolutely. Tomo from 30 Seconds to Mars actually played on our album on the cover song we do. I would love to tour with 30 Seconds to Mars. That would be a great bill. I think 30 Seconds to Mars, Evanescence, you know certain bands whose fans would be open to what we're doing. It just makes for a good pairing and a good night. I like when bands get together and it gives fans a chance not just to see the band they came to see but creates an entire night where it's like wow, something special just happened. I think that's what's going on with these shows with HIM. There's a special feeling in the air.
Q: Who was your biggest influence?
A: I listen to so many different things it's kind of hard to pinpoint. I'm a huge Depeche Mode fan and I'm sure that comes across. Type O' Negative, Rammstein, Nirvana. I love Fiona Apple. I"m a big fan of the old 30's and 40's crooners. I probably listen to that stuff more than I listen to rock music actually. So I mean I have a range of influences that I'm sure in some way or another come across in the music.
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