AMORPHIS – Intervista al chitarrista Tomi Koivusaari
Hi Tomi, welcome to the webzine Tuttorock, I am Monica! I am so glad to have the chance to interview a founding member of Amorphis, a band that I always appreciated through the years.
How are you? How do you feel about the challenge with the new album “Queen of time”?
Hi Monica! I think it turned out very well, as we didn’t have any time to take any pressures, as we started to work with new material right after the last gig of Under the red Cloud-tour. After couple of weeks we already went to record them. So we just made things intuitionally and trusted to our producer Jens Bogren. We already had songs ready earlier, but actual process of arranging and checking those ideas together was just before the studio. So we are very pleased to results and also all feedback we have got from our fans and reviews.
It’s already three years since your last work “Under the red cloud”, what do you think are the changes during this period? Is it there any link connecting the two albums?
Well of course same producer and same studio, so that part was more familiar to us now. And also we knew what Jens is able to do so we could trust him 100 percently. Between these albums we played around 220 gigs all around the globe, so I think that tightened the band more and more of course. Plus we got our original bass-player Olli-Pekka Laine back, and his style of playing also affects the result of new album.
The new album is various and inspired: can you please talk about it and introduce it to our readers?
Each time we are trying to top what we have done before, and that makes this feel fresh and satisfying to ourselves. We are not releasing albums just to get on tours, but still trying to do our best album. When or if we lost that ambition some day then it is time to end this whole thing. Besides there is old recognizable Amorphis elements, there is also new things, like orchestral sections and real choirs. Some of the things we’ve used to make with keyboards this time Jens and we wanted to execute with real instruments and real human voices. I can also easily say that this album is our deepest, most progressive and most versatile by the date.
In this new work you included orchestra musical sessions, how did you end up using them? It is totally a new thing in your production, do you think that fans will like this “bond” between classical and heavy sounds?
We didn’t think those arrangements when we were writing, rehearsing and recording the songs. I bet Jens was, but we just focused on what we are doing as a band. Orchestral arrangements didn’t have any effect to our parts anyway, as most of the orchestral parts were there already somehow, played with keyboards or so, so Jens wanted to replace some keyboard stuff with real instruments and human voices. And it worked great. So it was really Jens’ idea to use those orchestral sessions. We have done some experiments with different instruments in past as well, so it didn’t feel that odd to try this time as well. I guess fans have liked it, those are not that dominating than in some other bands who have used same kinda thibgs, in my opinion.
Which were the different aspects of inspiration that led to Amorphis focusing on “Queen of Time” lyrics’ topics? Why did you decide to talk about such topics?
Lyrics are written by Pekka Kainulainen, we have been working with him last 5 albums if I remember correctly. He is taking very much influences from finnish poetry, but stories are new. This is how Pekka himself sees about the topic: “Cultures rise, flourish, and are destroyed. The story of man is the story of searching, finding, and forgetting. A single spark can set the world afire, a single idea can give birth to a new culture. The greatest can stagnate into insignificance, the smallest can hold the power for change. The lyrics on this album are distant echoes of ancient forest peoples, from a time when meaning was proportioned by the cosmic forces that govern birth and death. If the connection was lost, they sought for a strand of knowledge, found a new direction, and a new age began.” To us nature has always been important thing, and great source of inspiration. And I think these themes fit to our music very well, as being timeless and sometimes makes you think how we should live in this planet.
You released the album just a few days ago, will the tour touch any Italian venue?
We will tour quite a lot with this album as well, first we will do summerfestivals all around Europe, then on fall US-tour, then some touring in Finland. Early next year we will do European tour, so far there is only one Italian date, Milan(Live Club) at 12. February. But there might be some more later that year, who knows…
Amorphis started during the early nineties (’90), did you notice any substantial change in the Finnish and European metal scene?
Well I think everything is bigger and more professional these days, at least to us it seems that way. Metal music has become more and more mainstream in some way..huge and well organized festivals and so on.
As you are a musical inspiration for younger metalheads, I suppose that you had your favorite bands and artist that inspired your work during your compositions as well. Which were your best artists Tomi?
When I was young at first I was listening bands like W.A.S.P, Iron Maiden, Dio, Black Sabbath, Depp Purple..then came Metalliva, Anthrax, Slayer..then Morbid Angel, Carcass and so on, there is so many great metal bands to even have them all written here. After Death-metal period I went bands like Pink Floyd and so on, now I’ll listen to those all and also new bands what comes out.
Any particular message you want to send to Amorphis Italian fans?
We have had great gigs and met great people always there, we have toure there from 1994 already. So we love you our Italian fans, and your support is very important that we can keep playing there. Hope to see you all soon at our gigs!
Thank you for the time you gave to Tuttorock Webzine. Keep on making quality music as your Italian fans are waiting for it after such a brilliant career. Best wishes for the future!
Thanks Monica, preciate that and take care!
