SONATA ARCTICA
Philip A. Wickstrand with:
Guitarist, Jani Liimatainen
and Keyboardist, Henrik Klingenberg
Studio 7 in
Seattle, WA
February 7, 2006
It's insane how many good bands can come out of a country with a population as small as Finland's and progressive power metal stalwarts Sonata Arctica are one of the best. With four full length albums under their belt, they have embarked upon their second North American tour without the aid of a direct support act to packed shows across the board.Phil: First question I've got to ask; why tour North America without a direct support act? Jani: (smiling) Why would we need one? (laughs lightly) Henrik: There were talks about a couples of bands doing it, but then they couldn't. Jani: It all kind of fell apart, so we're doing it without them, so we're doing it with local supports here and there, so what the fuck?Phil: Okay, what can we expect of the forthcoming DVD? Henrik: (laughter) A live show and some extras, but not a lot; we're saving most of the bits for something else we're going to be doing later on, but mainly it's going to be like… Jani: …a show, fifteen minutes of backstage footage, a photo gallery. Something along those lines at least.Phil: All right, can we ever expect to see any reissues of the demos that the band recorded while under the Tricky Beans and Tricky Means monikers? Jani: we have played with idea, probably for years now and… Henrik: …it might or might not happen. (laughter) Jani: We discuss it a couple times a year and never get anywhere with it. (laughter)Phil: Why did the band eventually settle on the name Sonata Arctica? Jani: Because the old name sucked! (laughter) No, we just needed a new name and a friend of mine came up with this one and at the time it was really descriptive.Phil: Alright, how's the North American trek been so far? How you been able to do much sightseeing or has it been just doing the shows and that's about it? Henrik: Shows and drinking. Some sightseeing. Jani: We had an off day in New York; that was nice. That's when we actually went sightseeing. (laughs) Other than that… Henrik: Chicago… Jani: Chicago was cool. Henrik: Sightseeing, bars. Jani: Yes. (laughter) But other than that, not really much sightseeing.Phil: What was it like playing with Iron Maiden in Japan? Jani: Fun of course, since they're lifelong heroes, but… Henrik: Loud. Jani: Loud. And of course it's fun with a huge arena full of ten thousand people, way to go. Henrik: The first night we were out drinking with Dave Murray, so it was totally cool. You couldn't understand what he spoke, though. (laughter) Jani: It's cool when you can actually have on your resume "I played with Iron Maiden".Phil: Okay, now we have a question a member of our message board wanted to ask; have you ever thought about doing a full-blown concept album? Jani: Yeah, thought about it, but you really have to have a really strong concept before that. Henrik: If you have to do it, it has to be really good and a lot of bad concept albums are out there, so… Jani: …if you can't do "Operation Mindcrime", then what the fuck? And we can't. (laughs)Phil: Alright, one of my friends wanted to know what can we expect from new material. Kind of a generic question, but, eh, what the hell? Henrik: We're going to take one step further from "Reckoning Night", nobody really knows what direction yet, but we're not going to do a complete 180 or something like that, so no fear. Jani: If you look at the line up from "Ecliptica" until now, we're going to continue that line, not take a turn back.Phil: Just one last question, a friend of mine wanted to know if you have ever an oboe player on an album? Jani: Oboe!? (long strain of laughter) Henrik: Not as a single element, no. Jani: No, not as a single element. It's not the first thing that usually comes in your mind when you're writing a song; "this calls for oboe!" (laughs) As a part of an orchestra, sure, but as a single instrument… Henrik: He plays the oboe, right? Phil: Yes. (laughter) Okay, thank you very much!
|