Interview с Thunderstone : DARKSIDE.ru

llo!

This is Angelina, Darkside.ru musical portal.
There are a few questions for you within your concert promotion. I hope, you will answer honestly and not in couple of words – the audience of the portal is about 10.000 users per day, so, lots of your fans will read it.
Thanks!

(Hi, This is Titus (bass player) answering the questions. I hope you’re satisfied…)

Could you tell what was the reason for delay with a new album – as I know, you told about some improvements, but can’t understand what namely you wanted to finalize. Could you tell more?

Because we’re spread over three countries nowadays, scheduling recording sessions tends to be a bit difficult. Also, we wanted to make sure that a worldwide release of the album was negotiated before we fixed a date for publication.

Have you already decided on a name of a new album?

Not really. There is a strong contender for the title, but we’ll keep it a secret for a bit more.

Will you play some new songs at Moscow concert?

Yes, we will. Three, I think.

The composition “Star” was called the hardest in the whole biography of the band – what was the reason to make the sound heavier? Do you plan to change the style at all, to make the new album harder in the whole?

I see our style change

as a natural evolution and I think those who have been listening to us since the first album would agree. With every album we’ve moved away from the more generic ‘power metal’ into a more complex and heavier direction. I also think this is what a band needs to do to keep the job interesting and personally I’ve always liked the new albums more than any of the predecessors.

As I know, you took two new people into the band - Jukka Karinen and Rick Altzi. How can you describe your collaboration?

Jukka came on board for the European tour we did in late 2007 and as he is as mad—or even worse—than the rest of us, we asked him to stay. Rick we found almost by accident and I have to say it was a lucky accident. He’s a great vocalist and a great guy.

Also I remember you had deal with Tommi "Tuple" Salmela (my good friend!) but what was the reason to stop such a nice cooperation? I thought his loud and powerful voice matched to your music perfectly well!

Tuple is a good friend and he did us a favour we’ll never forget by taking over the vocal duties for the 2007 tour. As much as we liked his voice and the man, at the end of the day we just felt more comfortable with Rick’s voice. This was all done in mutual understanding and I’m sure there are no hard feelings about this on either side. Tuple remains a great friend, and I’d very much like to see h

im join us on stage perhaps one day for a song or two.

What do you think about Eurovision? Last years this fest became something like national idea as in Finland, as in Russia. But I heard something about not honest judgment there – for example, in Russia it’s clear – I mean unfair choice, and heard a little about Finnish scandals about Eurovision. So, what can you say about – and of course, at least, will we see you in Moscow in May within the nearest competition?

I don’t really know—or care—about Eurovision after we did our little thing there two years ago. In Finland it’s a matter of public vote, so there really isn’t any scandal involved. We did it once, it was fun, but there’s very little chance we’d do it again if we were asked to.

Do you think that there have to be more metal bands on international competitions? As we see, namely metal often becomes winner.

I really have no opinion about this. Competitions like Eurovision will never be the main promotion tool for metal. It’s hard touring and getting face to face with the fans that remains the main way to reach audiences in this music.

There are a few discussions about Finnish government program of young metalbands supporting – can you say what is it and how it works? One your colleague said that it’s only fiction.

There is no specific program for su

pporting young metal bands, but the state is definitely supporting quite a lot of popular music through grants, subsidies, and by providing venues for performance and rehearsal. I don’t know what the colleague you mentioned was thinking when he said government support is a fiction.

Is it true that every musician have to get special education and a license to play professional music and to get a contract with label?

Do you mean in Finland? If so, the answer is no. Everybody can practice and play music as much as they like. Another question is if in general a band needs to be professional to get a record contract. Again, my answer would be no. Good music is about good songs, not about degrees, education or the number of notes you can play in a second. That’s really all there is to it.

Is it true that Finnish bands are famous everywhere, in all the world, but not at motherland? J

The trend seems to be that some bands—especially those singing in English—tend to become famous in Finland only after they have achieved some success abroad. You don’t necessarily need to be famous abroad first to become famous in Finland, but it certainly helps!

Sometimes I heard that Finnish metal is most famous in Japan – even special versions and editions of albums are made for this country. Do you have this kind of experience?

I

think most bands worldwide do special editions of their albums for Japan. That’s just something the local record companies expect. We’ve always done a Japanese special edition with our albums, and it’s been quite fun actually to have song on the edition that otherwise would have been ‘lost’ in a sense.

We have now nearly fucking awful situation with concerts – if earlier there were about 1500 persons at every gig, now – about 400-600 and no more. Either it’s crisis, or anything else? Do you have the same in Finland?

Everybody has less money to spend in the current economic situation, so it’s kind of understandable. I don’t live in Finland, so I’m not sure what the situation is there now, but here in London I haven’t seen a massive reduction in numbers although the crisis is worse here than in the rest of Europe. I did talk to the Children of Bodom guys while they were here and they said the number of people on their German shows had dropped dramatically, so I guess the economic situation is affecting gigs around Europe.

At all, do you feel the influence of global crisis? And if you do, so how come?

I can’t say we’ve felt the crisis too bad, so far. But record sales are definitely down everywhere, so let’s see what happens when the new album comes out in September.

What do you feel staying on the stage? What are your favorite and most hateful situations during a concert?

Being on stage is one of the best sensations you can have. Especially when there’s a responsive audience. On the other hand, sometimes when I’m very tired and the audience is not responsive, it starts to feel like work, which is something I don’t like.

How you plan to spend your time in Russia?

Playing, drinking vodka, playing, drinking vodka, drinking vodka, etc. =). Unfortunately, we’re making such a quick trip that we won’t be able to see much of the country. Next time maybe!

Have you tried Nemiroff? (Or maybe heard about or plan to ask someone to bring?)

I have to admit that I haven’t. But I wouldn’t mind trying!

Do you know that you have a greatest company within Moscow concert? What do you think about the band Epidemia you will play with? Have you listened to it?

I have seen their live DVD and was very impressed how popular they are and how good the audiences at the show was. I’ve also listened to one of their songs intensely in the last few days. You’ll see why when you come to the show…

How your collaboration with Epidemia started? What happened that you decided to come to Russia to play with Epidemia?

Their manager came to Finland on his birthday. Jan Yrlund brought him in our guitarist Nino’s studio in Helsinki and apparently after some vodka-drinking, the idea about Thunderstone coming to Russia was conceived. I’m very happy that the idea has become reality now!

Do you listen to Russian metal at all? What bands do you know?

I don’t listen to much contemporary metal anyway, so I have to say that Gorky Park is really the only Russian metal band I know by name. Are they still around? Bang Bang!

What can you say do our readers?

Thank you very much for your support and looking forward to see you very soon! Drink beer and get naked!
14 апр 2009 the End


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