{"id":8534,"date":"2012-05-16T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T22:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2012-05-12T12:30:03","modified_gmt":"2012-05-12T02:30:03","slug":"tony-kakko-of-sonata-arctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/05\/tony-kakko-of-sonata-arctica\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“We try to call it melodic heavy rock and I think that\u2019s the best words to describe the whole thing, but it\u2019s got a lot of variation and some things on the album.”<\/p>\n

On the eve of releasing their seventh album \u2018Stones Grow Her Name\u2019 and with over 16 years as a band, Sonata Arctica are continuing to make amazing music, their melodic and at times heavy songs making them a big draw card in their home country of Finland. \u00a0This album is sure to propel them even further with some of the best work you\u2019ve heard yet. With a story like theirs, SONATA ARCTICA are a textbook example of how dreams can be put into action, what dreams can help you achieve, and why dreams are worth believing in.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Sonata Arctica vocalist Tony Kakko about the band\u2019s new album \u2018Stones Grow Her Name\u2019 and how it was all put together as well as what touring looks like for the band and maybe even touch on the Northern Kings\u2026<\/p>\n

Your new album is due to be released this month, can you give us an idea of what to expect from \u2018Stones Grow Her Name\u2019?<\/strong>
\nWell, it is more simple compared to the last two albums, a little bit less parts in the songs and they are little bit more rock oriented and the main emphasis on the song writing has been on the lead melodies instead of having a hell of a lot of harmonies going on all the time, although we do have those as well, but I really concentrated on writing the lead melodies, so the songs actually work without having 150 tracks of backing vocals messing up the whole thing ha ha, which I love but I really wanted more vocally.\u00a0 We try to call it melodic heavy rock and I think that\u2019s the best words to describe the whole thing, but it\u2019s got a lot of variation and some things on the album, featuring one of the heaviest songs we\u2019ve ever recorded \u2018Somewhere Close To You\u2019 and it\u2019s not the fastest but I\u2019s one of those songs I would almost call Metal ha ha.\u00a0 Also, some weird oddballs like \u2018Cinderblox\u2019 which has this bluegrass banjo thing driving the whole thing forward and that kind of stuff.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be a surprising album for a lot of fans but in a pleasant way.<\/p>\n

Where does the name come from?<\/strong>
\nWell, on the song \u2018Alone In Heaven\u2019 it has a line that goes along the lines of \u2018it hurts to be alone on the field where the stones grow dead names\u2019 which refers to a graveyard where you have a lot of headstones, and if you take a little bit of poetic freedom you can imagine the names growing on those headstones.\u00a0 I realised that I don\u2019t want to have graveyard on a Sonata Arctica album cover so that needed to be changed, so nature is quite a big theme, especially with the last two songs on the album, Wildfire II and III, as we truly are destroying this planet, this whole title can refer to Mother Nature and I came up with this changed idea that Stones grow her name, like all the stones on this planet, this rock, is growing her name as we destroy.\u00a0 All of a sudden I have the album art for it as well, the concept for it.<\/p>\n

What was the inspiration behind the songs on this new album?<\/strong>
\nWow, well I\u2019ve been listening to a lot of Devin Townsend lately, everything he has done with Strapping Young Lad and his solo projects, I\u2019m sure you can actually tell by listening to our latest album ha ha, but, I\u2019m not sure if I mentioned it already but I have this paper on my desk for when I write the songs that says \u2018KISS \u2013 Keep It Simple Stupid\u2019 so that was the theme.<\/p>\n

Is there a story or a meaning behind the first single track \u2018I Have a Right\u2019?<\/strong>
\nYes it\u2019s about how we should bring up our offspring, our children, especially here in Finland we\u2019ve been at war with Russia, our parents were fighting with Russia and Russians killed a lot of Finnish people, of course that\u2019s what you do in war.\u00a0 They bombed and there was a lot of Russian hate in Finland, so my Grandparents might have had a lot of prejudice for Russian people, but the whole thing got milder for our parents, but my Mom is a little bit prejudice about certain things still.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean that I have to boot that burden forward to my own kids any more you know and I\u2019m trying to teach my kids to have a normal, mind of their own really, and not to be racist just because that\u2019s the way it has always been around here or something like that.<\/p>\n

Eight years on from \u2018Reckoning Night\u2019 we have Wildfire part II and III\u2026 why was now the right time to write and record these?<\/strong>
\nWow, it\u2019s been eight years?\u00a0 Wow, I don\u2019t even look back that far ha ha, wow! I didn\u2019t really consider why I wrote that song, it just came to be, I started fooling around with a theme which was already on the original Wildfire, which you can hear on the beginning of \u2018Wildfire II\u2019, a town band is playing it.\u00a0 We wanted to use that theme somehow as I felt the song didn\u2019t get attention, it got buried under all kinds of other stuff that was happening on the original song, so reusing that thing was only possible if I reused the title as well in some form, so all of a sudden I had \u2018Wildfire II\u2019 brewing there and wrote the song and the lyrics to go with it.\u00a0 At the same time there was this other long song I was composing, I always have ten songs open at a time and I might take parts from one and put it over another and so on, I realised as most of the songs on this album are somewhere in the vicinity of four minutes or five tops, I can\u2019t have really two songs that are seven or eight minutes long in the middle of the album.\u00a0 The only chance to do that is to have them at the end of the album and somehow joined together into this one long song, so \u2018Wildfire III\u2019 came from that thing.\u00a0 I did enjoy writing that song a lot as the lyrics have a strong message for people and how we should consider the environment and more so the survival of the environment instead of us, how we survive IN the environment of nature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>This being your seventh album, how did you go in to the making of this one compared to previous efforts?<\/strong>
\nWell there was the KISS thing of course ha ha ha, keeping the whole thing a hell of a lot more simple but, well, one big difference was we actually demoed the songs, this is something we have not done ever since we got our recording contract back in \u201999 ha ha, so it\u2019s been a slight break on the demo recording of things but this time we were able to do that because all of, well not all of the songs were ready over one year ago already.\u00a0 I was playing my demos for the guys on our last European tour and that was a year ago, because of that we were actually able to rehearse together and play the songs and the album through the song order that was already approved when we went to the studio and so this was a more produced album in this sense.\u00a0 Usually we have just winged it pretty much, so gone with the feeling and just took the songs we liked and whatever songs I\u2019m not able to write and then think later which songs should go where.\u00a0 This time around it was pretty clear, the good thing that mixed things up a little bit was the last two songs I wrote, \u2018Cinderblox\u2019 and especially \u2018I Have A Right\u2019 which came to be on the last day of recording, we were done with the drums already and Tommy sent me an SMS saying “I\u2019m done and I\u2019m having a beer now and into the sauna” ha ha and I said “Not quite yet, go and check your emails dude, there\u2019s one more song” and he was like “Fuck You!” he checked the song and loved it a lot and recorded it in the first take and that was pretty amazing, probably something that has never happened before.\u00a0 The song is fairly simple and of course he had drank one beer so he didn\u2019t stretch the whole thing too much ha ha, but it was a pleasant surprise, kind of a last moment thing and of course the song \u2018I Have A Right\u2019 came to be the first single, so it wasn\u2019t the worst of songs either.<\/p>\n

Sixteen years as a band, can you think of one defining moment you\u2019ve had over your career?<\/strong>
\nWow.\u00a0 Other than getting the recording contract of course, I don\u2019t know, for us as a band and I\u2019m not sure how it reflects outside, but when we sold our first Gold disc in Finland, that was a turning point, at least for me and made me realise that wow, we really are a band and people are here and know us and the fact when I realised I don\u2019t have time to go to school anymore because this band is taking all my time and at the same time I\u2019m making my living with the whole thing, not getting rich but I don\u2019t have to even consider getting another job, that\u2019s one thing.\u00a0 Show wise, I don\u2019t know, that moment when we arrived on the soil of Australia for the first time as that had been on the plan for a long, long time, that was fantastic.\u00a0 The next thing is Africa ha ha.\u00a0 Iceland is actually one place that we\u2019ve never been; we\u2019ll use the excuse of playing a show to go there as well.<\/p>\n

Touring wise what are your plans on this new album looking like?<\/strong>
\nWell at the moment the whole thing starts with Summer festivals all over Europe and then the European tour starts in Finland around September \/ October, I think it\u2019s around that time and then we are touring Europe until the beginning of December, then from that moment on it\u2019s open still, but we will definitely go to Japan at some point and it would be awesome to come down to Australia on that same trip as we are coming around there.\u00a0 Then North America, South America I\u2019m sure, the whole thing has always gone with the last two albums.\u00a0 We hope to play around 180 shows, the same as ‘The Days Of Grace’ and but then the schedule could be a little tighter I feel as we\u2019ve had a lot of free time and also releasing an album every three years is a bit slow, this is the case.\u00a0 This album is released on my Birthday, May 16th<\/sup> which is two days earlier than the release of Europe, so the next time we release an album at this rate I\u2019ll be 40 and I don\u2019t want to be 40 when the next album comes out ha ha I\u2019d rather be 39, so tightening the schedule a little more and making it tighter would be cool.
\nStart writing some more songs now then ha ha<\/strong>
\nHa ha absolutely, I\u2019m also releasing a solo album, I have quite a songs in good momentum at the moment, I hope to get them written this year so I can plan the recording sometime next year as I know Sonata Arctica won\u2019t be recording a new album next year anyway, it\u2019ll be rehearsal.<\/p>\n

I wanted to ask about Northern Kings, can we expect more from the band soon?<\/strong>
\nWell, we\u2019ve been talking about it, the same crew and the same people who are the heart of the project are also working a lot freelance jobs, they are professional musicians and also this Finish heavy Christmas thing has taken a lot of time, it\u2019s weird, it\u2019s Summer time but still the Christmas shows are planned already and it might actually, hopefully if all things go well we might get in TV in Finland.\u00a0 So it has taken a lot of time from Northern Kings, but we do have a label willing to release the album and everyone would love to get something new done, but the thing that should maybe be something new, original songs, which is just finding someone who has the will and time to write the songs for Northern Kings, because we have covered a lot of those 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s style songs.
\nDo you enjoy doing that though?<\/strong>
\nYes, well they are easy, they are songs you can just go and listen and they are there and especially for us singers it\u2019s easy it\u2019s just getting our asses in the studio and sing, so it\u2019s easy and I love it, it\u2019s fantastic.\u00a0 With Sonata Arctica, the whole thing is just on my back and I have all the stress and I have to tell everybody what to do.\u00a0 With Northern Kings it\u2019s a vacation, it\u2019s fantastic.
\nIs there any one song that you haven\u2019t covered that you want to do as that band?<\/strong>
\nWow.\u00a0 Queen has always been a kind of a bit of a holy cow thing for me and a scary thing to cover as I have such high respect and I love that band so much and I don\u2019t want to cover Queen with Sonata Arctica, so anyways, with Northern Kings it might be a different thing, so doing some huge Queen song with Northern Kings might be in order, that would be great. \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 or something.<\/p>\n

What does the rest of 2012 look like for you besides touring?<\/strong>
\nWell hope to get some free time with the family and demolishing that old out house barn thing we have out in the yard ha ha ha, that\u2019s the personal touch there.<\/p>\n

You did mention Australia before, but are there any plans at all to come and tour here at the moment?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a dream at the moment but I\u2019m going to put a word forward that it would be great to combine Australia with Japan, because the flight from Japan to Australia, it\u2019s a long flight yeah, but it\u2019s a hell of a lot shorter than what Finland to Australia is directly, so combining all those areas on one long tour would be fantastic.<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday for the 16th<\/sup> and hopefully we\u2019ll see you soon<\/strong>.
\nThank you for that man. Cheers.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Finland<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Tony Kakko \u2013 Vocals, Elias Viljanen \u2013 Guitars, Tommy Portimo \u2013 Drums,\u00a0 Marko Paasikoski \u2013 Bass, Henrik Klingenberg – Keyboards<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.sonataarctica.info<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Stones Grow Her Name (May 18 \u2013 Nuclear Blast \/ Riot! Entertainment)<\/p>\n

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