Interviews

Sonata Arctica is a band that's been enjoying some good success as of late, making a living writing effective melodic power metal tunes designed to poke and prod at the emotions and imaginations of their strong little group of fans worldwide. After completing a North American tour to promote Reckoning Night, their fourth studio album, they released their first live DVD alongside their second CD, entitled For the Sake of Revenge. Needless to say, if you have the chance, go see these guys live. Ever a fantastic PR-oriented label, Nuclear Blast set me right up with an early-morning chat with keyboard dynamo Henrik Klingenberg. Quickly disposing with the pleasantries, I started right in on the DVD...

TheMegalith.com: I heard in the news that the public release of the DVD was postponed until May. Any idea why that happened?

Henrik: Well not really ... I think there was some mishap with the pressing. There was some stuff that needed to be fixed I'm not exactly sure what. This whole fucking DVD thing has been pushed back a million times. So hopefully they get it sorted. I've seen it and it looks pretty good so I can't wait to get it out.

How was it decided that you were ready this tour to record a permanent example of the band's live performance?

We thought of doing it during this tour at some point. And the only place that we knew for sure that we could play in a big venue and make the show we wanted was Japan. That's why we did it there. But deciding that we were ready ... I don't know. As a live band I don't think you're ever ready to record a DVD or something I think you just have to do it. And I think the DVD we have there shows how we were playing at that time. And of course in two or three years it's going to be really different from this.

Now that you've seen it is there anything on the live recording you wish you could go back and do again?   Well, not really. There's always mistakes and stuff like that but I think it's part of the live show and part of being honest to what you do. If we would play perfect that would be fine, heh heh; but I don't think that's ever gonna happen so ... uh maybe some ways ... we were playing the medley that we played over there also on the tour. That was something that I would do different, I would like to play that on [the dvd] ... something like that and many song choices. Is there a music video or a single off of the DVD in the works? I know you're touring for it ... No, not really, we haven't talked about that. We're actually leaving tomorrow for five weeks in Europe and then we just have some summer festivals and after that a short break so we can make the next album. So this is something to tide people over until the next release. Our co-editor Jay definitely cringed when the End of this Keyboard came. Tell me about that, was the keytar really beyond repair or was it just time to smash some shit...?

Heh heh, I dunno, I've been toying with that idea but I can't afford to smash keyboards up. It's silly and childish and ... childish ... and it's part of rock'n'roll. I wanted to do it once to [laughs] feel how it feels to break something that you actually care about. So I decided to do it on the DVD shoot so that I can watch it over and over again and not just be some memory. But the only thing that saddens me about that, I think, was that it was custom painted. That's a shame but uh ... yeah, it's totally beyond repair. Tony started pulling off keys and stuff.

There was a 'best of' CD that also had some live bonus material released in Japan - The End of This Chapter. Was there a reason for the name for that CD or was it simply something the Japanese label wanted to put out?

There were talks about releasing that collection somewhere else as well. But I'm not sure if it's gonna come out elsewhere. But yeah that's basically the label's idea. I mean I don't think ... you know at this time, only four records out, I don't think it's time to make a 'best of' or something. I think it's a bit early. But the live stuff was something Tony and Jani did with just guitar and vocals while they were promoting the 'Reckoning Night' album so it's just acoustic versions of our songs. But yeah it's just something the label wanted to put there ...

I know there were rumours floating around that 'Reckoning Night' might be Sonata Arctica's last "metal" album and now you're gonna mellow down to lighter songs or whatever ... is there any truth to that or...?

Hahaha no no no. The reason why I'm laughing ... when we talked with the Japanese label about the name of the collection, since we have a song called 'The End of This Chapter', we thought that it would be a good idea to name it. And they didn't originally want it to have that name. And one of the reasons they said was like "Yeah, well, if you put that name then people will think that you're going to change into something totally different." Heh heh. So yeah ... We're gonna be metal, don't worry about it. We're not 60 years old yet.   Glad to hear it. So you just finished a big NA tour and you're ready to head out in support of the DVD right? Tomorrow, actually. How has the tour been this last time through Canada and the US. Any big setbacks? Yeah I mean we were really surprised ... it's kinda weird. The first time we did two weeks. We were about to come over with the Nightwish tour for four weeks. But they cancelled so we did just two weeks to check out if we can actually do this and people showed up. And now we've toured almost the whole country and ... I think the biggest surprise for us was that so many people showed up at the shows. We got like and average of 450 people per night on the whole tour so I think that's pretty good.

So no big setbacks?

Well there's always small things that happen. Intstruments break down and ... horrible stuff but not really anything catastrophic ... not anything worth mentioning.

I know you can't drink all the time... what kind of literature do you take with you. Any recommendations?

I usually take some ... I like to read like Kerouac and stuff like that ... Hemingway maybe. I usually take a couple books with me on tour and I read like 50 pages in one month. I don't know why, I read a lot at home but on tour ... I'd rather watch TV and drink. [laughs] With the drinking thing ... I think I was sober for four days on the US tour, that was six and a half weeks. So yeah, you can drink almost all the time. But when I come home I don't drink so much.

Obviously you have experience having to "work" late nights and then get up early and do it all over again the next day, so what's the best tour hangover remedy?

[laughing] Drink more. Yeah because when you wake up that's the easiest way. If you feel like shit have a beer or two, y'know you're not gonna get drunk or anything, but that's one thing. The other thing is playing works out really good. If you're in a wicked hangover, you drink for example something sweet like Smirnoff Ice or something like that ... drink that and play so you sweat the bad booze out and get the good stuff in and you're ready to go. If you can't drink the next day, get something to eat and get some water in you.

In your opinion, which of the groups on the metal "scene" these days is doing it right?

Well, from Finland it would be Children of Bodom of course. And I like Strapping Young Lad also. A lot. Can't wait for the new album, and uh ... y'know I haven't been checking out so many new bands lately. I'm sort of lazy with that. I just wait and then when I'll hear enough about one band I like then I'll buy the CD or something but I don't actively search for new bands that I haven't heard before. But I think there's a lot of metal bands now and I think the scene is pretty healthy and getting better all the time.

When you aren't limited to the Sonata Arctica format, what other styles of music do you enjoy playing?

I dunno. Maybe some blues would be cool. Then I have another band called Mental Care Foundation and we play trash metal. But I sing. And that's uh ... heh heh, "sing" ... I scream, but that's really good therapy actually. I used to play classical and then I played jazz for a couple years when I was starting, but I never got into it. I like to listen to jazz but ... I don't think my mind is right to really get into that stuff and actually play it properly or play it so it sounds good so ... I'm just fiddling around a little bit with it.

I'm not sure if I read correctly but are you guys planning on doing anymore writing before the summer?

Actually yeah. Toni writes most of the songs and he has some demoes ready. So probably during the tour we're going to listen to them together and then during the summer or earlier we're gonna go through the songs with the band and check the arrangements and stuff like that. We're going back into the studio in November.

So obviously nothing set in stone but would you expect the new stuff to kind of pick up where Reckoning Night let off?

Yeah, I mean the songs that I heard, it's like a pretty logical next step from Reckoning Night, no huge changes. Nothing to be worried about, heh.

What about plans for the summer?

Well, we're doing this tour and then we have some summer festivals. I think we just have like six or seven. We're taking it pretty easy this summer because next summer when the album's out we're gonna have to do a lot of touring. So just enjoying the Finnish summer and drink some beer.

I know that traditionally Toni has taken the main role in songwriting. Do you think with the next album the rest of the band will be given a larger role in the process?

Well Toni always asks for that y'know. "Please, you can write something also..." But uh ... I'm pretty lazy with that stuff heh. I write for other bands and uh ... I have some riffs and bits that I'm going to burn to a CD and give to him, so maybe he can put the songs together. I'm not really that kind of person but I think Jani already has some songs ready for the album.

Yeah, he wrote one for Reckoning Night didn't he?

Yeah, I think he said he had about two or three ready or something like that. We'll see whatever fits the direction of the album. Toni's gonna be the main man for sometime now anyways.

What are some of you musical goals for the course of the next couple years?

One thing we have to work really hard on is the States and Canada. And so next album we're gonna tour at least twice ... and then maybe a third time. There's a huge market there and there's a lot of playground so to speak and so we just need to come back and come back and come back and then hopefully make an impact there. Europe is coming pretty well now for us now so it's starting to open up. Basically ... we'll write the next album, tour for two years, then another album and ... see where we end.

Do you hope that's always going to be the case? That Sonata's going to be your main focus...

Yeah, I mean ... as long as I feel the way I feel now about doing it and with the guys and everything. Right now we're all really happy about this. We've got a good crew, we can actually bring our own crew everywhere and ... so right now, it's really the best job I can imagine.