Estonia’s Eurovision selection Eesti Laul will continue this week, and ahead of the semi-finals we got to chat with the band Boamadu. Together we talked about how the band was founded, their process of writing songs, and the meaning behind their song “Mitte Kauak”. Meet Boamadu below!
Hello Boamadu – thank you so much for meeting with us today! Why don’t you give our readers an introduction into who you are?
Hi Everybody! In short, we are a high energy rock group and we play original music.
Wonderful thanks for helping us get to know you better! Now since Roger was a founding member of the group 21 years ago, he might be able to answer this for me – how did the band Boamadu first come together, and is it any different today than it was back then?
The band was formed by high school students at the end of our last school year and it was meant to be one gig band just for this occasion. At the time we played covers and a few of our own songs, but the style was more like punk than rock. Today we are almost like a new band. Most of the members are new. Roger being the only founding member. Nowadays we play our own music with some occasional covers from the bands that inspire us.
And I noticed that during the pandemic you all did quite a few “Stay at home” covers from your own homes. What has it meant for you all to be able to perform together in person once again?
Performing together is what it is all about so of course it has been a lot of fun. When most live performances were canceled, we took the opportunity to prepare and then record a whole new album. That was the first time we got together again.
I also noticed that you all are very involved in the songwriting process for your music, especially Peeter and Keith who wrote your song for Eesti Laul. I’m curious to know, what does the creative process look like when you are writing a song?
Almost all of our songs are written by us. Some songs that we perform are from years back and are written by the past band members. Our creative process usually involves our frontman Peeter recording and sending us a fully recorded demo. We learn it and put it together when we practice. This is the time where we express how we could make something more interesting or do something differently. Even though this is how we usually do things, sometimes and especially in bandcamps we do write some songs from scratch too.
Now thinking of the Eesti Laul selection, this is your first time entering the Estonian pre-selection. What inspired or motivated you to take the chance and enter a song this year?
For us it was almost a last minute decision. Our singer’s girlfriend kept pushing him to talk to us about entering. So, we made a Facebook call and basically decided that we had nothing to lose. There was a song that we put together 99% at bandcamp this summer. It was a song that had high energy and also fit the length criteria. Usually we have songs longer than 3 minutes. Other than that, Eesti laul is a great platform to make a name for ourselves too. But that’s a bonus not a reason.
So thanks to this encouragement, you enter your song “Mitte Kauaks”, a rock song completely in Estonian and you qualified for the semi-finals. Based off the quarter-final show you seemed pretty excited to advance – what was going through your heads when they said your name?
Well I think the camera did not show the real excitement that was going on. Estonians can naturally be quite reserved people. So the emotions were definitely through the roof. Our drummer was home sick at the time and watched it from the tv. He put it like that: “When they said our name, me and my girlfriend jumped from the couch and got better for a moment”.
For our readers who don’t happen to speak Estonian, could you help us explain the message behind your song “Mitte Kauaks”?
It basically describes how life nowadays is really fast moving. If you want to compete you have to be fast. And if you are slow, you get left behind. This is described by our chorus’s first sentence. “Tule eile meile, võta homne leht”. This sentence is well known to every Estonian. It means “Come to me yesterday and bring tomorrow’s newspaper”. Which is actually an impossibility right, but is characterized the idea really well. Later in the chorus it said “Kui sa ootad kaua, olen läinud siit” which translates to “If you wait too long I’ll be gone”.
Oh wow those are some deep lyrics then, and definitely relevant to today. And are there any teases you can give for what the live performance might look like for the semi-final show?
We are classic rock and roll music admirers so we won’t be dressing up in matching clothing, but other than that we are going to bring the same energy to the stage that you can see in the music video.
I can’t wait to see it this weekend! Of course, the winner of Eesti Laul would be heading off to Eurovision this coming May. Are you all big fans of the contest?
Well we can’t say that we are huge fans, but we always watch it. As musicians we like to watch all types of music related shows even though it might not be our genre you can still learn things from doing so. Of Course, there have been some great rock songs over the years too.
For those who want to connect with you ahead of or after the selection– where can they find you and your music?
We are available on most well-known social sites. Our music can be found on YouTube and Spotify. And we are active on Facebook and Instagram. Kinda also thinking we should be starting to make content to TikTok too. That’s where all the kids are nowadays.
Alright, one final question for you – is there any message you’d like to share with our readers?
Because we are a live band than we say it like that: Listen to great LIVE music, appreciate musicians and their work and go to the concerts, cause that’s where the music really shines.
Well guys, I want to thank you again for taking some time to speak with me, and we wish you the best of luck during the Eesti Laul semi-finals!
What do #YOU think of Boamadu’s song “Mitte Kauaks”? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page!
