Interviews

After chasing the guy from the artist area for an hour I finally got hold of a person who was in charge of the artists at Sauna Open Air festival and managed to make him take my request for an interview with Tony. And Tony came with Timo Kotipelto as mental support & ****** If we think about Sonata Arctica´s situation one year ago & you didn´t have Reckoning Night out yet, you didn´t have the European tour with Nightwish, North-American headliner-tour and so on & it seems that Sonata Arctica is getting nice wind beneath the wings? Tony: Yes, all the time we have been going upwards, which is of course a good thing at this point of a career. We have only made four albums and one live album & actually the second live album is coming soon as we have filmed a DVD in Japan and they decided to release that also as a live-CD. Are you still satisfied with the outcome of your fourth album Reckoning Night? Tony: Yes I am. At first it felt like okay  it became like this &, but then again there´s so many great songs that I wanted to make for a long time. When Henkka (Henrik Klingenberg  the keyboardist) came to the band, he brought some kind of new attitude with him  this was the first album where Henkka was playing and had possibilities to have an influence  he was in our Winterheart´s -tour but he didn´t play on that album yet. Do you have favourite songs on Reckoning Night? Tony: Well, White Pearl, Black Oceans& is one of them and The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Real Puppet & those are the two at the moment & and of course Don´t Say A Word, which is a pretty good song. When you changed from Spinefarm Records to Nuclear Blast, did anything change? Tony: Well, now we have clearly more resources behind us and our work-load has increased a lot & lots of interviews & (and says to Timo) as you know when you´re in the certain stage in your career you get to give these interviews a lot & Timo: I have never given any interviews & this is the first interview where I´m not giving any interview. I´m just here as a mental support! Tony: Okay & so, the work-load has increased and in this profession it is of course a good thing to have as much work as possible up to a certain point. And we are still going upwards, at least I hope we´re not yet on the top of our career. You mentioned earlier those two favourite songs from the new album. But you´re not playing either of them live, do you? Tony: No, that´s very unfortunate & in White Pearl, when you listen to it there´s a very long period in the beginning of the song where choir is leading the song, so there´s actually no specific melody holding the song up & I like choir singing a lot, it´s a very big thing for me & singing lead tracks has always been painful for me, so when I have got that done, then the smiling starts when I get to sing those background vocals. That´s a lot of fun & actually quite damn fun! You have played live Misplaced, Blinded No More, Shamandalie and Don´t Say A Word. On a couple of gigs in Germany you also played Wildfire and Ain´t Your Fairytale & Tony: Those were experiments. We wanted to see how they work live, but we didn´t get the feeling that they would have worked 1000% so we ended up cutting them silently off of our set. So, there´s no hope to get them back in your liveset? Tony: You´ll never know & it´s possible to try them again, but first we would need to make little arrangements for those songs. We are also getting The Ruins Of My Life in our set, but we haven´t had the time to rehearse it properly yet & Timo: You´re doing ok now? Tony: Sure, I´ll manage & thanks for your support! Timo: You´re welcome. Another time I will ask for your support & Tony: Any time& - Timo leaves to watch Dio´s performance. - During the Winterheart tour you also played The Misery once. That was left out also? Tony: I think we played it, as a matter of fact, more than once somewhere & we just noticed that Last Drop Falls probably worked better, but now that also has been replaced with Shamandalie. How about My Selene then? Tony: I suggested it to Jani that we would play that song when we´re touring Finland again this autumn, and for the European tour and other gigs, but Jani thought that that song necessarily isn´t the one he would like to take to our live-set. We´ll see what happens  there´s also some arrangements that need to be done for that. My next question was supposed to be about other rare live songs like Dream Thieves, but we already got an answer to that question as it was in your set tonight. But how about Peacemaker and cover songs & will those be played on European tours in the near future? Tony: I´m not very convinced about that & maybe some of them as a curiosity. But we can´t make a tour where we would play only these more rare songs & we can do one or two special songs, and also now I think we have to get one new song to the set when we go to Europe, because it would feel a bit stupid to play exactly the same set again. So, tonight´s set is not the European tour set? Tony: Tonight´s set is some kind of base for that set & there are already two songs that we haven´t played for a long time (Dream Thieves and Weballergy) and the third one is coming (The Ruins Of My Life). Last autumn you had that European tour with Nightwish. What kind of feelings do you have about it? Tony: That was an absolutely brilliant tour. It´s a bit difficult to say - the first European tour with Stratovarius was a big experience and seven weeks long, seven weeks, and that was our first tour ever. The venues we're not generally all that big compared to the ones we had now with Nightwish, but still the tour with Stratovarius was great as we didn´t have to stress on anything, and everything was new and great. Now that we went with Nightwish everything was again in a sense new and great, because we played in a much bigger places, like for example the venue in Hamburg. That was really exciting. And of course it was really nice to tour with Nightwish because we are friends with the guys and also the Trio Niskalaukaus -guys who were supporting us in the German -speaking countries & that truly was an absolutely brilliant tour! Then you had that North American headliner tour, which wasn´t supposed to be a headliner-tour in the first place, right? Tony: Yes, we were supposed to go there with Nightwish, but they first postponed the tour and then eventually cancelled it. So, we thought that we´d go there on our own then and that truly paid off. It became clear that we can sell gigs there and also get people to those gigs. There are so many people that filling a place with an audience capacity of 200-300 people really is no problem. We also had gigs in places where the capacity was 800 people, in Montréal which was the biggest venue with a capacity of 1.800 people. And it was sold out. Canada is a different story, especially those French-speaking areas which you can directly compare to France. So, did the North American tour meet your expectations? Tony: We did get lots of warnings about the North America, how things don´t work there as planned, but we went there with an attitude of not expecting anything. And I have to say that the North American tour exceeded our expectations in every part, because we were a bit afraid whether there would be any audience at our gigs. But as the first gig in Springfield, south of Washington, was sold out, it gave us really good feelings that this would work out. And when you're going to a new place it´s always something special & we also got to visit New York and that was great. So, you were seen also in the Rock´n´roll hall of fame? Tony: Yes, we tried to visit some famous sights also. How was the audience there compared to the European or the Japanese audience? Tony: The French are always very loud & but the Americans were also a very good audience. The Japanese are also in a certain way pretty loud, but & it´s really great to visit there, but the culture is somehow so different that I´m still not used to the things they do. The feeling is somehow bothered, because whatever you say or do on stage you´re not 100% sure whether they understand the thing the same way you meant it or not. The audience is very silent and you just hear one wow there & it gives you a really silly feeling. But it´s absolutely great to be there. They are really fanatic people and they are always 100% along with the band, but still they also have this language barrier & I think the culture is also changing a bit there now as they are studying English in school earlier and earlier & Now you´re heading to your first European headliner tour & Tony: Yes, we will be in France & actually we have already been doing a headliner-tour in France earlier & Do you already know which will be the supporting bands? Tony: We have two bands that have been in consideration, but I don´t want to name them yet, because it´s not yet sure. We would like to get the two bands from Finland that have been in consideration, and there might also be one local supporting band. That would make four bands, which I think is already too much. About this evening's set, I noticed that you have broken the holy-trinity: My Land-Replica-Black Sheep? Tony: Yep, that was intentional. We wanted to do something special and funny there to cheer us up and at least our soundboard-guy got confused (laughs) & What was the part that you sang in one part of Kingdom for a heart? Tony: For a long time I have sung the lyrics of Letter to Dana there, but now I have changed that to Tallulah. Do you have any special memories from any gigs? I remember that you have at least had problems with intros here in Finland? Tony: Oh yes, that famous event when we played Dream Thieves for the first time in Tuska 2002 & there was something done with the monitors and we didn´t hear anything and then just out of the blue our drummer started playing because he heard the beginning of the song that was coming from a minidisk & so the song started pretty suddenly for the rest of us, and the song didn´t go so well after that either, and therefore it was left out from the set immediately. For us in the audience that also went little over the head, because that song wasn´t yet released when you played it at Tuska 2002. Tony: Yeah, we had the idea that it would have been released in the end of summer, in autumn 2002, but then the release date was postponed further on, which was actually pretty ok, because at that time the song felt pretty heavy and different, little wrong way heavy, after our Silence album, but considering it now with the stuff on Winterheart´s Guild it doesn´t sound so strange anymore. You´re now releasing a DVD next year, right? Tony: Yes. Do you know the release date already? Tony: At the end of the year & the Japanese are trying to get it released already in October this year. Another thing is if we are able to get it done so fast. And in Europe? Tony: Not this year in Europe, but in Japan at least. I think the Japanese want to have it 2-3 months in advance. Is it a whole gig or parts from different gigs? Tony: It´s one whole gig from Tokyo. Will there be any bonus tracks on the Japanese release? Tony: There was one or two songs that we thought we will leave out and give those as an extra to the Japanese release. So there will be something special on the Japanese release, yes. You said in the beginning of this interview that there will also be a new live-CD  from the same gig? Tony: Yes, that will be the same show. This once again was not our idea, but maybe I understand it that they will also release it as a CD. Then there´s also a collection -CD coming up & Tony: That´s Spinefarm´s thing and again very understandable because the band has left the label so they wanted to release this. Can you reveal if there´s anything previously unreleased stuff on that collection? Tony: On the Japanese version there will be something. Jani and I did a promo-tour there and we did some acoustic sets, so there will be a couple of songs from those and there also will be an instrumental version of "Draw me" which was used as an outro during the Winterheart´s -tour. That will be also on the European release. We were supposed to record something else for that, too, but after we had come back from the States I instantly got sick & so if we had had even one more gig in the States we would have had to cancel it & anyway, I was so sick that we couldn´t make any recordings that we had planned as bonus tracks. Those will be released then with our next album for sure as B-tracks on our singles and so on. Does the collection already have a name? Tony: Wait a minute & yes, it was The End of This Chapter. That went through after all, even though they first thought that it sounded too negative & like everything would change in the future. When can we expect the fifth album? Tony: The start of the recordings depends on our touring. We will be heading back to the U.S. but we are not sure exactly when that´s going to happen. Anyway, the recordings will start next spring and if everything goes as planned the new album should be released at quite the same time as Reckoning Night was released, but in 2006. Do you have any material ready for the fifth album? Tony: Yes, I have a couple of songs in a pretty good shape and a couple of songs with some parts, but I still have plenty of time to work with the songs. You could say that four cornerstones have been laid down & but the other guys haven´t heard them yet though. All four albums are pretty different. Will this fifth one also be different or are you going to go back to some older style? Tony: No, it won´t completely return to any previous style. There will be some kind of evolution for sure & I don´t know. I still don´t have any fast double-bass drum songs for the new album. But I must do some, and there will be some for sure & I have had a bit calmer period in my composing so the songs have turned out to be slower but yet powerful & the new album will of course sound like Sonata Arctica, that´s for sure. About the composing process  what comes first; the riffs, the lyrics or the melodies? Tony: Melodies. But it changes & sometimes I might have some pieces of words that open the gates and then I find the melodies, but it´s very rare that I start with the lyrics. Usually it is so that the melodies come first. How complete are the songs when you introduce them to the band? Tony: It doesn´t have to be that complete. Usually I take some kind of raw version with the beginning, the middle-part and the end, and between those I leave room for the band to make changes & and if they think that one part is really bad  I will think about it again and then say that it is fucking good (laughs)& Does this happen very often? Tony: Yes, it does happen that they don´t like some parts of the song & sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong, and all parties must admit every now and then that the other one was right. As Japanese bonus tracks you have had Respect the Wilderness, The Rest Of The Sun Belongs To Me and Wrecking The Sphere. They all handle nature in a way or another. Is this a coincidence or what? Tony: It is actually a coincidence. I heard about this before when somebody mentioned it, but it truly is a coincidence. Funny actually. Maybe I should keep up the same coincidence in our next album & that is definitely not any kind of statement against Japanese nature policy or industrial things or anything alike. There is a quite strong metal-boom going on in Finland. Has that affected the sales of Sonata´s albums in Finland? Tony: Actually our albums have sold pretty well in Finland right from the beginning. Even the first album sold pretty well, but clearly the sales have been increasing all the time. Now Reckoning Night and Winterheart´s Guild have sold approximately as much - only thing is that Reckoning Night sold the same quantity in very much shorter period of time. If you had to compare your success in Finland, in Europe or elsewhere in the world, what would you say? Tony: I don´t know. This might sound really silly, but I´m really proud how we are doing in Finland. And Finland is also the only country where our album sales have reached the gold record limit. That surely tells something. In numbers our albums have sold much more in Japan, but that doesn´t really mean anything, because we are so far away from gold record sales. This is after all marginal music in Japan & you should really sell an incredible amount of albums in Japan to get a gold record. And also the whole economy in Japan has been going down all the time lately & so it has really been a miracle that our album sales there have increased or stayed at the same level when most of the other bands seems to have decreasing album sales. Many Finnish metal band's main target area is Japan. Do you have any clue why this Finnish metal sells in Japan? Tony: I don´t know& the speed and melodic stuff has been the thing. Nightwish is just starting there & they just visited there for the first time & I don´t know about their sales numbers there, but clearly they are opening up to that kind of things, too & it might be though a bit difficult thing there in this male dominated music style to have a powerful female figure in front & I don´t know, somebody has said that, but I´m not sure if it´s true. How about piracy? Has that troubled Sonata Arctica and have you ever seen any Sonata Arctica piracy products? Tony: T-shirts. I haven´t seen any albums though myself, but T-shirts, yes. This problem is at least in Italy and it´s the same with all bands. There´s some kind of "mafia" running the things and there´s actually nothing we can do about it. I've heard stories of busted bus tyres and so on if you cause them trouble... How about bootlegs then? What´s your opinion about those? Tony: In a way, yes & it´s nice to listen to your own gigs. Especially when you have had a really great gig and you want to hear how it really went and you can hear it on a really good bootleg, so for that it is really handy & but on the other hand it is so damn wrong that some people are selling those, making really shitty cover arts and selling those& they should be then available for free to everybody, because it is wrong that some people are making money out of it. Especially when we don´t get anything out of it, not a cent. Only the one who has illegally recorded the show is making money out of it. Have you had any time or interest to follow any Finnish underground- or demo-bands? Tony: I don´t have much time & when people bring demo tapes to me I always listen to those. But if I don´t get excited about them it doesn´t mean anything, because it's only one man's opinion. And I don't get excited all that easily anyway. Now that I think of it, I get surprisingly many demos yearly& What do your parents like about your career as a musician? Tony: They have no complaints at this point when I´m truly earning my living out of this. I think they are proud, and sure they are & at first they were bit worried about how this is going to work out, but I stayed at school as long as possible, I was studying in Polytechnic to become Media Expert & when making the Silence album, the school was dropped at background, and after the Silence -album I dropped out of the school because I had no time for that because of touring and all that stuff. That was bit like a turning point where my parents were worried about how the things will work out, but they also have supported me financially. I got some money from my father when we went to the first tour with Stratovarius and that was really great thing considering all the phone bills and so on & the support is very important. Now they understand this. What is the best and the worst thing in the life of a musician? Tony: The best thing is that I have so much spare time. At least I feel like I have it a lot. The thing is how you use it& but it has not been any problem to me because I have lots of work at my home in our yard, it's relaxing. One of the best things is that you can get away from home for a long period of time, so that you can feel the homesickness. The normal workers who are working in the factory eight hours a day, they never get that. We get to feel that creeping homesickness and by that you´ll learn to appreciate the family and home. And it makes everything different. It´s totally different to be at home after five weeks touring when you really appreciate it. On the other hand those long tours are the worst thing, too. Being on tour is truly painful. But when you get back home that makes it all up. And sometimes being a musician is also very stressful. You become recognizable - you are never alone. When you go to the local store the people are staring at you and looking after everything you purchase. Paranoid me. What would you change in music business if you could? Tony: I would change music business so that everybody would get what he/she deserves. All those who are working in the music business - artists, record companies and people who are buying these albums, all would get what they deserve and what belongs to them. So that this piracy wouldn´t take over the business & like for example the Internet where all albums are available in advance. The Internet also takes the "magic" out of this business - there´s too much information about people in there. That mystical stuff like Alice Cooper eating whatever animals and born from the seeds of satan - that kind of things can´t ever be born again. Because you can see from the net that he´s really a priest's son from Köyliö, for example, and he had 9,5 average at school and had written seven laudaturs in high school. After you have heard all that, it is very hard to build any illusions around that person. That is truly a bad thing. I would change that. That the people and the artists would be able to veil themselves in mystic and that they would have privacy. Do you have any favourites amongst Finnish metal bands? Tony: Nightwish is great and also Children of Bodom. And I´m also waiting pretty much for the new album of Stratovarius. Have you had any time between touring to do anything nice? Tony: We haven´t been touring for a while. This was the first gig after 14th of May - the Rock Hard Festival in Germany. The works in our yard. The spring has just arrived in Kemi. It´s not so long ago when leaves came to the trees. And I have a pretty large yard so there´s plenty of work to be done. And that is really relaxing and nice. What else than touring will be in Sonata´s near future plans? Tony: Not much else than touring. A lot of spare time and touring. Summer festivals and stuff. Are there any soloprojects coming or planned? Tony: Not at this point. Sonata is taking so much time that I don´t have resources for any other projects. Would you like to send a voice message to our readers? Tony: Kesä tulee ja se on oikeasti  se on hienoa aikaa. Mä toivon, että pidätte päänne, monellakin tapaa, ettekä hyppää pää edellä humalassa laiturilta kivikkoon. Älkää hukkuko, älkää tehkö mitään tyhmää, pitäkää hauskaa kesällä ja antakaa rokin soida. Summer is coming and it is truly  it´s a great time. I hope that you will keep your heads, in every sense, and when you´re drunk don´t jump head first from the pier to the rocks. Don´t drown, don´t do anything stupid, have a nice summer and keep rocking.