What's going on ? (in May 2014)

Cheerios !

So after coming home from the European Leg of the Pariah’s Child World Tour, I’ve mostly been enjoying Ice-Hockey and spending time with my family. The NHL play-offs are still underway and the New York Rangers are on their way to the finals so all is well on that front. At the World Championships Finland made it all the way to the final just to get their ass kicked by the Russian Team (and the referees for that matter). Nevertheless, that’s the ”what I’ve been enjoying lately” part.

As for work, we’re in the middle of re-recording Ecliptica. So far I’ve done 4 songs and I’m about to do another later today, the drums are done and Elias have been playing some guitars as well so we’re pretty much on schedule here. As far as I know it will be out this fall. In the live department we’re doing a bunch of festivals (mainly in Finland) but the schedule is quite easy so that we’ll be able to finish the recordings before we start our North-American Tour. 

In a bit over a week we’ll play the first two festivals, South Park in Tampere and Kivenlahti Rock in Espoo. The latter might be really interesting since we’re letting the fans vote on which 10 songs we’re gonna play (out of 27 that we’ve been performing this year).Let’s see how that turns out and if we can put the voted songs in some reasonable order.

Other than that there’s really not much going on in the Sonata camp. With Silent Voices we’re been talking about getting together sometime in the summer to write some music and my solo album is still on the shelf due to unfortunate fact that there is only 24 hours in a day :-(  All the songs are written and the keyboards are done as well as the rythm guitars so still the drums & bass, some solos and the vocals are missing….I doubt it’ll be out before sometime next year with this kind of schedule but it’ll be worth the wait….

Breakfast time and then back to recording some keyboards, I’ll check back from the festivals !

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / Europe part 5

Thursday 1.5.2014-Prag, The Czech republic.

I did in fact sleep very good last night, perhaps because of the whisky ;-) I got up before we arrived since we were around 2 hours late.Insteresting load in by the way, the guys had to get all the gear across a busy street since the bus parking was on the opposite side of the club. The club itself is more like a disco or something and it will be interesting to see how they’ll be able to fit the over 700 people that are coming tonight….and oh yeah we don’t have any barriers in front of the stage….jiihaa. Anyways we had dinner at the restaurant next door, didn’t really like it but since I was hugry I did it anyway ;-)

The show was really hot as expected but not too bad despite the place being totally packed. Afterwards we had some burgers from an international burger chain…and of course a couple of beers. Tonight we’ll drive to Vienna, hope we can get some sleep since the roads are kind of bumpy.

Friday 2.5.2014-Vienna, Austria

Didn’t sleep too well but whattahell, we’ll be home in less than a week so I don’t think we need to sleep anymore on this tour ;-) We have played here once before in 2011 so not too long ago by some standards. Tonight’s show is sold out, we got pretty close on a couple of other occasions but this is the only one on this tour that’s officiall sold out. Spent the day enjoying the sun outside until it started to rain. The show went ok as usual, nothing weird happend and nothing broke down so all was well. Pasi & I met up with a friend of ours that we haven’t seen since the turn of the century which was nice. We also recorded some greetings for Roy who runs the fanclub and is having his birthday. Cheers, mate ! 

…and then it was off to a long drive to Lyon.

Saturday 3.5.2014-Travel Day, Austria-France

Stopped to eat at some point (which was really overpriced shit btw) and in the evening around 2100 we arrived in Lyon, So not too much to tell about sitting in the bus all night and the whole day :-( Anyways some of us went out for a couple of drinks but nothing too exciting.

Sunday 4.5.2014-Lyon, France

Alrighty then, the final 3 and then it’s back home to re-record Ecliptica…and as you’ll see the blog entries get shorter and shorter when the tour is closer to the end. Getting tired and not really have the energy to take walks or do anything else than prepare for the show. Elias did check out his calory consumption and pulse during Vienna and now it was Pasis turn,when the meter says that the expected recovery time is around 30 hours and you play several show in a row it’s no wonder that your body gets tired….and that’s just for Elias & Pasi, imagine how much harder it’s for Tommy. Anyways, back to business as usual. The stage here is a bit tricky so I don’t feel I was at the top of my game and during the show the AC seemed to come on for some reason, drying the air and making it hard for Tony to sing, nevertheless the crowd was good and I think we did a decent job…not perfect but good enough.

Monday 5.5.2014-Barcelona, Spain

Another new venue for us…yay ! Of course it’s situated below ground under a shopping mall and that’s where we parked the bus after some back and forth turning to make it fit. Went for dinner by myself since I needed a short brake from everything and as I was finishing my meal I met a couple of fans and signed their cd’s and took some pics.After a short walk in the sun it was back to the basement ;-) The show went better than last night albeit the stage was very small but that’s the case sometimes. After the show we were in a bit of a hurry once again, to get our showers, pizza and get on the bus. As it turns out we’ve run out of tourmerch, we only have a few items left so check out our webshop if you missed it….

Tuesday 6.5.2014-Madrid, Spain

Our Tour Manager woke everyone up who was sleeping at around 1300 to take our bags and run to the venue. Today is the last show of the tour and of course we have a drop & go so the bus cannot stay anywhere close to the venue, meaning we have to hang out here all day or walk around in the city. I didn’t want to go anywhere so I waited until after the soundcheck and then we all (the band) went for dinner at a Tommy Mell’s restaurant close by, ’50’s style american diner…good food and not too expensive so everyone was happy. After the show the bus will pick us up and then we’ll go to some parking lot for a few hours, where we can finish packing our bags and at 0600 we’ll be dropped off at the airport for the flight home. First we’ll fly to Helsinki and then have some 4-5 hours of waiting before flying up north…like usual whenever we fly outside of Finland the Kemi gang (me, Tony & Tommy) get to enjoy some extra hours at the airport in Helsinki.Boring shit. Well, we still have one more show to enjoy before all that crap so let’s make it count. I wonder if our Italian friends in Trick or Treat have planned any last show tricks for us, that remains to be seen. Maybe well do something during their show….I think we should.Time for a nap before it’s interview-time.

Ok, so because of the small stage we had to play without raisers, so I was more or less stuck in the back, anyways as a last show prank we stormed the stage during Trick & Treat’s set and gave them some stuff….they naturally returned the favour just before the end of our set :-) Back at the bus it was time to do the final packing and have the last chats with the T & T dudes….tried to sleep for a couple of hours…

Wednesday 7.5.2014-Travel Day, Spain-Home

Up just before 0600 and drop off at the Madrid airport, said goodbye to our TM & Merchguy as well as the busdrivers. Slept the whole 4 hour flight to Helsinki…said goodbye to the rest of the guys except for Tony & Tommy with which we got to wait for around 5 hours before our flight home. As I’m writing this we’re still at the airport, trying not to fall asleep. For now we’re done with the touring for 4 weeks and then it’s time for the festival season. I’ll might check in about the progress of the re recording of Ecliptica but for now I’m just looking forward to enjoy the rest of the NHL playoffs as well as the Ice-Hockey World Championship. This tour was once again really cool, a lot of fun and we’re all alive ;-)

until something happends,

cheers,

Henkka

SA:On the road:Pariah’s Child World Tour / Europe part 4

Tuesday 22.4.2014-Saarbrucken, Germany

Another one of the places that we’ve been to before, actually I think we’ve played in most of the venues on this tour sometime before in our career. Nevertheless, nice backstage, good food everything is just nice at the moment. During the show a couple of our friends showed up and shot some pics and some video footage, we’ll do another thing at Pratteln as well and see if they can come up with something cool. Anyways during the show we played X-marks the spot for the first time live ;-) it went well I think…of course Tony couldn’t resist to fool around in the beginning of Tallulah and I seriously doubt that we’ll be able to start that song without any hassle for the rest of this tour or for however long it’ll be in the set. After the show we grabbed our stuff and prepared for a long drive to Paris.

Wednesday 23.4.2014-Paris, France

Back to the Bataclan. In the morning (yeah yeah, in the afternoon when I woke up ) I had some breakfast and then me, Tommy and Elias went for a short walk around to see if there was anything interesting…which there wasn’t. Back at the venue I opened google maps just to confirm what we just discovered and to my surprise I found out that the Pere Lachaise cemetary is just 1,6km away. Ok well then, since it would be closed at 1800 the only option was to leave straight after soundcheck…so me, Ville, Tony & Pasi walked there and visited Jim Morrisons grave, for me the bigger thing was however the tomb of one Mr Chopin. Anyways it was a nice walk and and a truly beautiful cemetary. On our way back we stopped for dinner which was really good. During the show everything else went totally fine (I had some random drop-outs from the midi wireless but nothing too bad) until the encore and San Sebastian, in the middle of the unisono my M3 tilted totally and I had to reset it (the same thing actually happened in Seinäjoki earlier this year) Anyway I finished the songs more or less with the SV-1, using and organ sound for the lead. It did sound a bit interesting. Well after the show we quickly met up with Joe the walker and his friend and took some pics outside of the bus before it was time to leave.In the bus we tried to play La Cucaracha with beer bottles. It kinda worked but going to bed was clearly the best option. Nighty night !

Thursday 24.4.2014-Ludwigsburg, Germany

We’ve played here before in 2005 but nobody remembered the place except for Ville. Well this time I think we’ll remember it better. Nevertheless the days was the usual, breakfast, checking e-mails and NHL scores etc etc In the evening we had a really hot show in front of a good crowd who seemed to enjoy it a lot. Before the show we had a meeting with some NBR people and we also hung out afterwards. The bus stayed at the venue for the next two nights so we had some drinks with the Trick & Treat guys before heading to bed.

Friday 25.4.2014-Off Day

During the day I went walking around by myself to get some time alone, walked for a couple of hours before I ran into Elias, Tommy & Tony. We went to a local shopping mall and picked up some stuff for our kids. Later we had dinner or actually I had dinner and the boys some drinks since they’ve already eaten. In the evening we watched some DVD’s in the bus and had some wine. Probably the easiest off-day so far. I ended the evening with a couple of drinks at the venue with the promotor.

Saturday 26.4.2014-Nurnberg,Germany

This was another of the places where we’ve been before, don’t remember what year. Nevetheless they’ve got new backstages (I think) with nice showers etc. During the evening we watched the Tappara-Kärpät game 7 (SM-liiga hockey ;-) ) and enjoyed Kärpät winning in overtime…except for Elias who is from Tapparas home town Tampere. After the show we signed a couple of autographs and took some pics before the long drive over the alps and towards Switzerland and Pratteln and Z7.

Sunday 27.4.2014-Pratteln, Switzerland

We’ve played here quite a few times before, this is our 8th headlining show here in Z7. As before, the food here is excellent, the people and the venue are also very nice with washingmashines and all so it’s always a pleasure to play here. We also have a film crew here tonight to do some shooting of a couple of songs and what have you. Anyway time to get my laundry done and take care of some e-mail business. The New York Rangers will play Philly at 1800 but I doubt I can get the stream to work with this internet (a bit too slow) we’ll see…I would love to watch the game. Amazingly the internet worked for almost the whole game ;-) The show was really great and a lot of fun, of course Tommy managed to hurt his finger banging on the drums….poor guy it really looks like hell, hopefully he’ll be able to play tomorrow. We also played Love for the first time and it worked.

Monday 28.4.2014-Trezzo, Italy

It’s raining like hell. Actually it has been raining all night while we were driving as well so…Nevertheless this is one of the places we’ve never been to before. Really nice venue and we also had an awsome dinner :-) During the day we didn’t really go anywhere, just hang out at the venue.Our Italian fans are loud and crazy and this show was a nice hot maniac party. Before the show we had a short meet & greet and I did 2 interviews with Elias. We also got some nice cheese & wine from our friends in Trick & Treat. Thanks guys ! Afterwards we really had to howl ass and get going towards Budapest.

Tuesday 29.4.2014-Travel Day Italy-Hungary

When I woke up we were still driving and I guess we arrived late in the afternoon and parked the bus outside of the venue. Our drivers managed to have their rest and a few beers. Some of the guys headed towards the city and the other bunch, me included, headed for the shopping mall nearby. We got some food and bought some drinks. After getting back to the bus and hanging out for awhile it was time to search for a restaurant and have dinner. We did find a really nice one not too far from the bus and it was really cheap, the food was excellent and everyone was really happy after that. Finished the night at the bus with a couple of drinks and Django Unchained…what a fucking great movie !!

Wednesday 30.4.2014-Budapest, Hungary

Oh beautiful sunshine ! Got up just before soundcheck, had a really good nights sleep so I feel very much alive at the moment. We’ve played at this venue many times before and it’s always been great so I really look forward for tonight. After a short interview and a very great dinner it was time to relax a bit backstage and rest before the show. We switched the setlist a bit as we’ve done every day so far. The food was once again awesome and the show was the hottest so far, according to Tero we had +30 degrees celcius on stage. Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures and signed some stuff on the way to the bus.An all night drive towards Prague, hopefully we can get some sleep since the road is really bumpy.

Cheers,

Hank