Mournful Lines’ music is a mixture of heavy riffs, melancholic atmosphere, serene keyboards and clean vocals, that include both male and female. Mournful Lines’ strenght lies in their ability to mix several different genres in to one and the combination of male and female vocals gives the band an unique sound! The initial idea of the song was love towards a person that you can never have but as Minna left the band just before the release of the song, the meaning of the song changed drastically. Mournful Lines just isn’t “full” without a female. HISTORY Markus Jussila had 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 Fofonoff, 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 Ritapuu who in addition to being a great drummer, also had a nice rehearsals 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 friends on Facebook (yes, the one that all self-respecting people scold so much) and got in touch with Jarmo Pyörälä, 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 Honkala joined the ranks of ML. The boys then decided to arrange a meeting in Haukipudas. First line-up was born in early 2013. It was time to start rehearsing… Second lineup 2013. Mira as the female vocalist. At this point the band didn’t have a keyboardist. (c) Samppa Vainionpää. 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. After that it was 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 Taskinen. Markus cooked up an idea of a female vocalist after having pleasant recording sessions where he sang the lead vocals and had a friend singing the female vocals. That worked! Once again the 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 Halinen and Hanna Nylander. 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. The 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. The 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 Muhonen. 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. Mournful Lines with Jyrki Muhonen 2013. (c) Samppa Vainionpää. 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 Hilli, 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. 24.5.2015. Mikael as the new keyboardist. Mournful Lines entered to record their next demo called Failures in the end of the year 2013. It was released in January 2014. This demo was also recorded in Haukipudas rehearsal place and with computer based keyboards even though Mikael was in the band at that time. After releasing Failures it was time to hit the road and start playing shows. ML played a handful of shows in the year 2014 and Mikael played his first ever show with Mournful Lines in February 2014 in Youth cafe Bysis. In april ML took a break from playing live and started to talk about a new release. They started to record it in the summer 2014. This release was the first one with the whole band playing on it. It was released July 10th and was entitled Seas of gold. The release was a bit more darker and slower paced than the previous ones. After playing a few more shows in 2014 and talking about the future plans ML decided to start recording new songs early 2015 and this time use external help with the production. Väinö Komulainen was chosen to be the engineer who’ll do the mixing. Recordings were set to start in January 2015. A short time after recordings started Jonne had some news for the band: He decided that it would be better for him and the band to move away due to personal reasons, not long after Jonne decided Mikael to move on aswell. After Jonne and Mikael left the band it was time to find replacements. The band released their debut album, that was made as a three-piece (Markus, Kimmo, Jarmo). Luckily drummer Kimmo knew a guy, Heikki Veijola, who joined the ranks in 2015 as a guitarist. Markus put an add once again in muusikoiden.net to find a keyboardist. Matti Halonen contacted the band and he was chosen to be the next keyboardist. Mournful Lines was a five piece again. While playing shows the band discussed about taking female vocals to the mix again. There were a few candidates to do the job but once Minna Niemelä came to rehearsals, it all just clicked! Minna defined Mournful Lines’ sound and made it as it is today. Mournful Lines in 2015. Heikki, Matti and Minna are the newest members. (c) Jukka Dahl. Before the show in Ravintola House 14.11.2015 drummer Kimmo informed that it will be his last show with Mournful Lines. He took a personal time out from playing shows and rehearsing. The rest of the band were forced to look for a new drummer and in came Janne Pennanen. Janne’s time in Mournful Lines was quite a short one. Only 2 months. After Jannes departure Heikki (Veijola) asked Kimmo to join back to the band and after being on a vacation he said yes. 21.5.2016 was Heikki’s last show. Replacement for Heikki was found fairly quickly – Jussi-Pekka Laakko joined the band and the band played a small tour in Finland. The band has had major changes in the line-up during the years but quitting has never been an option. The year 2016 was a major blow for the whole band since Mournful Lines lost members in a short time, their original bassist Jarmo and guitarist J-P. Juha Tervo joined the band as a leadguitarist and Heikki Ilvesviita was chosen to be the new bassist in 2017. Minna decided to leave the band in summer 2017 due to personal reasons. After the news Minna delivered the guys were baffled and didn’t know what will happen to all the already recorded new songs and so forth. Quitting the band was never an option, though that option did come up in discussions concerning the future so the guys decided to put an ad to muusikoiden.net and hope for the best. Luckily after a long period of time, when Markus was about to quit the search and bury Mournful Lines Heikki talked to him and told Markus not to give up. It was not an option. Not long after that Emma came to rehearsals and the boys were blown away. Emma was chosen as a vocalist at the end of July 2017. Original drummer Kimmo parted ways with the band in summer 2018. We wish him the best for the future! The band was looking for a drummer for a very long time, since the band wanted to take it easy, and make a choice that would, not only serve the music but the band also. After the tryouts and a long consideration, Sami Heiskanen was chosen to be the new drummer! Shortly after Sami joined the band, Emma said that she wants to concentrate on other interests in her life and career. The band decided to put up a new tryouts for vocalists. After long tryouts and many great vocalists, Mournful Lines chose Ida as their new vocalist. Mournful Lines 2019. (c) Jukka Dahl. Make-up by Satu Paakkola. Mournful Lines 2020. (c) Jussi Määttä. Make-up by Misa Emily.
