Sunday, August 10, 2014

SA:On the Road:Festivals ’14:Porispere (..and the summer’s gone)

Friday 8.8.2014-Porispere, Pori, Finland
Our hopefully last train ride for a loong time started at 0746 from Kemi. Not that I mind the train but somehow I’ve gotten enough of it during this summer. Around 7 hours later we arrived at Tampere where everybody met and jumped on the bus with the gear etc to go to Pori and the last festival this summer. Since I was tired (when am I not) I spent the drive sleeping in my bunk and listening to Bigelfs Into the Maelstrom (spellcheck anyone ?). A quick check-in to the hotel and a shower before we went to the festival. Then in started to get interesting. Stam1na a superb heavy metal band from Finland and friends of ours were playing but their keyboardist was sick. Hmmm…so they asked me to join them for one song and I was like Hell Yeah !! I spent a bit more than an hour programming the sound and learning the song (which I hadn’t heard before) you can probably imagine the anxiety level before going on stage…. Anyway I think it went well, all things considered. Here’s the song as an original:


..and here’s the live version:


Thanks dudes for trusting me and letting me be a part of your amazing show !!!

…after that it was time to focus on our own show. Since this was the last one of the festivals, we were all in a energized mood and the show went really well, some minor things aside. In X-marks the spot I started to play the gospel organ lick in the ”jesus” part of the song and out came a sound more suitable for Van Halens Jump, The Final Countown or something else. At first I thought that my SV-1 had somehow erased my sounds from its memory but when I asked Tero the magical question during the next song…Is this my keyboard ? His response was, no….didn’t anyone tell ya ? (..and yeah it’a actually his job to tell me… :-( ) With the new piece of info I managed to program the doors organ for Blood as well as the different piano sound for Love, in between some of the songs…I doubt anyone noticed….the rest of the show was a smooth ride. Afterwards…surprise surprice…drinks ;-) It was nice to celebrate the end of our summer shows together and later at the hotel we were joined by some of the guys from Santa Cruz…briefly met the Reckless Love guys as well and they were also happy with their gig ;-)

Saturday 9.8.2014 Travel Day
I got up in time for breakfast, yay me !! And at 0900 the bus left for Tampere where we switched for the beloved train and a whopping 7 hours of enjoyment ;-) 

This summer was awesome, thank you all for showing up and sharing it with us !! Now we only have to get the Ecliptica re-make done and our working visas for the US and then it’s time to rock North-America. See ya all in a bit but for now…

cheers,

Henkka

37 comments:

  1. You guys kicked ass on Friday, I noticed you were running about after Tero but I'd never have guessed you had a different keyboard! Nice action programming dude :D

    And seeing you on stage with Stam1na was an amazing surprise!! we noticed you guys were hanging around and Tero was "helping out" but we weren't expecting it! The two shows in a row were a great way to close the summer :)

    Havr fun with your recordings and hope to get more updates, maybe from some other bands.... there is a video we haven't seen yet ;)

    See you soon....hopefully.

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  2. Also considering that video from Porispere was shot almost perfectly from behind us I'm REALLY happy you can't hear me scream all throughout it. I know I screamed quite a bit. LOL

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  3. Glad you enjoyed your summer Henkka. Enjoy your time off before the North American tour! It's going to kick ass! I can't wait to see you guys at first two shows in NJ and NY!

    Until then,
    Cheers!

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  4. It's funny to see you complain about the trains.... I have to spend 3 hours on a train daily to get to school and back. Not now because of summerbreak, but believe it or not, I actually start to miss my daily trainrides! I know, distances in Finland are quite different than here in the Netherlands but still.... :P

    and about the Ecliptica re-recording. I'm both exited as scared to see what comes out. Please tell me you at least didn't alter 8th commandment (my all time Ecliptica favorite) too much? :)

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    1. Well it's just that I hate the daytime trains, during night it's cool and traveling by bus is downright awesome, flying also sucks btw ;-) And don't worry about the Ecliptica thing, we didn't change the songs that much and there are no weird experiments or anything like that...

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  5. Me and my boyfriend are also working in our USA visas, have fun with that as we do (sarcasm off) xD See ya!!!

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  6. It would have been awesome to see you on stage with Stam1na, two favorite (finnish) band together, kind of... But maybe I'll see something like that some other time.

    It's nice to hear that you've had a nice summer, hope you find some time to rest also between the recordings, there's a long 7 weeks coming...

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  7. Hello Mr. Henrik, I am anxious to know what will come out of the Ecliptica remastered with the new generation of Sonata Arctica, I wonder if at some future also will be a remastering of Silence? Greetings from Chile.

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  8. We'll we actually re-mastered the first two albums some years ago but if you're refering to the re-recording I don't think we're gonna re-record Silence...but you'll never know. The Ecliptica re-recording will be ready this week and released in a couple of months...

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    1. Well, that live performance was fun to watch and the original is awesome too! I hardly know a word in Finnish but, love the song! I'm happy you got an opportunity to play with your pals, Stam1na and had an exciting summer..which is not over quite yet. ;-)

      Wow! That was a weird experience with the keyboards...and an interesting answer from Tero! I can just imagine the feeling at the pit of your stomach when you played the first chord. Did you find the Jump/Final Countdown sound took away from the feel of that particular part in X marks the spot? I'm sure it didn't turn out too badly, and apparently you did a great job of getting things back under control. :-)

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    2. As much as I love the sound it was completely wrong for that part but live is live and shit happends so....

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    3. If it's of any consolation it wasn't very noticeable from the audience, just a bit off, and in live situations you never know if something "off" is an instrument problem or audio problem anyway! If you hadn't said anything I would have never imagined there'd been a problem ;)

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  9. In a few years the Japanese label will want to have Silence re-recorded and you'll do it all over again ;-)
    So it will be released in a couple of months? Cause someone said that in that interview you gave the Chilean fanclub you say it might be released before the start of the North American tour. I can't check that, cause the background music on that vid is so loud that I hardly understand a thing and I can't read Spanish :-/ Couple of months is totally fine though, that other thing sounded way too stressful. At least we got that cleared up :D

    I didn't know Stam1na until I saw that pic on Twitter to be honest, but it sure as hell looks like it turned out fine for you. Seems like you're a pro after all ;-)

    Don't think you're planning so far ahead yet, what with the tour coming up and another one in the planning... but any idea yet if there's a chance/plans you'll be at Wacken next year?

    Take care and get some rest :-)

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    1. No talks about Wacken, would be cool to get back the of course. I don't remember what I said about the schedule but we've known for quite some time that we'll be delivering the music + artwork before the NA-tour....and NOT getting it out before that, so if I really said that I fucked up ;-P

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    2. Would be cool to see you there :-) If nothing happens that keeps me from going there, that is... Fingers crossed.
      Aw yeah, that sounds like a classic misunderstanding turned rumour. It's funny what people come up with and just spread on the internet. And... sorry for asking stupid questions all the time. Once again, hope I'm not annoying you, if I do, just tell me to stop and I'll keep it down ;-)
      (I didn't in any way want to imply that you fucked up. Hope that's clear...)

      And yes, Finland shows in Dec/Jan! Does that mean Europe can expect you around Feb-April? :D

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    3. Yeah, it's clear, you didn't imply that I fucked up...I did ;-) Regarding Europe...it would be more April than February...sorry can't be more specific at the moment.

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    4. Hey, we have something in common! We both don't know what exactly you said there :D No worries though, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding.
      I'm fine with April :-) If you don't hear from me anymore, it's because a vein somewhere in my brain popped from concentrating too hard on wishing something specific :P

      And because I'm a curious little bugger and you didn't tell me to stop (yet)... do you get many "spam" or inappropriate comments that you just don't approve?

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    5. Not really, no , there have only been one or two comments that I haven't published...usually by the request of the commenter ;-) So, start spamming, people !!

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    6. Even me? I always worry that I'm annoying you :( sometimes I try to hold back but...it doesn't work much as you may have noticed.

      (The other fans calling me crazy and obsessed and "a sick fanatic" definitely don't help)

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    7. ...and like if I ever bother you, you can tell me to stop spamming, I will do it. The last thing I want is to bother you guys.

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    8. Spam spam spam! ;-P
      That makes me think of the Monty musical which I still haven't seen... Hrm. Do you like Monty Python?

      Btw, your interview has finally been edited, and all you said was that you'd be done with recording before the tour, not a word about the release. So you definitely didn't screw up, someone just understood it wrong :-)

      Btw, I asked Pasi about the MCF albums, he said a few weeks back he'd have to look what he still has in stock. I don't know how busy y'all are at the moment and don't want to be a bother, but maybe you could give him a friendly nudge?

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    9. Not too much into MP....and yeah, I'll talk to Pasi about the MCF stuff if I remember...

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    10. Thank you, that would be much appreciated!
      You don't have to pull him from his vacation though or anything, lol. I found an old Amazon voucher so I might just get the mp3s for now. Physical copies would still be nice, especially Six Pack Attack! special edition :-) So whenever you find the time, it's fine.

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  10. Hey you!! it's nice to see that you're having fun and.. of course, you let us know about all those details about the band and the concerts. I'm pretty excited about the "fresh" version of Ecliptica, I hope to listen to that soon, and... we're waiting for the SA book in English version too!

    Well, apart from that, here in Chile everyone is waiting for the Pariah's Child tour in 2015! Hope you can play in more than one city in our country... And have you thought about recording a DVD in Latin America? I know that's kind of crazy idea, but I'm pretty sure that's the dream of almost all the fans in this place, and everyone will love the idea for sure ;)

    Cheers!

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    1. There have been some small talks about the next DVD but we will not record it during the Pariah's Child World Tour....that's about 99,5% sure.

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  11. It was so great surprise to see you on stage with my second favourite band! Btw. Tiketti is already selling tickets to 5.12. gig in Lutakko and 6.12. in Seinäjoki, will you have another Finnish Tour this year or just couple of random gigs? :)

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    1. There'll be a few gigs in December and might be a couple more in January...

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    2. Yessssssss. Hopefully not while I'm down in Italy for the holidays, lol. But yessss stop by Tre so I can make you food (well...IF you want some top notch Italian lasagna, that is ;) ) HML would be nice too, last time it was a really nice show/venue....

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  12. Helsinki? Please? Pleeeeeease? *puppydog eyes* You're the highlight of my year... so I go begging on my knees if I have to! ;)

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    1. Even though that might be fun, don't worry...no need to beg, we'll most certainly play Helsinki as always on these Finnish club shows...just...wait for it ;-)

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    2. Do *I* need to beg for a Tampere show in a venue that's not the bloody Tampere-talo? ;)

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    3. See you there. When and where, hopefully we'll hear soon :)

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    4. No need to beg about a Tampere show, I'm sure it'll happend...and yeah, not in the Tampere talo ;-)

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    5. Best news this fall!! Pakkahuone, eh?

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  13. Toivomma että Joensuukin sinne listaan pärähtää :} jotain valoa talven keskelle... Tonyn RJ-keikkapaikoista ei mahda olla tietoa?

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  14. Katellaan mitä suomen keikkoja saadaan vielä aikaiseksi, Joensuussahan on aina ollut hyvä meno joten toivottavasti päästään takas jossain vaiheessa....Tonyn RJ hommista ei oo kyllä mitään hajua.

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  15. Huippujuttu että Kerubi toteutuu, tuo armas eläinlaumamme ja poika pitää huolen että kovin kauas ei päästä turistikeikoille joten tammikuuta odotellessa :) ps. Kerubissa vaihtunut ruokalista, ei paha ei paha...

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