RioMetal Press

Sonata Arctica completes 15 years of career in 2014 and has announced several dates of a commemorative tour. With a lot of fans in Brazil, the band will cover 4 cities in March for a series of presentations (Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo). RioMetal is glad to announce a partnership with Nuclear Blast and brings to you a quick and fun chat with the keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg. Check it out:

Hello Henrik, it’s a great pleasure to talk to you!

The band is celebrating 15 years and will reward fans with a tour. Still counting with two of the original members, Tony Kakko ( Vocals) and Tommy Portimo (Drums ), I would like to know how you look at the evolution of the band after all these years .

Henrik: Well, I think we started out as a power metal band, heavily influenced by Stratovarius. We stayed within that style more or less for the first 4 albums. Our 5^th album Unia was a gamechanger and we jumped into a progressive style after that we did some experiments with symphonic elements (on The Days of Grays) and with our 7^th album, Stones Grow Her Name we did a pretty straight forward rock album. So now after 15 years we’ve more or less come full circle, our new album Pariah’s Child is closer to how we started out stylistically with some added dimension using the things we’ve learned along the way.

With the success of “Stones Grow Her Name”, the band played in 2013 for the first time in the city of Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil ) and will return this year, counting with two presentations. What did you feel about the reception from the fans? Could you see a little bit of the city or are you going to leave it for the next time?

Henrik: Some of us got to got to the Copacabana beach so this time we’re gonna try to check out something else 😉 It’s always very hectic on tour so a lot of times we don’t really have the possibility to check out too much stuff around us. I think the show in Rio was really great and it seemed like the fans had been waiting for us for a long time, so I’m really happy that we can come back already in a few months.

Still talking about the last tour, the “Stones Grow Her Name Tour” was the last to feature Marko Passikoski (Bass) in the band, who was later replaced by Pasi Kauppinen (who worked with the band during the recording of “Stones Grow Her Name”). How did the band face Marko leaving and how was the decision process for the entry of Pasi in the band?

Henrik: Well Marko didn’t want to play any more, he was not into this heavy touring schedule that we keep and we talked about it for a year or so, he agreed to finish the tour and is now doing something completely different from the music business. As far as Pasi goes, I’ve been playing with him since we where teenagers and he has a history with Sonata as well. He mixed both our live DVD’s and we have recorded different stuff at his studio since Unia, so everyone knew him and we didn’t really have to think about it twice. He also supported us on an European tour with one of his other bands:Winterborn, so we know he can handle it on the road as well.

Beyond the anniversary tour, Sonata Arctica is preparing to release its eighth album, “Pariah’s Child”. What can fans expect?

Henrik: I think this is pretty close to what Sonata Arctica should sound like, the power metal stuff, a ballad, some progressive elements and so on. We have incorporated all the good stuff about this band and I’m sure fans will appreciate that. At least we’re really happy about the album, it turned out great and it will once again be totally awesome to get on tour and play these new songs live.

Henrik Klingenberg, Tommy Portimo, Tony Kakko, Pasi Kauppinen e Elias Viljanen

 How is the band’s songwriting process? In this new album, will we have contributions from Pasi?

Henrik: The band process has always been more or less the same. Tony brings out some demos and from there we together choose what  we will start working on. We arrange the stuff together as a band and everyone has input on how the things turn out.

What can fans expect from the set list of the anniversary tour? Any surprises that you can reveal to us?

Henrik: Well it wouldn’t be a surprise then would it ? We gonna play a lot of older stuff from the first 4 albums, and a couple of rare tracks that we’ve never played live anywhere before. The goal is to make a best of setlist, let’s see how we succeed 😉

Thank you for your attention and time. Would you like to leave a message to the fans?

Henrik: At the moment it’s cold as hell here at home so I can’t wait to get over and enjoy the sun, I’ll see you all at the shows in March and then we can have some caipirinhas…or at least I can. Cheers !