How has the response been so far to Tales Along This Road, both in Europe and North America?
Really good. I haven't seen any really bad reviews and the response from the fans has been really good as well. Everyone seems to have problems picking their favourite song which can only mean that they are all good!
How has the band's sound evolved over time?
From the technical point of view I'd say that the new album sounds better than the two previous ones together. There are probably many reasons for that. We now know how we want to sound and how we want our albums to sound. Our producer is familiar with our ideas and both the band and the producer have learned how to get the sound we want.
On the musical side the biggest difference is the addition of the full time accordion player which has changed our sound to maybe more folk sounding although the music itself may have changed to an opposite direction.
What inspired the lyrics for this album? I understand you had a guest lyricist for some of the songs.
For the Finnish lyrics we had a guest writer Virva Holtiton. As far as I know his lyrics are mainly inspired by the old Finnish poetry like Kanteletar and the Finnish national epic Kalevala.
The English lyrics were written by Jonne (Jarvela, the band's vocalist/guitarist) and myself and their inspirations were pretty much the same as usual: alcohol in its various forms and women.
How did you decide on the album title?
The title was Jonne's old idea based on the fact that the songs indeed are stories from along the roads of our lives. The title was combined with another old idea of our old shaman logo getting some flesh around its bare bones. And there he is now, standing on his own road with his bag made of birch bark full of untold stories.
How do you decide which songs to sing in Finnish and which ones to sing in English?
We didn't really decide that. It just happened the way it did. Virva's lyrics were all in Finnish but for the rest of us it was easier to write in English. It's easier to get the lyrics to sound good in English. Finnish is quite a difficult language for song lyrics because there's a lot of really long words that you can't really fit anywhere. You also get a lot more critical towards your own work when you are writing in your own language.
You're playing several festivals this summer. Which ones are you looking forward to the most, and why?
The easy answer would of course be Wacken Open Air just because of the status and the size of the festival. However, I was personally looking forward to our Finnish festival gigs because we haven't played that much in Finland and I really wanted to see how we would do here when we get to play to bigger crowds. I have to say that both of those gigs were excellent and now we can quite confidently look forward the bigger festivals.
What country do you enjoying touring in the most?
There's not much different between them. All the places we've been so far have had their ups and downs but luckily mostly ups! The fans have been excellent everywhere and we really haven't had any really bad experiences.
What did you think about your countrymen Lordi winning this year's Eurovision? Do you know them at all?
We don't know them personally at all. I don't care about the band or their music but still I think that their victory was the best thing that could ever happen to that competition. Lordi showed that you actually can win that competition without silicone or botox.
It seems like metal is able to reach the masses better and actually be high on the album charts in Finland, which isn't usually the case elsewhere. Why do you think that is?
Well, if you live in Finland in these conditions you don't necessarily want to buy yourself sunny, happy pop music. Seriously, I have no idea why it is like that, but I can always guess. The Finns don't buy that much music in general but maybe the metal audience is an exception to the rule and that's why metal or hard rock sells quite a lot when compared to other genres.
Who were your musical inspirations?
As a bass player my first influnces were Geezer Butler and Steve Harris and later Geddy Lee, Pekka Pohjola and also the late John Glascock.
Who are some current artists you admire?
Lately I've been listening mostly two bands, a Finnish band called Verjnuarmu and a Swiss group called Eluveitie.
What are the essential metal albums?
Most of them are Black Sabbath! Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 and Sabotage to name a few and then of course Motörhead: No Sleep 'til Hammersmith.
