A conversation with Tomi Saario
What do you get when you mix a fighter pilot grandad, airline captain parents and an uncle who’s the most successful songwriter in Finland with a determined work ethic, tons of talent, and undeniable charisma? The answer is Finnish singer/songwriter Tomi Saario, one of pop’s most exciting new hopes taking off in 2020. On his debut single ‘Just A Little’ and on his first EP ‘I Think We Need To Talk...’, Saario introduces himself as both a compelling storyteller and an artist with an innate knack for writing pop hooks. His are melodies and choruses that burrow into your heart and mind and take up residence there. Those traits are unsurprising when you learn that Tomi has been playing guitar since he was five years old, when his uncle and his father bought him an acoustic guitar and taught him to play rock and roll riffs.
I had the opportunity to get to know him and have a conversation precisely at the offices of Four Music (SONY Music) in Berlin where he has just signed his first professional contract.
First of all congrats for your new contract! How did it all happen?
Tomi: “Well I was living in London for the past four years and I wrote a couple of songs and people in Miami who had a label really loved them. In the end they didn't end up on the project that they were supposed to but they started to circulate amongst the labels and then I got reached out from American Epic Records, had a meeting with BMG too, then Columbia Records in London and SONY in Finland reached out and had a meeting with Universal and Warner too. Then eventually the SONY office let Four Music know and they flew to London where I had a meeting with them and I really loved the team, so here I am!”
About the time you spent in London, I heard you were doing lots of open mics, I've never done it myself but I always found it terrifying. How was that experience and how did it help you to grow as an artist?
Tomi: “Every single time I encourage other people to do it as well. If you have new songs, it's a great place to test them. It doesn't matter how established you are because there's a crowd out there who at least aspires to be a songwriter. So they will listen to it and they will tell you what they think. It's a different crowd and it is definitely more nerve wracking in the beginning but I think it's one of the areas that you need to learn to handle! Right now I've done so many showcases where I'm just playing in an office where there's like 5, 15 or 40 people. I've done every single one of those setups before, so it's not not an issue. I've played to nobody as well. So it definitely prepares you for bigger things.”
Did you use to go busking too?
Tomi: “Yes! I did a lot of busking and I really liked it. Everything was quite fun although not every time, because you have to take your stuff there and it can be quite exhausting. But I always played like a couple of hours on the street and that's where I've really met way more people who actually really just liked music. They weren't musicians so they were interested to actually follow you. And also a lot of industry people, way more than in an open mic I would meet the street!”
If you look at the past, as a retrospective, what are the moments that you would highlight and that have taken you to where you are today?
Tomi: “Negative experiences with people that were in the industry! That's like one of the most important things. Without any names, there were certain people who had bad intentions. After those happened and I solved the issues, I decided to do it myself. I started to write songs and send them when I get opportunities. Really quickly from that, and I felt like there was something about the energy when I went: - Okay fine, I'll just do this myself -, people started to be interested in what I was doing. And right after labels started to reach out to me. So that was really important. Obviously I learned to work in London because in Finland for example, before I left I got offered a record deal but I didn't want to take it because I didn't want to write my music in Finnish. I just couldn't see myself doing that. No other reason except being honest to myself. Finland was so small as a market that I was already offered a record deal without really having done anything.”
It is honestly surprising the tranquility and self belief that you demonstrate. In an industry as complicated as music, I doubt there are many people who have turn down opportunities. It seems as if you have always had the certainty that in the end everything would end up working for you!
Tomi: “I don't actually really know anyone not taken the deal but I would be lying if I say that I wasn't thinking in London sometimes if I should have taken the deal. Being an artist is like if there's two circles and the other side has the utmost confidence in self belief and then the other side has like crippling self-doubt and then they overlap and that certain little area, that's where you reside. Usually I'm extremely confident and I always believe in myself and I have faith in where I'm going but obviously sometimes you go: - does this even make sense? -. But those are normal, that happens to everybody.”
What is it that you found here in Four Music that you didn't find before?
Tomi: “Honestly an endless amount of opportunities like everything that already existed to me in my dreams! Getting to really have a team, that is incredible! The first single is doing incredibly well, which is fantastic and the more I do this now I realized that I could have never done this alone this quickly. My part in this it's just one part but then there's a whole lot of people to thank for whatever success comes my way.”
In your opinion, do you really think you can go DIY in this industry?
Tomi: “Even though I liked doing it alone I think there are no limits at all but it's just way harder. And you honestly need a little bit more luck. I think the most important thing is just to try to get better constantly and have the belief and faith in where you are going. It's essential as an artist in this industry to be blind to statistics because they don't really matter at all. None of the statistics have anything to do with me. I have my own kind of experiences to share. I have gone through enough happiness and heartache to really have something to say and those might be a little bit different than some other person's happiness and heartache. It's for sure that there are millions of people that have probably gone through the same things as I have. And then when I can share about it, hopefully my words feel like theirs. Just work and keep getting better all the time!”
Tomi Saario captured by Max Motel
Tomi Saario´s recently released debut single ‘Just A Little’ goes about love and relationships. What does love have that it's so inspiring? Do you think it just inspiring or perhaps you write about love trying to understand what really happens there?
Tomi: “Both! I feel like, in a corny way the thing that yours or anyone's heart kind of wants to sing about or say something about, are usually emotional stuff and they're very often related to love. So very often songs turned out to be about love but I don't think I ever intend to do that. I just write a melody and then usually I just start hearing words and then maybe sometimes, like halfway through writing the lyrics, I realize what I'm actually writing about. And then I can really get into it. But I've got some songs about life too!”
What do you find more inspiring to write about, when you are in the process of falling in love or when love is just disappearing?
Tomi: “I think when it's disappearing! When you're like blindly happy about something there's not much to say but I feel like when your heart is being ripped out there is a lot of other things you want to say to keep it with you. Definitely a breakup song!”
How much of all this is in your upcoming EP ‘I Think We Need To Talk‘?
Tomi: “I think there's a couple of songs about that side. Next one is also about that giddy side of relationships. The E.P. is kind of like the whole kind of circle. It is like the circle of, not life but circle of love.”
You sound a lot like John Mayer and I've seen you have some covers on your YouTube channel but what is the music that inspires you?
Tomi: “He's great! Yeah. But the most interesting melodies that are often most inspiring to me are in very old music so I recently listened to “I love the way you're breaking my heart” which is a very old song I think from the 20s and it's now one of my favorite songs. Those are melodies that I think you can actually bring back to 2020 and really make it fresh. I don't think personally that you should be trying to be inspired by modern music because that's already happening. There's nothing new there. So I think you should always kind of look elsewhere. Lyrically I love Country music, it's so storytelling and it's always interesting the way it describes things with all your senses. It just makes it come alive and Pop music doesn't really utilize those things. So I want to look back to look ahead!”
How were you introduced to music, what are your first memories?
Tomi: “I feel like many people first have their parents music taste because that's what you hear. So my first record was the greatest hits by the Beatles which is a very good place to start. And then I moved on from that to like Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, AC DC, etc... And then I discovered at the age of seven already Blues music. And that's when I got kind of obsessed with guitar. I had the Austin City Limits VHS tape by Stevie Ray Vaughan and that's what I kept on watching. And then B.B. King, Robert Johnson, Keb' Mo', all kinds of different blues artists and Jazz but I also listened to a lot of hip hop too. I listen to a lot of different music but very often I go back to really old school music.”
And to finish, what comes next, when will we be able to see you on stage?
Tomi: “Right now I have a showcase coming up in London on the 13th of February at The Slaughtered Lamb, which is exciting! And then no dates are confirmed but we're lining up shows for the Summer. But coming up there is a music video of the acoustic version of Just A Little coming out on the 7th of February and then there's also a remix coming up on the 21st of February! For the acoustic version we made a string arrangement for it with a friend of mine and a music video for which I'm very very excited about because it goes back to the process of how a song is created. For my lyric video of Just A Little, the idea came from how you write lyrics but then the acoustic video is more about how I used to write a lot of songs in the bedroom with the intention of hopefully one day playing them on stage to a lot of people, but then when you're on stage you want to capture that same feeling you had in the bedroom when you wrote the song. Without revealing anything else because it's not necessary, that was what we had in mind when making the music video for that one, so very excited to release it!”
For further information and future shows visit Tomi Saario´s website here.
Cover photograph by Max Motel
