Interview with:Jani Liimatainen
Henrik Klingenberg
A few weeks ago the band released a new record 'Reckoning Night'. Short after that the band played some gigs together with Nightwish.
In Paradiso (Amsterdam, Netherlands) they had their last support show and they will start their own headline tour. The metal band from Finland is very productive, no wonder they became a very well known name in the metal scene! After their gig in Paradio I had a short conversation with the lead guitar player Jani and keybord player Henrik. The frontman Tony had problems with his voice so he needed rest.
What follows is an funny, interesting story about the forces behind SONATA ARCTICA.
The release of the last album seems to come very shortly after the release of “Winterhearts Guild” in 2002. Especialy because they had many shows and had a big success in the more meanstream side of metal. Not only power metal fans like the band, but also those who listen to other kinds of metal. Even though they had this busy life both guys don’t think that the release of the last album came too soon the other one.
Jani: “No not realy. The Winterheart tour was till August and after that we had some time off. After Christmas we started working on a new album, so it wasn’t that soon. But maybe for the consumer sense it was soon, for us it was scheduled.”
How did the making of this album go?
Henrik: “Tony writes the songs and than we go to the studio to record the album. He writes them so late that we don’t know what he’s singing. Personally it doesn’t matter as long as it no crazy stuff.”
Jani: “Of course we have some imput, but this was the generalisation of the thing. It comes all together in the studio.”
In comparison with the other records the band made, this new album 'Reckoning Night' is a bit rougher, but it still has that Sonata Arctica sound. It seems to be very complex music.
Jani understands it but doesn’t fully agree: “The whole album is a bit more different than anything else we did. It just came naturaly. We were in the studio and suddenly it became rougher and heavier than we have done before and a bit more complex”.
He starts to smile and thinks for a few seconds; than he continues: “A bit weirder because some stuff is hard to produce live. Somehow we found a way and with some of them we don’t do it at all”.
Henri started to laugh when I suggest that the group may have grown a bit in that period. “Well I gained some more weight, but seriously it’s was just a natural process which I can’t explain.”
Jani tries to find an explaination: “We play heavier music. I don’t know what happened but something went very right on the last tour. Now we have a heavy period, maybe after this we have something else.” He goes back to the past to compare the last album with the others: “We made three records before this one; the first one was traditional power metal and with the other two we added more arrangements. We’ve done all that stuff, so why do it again? It gets boring after a while and you have to do something new for yourself to keep it interesting. Maybe we want to get out of this power metal scene”.
Henri wants to say more about that: “The last record is no power metal and the other thing is that in the power metal scene it is more about dragons, war and all that stuff. We’re not into that.”
Jani: “I just want to call it melody metal. Sometimes we have to work hard to prove ourselves but it’s just a name people want to give.” Henri: “I think the hard work started years ago when we learned the technical things.” Again Jani interupts him. “We’re on tour for more than three weeks. I think you can call that hard work.”
They talk very relaxed and more in general. It’s hard to find out how they all work together in a short time. After they discovered that I realy wanted to know more about the emotion they gave some more information. It was more like a nice chat than an official interview, so don’t expect too much information but read how the guys showed their emotion sitting in the dressing room, tired from the tour, and not very interested in a long interview. Both sitting on a side of the counch, me in the middle, just amazed how realistic those guys are.
Specialy Jani is very straight to the point and he realy knows what he wants. Henrik most of the time is serieus about his input to the band. Sonata Arctica is a band that knows what they can get and really go for it.
Specialy Jani is very straight to the point and he realy knows what he wants. Henrik most of the time is serieus about his input to the band. Sonata Arctica is a band that knows what they can get and really go for it.
When we start talking about the last show they were not realy statisfied. In my opinion the band played very strong together and showed a lot of energy. Jani laughs and explains that he’ll take that as a great compliment. They are critical about themselves but they are not that tired that they didn’t want to give an explaination.
Jani: “Tony had problems with his voice and we were tired. This wasn’t the best show you saw, we can do much better.”
Soon we were talking about the energy they had on stage and were they get it from.
Again it’s Jani who explains it very clearly to me: “It’s just what we do, well our way of doing it and just a natural act. Our show is not rehearsed and we don’t do stupid things.”
Henri fills in: “Of course you’re tired sometimes but when It’s show time you just go for it”. Jani interrupts him: “The motivation is to go on stage, to see the people and do our thing.”
Future
Henri: “We go on tour now and well after that we’ll see, maybe start with some ideas for a new record”. Jani: “Well it’s the cycle of rock: Tour, album, tour, album.”
They’re realy glad that they can have a private live. Jani: “We live in a small town and everybody knows us and let us be. We’re not megastars or something. I don’t want to be that”.
Soon the conversation change to the scene in the Netherlands. The power metal scene is very small; for more fans they have to go to Germany. Both don’t think it has to do with the record company.
Henri: “It’s more that we have a lof of fans in Japan, in our country things go well too and well it’s ok how things go in Europe”.
Jani: ”I am not against the mainstream when you find yourself there, but I don’t want to make compromisses. When our music suddenly becomes mainstream well that’s fine. We’re not going to change our style to become meanstream. Yes we are very realistic but there’s no reason to be anything else. We’re living the dream at the moment. We get money to play in a band, tour with a lot of people, have a chance to see the world and play for a lot of people. Of course we want to do more but you have to be happy with what you have already done. Then in the end, you’re never be happy and you always want more”.
We'd like to thank Sonata Arctica for their time and kindness, the manager and crew for the nice time.
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