Tony Kakko: vocals
Elias Viljanen: guitars
Henrik Klingenberg: keyboards
Marko Paasikoski: bass
Tommy Portimo: drums

Formed: 1999 
Kemi, Finland
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Genre: Classic / Power Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

DISCOGRAPHY:

Ecliptica (1999)
Silence (2001)
Songs of Silence - Live (2002)
Winterheart's Guild (2003)
Reckoning Night (2004)
For the Sake of Revenge (2006)
Unia (2007)
The Days of Grays (2009)

TO THE TOP

Sonata Arctica needs no introduction, as they have been around for a better part of a decade, first under the moniker Tricky Beans before eventually changing their name to Sonata Arctica in 1999.  They first gained recognition for their debut album later that year in Ecliptica and haven’t looked back since.  Through the years and in the albums since, the band has evolved to a degree while maintaining their trademark sound.  The evolution continues on their new album The Days of Grays and along with a new album comes a tour.  Recently, Metal Psalter caught up with the band on one of the stops of their tour with Dragonforce to talk about all things Sonata Arctica.  Of course, I got so excited that I forgot to turn on the recorder and didn’t realize it until about ten seconds into the interview.

Peter: Would you mind giving us a tour update so far?

Henrik: Yeah, sure.  We’ve only been on tour for two weeks, so we’re just getting started and getting into a groove.  So far, it’s been quite easy, especially now that we’re supporting Dragonforce. We’re only playing about 45 minutes a night, so it’s tough to start after the opening band.

Marko: Actually, we’re doing a couple of headlining shows after the Dragonforce tour.  The last week, we’ll be headlining, so that’s when things will really be starting, so this is just a warm-up. [Laughs]  It feels so strange to play only 40 minutes, so it’ll feel better to play longer, then.

Peter: This isn’t the first time that the band has been in North America.  This is about the third or fourth time that the band has toured North America, if I understand correctly.

Henrik: Something like that.  I know that we came in 2005.  In 2006, I think we did two tours, and then 2007…

Peter: …2007 was ProgPower VIII.

Henrik: Yes, we did play ProgPower that year as part of the tour that year.  Yeah, we’ve been here a few times and we will be back in the future.

Peter: So, how did this tour with Dragonforce come about?

Henrik: We were drunk in Japan together and playing loud music.  Someone had mentioned that it’d be cool if we could tour together and a few months later, we worked out the details.  It was something that was started in a bar and now we’re here, so I think it’s a nice thing.

Marko: Yeah, I have no idea how it happened.

Henrik: You were probably too drunk to remember.

Marko: Yeah, I don’t remember anything.  The first and not the last time that happens.

Peter: The reason for this tour of the United States is in support of the new album The Days of Grays.

Henrik: Yes.

Peter: First, is there anything you’d like to say about the artwork on the album cover?

Henrik: We used the same guy that we’ve been using for years now and we talked a little bit about what we’ve wanted to do.  We wanted a more classic Sonata Arctica cover than the last one (Unia) and we just started to throw around ideas and sending out suggestions and what you see now is how we ended up with this. And then, of course, for the promotional single, we did a competition for fans because we wanted to give our fans a chance to be a part of the history of the band and also, we received some artwork before that the fans had done and some of them were pretty cool, so we made a competition out of it.  We got about 300 responses and there were a lot of great ones, but the artwork on the cover of the single “Flag in the Ground” was the one we all agreed upon.  It was quite a struggle to decide on the cover, though.

(To Marko) You’re dead, aren’t you?

Marko: No, I’m not dead, yet.  Just not talking very much.

Peter: Speaking of “Flag in the Ground,” you also did a music video for it.  How did the concept for the video come about?

Henrik: Basically, we saw some videos made by a Polish company called Group 13.  We wanted to work with them and sent them the song and there was a long, beautiful story and outline sent back to us, you know, “This is how we see it, etc.,” and we thought it was cool and just rolled with it and let them do whatever they wanted…or almost whatever they wanted.  We flew down to Poland; we were there for two days: one day of shooting, jumped up and down for six hours, and then went home.  Two weeks later, we got the video and we e-mailed them that it looked good, so that was probably the easiest video that we’ve ever done.

Marko: Actually, that was really the first time we’ve planned something before the video and not just go somewhere and shoot, like we always did.  Aside from “Wolf and Raven,” which was well written, the others were basically fly to a location and shoot the video.  “Flag in the Ground” had so much story behind it and it was fun to shoot it.

Henrik: Earn our wings.  That’s the way we like it. [Laughs]

Peter: The Days of Grays is a more progressive album, as is each Sonata Arctica album.  Was there any specific idea or concept that you had in mind for the album?

Henrik: Not really.  I mean, the way that we work on albums is that we see what kinds of demos Tony writes out and we’ll work on songs after that and we’ll pick the best songs to put on the album.  It seems to be that as we grow older and we’ve made better decisions that the music has become more challenging to us, as well.  It’s mostly just a natural progression and of course, there are some people that would like for us to sound more like on Ecliptica and Silence.  If we change too much, people won’t like it and if we don’t change, some people won’t like it, so we have to start by making ourselves happy first.  That is why the band sounds the way it does today.

Marko: I don’t think of it as a progressive album…

Henrik: Yeah…

Marko: I don’t think any of us think of it that way.

Henrik: To us, it feels like a safer album than the last one and I think it’s because it’s more straightforward…

Marko: There’s maybe one part of a song which is a little more difficult, so I don’t think of it as any real progress.

Henrik: Then, there’s the fact that we play the songs a lot and work on them, so for us, of course, these songs should be released right now and when we hear them for the first time, we’re like, “What the fuck?”  We don’t think of it as really progressive, but as pop music. [Laughs]

Peter: Getting back to the current tour, are there any interesting stories from the road that you’d like to share?

Henrik: I don’t know.  I mean, we sit inside the bus and drink beer and then, we go inside and play and come back here and drink some more beer.  It’s like that every night, really.  That’s been all, so far, though the keyboardist from Dragonforce wanted me to join him on the keyboard solo, so for me personally, that’s fun and we do that every night and all kinds of mishaps and accidents happen every time we do it, but off stage, there really hasn’t been anything crazy happening…

Marko: Yet.

Henrik: Everyone’s been getting used to being back on the road and touring.  We hadn’t been on the road since last December, since we’ve been in studio, recording the album, so it’ll take a while for things to get really crazy.

Marko: I don’t know.  It’s kind of a boring life.  Nothing really happens and if something happens, we remember it for like five years.

Henrik: Sorry, can’t help you. [Laughs]

Peter: Besides the two headlining shows after the Dragonforce tour, are there any shows lined up in the future?

Henrik: We’re pretty much booked for the rest of the year and next year, as well.  We’ll take a couple of weeks off after this tour, and then we’ll tour Europe for five weeks and have two weeks off after that.  Then we’ll hit Australia, China, Singapore, places like that, and then Japan in January, I think.  We also have some Russian shows, some Finnish shows, and a vacation planned in March and then back on the bus and in the States in April.  Basically, it’s going to be like this for two years.

Peter: You get to see the world, don’t you?

Henrik: Not really.  If we have a day off, we’ll try to see a few places, but on days of the show, sometimes, we’ll arrive late, sometimes, we’ll sleep late and have the show.  We don’t get to see as much as you would think, but we do get to see a part of it.

[Marko coughs]

Unless you’re sick, then you get to sleep in all day.

Peter: Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Henrik: Well, it’s nice to be back and playing live shows again.  So far, everyone’s quite excited and still alive.  Maybe one week from now, we’ll probably be tired and want to go back into the studio.  Right now, this feels pretty good and we look forward to the end of the tour, when we get to play 90-minute sets and see how that feels. [Laughs]                                                                                       Rock on.

Sonatal Arctica

Interviewer: Peter

October 12, 2009

Check out Deathstalker's review of The Days of Grays here

Check out Peter's review of The Days of Grays here

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