Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Secret Rule: Shooting the music video in Amsterdam, Holland

Sunday 27.12.2015 Travel Day Kemi-Helsinki
So, the Secret Rule guys & gal asked me to be a part of their music video
for the upcoming album which I played the keyboards on….and I thought why not ?
This is gonna be a real quick one for me, I just get to Amsterdam for a few hours and
when we’re done I’ll fly back home. First up is the lovely trainride from Kemi to Helsinki starting at around 1600 and I’ll be at the airport at around 0100. I naturally spent the time in the train working or at least tried to, I blame the poor internet connection for ending up drinking in the restaurant car…

Monday 28.12.2015 Travel Helsinki-Amsterdam-Helsinki + Music Video Shoot
After doing a small detour in the Helsinki nightlife, I ended up at the airport, took a nap,
checked in, took another nap and ended up on the plane…sleeping. When i arrived in Amsterdam everything was back to ok ;-) The SR guys picked me up and we went for the venue where we shot the video….and took some promo pics as well. After a
good day at work, I was brought back to the Shiphol airport and made my way towards
Helsinki and later on back home.

Tuesday 29.12.2015 Travel Day
I managed to sleep for a couple of hours at the aiport before my train(s) left at
around 0546….a couple of trainchanges later I was home at just before 1400

in the afternoon. A really quick trip but it was fun.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Bottle Message 7.12.2015

Hola peeps, let’s see what’s going on:

Silent Voices & E.Vil finished the tour as you probably already
saw. Some shirts are still available at the official SA fanclub

Klingenberg Syndrome 2 : Still finishing up the stuff as well
as working on the cover etc… 

Winterborn: Some more songs have been popping in , still
no clue about when it’ll be out. Might do a show or two with
them next year though ;-)

Secret Rule: Yeah, I didn’t join another band, no worries….
…however I did play keyboards for their upcoming album.
A bunch of great songs and it was a lot of fun to work on this
thing. It should be out sometime next year, check it out.

Here’s some more info about the band: http://www.secretrule.it/

Freeride: I’m also playing some organ on a track by my friends
band, it should also be out next year. Totally different from what
I usually do, this is a blues band. Check it out: 

I think that’s all for now, looking forward to have a short Christmas
break once I get these things done…and in January 2016 the Sonata
Arctica mayhem is starting again. Meanwhile enjoy our Christmas single:


cheers,

Henkka

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Silent Voices & E.VIL: On the Road: Pics from the EU Tour 2015


Here are some pics from the Darkest Night EU Tour of 2015 ;-)



Rehearsing with Timo in Kokkola before the tour.


On our way towards Helsinki and the airport...


The Backseat boys in the van we got in Amsterdam, only around 6000km left
to go. As you can see there's not really that much space ;-)


Dinner on our first night of the tour.


Some of the support band guys getting ready for the first
show in Duisburg.


Our apartment in Poland. Not too bad.


The first of many driving pics, I would guess we're in Poland still.


Another one, later that day....


...on our way towards Italy.


Taking a break somewhere in the Alps.


Bologna, Italy, with my roomie for tonight, Timo.


Eyes wide  and onwards in Italy.


The leaning tower of Pisa.


More of the same....


I am the burger king, I can eat anything !!


In Parma we got somethings to nibble on while having
some beers in the hotel lobby.


A rare photo of me having breakfast...also in Parma.


Found some white wine travel packs at the local Lidl.


The Titty Twister in Parma, with Teemu doing something, I guess.


Some familiar dudes behind the merch table in Parma.


Goodbye Italy !


Wine & Cheese night at the hotel in Munich.


...and some Swans on our way to the grocery store the next morning.


The supportband keys & drums, still going strong.


The sunshine hostel in Prague.


..and the sign at the Exit-Us club. I did have to talk to the
soundguy anyways...and he wasn't really that deaf.


Self-portrait in Prague...


On our way to Switzerland, I love the warm weather !


Elvis was at the show @Hall of Fame.


A flyer for the show. Shitty pic though with the glare and all.


Breakfast in Wetzikon, Switzerland after the show at the Hall of
Fame. I heard that Billy Idol also stayed at this hotel when he came here
to play.


...and this is what I had for breakfast.


On the road again, this was before we got lost.


Still not lost, having a good time.


Ok, now we're lost, the road ends and no bridge. Well
wait, there's a ferry !


Setting up the last show on this part of the tour in Weert.


Look at my mighty keyboard stand !


On our way towards Finland, the famous 38e burger & cider.


Here is the whole gang at the airport in Helsinki before 
jumping into another van and driving up north.


On our way from Kokkola to Helsinki for the last show.


Traditional Finnish snack on the way.


...and so ends another tour, on my way home in the train after the Helsinki
show. This was fun but I guess it'll take some time before we do it again.

cheers,
Henkka



Silent Voices & E.Vil On the Road: Darkest Night EU tour 2015

Here are some notes from the EU tour we just did. Since we were doing
everything ourselves I didn’t really have the time to write this on the road,
let’s see how much I can remember now that the tour is over. We had
two bands, 7 guys stuck in a van. Here is the cast for this trip:

Teemu - Vocals & driving & DJ & hotels, SV
Timo - guitars, SV
Pasi - bass & driving, SV & E.VIL
Hurtsi - drums, SV
Henkka - keys & tourmanager, SV & E.VIL
Elias - guitars, E.VIL
Tomi - drums, E.VIL

We all sold, or tried to sell merch as well ;-) Anyways, here we go:

Tuesday 20.10. - Travel / Rehersal , Kemi-Kokkola
We were supposed to rehearse with Silent Voices before the tour
but we couldn’t get everyone together I decided to go to Kokkola
anyway and check through some parts with Timo our guitar player.
We spent some hours going throught the stuff and I then proceeded
to check out some of the E.VIL songs as well. The Trainride to Kokkola
was the same as always = boring ;-)

Wednesday 21.10. - Rehersal / Travel Kokkola-Helsinki
Played through some more stuff with Timo in the afternoon and
then it was time to pack the van for the drive to the Helsinki airport.
We started in the evening and picked up Tomi & Elias in Tampere,
at around 0400 or something we arrived in Helsinki, dropped off
the van and checked in for our morning flight at 0635. We had a 
a couple of hours at the Frankfurt airport before hitting our connecting
flight to Amsterdam where we picked up our van for the tour.

Thursday 22.10. - Travel Day - Helsinki-Dusseldorf
…after checking out the van and putting all the guys and gear inside
we headed for Dusseldorf where I had managed to find a relatively
cheap hotel. The rest of the night/evening was spent just chilling and
going through the paperworks and info for this tour, Tomi, Elias and I
went out for a nice dinner while the other boys opted for the nearby
kebab place.

Friday 23.10.- Parkhaus-Meiderich, Duisburg, Germany
In the afternoon we checked out and headed for Obehausen to pick up our
merch from Kapanen. We met some of the Korpiklaani guys who were playing
there that night. Back to Duisburg and to the venue, which was quite nice. Great
people and a very good dinner. We did the sounchecks for both of the bands rather
quickly. We also had a support band there which was quite ok actually. Later it was
time for the first shows of this tour. I think we all were a bit nervous since we hadn’t practised with SV or E.VIl for that matter…managed to do the shows, sold some shirts
and had a few beers. I think this might actually work out allright ;-) At the hotel bar there was time to have a couple of more drinks before hitting the bed.

Saturday 24.10. Travel Day: Duisburg, Germany - Wroclav, Poland
Got up in time for breakfast, which is of course something I don’t always do.
This was the first really long driving day, spent the day in the backseat of the
van drinking beer and listening to music. In Wroclav there was a wedding
next door, tried to crash it but was turned away at the door. Well, good luck
anyways ;-)

Sunday 25.10. Travel Day / Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Some more driving and the we had our second show of the tour. By now the
worst nervousness was gone and we did a more solid job than on the first show.
Managed to find the hotel afterwards, which was an apartment somewhere not too
far from the club. We also got a recording of the shows tonight, they where however
only 2-track versions so nothing much we can do to make some use of them. Some of
the boys went to the nearby gas-station to pick up some beer but I decided to go straight to bed since I was really tired.

Monday 26.10. Travel Day / Bielsko-Biala, Poland - Graz, Austria
Part of the boys went to the MCD to get some breakfast and were
kind enough to bring back some stuff for the rest of us as well. The
rest of the day was spent….driving…again.

Tuesday 27.10. Travel Day / Graz, Austria - Bologna, Italy
Another long day in the car. We had trouble finding the hotel in Bologna,
drove around and ended up on a hill. Eventually we found the place and
went out for dinner, all together. Got some really excellent food and that
pretty much knocked us out for the night.

Wednesday 28.10. Travel / Borderline Club, Pisa, Italy
Some more driving for a change, we did get to Pisa quite
fast, checked in at the hotel and got some chips and salsa. Later we managed
to find our way to the club and to the soundcheck. My friend Alex from Vision
Divine (amongst another 100 bands) showed up as well since he helped us set
up these Italian shows. In the evening we checked out the support band before it
was time for us to hit the stage. Sold some merch, signed some stuff, had some nice
pasta at the club…a pretty good day I’d say. Except the only beer we had left over after
the show was some weissbeer…which is quite horrible in my opinion. Maybe it was all for the best in the end since I couldn’t down more than one of them ;-)

Thursday 29.10. Travel Day , Pisa-Parma, Italy
We opted to stay in Pisa but had some trouble finding a cheap enough hotel so we just went to check out the leaning tower and then decided to hit the road again. In Parma we threw our stuff into the rooms and went out for some pizza & pasta (naturally) with the whole gang. Once again Italy did not disappoint and the food in the nearby restaurant was really excellent. Had a few drinks in the hotel bar before going to bed,
but I guess you knew that already….

Friday 30.10. Titty Twister, Parma, Italy
What a great name for a bar ;-) In the afternoon we switched hotels to the one that was provided by the promotor. Again it was a bit of a challenge to find the place but eventually we did. Later in the afternoon it was time to go to the venue and do the soundcheck. We had the support band from Pisa as well as a local support band. Great 
stuff. Had a good time, the venue was at street level so the roading was really easy. Had some pasta at the venue again and sold some shirts and tourcd’s so everything
went really great !! More or less went to bed upon arrival to the hotel. Thank you
Italy !!

Saturday 31.10, Travel Day, Parma-Munich, Germany
Another driving day, Teemu managed to find a really cheap hotel for two
nights which was of course really nice.

Sunday 1.11. Off-day - Munich
Spent the off-day watching youtube and drinking ;-) Later me & Tomi went
to an irish bar somewhere and got some mashed potatoes and sausages.
According to the rest of the bunch we got back before 23 and hit the sack.

Monday 2.11.Travel Day, Munich - Prague, Czech Republic
More driving…Teemu again managed to get a 4 star hotel for around 120e
for all 7 people. I have no idea how he does it. The hotel was in some sports
arena, I have no idea where. We went to the nearby shopping mall for awhile
and then to yet another Irish bar and had some burgers. I guess this time we
were out pretty late ;-)

Tuesday 3.11. Exit-us , Prague, Czech Republic
Woke up and went for the next hotel. The sunshine hostel or something. What
a truly horrible place, haha. Now we’re starting the end run for the shows. 4 in
a row, with some driving every morning. It will be a nice change of pace since
the amount of off-days so far has been a bit much for some of us ;-) The venue
tonight was a basement with a bunch of stairs (like 3 floors down from ground
level or something. Had some nice gulash at the backstage and we had a local
support band as well. The shows went quite ok and we enjoyed ourselves. Took
a bunch of pics afterwards and then went back to enjoy the confort of the bates
motel…uh, sorry, sunshine hostel.

Wednesday 4.11. Travel / Viper Room, Vienna, Austria
Got woken up at around 10 by some dude yelling we had to check out. Appeareantly
the same thing had happend in Hurtsis and Teemus room at around 9. Nice people
I must say :-) Well whatta hell, we had to get going anyways. The day swung by rather
quickly, sitting in the car and eventually we found our way to the Viper Room. Again a couple of floors down from ground level. Not really a problem when you load in but after
having played 2 shows it’s not that fun to run up those stairs with the equipment ;-) Everything else was really great though, after the soundcheck we went to the hotel to check-in and then back to the venue for dinner. A friend of ours from back home showed up and we had a few beers, enjoyed the show and eventually ended up in back in the hotel, tired as hell but happy, having completed a full days work ;-)

Thursday 5.11. Travel / Legends Lounge, Olching, Germany
This time nobody woke us up yelling, so that’s a plus in my book. We had a quick breakfast before hitting the road towards the next stop on our itinenary. Another day in
the van and in the late afternoon we arrived at the Legends Lounge. Once again nice people and a really good atmosphere. We were in kind of a hurry so we did a quick check and then went to find our hotel for the night, a nice little gasthaus. Just managed to check in and throw our bags in our rooms before heading back and going to the nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was of course superb but if you have the choice, I’d recommend not to eat a full meal just 10min before going on stage…Somehow we did survive anyhow…unfortunately we missed the support band because of this, I just heard the last chord…based on that they seemed alright ;-) Our shows went by really fast and after that it was time to get the gang in the van and back to the
gasthaus. A friend of Tomi’s showed up and tried to convince us to take a cab to munich and party but we had to decline this time.

Friday 6.11. Travel / Hall of Fame, Wetzikon, Switzerland
Birds are singing and the sun is shining, what a good decision to got straight to bed last
night. After a very nice breakfast it was once again….you guessed it…time to spend some hours in the van. We had a ”food” stop at a MCD at some point but other than 
that it was a basic ride. At the Hall of Fame we got treated like rojalty. Great people, good food…a proper backstage. Everything was really excellent, hell, the hotel was probably the best one on this tour. We had an Italian support band today, really interesting music actually and great players as well. As we were saying goodbye in the evening it turns out that they will be playing with us at the last show as well. Anyways,
by now the shows are running very well, Teemu has been having a cold for a few days now and I guess everyone else have been sick at one point or another, except for yours
truly.

Saturday 7.11. Travel Day / Wetzikon, Switzerland - somewhere in Germany
The last of the long driving days. Everything went quite ok until we realized that
our navigation program had thrown us off by about 250km. Well, shit happends and
as we were driving back there was a river with no bridges in our way….finally we managed to cross it by boat and ended up at the hotel for the night a lot later than
planned. Everything worked out and nobody was in a bad mood so no worries,
we like driving around ;-)

Sunday 8.11. Travel / De Bosuil, Weert, Netherlands
Once again Holland didn’t disappoint. After a short 160km drive in the morning we arrived just in time for the load-in and soundcheck. One of the nicest venues on the tour, with professional crew and excellent food. The weird thing was that since it was Sunday we played really early and had dinner after the show. Elise from the SA fanclub picked up a bunch of shirts to sell on their site since we couldn’t fit all the stuff in our luggage for the flight in the morning. The E.Vil set went great but during the first song of
the SV set, Hurtsi broke the snare…so for the rest of the show the sound was a bit comic = shitty…actually it was truly horrible but whatta hell, he did it anyway !! After the show Timo & I drove to Eindhoven to pay for the van before returning to the hotel and
ending the night with some youtube and beers.

Monday 9.11. Travel Home / Amsterdam-Kemi
In the morning we had to leave the hotel at 0500 in order to make it to the airport in time. A tired but happy bunch jumped into the van and drove to a gas station close to Shiphol. At 0800 we went to the airport and left the van to a dude who picked it up. Did the check in, paid for the overweight and off we went. Since we’re on a budget we had a few hours in Oslo on the way to Helsinki. Elias, Tomi & I went to the sports bar where I ordered a hamburger and a cider….for the price of 38e !!! Fuckin’ hell, that was expensive. I guess the burger was ok but really not worth that much money. Be that as it may, in Helsinki our trusty pal Masi (yes the drumtech in SA amongst other things) brought us our Finnish van and the guys headed up north. Hurtsi and I had decided to
fly to Oulu with Norwegian since it was really cheap. Our g/f’s picked us up there and
then a short 1,5 hour drive later we were home in Kemi. Thank you Europe, two more
shows to go on this tour !!

Tuesday 10.11.-Thursday 12.11.
Off-days at home. Oh, the bliss ;-)

Friday 13.11. Travel / Calle, Kokkola, Finland
Drove down to Kokkola with my g/f and straight to the soundcheck. Had dinner at
the hotel, which took forever (for the food to arrive that is) and eventually got about
20min to chill in the room before it was time to hit the stage. I’d already forgotten how
drunk people are in my hometown when they go out on a Friday night. We had a good turnout at the show but I’m not sure all of them knew what was going on ;-) It was however nice to meet some of our old friends that I haven’t seen in a long time and
it got pretty later before we got to bed.

Saturday 14.11. Travel / Bar Bäkkäri, Helsinki, Finland
Went to breakfast, which was excellent and then it was off to the SV rehersal place to
re-load the van and head for Helsinki and the last drive (at least for me) on this tour.
Some 500km later we’re at the Bäkkäri Bar, loading in. Unfortunately our friends from 
Amoral were playing on the same day at On the Rocks so I guess we could have had a better turnout otherwise. However this was by no means a disaster and everything worked out really well. We had a nice dinner at Hotel Helka before the show btw. Afterwards we celebrated the end of the EU tour in a proper manner…to the point
where leaving for the train at 0900 in the morning wasn’t the easiest thing to do but I
did it anyway. Slept until Kokkola where I switched to a bus for a couple of hours before
getting back on the train in Oulu….one hour later I was home.

——
So, how did it all go ? We played 11 shows in 8 countries, technically Pasi and I played 22 shows ;-)  ..at some places we got good turnouts and at some places not so much. It was a shitload of fun, no fights, the promotors payed up and despite some minor hassles that always occur on tour I think we managed pretty well. It was a lot different from my ”day-job” since we only had the addresses of the venues and the fees that we were supposed to get payed…and did everything else ourselves. Nevertheless, we met a whole bunch of great people, devoted fans and yelling hostelkeepers. Drove over 6000km and I only lost one set of headphones + one setlist that someone stole from the stage. Thank you everyone !! See you next time, whenever that is !!!

The rest of the year will be spent doing some studio work, more on that later and in
January the SA stuff resumes so….no holidays here ;-)

cheers,
Henkka

ps.yeah I post some pics when I get around to it…

btw there’s been some questions about the setlists so before you spam the comment field about it here are the setlists as I remember them, feel free to correct if I fucked up.
We changed them around a bit but these are the ”master lists”.

Silent Voices Darkest Night EU Tour 2015 setlist

(Some part from the Rambo soundtrack as intro)
1.End of Days
2.Glassheart
3.Darkest Night
4.Blood of Eden
5.Black Water
6.Cross of Thorns (Black Sabbath)
7.Burning Shine
8.Cross my Path
9.No Turning back
10.On the wings of Rage
——
11.Through my prison walls

we also played The Fear of Emptiness, Separate Ways (Journey), and
Once lost life…maybe something else as well, I can’t remember.

E.VIL Shred the nations EU Tour 2015 setlist

1.Lord of the Strings (intro)
2.Fire-Hearted
3.Evil Rock
4.High-Powered
5.Beyond Twilight
6.Touching The Sky
7.Instrumental Exhibition
8.I go solo
9.The Axemaster
10.Head up High
11.Northern Breeze

12. Surfin with the alien (satriani cover, I didn’t play on this one)

Monday, October 19, 2015

Bottle Message 20.10.2015


Hola everyone !!

Allrighty then, at the moment these things are happening:

Silent Voices & E.Vil:
Just getting ready for the tour which will start on Friday. It’s gonna be interesting
that’s for sure. We’ll be traveling by van and driving ourselves so let’s hope we 
don’t get lost (at least not too many times). There will be some SV and E.Vil shirts
available at the shows but since we don’t have a merch-person just come and harrass 
us about it ok, ? We’ll also have a special Tour Edition cd with tracks from SV as well as E.Vil. The E.Vil tracks will be the first demo from Elias so it’s definitely a rare item. All of this stuff is only available on this tour for now, so get yours while they last and help us put some gas in the tank of our van ;-)

Here are the confirmed shows so far, we might add some
more if/when we get the details sorted out in time:

23.10.2015 Parkhaus-Meiderich, Duisburg, Germany
25.10.2015 RudeBoy Club, Bielsko Biala, Poland
28.10.2015 Borderline Club, Pisa, Italy
30.10.2015 Titty Twister, Parma, Italy
04.11.2015 Viper Room, Vienna, Austria
05.11.2015 Legends Lounge, Oching, Germany
06.11.2015 Hall of Fame, Wetzikon, Switzerland
08.11.2015 De Bosuil, Weert, Netherlands
13.11.2015 Calle, Kokkola, Finland
14.11.2015 Bar Backstage, Helsinki, Finland
15.11.2015 TBC, Tallinn, Estonia


Klingenberg Syndrome 2:
Since we’re goin out on tour for  a moment here, the work will resume by the end of
November, still planning to get it done before the end of the year and it’ll be out sometime next year, come hell or hight water dammit !!! Anyways at the moment
most of the stuff is already mixed, missing some tracks here and there but the bulk of
the album is done…we just have to put the finishing touches on it ;-)

Winterborn:
Played some more keys for the upcoming winterborn album, no idea about the schedule here…it’s been in the works for quite some time now ;-)

Vivaldi Metal Project:
I did my solo bit, it was a duel….no idea about with whom I dueled though ;-) It was a fun little thing to do I think and personally I look forward to how the whole thing is gonna turn out when it’s done.

See you on the road,
cheers,
Henkka


PS….and of course with SA we’re still more or less in the zzzz mode ;-)

Friday, September 11, 2015

SA:On the Road: Pictures from the Festival Summer of 2015


Hi there,
Here are a bunch of pics from this summer, in random order of course , since I'm lazy,
anyways, hopefully at lest some of these were worth the wait ;-)



Finnish summer from the Trainwindow.


Finnish middle aged male in Train.


More Finnish summer from the Trainwindow.


This is our new truck that we'll be using to howl our gear around
Finland & Europe ;-) Cool, right ?


Special festival in Kiiminki....of course it rained.


...more rain, still at the same place....


...and a beautiful creek...still in Kiiminki...


...more of the same ;-)


Backstage, still the same place, The Beauty and the Beast ;-)
#SaraChafak


And yet some more Finnish summer pics.


A typical view from inside the Train.


As we Tommy was recording some stuff for the new Alavala album one of
our friends Cat decided to participate as well.


Discovering new energy drinks part 1 !!


I think this was somewhere in Europe....maybe...


Eating Lunch in Austria, it was actually quite good.


Masi discovering Bucharest....


Some dudes palace...in Bucharest.


Of course I had to put one #flyingintheair picture here as well.


Riding with Ari , on the way to Savonlinna.


Olavinlinna, Savonlinna one of the very special evenings this summer.


I have no idea where this was, appeareantly I'm having a burger.


The Ratina Stadion in Tampere just before doors open.


...and this time just after the show, supporting Nightwish.


One of many cool SA tattoos we saw this summer.


Helsinki-Vantaa airport, a very familiar sight for us, not
only during the summer.


Helsinki by night as I spent a few days off there with my friends
going crazy and behaving badly.


Some airport somewhere...maybe it's Helsinki I don't even know.


On the bus, probably driving to Falun, Sweden or back.


EMP sent us some stuff to cheer us up ;-)


Helsinki-Vantaa once again.


Discovering new energy drinks part 2 !


Discovering new energy drinks part 3 ! 
(although I never tasted this one ;-( )


Some proof of the flat tire on our way to Slovakia from
Budapest.


More of the same.


...and here is where the summer ended @Pakkahuone in Tampere. This was taken just 
as we got in. This also ended the Pariah's Child World Tour (including The Ecliptica
over Europe Tour and the 15th Anniversary Tour. It was a long one but felt like the best tour
we've done so far. It's amazing how every time the touring seems to be more fun than the 
tour before. I guess this is what we live for in the end. Can't wait for February and getting 
back out there to play for all of you....in the meantime I'll just noodle around in my home
studio and try to come up with some new music ;-)

Stay tuned for more update as things progress...for now I'll retreat into my kitchen 
to make some dinner for the kids. Stay Classy !!!

cheers,
Henkka