M.S: Hi guys! Good afternoon. It’s an honour to have the possibility of
interviewing you during your Spanish minitour. How do you do?

Everyone: Fine. We always feel very good when we are touring, it’s something
nice for us.

M.S: Do you like Spain?

Everyone: Yes, we like Spain very much, and people is very nice with us,
we wanted to come on tour to Spain.

M.S: «Songs for the Sinners» is your fifth album, how do you think that
the band has grown through these 9 years?

J.P: Good question. Well……at least now we know how to play together (laughs).
I don’t know, maybe now we are more conscious about what we are doing and about
the music that we want to do. We have the sound that we were looking for. It’s
easier for us now that we have our own sound that to do something like somebody
else is doing.

M.S: Who are those sinners that you are making reference to in the title
of your last album?

(J.P raised his hand quietly and the rest of the band did it after him and
we began to laugh).

J.P: Well, I don’t want to blame anyone else, so I blame myself, but I see
I’m not the only sinner (laugh).

M.S: The song «Colder» is one of the best songs of your last album for us,
it’s a powerful and melancholic song, Could you tell me what the song is about?

J.P: I’m sorry, but I never do any comment of what the songs are about,
it’s something personal. It’s something that we leave for the audience, sorry.

M.S: You have made a videoclip of «Colder», were you satisfied with the
final result of the videoclip?

J.P: Well…… we can say it’s okay, but to be honest I’m not happy with
the result of any videoclip. You can spend much money to make the video fancy,
but even so………

Lauri: It’s always boring to play for a videoclip, because in fact, you’re
not playing anything, so from that point of view that’s something we don’t like.

M.S: You came to Spain with Nightwish some time ago, how do you remember
that tour? Did you enjoy the gig with the Spanish audience?

(All of them were laughing before I finish th question).

Pasi: Well.…… it was very fun (laughs). The only problem is that we can’t
remember much of that tour. (laughs)

J.P: It was great. We have great memories from that tour. It was the first
time I met Marco (from Nightwish), and talking to him was fun, He told us what
they did when they were touring. Everyone was always drunk (laughs) and it was
our first big European tour.

M.S: Well, then I see you had a funny tour.

Pasi: In fact, I think it was too fun (laughs)

Teemu: The only problem was the hangover of the next day, because recovering
from the hangover is not so fun (laughs)

M.S: Have you been well supported by the spanish audience in this last tour?

J.P: Yes. The audience has been wonderful with us. We are very happy of
it.

Antti: Spanish audience is great and warm. You can feel it at the stage.
In Finland, people are colder……… is something very different.

M.S: Yes, the spanish fans are noisy (laughs)

J.P: Yes, it’s different. In Finland, you see the audience from the stage
and you can see them more relaxed and listening to the music, but we also like
warm gigs like here (laughs)

Lauri: In one word, Crazy (laughs).

M.S: How were the gigs at Barcelona and Murcia with Romanthica and Westfallenpark?
And, what do you think of these bands?

Teemu: Romanthica are great.

J.P: And also Embellish, we really like them much. I listened to Romanthica
in their myspace before this tour and their music is great, and they are good
guys.

M.S: Did you like the atmosphere in the gigs at Barcelona and Murcia?

Antti: We liked very much, but we haven’t got enough time to know the cities
well and to go to party (laughs).

M.S: Sure, you have only stayed one day in each city…….

J.P: Yes that’s the main problem, everything has been so quick…. But all
the audience enjoyed at the concert, everyone was shouting and cheering, it
was great.

Pasi: Even some people seemed to be fighting while they were cheering us
(laughs).

M.S: Well guys, now changing the point…… how did you feel when Lordi won
the Eurovision festival? Have you ever thought about taking part in something
like that?

Everyone: No……..never (laughs)

J.P: No, but in fact it was something great, we were watching them and they
did it pretty good. We are very proud of it, we felt very happy when they won
the festival.

Antti: Besides they deserved to win because of the work that they did. They
worked very hard in it and they won.

M.S: From your point of view, how do you see the situation of metal music
today? I mean, do you think that metal music is in one of its best moments?

Everyone: Well….. it’s really hard to say.

J.P: It has always been there for me. That depends on the audience. I don’t
know, it’s not something fashion, people just discover one day metal music.

M.S: Well, maybe it also depends on the country, in your country, Finland,
there are more metal music fans than in Spain for instance.

J.P: Yes, that’s true. Metal music has always been in our country.

Pasi: Unfortunately it’s not a very popular music, and it’s been difficult
all these years to expand our music abroad. But now, we can see the websites
«myspace» to listen to some songs of the bands.

Antti: Although the internet has also been something criminal for the bands.

M.S: What are your future plans once you finish this last tour?

Teemu: We are working on new songs for our next album.

J.P: I think we will be able to release it next autumn.

Antti: Now we have time to work on it.

J.P: We are not touring in Finland at this moment. We need time to think
of new songs and to compose new music.

M.S: Are you going to perform in any festival this year?

J.P: Yes, we will possibly play this summer in a festival. I think we will
play in Germany, but we don’t know anything sure yet.

M.S: Well guys, this has been all. Thank you very much for your time, and
I hope you have had a nice stay in Spain and see you again here. Good luck!!

Everyone: Thanks!

David A. / Javier Tendero

LINKS:

Charon
+ Westfallenpark + Dawn of Tears – 18/02/07 – Ritmo y Compás ( Madrid )