Amorphis Interview

The Gauntlet: You guys just released your new album Eclipse about a month ago, and it went right to number one in Finland. How does it feel to be so popular in your home country?

Santeri: Well I think it feels nice to be number one after all these years. Of course it was a very nice surprise for us to hear that the album had gone straight to number one. We have had some singles and stuff but that doesn't mean a lot. I think if an album goes to number one, it's worth a small celebration!

The Gauntlet: You've already played some shows in Finland since the album's release - what's it like to play some of the songs live from the new album for the first time in front of an audience?

Santeri: It's very nice, it's definitely great. It's been three years since the last album came and now we have a chance to form the new stuff, and the new stuff is a little bit different - a little bit heavier, a little bit more melodic than the previous stuff. We tried to add as many new songs as we can to the set but of course we still play some songs from the other albums. I think at the moment we're playing six songs from Eclipse, and the response has also been very nice so maybe at the end of the year we will add a couple more new songs to the set.

The Gauntlet: Thematically Eclipse deals with the Kalevala epic - what's the epic's background, what is it about?

Santeri: It's one character from Kalevala - I can't remember if he's really in the Kalevala or his story's a little bit separated from it. It's the darker story about a guy whose parents are killed and everybody hates him. Even his stepmother - she bakes a stone into the bread for when he leaves home and stuff like this. He is a bitter guy and there's a lot of the darker side of the human mind in that story. I think that's why we chose Kalevala to draw the theme for this album because it fits pretty good to the metal music.

The Gauntlet: And a couple of the older albums also had the same theme - like Tales from the Thousand Lakes?

Santeri: Yes, Tales is from Kalevala, like straight from the Kalevala, with very original and central stories from Kalevala. And Elegy is from sort of a sister book to Kalevala. The Kalevala stories are about one man, one man whose story is not too bright.

The Gauntlet: On this album musically there's a lot of diversity - your last three albums weren't as heavy as parts of Eclipse. What made you guys turn in a more heavy direction on this album?
Santeri: Well I think with the previous one, Far From the Sun, we went sound-wise and musical-wise to the very edge, the rockier edge, of our style. I think it was pretty natural to go to the heavier stuff because we've always been a heavy band - from Karelian, the heaviest, and then Tales, then it got a little bit softer with Elegy. In a way it's gotten softer all the time, so I think we went to the very edge with Far From the Sun. It was pretty obvious that we had to - we didn't really talk about it or plan the music. It was pretty natural for us that we would do a little bit heavier stuff, a little wider in a musical way, a lot of varieties with vocals, stuff like that. Because I think that the last album, especially the vocals for me, was pretty narrow and one-dimensional.

The Gauntlet: So then did Pasi's departure from the band affect its musical direction?

Santeri: I don't think so. I think what we really wanted to hear from him when we started to talk about if he was leaving was if he was still willing to put effort into this band and that he believed in Amorphis, stuff like that. Then he had some family reasons, like he couldn't do tours. We were supposed to do the US tour with Type O Negative and after one show in Hungary we had a meeting in the airport and he said he wouldn't do the Type O tour. We said to him that we would do the tour anyway, and then he said he would leave. I think there was a lack of motivation; I don't think he believed in Amorphis anymore. I don't know what he said in the media, probably he said that it was musical, that he didn't like the way we were going, but I'm not sure. He had a lot of his own projects, and his time came up, you know?

The Gauntlet: Your new vocalist Tomi has a very powerful voice and covers a lot of ground, using a lot of different styles from song to song. Did you write the songs with his particular voice in mind?

Santeri: Not really. I think eighty percent of the material was ready when we found him. There might be some slight transposing with the songs, we might change the tune of the song to fit his voice better - I think there were a couple of those. We didn't really compose these songs for his voice because almost all of the songs were ready when he came to the band. But he showed that he's pretty good at arranging vocals and he has a huge variety, so I was very surprised with a lot of the different styles he was doing on the album.

The Gauntlet: And then Marco from Nightwish helped produce the vocals - how much input did he have on what Tomi was doing?

Santeri: Well I think he had like a granddaddy kind of thing - he's been singing twenty years. When we were eight or ten years old Marco already had a huge 80's heavy band going, on television and stuff like that, so he's very professional. I think Tomi had almost all the vocals ready for the songs, like the vocal melodies and stuff. Marco was doing things with second voices, and thinking about the whole picture - choir things and doubling things with vocals, a lot of different vocal tricks and stuff like that I think Marco was helping a lot, and there are a couple of songs with a lot of Marco's main vocal melodies too. But I think eighty percent was ready when we went into the studio, but yeah, Marco did a good job too. I was there in the studio when they worked, and I think it was pretty smooth how they worked, it was very nice.

The Gauntlet: The lyrics for two of the songs on the album are cited as being written by band members. Does that mean that the songs are unrelated to the Kalevala, or are they just not exactly the same as the words in the poem?

Santeri: Yeah, I think The Smoke is Esa's lyrics, and Under a Soil is Tomi Koivusaari's. I think they are inspired by this story of Kalevala. I would say they are related, but they are not from the same book. I think they did really good lyrics, and I can't say how close they are but I think they fit to perfectly with the stories, so I think they're inspired by the poems.

The Gauntlet: Some of the tracks on Eclipse, especially Leaves Scar, have a lot of Finnish folk influence, with the melodies and acoustic guitars, things like that. Again, was this an intentional step towards this direction, or was it just a result of the writing process?

Santeri: Yeah, I think it was sort of a decision not to be so afraid of using folk musical influences that much. We only talked about it like we should do more ethnic melodies and riffs and stuff. I think with this album the time was right and many of the older melodies came along with the music. It wasn't a swear word for us like with the old ones� we always talked about it like to do more folklore riffs, but I don't know, somehow the music was calling to a different direction. But with this album all the thought came to reality.

The Gauntlet: Did you feel that on Eclipse a lot of your keyboard parts have changed � that maybe you're doing more lead melodies instead of backing chords or intro parts?

Santeri: I had a great opportunity with this album to play the keyboards last, because I think that's the best way to play keyboards � when the vocals are done. If you play keyboards before the vocals you don't really know what's going to be in there, so then you have to be careful. With this album it was pretty easy because all the vocals were done and I had two days to play keyboard so I could really here what was in there and where there were spaces for me to play something. In a way, yeah � I played some melodies to the parts where there was really nothing happening, and that's the way I normally do. I think about keyboards as spices, so if there is space, I try to fill up the space, either with the chords or with the melodies. It doesn't always go like that � sometimes you have to play the keyboards before the vocals, and you really don't know what's going to be there, so you have to be a little bit careful.

The Gauntlet: You haven't been with Amorphis for their entire career � which of the older albums that you didn't actually participate on is your favorite?

Santeri: I think Tales from the Thousand Lakes is my favorite. I have heard Karelian many times, but I especially like Tales because there were keyboards, and I'm a keyboard player, so I liked the album naturally.

The Gauntlet: You guys also recently released a video for the song House of Sleep � where did the idea for the video's concept come from?

Santeri: Well it's the director who had the idea. We didn't even know what we were going to do because it about seventy miles from Helsinki � our manager just said that there's a warehouse, be there at that time and take your instruments with you. I think the idea came from him � the kind of small room. It was our easiest video ever � we played for about four hours and then we were done and left, we didn't have to stay there all day.

The Gauntlet: Yeah, the videos for Alone and Divinity were a lot more involved, with a lot of different shots and different parts, whereas this one was more kind of done in the same place.

Santeri: Yeah, I think the director made it right in a way because it's just a sort of light video where the band was just playing there. I think he made the right decision � like ninety percent of the picture is of the new singer, so people can see the new singer and stuff.

The Gauntlet: Something else that's very noticeable in the video is that Tomi's dreadlocks seem to be getting longer and longer � is he ever going to cut those or is he going to let them grow forever?

Santeri: Haha, I don't know, but they ARE pretty long. I would say he's not going to cut them in the near future.

The Gauntlet: So at live shows people in the front will have to watch out when he headbangs!

Santeri: Yeah, he can really do headbanging. Maybe the dreadlocks give him more power�

The Gauntlet: So after your Finnish dates you've got a European tour scheduled plus a few summer festival dates. Are there any plans to tour North or South America or any other part of the world right now?

Santeri: Yeah, of course. We have been to the US pretty often in the last couple of years so we are really hoping to get the US tour. I think there was sort of a pre-plan to do first a pretty short European headlining tour in early fall and then go to the US, and hopefully do the South America at the same time. Definetley next fall we have to come to the US.

The Gauntlet: Are there any bands or artists that Amorphis hasn't previously toured with that you personally would like to see the band tour with?

Santeri: Good question, I don't know. We've toured with a lot of good bands. I can't really figure out which band would be perfect for us but some sort of a gothic band maybe because there's a lot of people in that scene at least who don't know about our band. Maybe Lacuna Coil or something like that.

The Gauntlet: Aside from touring, what are the band's plans for the upcoming months?

Santeri: At the moment we are just doing interviews, stuff like this. We really have nothing to do at the moment because all the weekends go with doing the Finnish shows. We're just waiting for the Neckbreaker and hope everything goes fine.

The Gauntlet: That's it for the questions � any final words for the fans?

Santeri: Well hopefully we'll get to the US and Canada soon, it would be great, last time was killer!


Read More News

Tags:  Amorphis  , Santeri Kallio - keyboards, interviews

Andrew Sudano    March 15, 2006