SONATA ARCTICA

Interview date

April 2007

Interviewer

Yann G

I N T E R V I E W

Hi Henrik, thanks a lot for accepting this interview for the french metal webzine http://www.auxportesdumetal.com/
Can you please present us your new album "Unia" ?

After a while, everyone in the band was a little bit tired with the fast stuff. So we decided that we are still young enough to change. And if we had continued the same way we did before, we would have made one or 2 more albums and then splitted. The feeling we have from people is that Unia is very different and I agree.

Is it a concept album ? Which themes do you develop in the lyrics ?

No, it's not a concept album. Lyrically, there are a lot of songs based on relationships and there are more abstract songs as well.

Why did you decide to make it more weird and complex, and most of all much slower than your previous releases ?

At the end of the "Dead Reckoning" Tour, Tony was a little bit tired of this typical power-metal. Tony started writing songs and realized after 6-7 songs that he had no fast song. He didn't want to force anything so he wrote whatever he felt OK. Of course, at the beginning, we were a little bit scared of what's gonna happen and we started listening to demos and the songs sounded very great. We were very happy. Of course we know that a lot of people love the fast stuff and wll be disappointed but it is very important for us to do it this way, otherwise 1 album more and some more years and we'd have splitted.

Is the finnish symphonic speed-metal of "Ecliptica" definitively behind you ?

Yes, we might have some fast songs but I don't think that we'll come back to the style we've done before. I don't think we'll record a new "Ecliptica". But of course we'll still play these longs live. We won't play live the latest album from start to finish. We'll probably choose 4 or 5 songs from the latest album for the next shows. There will be more of the older stuff of course.

Do you know how Scorpions reacted to your cover of "Still Loving You" ?

I don't know. I've heard that Kai Hansen said about our cover of "I Want Out" that it was pretty good but too fast. I would have to agree :-))

Do you plan any future covers ?

We may cover a Gary Moore song "Out In The Fields" that will be at least on the single in Finland and probably it will pop up somewhere later. Other than that, we haven't decided any future other cover.

You came twice last year in Paris for 2 shows with Doro and Altaria. What image do you keep of these both shows ?

In "Le Trabendo" it was very hot and the stage was very small. But anyway, France was the first country that welcomed the band. It has already been loud and great. At "The Locomotive", at the end of the show, my keyboard fell down and was almost broken. Also there was this air-conditioning blowing on Tony therefore we couldn't play in Spain the next day. I think we've played about 10 shows in France and you guys have the hot temperature like people in Italy and Spain, you really go in it and I love that.

Most people in the audience at these 2 shows were very very young, sometimes kids 13-14 years old. It's not common for this kind of metal. How can you explain this ?

First of all I think it's great. I think that good music will always attract. For example, now, you see kids who are 12 years old with the "Master Of Puppets" t-shirt. They weren't even born ! That's what makes metal great, you won't see young kids listening to 80s pop music, but you see kids listening to old Testament albums. That's why I love so much metal because it can last from the father to the son.

When will you start touring ? Have you already dates planned for France ?

Basically I know the planning for the rest of the year. It goes like that : next week we're gonna play a show in clubs in Finland just to get started and to get used to play live again. We played the last show in August last year, that's been a while. After that, Tony and I will promote the new album one week in Japan. In summer there are finish festivals, in July it's the japanese tour. And then in September we start the "hardcore" touring, we'll play in Mexico, US and Canada for 5 weeks, a cupple of weeks off then we'll do Europe for 4 weeks (in November in France). Then we'll have one festival in Japan and some other things around Christmas. Next year we'll keep on touring, so this tour will last about 2 years. We played 160 shows in our previous tour, we should play approximately 200 shows in the next one.

With which other bands ?

In Europe, we had originally planned to go to tour with Amorphis but we won't. We are in discussion with 2 other bands but I can't give you the names now. For the States tour, it's the total confusion, we heard about 3 or 4 bands so I don't know. In the States we'll have some more unknown bands.

If you could choose a band to support us, which band would you choose ?

Machine Men was a fantastic support band and I would like to do that again definitively. Winterborn, a new finnish band, I would like also.

If you could choose a band to warm up, which band would you choose ?

Nightwish, we would love to do it again. I think that for the kind of music we play, I'd choose Queen with Paul Rogers. Iron Maiden or Metallica would be very nice but I don't think it's the same audience that loves the 2 different styles of music. Queen would be cool.

Do you already have the first press feebacks on "Unia" ?

Basically, I've read some reviews. Some of them said "What's This Crap, Shit", some other ones said it was the best ever. Generally, most people seemed to have understood what we've chosen. But it's a little bit scary because usually when the critics like the album, sometimes the fans don't. I think that we will know the feedback one month of sales after the release date.

What do you think of P2P ? Unia is already on the Net.

What pisses me off the most is when a fan awaits for the new release, and he reads in the forums "The album is crap" or "The album is great" or whatever. When people copy an album, they're stealing it from us. I don't mind if they download it, listen to it, and if this is shit, please forget about it. But of course if you love the album, you have to buy it.

I give you the last words for the webzine's readers ?

We always had great experience in France, see you in November. Hope to see you on stage, cheers & thank you for the support !

Thanks again.