Marko Saaresto

Marko Saaresto is a Finnish musician. He is the lead vocalist, primary songwriter and one of the founding members of the alternative rock band Poets of the Fall.

In early 2002, Saaresto was approached by Sam Lake, the writer of the Max Payne series of video games, to write the lead single for the second installment in the series, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Saaresto agreed. Lake gave Saaresto a poem he had written and asked him to make a song out of it. Saaresto modified it, and along with former Playground bandmate Tukiainen, wrote the now-famous single "Late Goodbye". To assist them with production, Lake offered them the services of industrial musician Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen. Together, they recorded the song, and upon the release of the game, it garnered cult status. Thousands of requests were made by players all around the world to own a physical copy of the song. They then decided to formally create the band and named it Poets of the Fall.