SA:a couple of "surprises" revealed

Hi There,
The new album Pariah's Child is out and all is well and dandy I suppose :-) Since we're celebrating our 15th anniversary this year a couple of more special things are to come (in addition to the 15th anniversary shows that are behind us at the moment).

We are currently re-recording Ecliptica for a 2014 fall release. We'll be done with this during the summer since our touring schedule is quite hectic now during the spring. Anyways we've already started this and it's coming along rather well.

Marko Ollila (who wrote the Nightwish book) is writing a book on Sonata Arctica which will be released in the fall as well. At the moment it will be in Finnish and I don't have any further details about translations but I'm sure the Finnish version will not be the only one, the rest of you'll just have to wait.

That's about it. Have a nice day !

cheers,
Henkka

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 6 - The final chapter

Sunday 23.3.2014 Travel Day + Montevideo, Uruguay

We were really happy that the flight from Buenos Aires to Montevideo was a short one since

everyone is starting to be quite tired and last night there wasn’t much time to sleep so it was straight to the hotel as usual for the band and we also skipped soundcheck so everyone including the crew could get some rest. In the evening we had a meet & greet before the show and another afterwards. I had a rented Triton Pro X as the piano for today and somehow most of the sounds were quite, should I say interesting so I had to do a little bit of programming to get any kind of ok piano sound out of it. Since I didn’t want to be a dick to whoever lended it and reset the whole thing, I thought this was the right way to go….this time. Anyways it sounded like shit in the in-ears but Mikko said that it did the job through the PA so I guess all is well. Once again a crowd that was into it and a hot gig ! We played here some years ago but this time we had more people and a better venue in my opinion so

this was great. Now we only have one travel day + one more show to play and then a hellish travel

to get back home. Anyways, my night ended with Netflix and tomorro I can sleep until 0900 which is a luxury on this tour.

Monday 24.3.2014 Travel Day

Of course I woke up at around 0600 in the morning but luckily I managed to sleep a few more hours. The day was spent flying, first to Buenos Aires and then to Neuqen. In the evening we had some dinner and me & Pekka decided to have the tourending party one day ahead. Things got a bit crazy when we remebered that Fernet Branca is from Argentina :-)

Tuesday 25.3.2014 Cipolletti, Argentina

Woke up by a knock on my door, our Tourmanager told me to pack my stuff and we changed to a better hotel. Finally a nice one, so of course I slept the whole day :-) We skipped soundcheck again and in the evening it was time to play the last show of the tour. Some of our crew guys walked through the stage with a ladder during Cloud Factory but other than that the show didn’t go too much out of hand. Sometimes on the last show of the tour things go really crazy but this one was different.

Oh, some girl managed to jump the stage and scare the shit out of Tony by more or less jumping on him from behind.Nice one. After the show we left pretty quickly to go to the hotel, pack our stuff and get some sleep before the long trip home.

26.3. & 27.3.2014 The long travel home…

So, down to the lobby at 0700 and then to the airport. A short couple of hour flight to Buenos Aires. Got all the gear in one van and the dudes in another and then it was time to change airports. At the next airport we again got to enjoy the hassle with the checkin before our nice 13 hour flight to Frankfurt. Of course there was a strike at the airport so for awhile we had the excitement of not being sure if we had a flight to Helsinki. Luckily we did but a shitload of other flights all over the world were cancelled. In Helsinki we got to wait for a couple of hours before our flight home to Kemi was due. So around 35 hours after we left the hotel I got back home.

15 shows, almost 50,000km , 24 flights  in 25 days…

The best part is that we get 12 days at home before it’s time to start the Pariah’s Child World Tour

with 4 weeks in Europe. See ya all then !

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 5

Tuesday 18.3.2014-Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

…so the band minus Tony, went to the Ipanema beach and had a late lunch at The Girl from Ipanema restaurant, how fitting. It was a really nice and relaxing day, walking on the beach and enjoying the sun. After that a quick shower and then our rehersal at the venue. In the evening we played Cloud Factory for the first time ever which worked out nice. We dropped Cinderblox and The Cage and played San Sebastian in the encore. Of course I tried to show off a bit too much and fucked up a bit on the unisono but that’s life. I ended the night with a couple of nightcaps with Tommy and of course the magic of netflix.

Wednesday 19.3.2014-Travel Day + Sao Paulo, Brazil

Luckily we didn’t have to leave from the hotel before 0900 so I even managed to get some breakfast, which is always nice. Today we’re playing the last show in Brazil on this tour and tomorrow we have to get up really early to fly to Santiago, Chile. The show was really great tonight, very hot and the fans seemed to be very into it, did I ever tell you that I have the best job in the world? Anyways, wore a brazilian t-shirt on the encore and threw it in the audience afterwards, don’t ask why. At the hotel we had some drinks, took some pics and before you know it, it was time to leave.

Thursday 20.3.2014-Travel Day

So, we left the hotel at 0510 or something. Airport hassle and the usual shit. I slept the whole flight

except for the last 30 or so minutes (the flight time was around 4 hours or something). In Chile we got a nice welcome cheer from our fans but we had to jump into the van and leave more or less straight away. Hotel Check-in, Lunch, a nap and then another nap and in the evening we had a dinner before heading out for a couple of drinks.

Friday 21.3.2014-Santiago, Chile

..slept until it was time to leave for the soundcheck. Today was one of the biggest show on this tour, we had almost 3000 people and they were on fire ! Before the show we had a meet & greet and received a bunch of nice gifts from the last amazing chilean fanclub. After the show there was no time to do anything since we had to get up at 0500 in the morning to go to Buenos Aires, when you arrive at the hotel at around 0100 there’s not much time to sleep. As usual I took a shower and then packed all my stuff so that in the morning all I have to do it wake up, brush my teeth and walk downstairs.

Saturday 22.3.2014-Travel Day + Buenos Aires, Argentina

Slept the whole flight..and appeareantly I managed to forget my orange shirt, that I’ve been wearing at the shows, in my hotel room. I guess it’s still drying on the chair :-( Well, I have to figure something else out now. Nevertheless since last night was so short we went straight to the hotel and as soon as I’d got my lunch from room service and ate I slept for a couple of hours. In the evening we had a very fired up show at the sold out venue, it was hot as hell but so what ;-) I almost fell flat on my back when one of the riser steps gave in towards the end of the show and of course during Black Sheep my rack lost all it’s power. Appeareantly the power socket was a bit too lose or something. Other than

that everything went smooth. Afterwards we had some drinks in Pekkas room.

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 4

Saturday 15.3.2014-Brasilia, Brazil 

…well I didn’t go out at all during the day and I actually had to take a couple of Immodiums. Those

of you who know what that is, know what happend ;-) In the evening everything was fine and we headed to the festival. The show went quite well, Tommy screwed up the start of Victoria’s Secret

…which was the first time that I can remember that we actually had to start the song over. Once in

over 700 shows is not too bad….and you can always blame the monitor guy ;-) I’d say the highlight of the show was when a dude in a wheelchair was ”crowdsurfing”. OMG. Afterwards we walked straight to the van from the stage and left for the hotel, nightcaps and Friends on Netflix. Finally passed out around 0300 or something and at 0650 it was time to get up.

Sunday 16.3.2014-Travel Day + Belo Horizonte, Brazil

We now have 5 back to back shows with flights almost every day. The worst part is that after a show it’s impossible to get to sleep within the next hours so even if you’re back from the show between midnight and 0100, you don’t get to bed until 0300 at the earliest, then the wake up calls are usually

between 0600-0800 and the morning is spent traveling, imagine how it feels the next evening when you have a show to play…and the evening after that etc. Well, enough whining gotta try to take a nap so I’ll be up for the job tonight !

…and what a great night it was ! Being that it was our first time over here, we felt really welcomed and I think the show was great. Afterwards we met some winners of a t-shirt contest that we’re having and hung out for a while, took some pics etc. When we got back to the hotel there was a couple of fans hanging out, luckily for them it was only a few so we could stay and take a few pics and sign some stuff before we headed up to our rooms. Finished the evening with some drinks on the balcony at the hotel, it was the 14 floor or something so we had a beautiful view of the city at night.

Monday 17.3.2014-Travel day + Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Shit, I woke up around 0600 for no appearent reason at all, then checked the itinenary and realized that I could still sleep for 2 hours before it was time to leave. So I did. When the alarm went off I was even more tired. We had a 40min flight to Rio but of course counting the ride to the airport, the usual hassle with the luggage and more of the same after the flight it took about 5 hours or so to get to the 

next hotel.I Rio I did some laundry, meaning that my whole room is now filled with drying clothes, socks, underwear, shirts etc. During soundcheck we rehearsed Cloud Factory, since we’re playing two shows in a row we thought that it would be appropriate to change the setlist at least a little bit so

tomorrow will be the world premiere of the live version of Cloud Factory ! During the show Tommy somehow hit himself in the eye with the drumstick so at the moment it’s looking really horrible but I guess he can still play. Anyways the show was great, we had some caipirinhas afterwards and sang

Happy Birthday to Mikko our FOH guy (means Front of House, means he’s mixing the sound for you, the audience to hear)…and the it was time to SLEEEEEEP ;-)

Tuesday 18.3.2014-Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

So this brings us here, today, writing this. Just woke up some time ago, skyped home, started writing this. Slightly hangover from yesterday, waiting for the other dudes to wake up so we can go and eat something….we’ll see. Anyways later today we have a rehearsal scheduled so we can make sure that we know how to play Cloud Factory tonight. We might be able to whip something else up as well…. I’ll go for a smoke. C U Later !

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 3

Tuesday 11.3.2014-Lima,Peru

Woke up pretty late, which was nice. Every once in a while we get to sleep a bit and this was one

of those days. Jiihaa.In the afternoon the promotor brought us to a late lunch/early dinner before

we went to the venue. We were at a nice restaurant by the sea and the food was great. I was just

starting to wonder about how high some of the cities are on our tour, I remember from last time that

at least in Bogota it was a bit hard to breathe at times…anyways I looked it up and the top 3 so far would be:

Bogota 2625m

Mexico City 2250m

Chihuahua 1415m

…and so far, no respiratory problems ;-). Before the show, Pasi filmed the fans standing in line outside and I tried to make them scream but it kinda backfired…better luck next time. At the show

they did indeed scream like hell. I put on a Peru shirt for the encore and threw it into the audience when we left the stage, why? I have no idea…Had a few drinks and went aimed for a few hours of sleep before it was time, once again to get up too early and leave for the next city.

Wednesday 12.3.2014-Travel Day

Up in the morning and then a flight to Bogota. I think it was around 3 hours or so but I slept for the most part. Upon arrival we all had dinner close to the hotel, a couple of drinks and then Pekka, me & Punkki got snacks and drinks from the grocery store across the street. Watched parts of Pulp Fiction and a whole bunch of Ylvis stuff on youtube. Finished the night off with some Breaking Bad and

then I managed to sleep for around 12 hours or so, woke up at some point for a minute or two.

Thursday 13.3.2014-Bogota, Colombia

Up in the afternoon, yeah !! Tomorrow we’ll have to leave early again so I’m really happy that I managed to get a lot of rest. Went downstairs for lunch/dinner with Tommy,Elias & Pasi before it was time to get my stuff and head out to the soundcheck & show….which was delayed a bit but nothing too much. As I remember, this high up you have to pace yourself a bit to get through the show but everyone managed to do that quite well. Not our first time around the block ;-) Before the show we had a meet and greet and some dudes had gotten game jerseys of the national soccer team of Colombia, putten our names on the back and gave them to us. What a nice surprise…as a ”payback” we all put them on during the encore break, you can imagine how crazy the crowd went for that :-)

Good times for everyone I guess. The early wake-up call in the morning put a lid on any party ideas so it was back to reading NHL blogs and going to bed.

Friday 14.3.2014-Travel Day

Up at 0600 and straight downstairs for the 0615 lobby call and the ride to the airport. Today’s offer is a nice relaxing 16 hours of travel from Bogota to Brasilia via Sao Paulo with some vanrides and some

extra hours to kill @ the Sao Paulo airport. Left from the hoteli in Bogota at 0630 and arrived at the 

hotel in Brasilia at around 0100 or something. I had a nightcap with Elias & Tommy and the read for a couple of hours since for some weird reason I couldn’t get to sleep.

Saturday 15.3.2014-Brasilia, Brazil

Woke up surprisingly early at around 10 or something. Weird, since I thought I was really halfway dead…jetlag and this schedule is really fucking up the sleeping rythm and I know I’m not the only one.Been reading the book about Steve Jobs lately, really interesting stuff but what an a-hole, just saying. Today we’re gonna play at the Video Games Metal Festival which will be interesting since this is the 2nd outdoor show on this tour.(A tour that was supposed to be all indoors btw). Let’s see how many more open air things we’ll have before the end this run ;-)

Anyways, I’m gonna check what the boys are doing and maybe head out for a walk or go back to sleep or whatever…see ya all tonight !!

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 2

Thursday 6.3.2014-Travel Day + Chihuahua,Mexico

…so upon arrival in Chihuahua we had some early lunch @wendy’s next door before I updated this blog and then I took a nap. Which was necessary to survive, I’d say. After some time Tony called to wake me up for the soundcheck. The basic drills, then back to the hotel for around two hours before we headed to the venue and the 1900 meet & greet. Signed stuff and took photos, people seemed to be really excited ;-) At 2100 we took the stage and our audience joined us for one sweaty 2 hour party…afterwards everyone was pretty much half dead and of course we got the great news from our Tour Manager that our morning flight to Mexico City had been moved to even earlier that it was supposed to. It was only 30 min but it means that we have to get up at 0500 for the 0545 Lobby Call and drive to the airport. We got to the hotel just before midnight so by the time I’d take a shower and packed my stuff it was around 0100 and to try to get some sleep just 2 hours after you get off stage is something I can’t do….nevertheless I did fall asleep before the wake up call :-) A bow and a thank you goes to netflix and old action movies.

Friday 7.3.2014-Travel Day + Mexico City, Mexico

Tired tired tired ;-) Woke up, skyped home and grabbed my bags and off to the airport we went. Then everything went a bit sideways ;-) We did have a nice breakfast while our TM checked in our stuff and sorted out the overweight-cost-thing-hassle. Then our flight which was supposed to be 30min earlier than announced, was actually 50min late from the original departure time, confusing eh ? Anyways we got to Mexico City and drove to the hotel, had some steaks for lunch and almost managed to sleep a bit. Before the show it was time for a meet & greet session and I also did an interview with Pasi. The show was awesome, we’re finally getting it ON again ;-) Aftershow some of us went out to a bar but being tired as hell it was a shortlived party.

Saturday 8.3.2014-Travel Day

Had some pizza with Tommy before it was time to leave for the airport, we had a late checkout so 

we finally got to SLEEP properly. After the usual hassle with the check-in at the airport we had a 2

hour flight to Obregon.I took a nap on the plane but was still really tired when we got there. Appeareantly there is some drug-cartel-things going on here so some army guys checked through all our stuff when we landed. Dropped our bags to the hotel and went for a dinner with the promotor, had some traditinal tacos and a couple of beers. The crew went to check out the venue, since we’re playing outdoors tomorrow and we want to avoid the hassle we had in Paraguay last year where they wanted us to play outside on a stage without a roof. Back at the hotel I tried to Skype home but the connection was really shitty so shower and nighty night. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.

Sunday 9.3.2014-Obregon,Mexico

Got a good nights sleep which I appreciate highly. Spent the morning on netflix and then had breakfast with Tommy,Pasi & Tero. Found out they have a pool so some of us decided to take a quick swim and enjoy the sun. Tomorrow it’s been one week since we left home, and I’m finally starting to get over the jetlag. Of course we’ll be changing time zones still but nothing as extreme as coming over from Europe. Be that as it may, while we were still chilling out at the hotel the rain and thunderstorm started…of course it did since we’re supposed to play an outdoor show tonight :-)

The funny thing about this was that someone told me that there had been no rain for the past 9 months and no ice-flake-things (that also came down at some point) for the past 20 years, greetings

from Finland, I guess. Nevertheless, the weather cleared up and we played our show in front of

several thousands of people, who would have guessed it’ll all work out? After the show we left

for the hotel as soon as possible because we had to leave from the hotel at 0600 in the morning.

..and of course there was some noisy party going on next door when I tried to sleep….all night long…

..luckily I’m not a light sleeper and I guess that in some way it was Karma kicking back at me for all those times I’ve been the one making the noise.

Monday 10.3.2014-Travel Day

I hate Mondays….not really just don’t like to get up early. Drive to the airport fly for about 2 hours to Mexico City. Say goodbye to Mexico for around 4 hours before the flight to Peru leaves and then it’s just a 5+ hour flight, some immigration hassle + the drive to the hotel. That’s pretty much how this day is gonna be….unless some unexpected hassles come up. Fuck these long travel days are boring, I’ll have a drink…or two….

Well, eveything went as I thought except for a whole bunch of fans waiting for us at the airport, nice

job guys !!! Since we are so shy I took awhile for us to get the ok to sign stuff and take photos.

At the hotel we went straight to the lobby bar for a few beers and pizza before it was time to hit the sack.

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Latin-America 15th anniversary part 1

Monday 3.3.2014-Travel Day

The great thing about living out in the woods is of course the connecting flights or actually the

lack of them, so we flew to Helsinki in the evening and spent the time there watching Pasi sign

1000 singles (we, the Kemi guys did it at home and Elias managed to do that as well). So, he signed 

the Cloud Factory single as well as the 3rd single from which there will be a video as well :-) …

like a real music video. Anyways, a few beer and Tommy & I started to watch the Sons of Anarchy series from the beginning….again…

Tuesday 4.3.2014-Travel Day

…after the inevitable passing out while watching the SoA, I woke up at 0427. Just like that, you ask ? And the answer would be Hell NO ! I set my alarm to 0430 and asked Pasi to call me when he was ready for the early breakfast at the hotel. Did indeed drag myself downstairs, ate some and then picked up my luggage from the room for the 0500 lobby call (for those of you who don’t know the lingo, lobby call means that at that time everyone, including yours truly has to be in the lobby of the hotel at that time). At the airport I managed to fuck up, meaning that when I drove my trolley on to the escalator somehow I got it all wrong an all my stuff and a couple of racks ( I think it was Elias amp) were shattered all around.After I quit laughing my ass of about my accident, I got the stuff together and we could do the check-in, the drink and board the aircraft (trying to avoid the plane world here, don’t know why ) for our flight to my favourite place in the whole wide world, the Frankfurt airport.

How do you think I spend the time at my favourite place, especially when there’s about 5 hours to 

kill before the nice 12+ hour flight to Mexico City ? Anyways the flight was as boring as usual, drinks

dinner,sleep...the basic stuff.

…and of course we missed the connecting flight to Monterrey, meaning an extra night at the Mexico City airport. Had some drinks (a lot actually) , slept a few hours and then it was time to leave.

Wednesday 5.3.2014-Monterrey,Mexico

A short flight, some 20min by car and we’re at our hotel. The crew went directly to the venue to set things up and I had a late lunch with Pasi,Tony & Tommy. Our hotel got upgraded to the Sheraton so we’ll be having a nice time, at least the few hours that we get to spend in our rooms. Tomorrow we have to fly to Chihuahua and play a show there and Friday is also more of the same, with flying in in the morning and playing at night.

At around 1800 we went to the venue and did the soundcheck. It’s always a bit nervous when starting the tour after a break, and especially with the jetlag kickin in and all, we had to work quite hard to make it work. Nevertheless we got through the show with only some minor issues. Tony forgot to introduce Pasi our new bass player and at the beginning of Kindom for a heart I forgot the number of the sound that the song start with so I missed the intro, trying to figure it out. Sometimes your mind just go blank at the most inconvenient time. Apart from that and the fact that the stage sound was very difficult (the subwoofers were located below the stage so it was pretty crazy to play) the show was ok I think. Not a perfect 10 but a solid effort and a starting point for us to build on. I’m sure tomorrow will be even better.

Thursday 6.3.2014-Travel Day + Chihuahua, Mexico

Got to the hotel just before 0100 at night with the possibility to sleep for a few hours. Since the lobby call was set at 0615, there wasn’t too much time so I headed straight to bed. In the morning I managed to skype home for a bit and even eat a bit of breakfast before leaving. Poor Pasi was misinformed about when we were supposed to leave so he got downstairs about 45 min too early. Well, at least he had time to enjoy the breakfast in peace. Off to the airport, check-in and then the flight to Chihuahua. I did an interview per e-mail in the plane, which was the most exciting thing during the whole flight ;-)

We might change some things with the setlist but I’m not sure yet. Our second single from Pariah’s Child is out so maybe we should give that one a try. These first three shows we’ll probably keep the setlist we have at the moment, just to get started and kill the jetlag and make everything work. Btw this it of course the first time in Latin America for Pasi but also for two of our crewmembers. Pekka our drumtech and Joonas who’s doing the stage sound on this tour. So far everything has gone well, but we’ll see in a week or so when the lack of sleep and brutal schedule starts to take its toll on people :-)

Anyways, time to take a nap.

cheers,

Henkka