AMORPHIS Frontman Talks About 'Silent Waters', Touring Plans

Vassil Varbanov of Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock recently conducted an interview with AMORPHIS frontman Tomi Joutsen. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Tangra Mega Rock: What was your main motivation now? What did you want to achieve with "Silent Waters"?

Tomi: You see, we have such a good spirit within the band at the moment, and we are all motivated and really optimistic for the future of AMORPHIS. When we recorded "Eclipse", we wanted to do the new album almost immediately afterwards, because we had some of the songs ready and, as I said, we were motivated and wanted to do something instead of just hanging in our homes or doing nothing. I think this was right, because "Silent Waters" is something we're really into at the moment. The future for the band seems really promising.

Tangra Mega Rock: AMORPHIS will celebrate their 20th anniversary in about two years. Do you plan something special for this occasion?

Tomi: It's too early to say. When Pasi Koskinen left and I replaced him, this was a really big thing for the band, but now we're very happy, because it got clear we're doing good albums and shows together. People accept me well and give me a chance to do my thing... So we're really optimistic and I hope we're going to make many albums with this line-up.

Tangra Mega Rock: You mentioned the shows you're doing. What's AMORPHIS' live schedule for the summer?

Tomi: We're having some festivals here in Finland, and then we'll do a big show at the Wacken Open Air in Germany in August. Afterwards we'll release the album, and then we'll do a little tour in Finland, followed by a European tour in November. Then we'll have one show in Japan, which is definitely interesting for me, because I haven't been there before.

Tangra Mega Rock: Your record label Nuclear Blast chose the title track for the first single off "Silent Waters", but at the same time the people from the company tell me to put another song on the radio, "Towards and Against"... If it was you to choose, which of the new cuts would you play now?

Tomi: I think "Silent Waters" is a good song for a rock station that does not play very heavy music. It's an easy-listening song, that's why we took it as a single, although it doesn't give a good picture of the whole album, so yes, maybe "Towards and Against" is better.

Tangra Mega Rock: What's happening with your other band, SINISTHRA?

Tomi: We're working on new material, but at the moment we don't have a record deal, so we're looking for a label. We have some good songs, but of course I don't have so much time for SINISTHRA... However, we're definitely going to make a new album somewhere and somehow in the future.

Read the entire interview at Tangra Mega Rock.