Interview w. Tony Kakko and Mikko Härkin
from Sonata Arctica
This interview was made the 2nd of june..
The interview was made by me with assistance from Niklas Lehto.
F: Who are your main influences?
TK: Well, one common influence we all share I think is "Stratovarius", pretty logical.
I have listened a lot to "Queen" and "Midnight Oil" and stuff with a good melody.
Jani and Janne has listened a lot to "Dream Theater".
MH: I like "Yngwie", "Europe" and "Talisman". Some Swedish groups, I like Swedish hardrockgroups very much.
F: So, how did you get involved with "Kenziner"?
MH: It was just an announcement in a finnish music magazine.
There was like "we need a keyboardplayer and we've got a record deal."
F: Jarno (Keskinen) plays some keyboard too.
MH: Actually, he has kind of composed the keyboards with computer I think, so he's not a keyboardplayer.
F: He's not as good as it sounds?
MH: Well, you can do anything by computer...
F: You perform the solos, right?
F: Yeah, I think the booklet says so.
MH: I think so but I haven't seen the record, I've heard some songs from it but I was not so interested.
F: When will your next album be released?
TK: Next year, maybe february or something like that.
F: What about the forthcoming EP?
TK: It will be released in the last of June and will contain "Fullmoon" in edit version, "San Sebastian", "Still Loving You", "I Want Out" and
"Shy" - A ballad with no drums in it. It's a quite old song.
F: What did you think about the tour with "Stratovarius" and "Rhapsody"? I bet it was a great experience!
TK: Yeah (laughter) Best tour so far for us.
F: Did you get well welcomed by the audience?
TK: Yeah. It was great, really. Even in countries where our
album hasn't been released. It was weird, because people knew our songs.
F: Was any particular country more fun to play in?
TK: I can say that I enjoyd playing everywhere.
The last two gigs in Germany was not that great.
TK: But pretty much the other places were packed.
F: What did you think of Sweden then?
F: You can't say anything else now.
(we are from Sweden..)
TK: No, no. Well, definately we had gigs in Italy and Spain with
like 4000 people there. So when we started from Sweden every gig was like
Oh, great, great.
(it was some kind of 600-1000 people on each gig in Sweden, 3 gigs)
MH: Sweden was great. It was I think one of the best. Because it has always been one of my dreams
to play in Sweden, because all my influences are there. I saw some famous swedish musicians in the
venue, so I was like wow!
F: Cool when people you look up to come and watch you play.
F: Who contacted you about the tour?
TK: "Stratovarius'" manager contacted Spinefarm.
F: And you thought about two seconds?
TK: What can you say? No, no... It was like of course we were going, but we were still like Ahh!
This can't be happening.
F: How do you write your songs? I believe that you(Tony) are the main composer?
TK: Yeah, I make all the melodic-lines and stuff like that.
F: How about the guitar-riffs?
TK: Jani makes guitar-riffs. I make some with keyboards, but usually Jani comes up with something.
It comes up different ways. Sometimes it can start with a single good lyrical line and sometimes I have a good Chorus
or something and then I build it. And if nothing good comes up I throw it and pick it up some other time.
F: This "Letter To Dana"-song is pretty old?
TK: Yes, it's written in 1996. But we re-did it somehow. We made some new parts for it.
F: Do you have any new material for the next album?
F: Will "San Sebastian" and "Shy" appear on the album?
TK: "Shy" won't be, but "San Sebastian" might be on the album.
F: Why did you choose to make a cover of "Still Loving You"?
TK: We were asked to do a Scorpions cover and I was like, oh oh..
Spinefarm asked us if we wanted to do a Scorpions cover. We got a list of songs that were already chosen.
I wanted to do "Still Loving You". No other band had chosen it. So we thought, perfect we'll do it.
F: How did you(Mikko) get involved with this band. How did they find you?
MH: Well, it was kind of a surprise because I had just left "Kenziner" and I was like, what now?
I had no plans, and really bad thoughts about the future. I didn't have anything coming.
Then one day the guy called from I think the record company.
TK: No no, it was a friend of mine from a magazine.
MH: Yeah. So he called me and asked if I wanted to play heavy-metal or something. And I thought it sounded interesting
and then he mentioned the tour with Stratovarius. And I thought, of course I'll come.(laugh)
Then they sent me the record and I was more than secure about this thing when I heard the songs.
I was very impressed and it was like, ok let's play.
F: So it was an easy desicion to make?
MH: Yeah it was really easy.
F: But you are more classical-trained?
MH: Yes, something about 15 years of education. At least something..
F: Do you(Tony) have any training playing keyboards?
TK: No, not really. I was two years in a small school.
Well, I've been playing a lot since I was in that school a long time ago.
But I'm not that much a player like Mikko.
F: But you played some keyboards on "UnOpened" live?
TK: Yeah, I've been doing that. Goddamn it, I wanna do it.(laugh)
I think it's pretty fun to use two keyboard players.
It's all planned. I don't just go there.
F: Which song do you concider is the best one from "Ecliptica"?
TK: It's three songs that I like better than the rest. "Replica", "Fullmoon" and "Blank File".
MH: I don't know. They are all great.
F: Why didn't "Mary-Lou" get on the "Ecliptica" album?
TK: Our record company decided it to be a b-side.
I wanted it there, but..
In this way it was a bonus-track for Japan also. Actually I thought that "San Sebastian" would become the bonus-track
for the japanese version.
F: There are lots of vocal harmonies on the songs. How do you come up with those?
TK: Most of them comes up in the studio. I record the main line and then I try some things and if it sounds good,
I just put it there.
F: What kind of music did you play with "Tricky Beans" and "Tricky Means"?
TK: Pop/Rock. Some covers by bands like "Genesis" and others, though a bit harder than the original versions.
And of course "Letter To Dana" with "Tricky Means".
F: About your songs again. Where do you "finns" get all these great melodies. Like Timo Tolkki(Stratovarius),
Tuomas Holopainen(Nightwish) and then you. Do you have this big book, or where do you get them?
TK: Yeah. It's a big book of great metal-melodies. It's a swedish book.
MH: Yeah, it's made by Joey Tempest. - How to make a hit song.(laugh)
TK: We all have that great book. Can't share it, sorry.(laugh)
F: If you could choose one big band to tour with, except for "Stratovarius" and "Rhapsody". What band would it be?
F: I guess that's about it. Thank you very much.
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