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While I sincerely enjoy planning, you cannot account for everything all the time. When things do fall through, it’s nice to know that you have people willing to help you. One outcome of such a setting is this interview: It was confirmed just the night before it was supposed to happen and SONATA ARCTICA really put in an effort to accommodate me and my questions. If that is not amazing, then I don’t know what is! With guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen, I talked about the latest SONATA ARCTICA releases and what inspires them to make such heartfelt music. Thank you so much for taking the time!
And also huge thanks to lightinmirror.de without whom this blog would be pretty much non-existent!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: What makes SONATA ARTICA unique to you?
Pasi Kauppinen: I think, musically Tony Kakko’s songwriting is something very unique and something that I haven’t heard elsewhere.
Elias Viljanen: Compared to other Metal stuff that you hear, it’s really something else. It’s so different! What excites me personally is the fact that this is the band that I was chosen to be the guitar player for!
Pasi: Same for me on the bass!
SV: You’re like the chosen ones!
Elias: Exactly! And also, since we’re getting a bit „old“, and I can only speak for myself even though I’m sure the others would agree, I feel privileged to still be able to play!
SV: What do you think inspires your music the most?
Elias: That’s a good question! As a player now, it’s not so much other music anymore. When I was younger, I got very much inspired by what other musicians put out. Nowadays I get the inspirations from life itself, like literature or intelligence [laughs]. What about you?
Pasi: I have to agree with you!
SV: In 2022, you released Acoustic Adventures Vol. 1 and Acoustic Adventures Vol. 2. Where did the idea for that come from?
Pasi: The idea existed even before I joined the band [in 2013]. There were these acoustic spots during the electric sets and a couple of years after I joined we took those parts and put them back in the set. We thought then that we should do whole shows like that, which we did in Finland. That was back in 2018, I think. During the tour we decided that we wanted to record an album like that.
Elias: The pandemic also influenced the decision. We realized that we have time to actually record an acoustic album, so we went ahead and did it. What we had in Finland with the acoustic shows and we thought that this could work in Europe too. We pushed to have an acoustic tour in Europe and it turned out really well.
Pasi: We also had so much material from the tour that we re-arranged some of the songs in the studio. Most of the songs were those where we knew they would work live and we took on even more and ended up with like 25 songs. Obviously we couldn’t release them in one album because it would have been too much. So we split it so that people could concentrate on the first half and then half a year later they got treated with the second part.
SV: Re-arranging songs into an acoustic version is quite the profound amount of work. What did it feel like to revisit both older and newer songs like that?
Pasi: I don’t think that it mattered that much if they were older or newer songs. We just heard some songs and immediately knew how they were supposed to sound in their acoustic version.
Elias: For almost all songs it was just so natural that the arrangement just came to us and we were very happy about that. I just pick up the guitar and start to play. Take Black Sheep for example, I can pick up any guitar and play the riff, it’s never been a problem to me. I’ve been playing the guitar since I was nine years old, I play guitar when I watch the TV and it’s just natural to me.
Pasi: When we played the acoustic songs, you start playing it a certain way because of the instruments you’re using. Acoustic instruments are simply different from electric instruments because the sound is giving so much.
SV: How do you manage to stay true to yourselves after existing as a band for as long as you have?
Elias: I think, the most important thing is to be yourself. Don’t try to act like someone you’re not and respect your friends!
Pasi: We have really good chemistry in the band and we’re all friends, even outside of the band.
SV: What is the best thing about being part of SONATA ARCTICA?
Elias: I’d say money and beer…[we all laugh] but that’s a joke, of course!
Pasi: Making music is the best part and also really the whole point of doing this in the first place. We get amazing opportunities, like traveling the world, just from doing what we love and that is awesome.
Elias: For us, the music is so important, we feel the music so deeply and to have fans tell us their stories about our music is just indescribable. There are fans that tell us that they almost killed themselves and our music saved them. We feel that deep in our hearts!
SV: In the fall you’re going on tour with STRATOVARIUS. What are you most excited about with this tour?
Pasi: The first long tour SONATA ARCTICA did was with STRATOVARIUS, so it’s really a full-circle-moment, especially for the guys that have been in the band since the beginning.
Elias: When SONATA ARCTICA was first starting out, STRATOVARIUS took them under their wings and now we can Co-Headline a tour, so it’s really special. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
SV: If there was something you could wish for for SONATA ARCTICA’s future, what would it be?
Elias: Money and beer! [laughs]
Pasi: I would wish that we can continue to play for many years to come!
Elias: We’re starting to be old guys, I’m 48 years old now, and I also hope that we can do this as long as we’re alive!
Pasi: People expect us to come and play in their cities and that is so amazing that we want to keep that going.
SV: If you could give your fans one final message, what would it be?
Elias: Money and beer! [we laugh]
Pasi: Everyone is convinced that their fans are the best, but ours are truly the best out there!
Elias: Everything is possible and believe in yourself!
I don’t know about you guys out there, but I believe that Elias might want some money and beer…. I cannot be 100% sure though… Anyway, it was a true pleasure to do this interview, especially with such short notice. Huge thanks to everyone involved! For the next interviews, we’re staying Heavy (Metal), so stay tuned!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 