Saturday, January 18, 2014

SA:Listening party in Helsinki 16-18.1.2014

The first chance to play your new music to ”outsiders” is always a bit nerve-tickling. In order to
play our album for selected reporters, we got on the train on Thursday evening (around 22:39 +
a few minutes delay, to be exact). We, meaning Tony, Tommy & I. On Friday morning we woke up just before the train arrived in Helsinki at 0900. Upon arrival we checked into our hotel and went out for breakfast. Tony had an interview lined up later on so me & Tommy went to our managements office to hang out. A bit later Pasi joined us as well, and in the afternoon we got hungry so we went to Dennis and got some excellent food. I had a massive plate of pasta in front of me and just stuffed myself with that, actually I’m starting to get hungry again just writing about it = it was goooood.

Just before 1600 we got picked up at our hotel and headed towards the legendary Finnvox studios.The event featured two albums, first we all listened to Tuomas Holopainen’s new album,
and after a short break we listened to our album as well. Drinks, pizza, great music, good people….
..despite being a bit nervous about the response of our new music, everything went really well and we had a good time together. At least I had ;-) It was a real pleasure to be able to listen to Tuomas album as well, and I’d say it could fit very well as a soundtrack somewhere….a beautiful journey indeed. Gonna pick that album up when it’s released….and no, it’s not by any means heavy metal or anything, it’s closer to NW minus the band and in most cases the vocals as well. Anyway, since I’m not a music critic, you can check it out by yourself, buy it if you like it….get something else if you don’t.

During the listening party, Tony was presented with a platinum album for the Raskasta Joulua thing.
Essentially, it’s a bunch of heavy dudes doing Christmas songs the heavy way…..in case you didn’t 
know.

Having listened to both albums it was time to head out to town, and Bar Bäkkäri as always.I think more or less everybody went there and had some additional drinks to round up the night. In my case
I figured it was time to head to bed when I’m hanging out with an un-named label excecutive at his room drinking some christmasy-flavoured jäger and smoking cigarettes in a non-smoking hotel. Which of course brings us to the fact that I overslept and missed my train by around 15 minutes. No harm done though since I only had to pay a couple of euros to change my ticket to the next train (from which I’m writing btw) and the impact of my failure to wake up in the morning is that I’ll get home a couple of hours later than was planned…..and so everyone survives and we can prepare for the rehersals next week.

For the 15th anniversary shows we’re bringing back some old stuff…old ”hits” if you will, that we haven’t played in a while…and some stuff that we’ve never performed on stage, ever. As said we start rehearsing next week and in just a tad over a week we’ll be on stage in Helsinki. Hopefully we get our shit together by then.


cheers,

Hank

27 comments:

  1. I absolutely cannot wait for either the album or to see you guys live. I'm so damn excited about seeing Pasi with Sonata. How is he holding up? Is he excited about going to South America soon after? I don't think he's quite played anything to that level yet, has he? :D

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    1. He's knee-deep in rehearsing all the songs he needs to know for the shows, but we'll find out soon enough how excited he is ;-)

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    2. That's pretty deep considering how tall he is ;) Well I hope Tampere-talo will give him a proper welcome, despite it being a sitting-down show :D

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  2. Thanks for updating us about last night's events! Admittedly I was quite curious as to what goes on in there during a listening session, and it sounds like you & the press had a great time! Of course smoking in a non-smoking hotel always feel like the most satisfying rock&roll action to end the night with ;)
    Still glad to hear your journey home stayed relatively hassle-free :)

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  3. "and some stuff that we’ve never performed on stage, ever"
    I hope it's not group sex

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    1. What a disturbing image....no it will definately not be group sex...

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  4. Well I'm glad everything went so smoothly at the listening party. That is so awesome that you guys got to listen to Tuomas` solo album as well. Going to be buying that one myself but, with that being said I already pre ordered your guys album and eagerly waiting for its release. Glad you made it home safely even with all the delays! Good luck on the rehearsal session for the tour and the tour itself!

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  5. Really looking forward to this album. Still no UK dates (stamps feet)

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  6. Hi, Hank! I'm very anxious for your upcoming album (I think all the fans are :D). If you don't mind I have one question: I saw on SA webshop a pre-order for Pariah's Child T-shirt and now I'm wondering if you have plans of selling these shirts on the South American Tour too. I wanted to know in order to save my money until March... So, I'm happy that you had fun on the party and I'm very anxious to see Pasi in action!
    Bye!
    (sorry for my very bad english...)

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    1. There might be some merch on the Latin-American Tour but we don't bring anything with us, so in case there is some official stuff available I have no idea what it will be.

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    2. Thanks for answering my question! I am so anxious for the CD and the shows that I forgot to introduce myself... I',m Tatiane from Brazil and Can't wait to see you guys!

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  7. OMG, after reading this, I won't be able to sleep well, trying to figure out what's gonna be the stuff you've never performed on stage, and you'll do it this year!!!! I'd be the happiest fan in the world if Iistened something like "The power of one" or "Wildfire".

    Greetings from Chile!! and -of course- see you in March!!!

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  8. Hi Henkka, a lot of us are wondering whether there'll be bonus tracks on Pariah's Child, as none have been listed yet.. can you reveal anything about that?

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    1. We did record a bonus track for Japan but other than that we didn't do any more new tracks than the 10 we did for the album.

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  9. Hey Henkka,I was wondering if you guys maybe plan a live dvd now that there are these special anniversary shows, seem you guys do a live release after every two studioalbums, a great tradition btw and can you maybe allready say if the european tour will be totally different or will we also have the change to see some rarely or never before played songs?

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    1. We're not gonna do a DVD from the 15th anniversary shows and there hasn't been any talk about doing it on the album tour either... As far as the European Tour goes we don't know at the moment, the rehersals start tomorrow and our first objective is to get the anniversary show put together.

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  10. I'm just hoping to listen to Silver Tongue, Ain't your Fairytale, Land of the Free and so many others. I'm glad everything went out just alright w/ the event. Btw, I loooooved "Into the Shades of Gray" song from Winterborn, damn it touched my heart indeed. I NEED to listen the rest of the songs, I just can't help listening to it everyday. Cheers! \m/

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  11. Good luck with the anniversary shows! I'm sure it will be awesome!
    I'm still sad that you won't have any concert in North, in Oulu or somewhere near, but I still didn't give up to find a way to get to see you somewhere! :)
    and probably no need to mantion how much I wait the new album.
    cheers,
    (a fan from Hungary who happened to live in the far far North)

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  12. For the 15th anniversary I'm really hoping that you guys bring back Land of the Free (which was the first music that I've heard, back in 2001) and play Ain't your Fairytale that is one of my favorites from Reckoning Night :D

    Henkka I know it may be some confidential information but.... if possible could you tell me if there will be a limited edition of Pariah's Child? Or just the bundles that are already on Pre-order?

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    1. I don't know exactly what formats Pariah's Child will be in but usually there are all kinds of packages and whatnot. I guess we both have to wait and see...

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  13. Sounds great!!! Ok now I'm curious for the album of Toumas... About the "Pariah's Child", I'm so happy, the sound is great and I'm anxious to hear it completely!... see you in the 15th anniversary tour... and have a blast for the first date in Helsinki....

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  14. Just wanted to say I am super excited for Pariah's Child! :D
    Also can't wait to (hopefully) finally get to an SA concert(maybe even do the meet-n-greet so i can make sure to make an idiot out of myself in person). As it stands, that would be my first concert ever. Anyways, good luck with everything! :)

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  15. I Can only hope, "The Power of One", is on the set list for the new tour. It is such an important song for me. Oh, I love them all. Cannot wait to see you guys!

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  16. Can't wait! We will maybe see in Tampere, if everything goes like I planned. I'm sad because I live in Seinäjoki and here your gig is forbidden under 18 year olds... But that not your fault of course. Hopefully we'll see at the latest when the new album come out and if you do some gigs in Finland then!!

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  17. Yeahh! and want to see them! I wait in Argentina! lml I'll Play Shy !!! ♥

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  18. I wish you guys a awesome tour and I hope can be a great time
    for the band and that you guys can really enjoy it ! :-)

    I'm really excited for the show in São Paulo.
    BRAZIL LOVES SONATA ARCTICA SO MUCH <3

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