Markus Jussila has been doing music as a solo artist for a long time under a project name Fallen. In September 2012, after having an idea of making an concept album, Mournful Lines saw its dawn on a cold and rainy autumn day. A strong core concept revolving around love and death was brought to life... Markus started working on Mournful Lines' debut album in late September 2012. Instead of just a one man crusade, Markus realized that Mournful Lines had to come alive as a full band project. The songs demanded to be played live so Markus asked his good friend, Jonne, to join as a lead guitarist and he climbed on board immediately. Jonne and Markus started working together on the songs.
The next straightforward act was to put an advertisement in muusikoiden.net; a metal head's most important tool for finding members for the band. Later on that same day they got a reply from a drummer, named Kimmo who in addition to being a great drummer, also had a nice rehearsing place at his home, equipped with everything from a mixer to an echo sonar (?). Facilities and a drummer checked, it was now time to focus on finding someone dumb enough to play that infamous (inflamous) four stringed instrument.
Markus spoke to one of his friend in Facebook (yes, the one that every self-respecting people scold so much) and got in touch with Jarmo, a guitarist, that now had to settle for four strings! Everything started to shape up but Markus was still wrestling with an issue; Should Mournful Lines have an external singer or should Markus do it himself. Nevertheless, an advert was put online and a few responded. Matti joined the ranks of ML.
Boys then decided to arrange a meeting in Haukipudas. First line-up was born in early 2013. It was time to start rehearsing...
After the meeting boys decided to play their first rehearsals but Matti, due to an unfortunate sickness was unable to join, the band was left to battle with the vocals. Markus decided to sing the first rehearsals. Now it was time to really think about what to do with the vocals. Markus, after a long consideration, decided that he'd be the singer. The biggest reason for his decision was the intimacy of the lyrics; it would feel wrong if someone else would sing the lyrics that are based on Markus' on life. After that it was a time to concentrate on finding a keyboardist. Keyboardists are a momentary natural resource as we all know, right? But luckily Jonne knew a right guy for the job; Kimmo T.
Markus cooked an idea of a female vocalist after having a pleasant recording sessions where he sang the lead vocals and had a friend singing the female vocals. That worked! Once again boys put an advert online, but that didn't help at all. Luckily Jarmo knew a few women, who'd be interested. Only two of them contacted Markus: Mira and Hanna. Both of them were tested vocally and ML stood in front of a difficult choice. Choice, that had to be done. Mira was chosen to be the female vocalist. For a while.
Shortly after Mournful Lines' debut gig in February keyboardist Kimmo T. decided to leave the band after having a job from Southern Finland. The band was forced to continue without a keyboardist. Band decided that they won't call it quits even though this crucial part of entirety was missing. They decided to start recording their first tape ever. Originally the plan was to record a full-lenght album but then Jonne and Markus decided that it would be best to record a demo first and do the keyboard sections by hand with a computer software. Band spend an eternity (=too long to even memorize) in their homestudio working on the demo that included four songs. Their debut demo "My Sweet Serpentine" was released 4th of April 2013.
After the release it was time to seriously take the bull by the horns and start to look for a keyboardist due to confirmed gigs that were threateningly approaching. Band started to panic for real. Fortunately drummer Kimmo knew a worthy candidate for the job. Kimmo sent a message to Jyrki. Shortly after Jyrki came to rehearsals and played everyone else to morass. The choice was easy. Band welcomed Jyrki Muhonen as their new keyboardist. Rehearsing for the upcoming gigs started right away.
During April the band received an email concerning the upcoming SimeRock band contest in Rovaniemi, Finland. Mournful Lines was chosen to perform among 14 other bands for the place in next summers SimeRock festival. It was time to seriously discuss about the future; What was Mournful Lines' main goal and what the band wanted to sound like. After the conversation Mira decided to leave the band due to a fact that there was no place for a female vocalist at that moment.
Mira's departure wasn't the only setback. After the show in Ivalo, Jyrki decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. The decision was made in mutual understanding. Jyrki however played the remaining shows and then stepped aside. It was time to move on and think about the next move. Mournful Lines had been touring with their mutual friend, Mikael, who, at first, worked as a producer, driver, cameraman... you name it and luckily he also plays the keyboards. It was a natural transition to name Mikael as the next keyboardist because he already knew most of the songs.
Source : https://soundcloud.com/mournful-lines
