Since I follow Wind Rose since the beginning, I remember that in the beginning your music was also a little bit influenced by progressive metal. Are this the origins of the band or how come?
We started as a progressive metal band and then we moved more into power metal and folk metal. Our music is a mix of all these genres of music.

What were your favourite bands when you started with Wind Rose?
That is probably the bands I listen often to, like Wintersun, Turisas, back in the days Ensiferum as well. I like more folk stuff or pagan stuff.

You had to wait a long time for the new Wintersun album ‘Time II’…
Yes and to be honest, I like the album, but ‘Time I’ was the best. ‘Time I’ was much better than ‘Time II’, ‘The Forest Seasons’ was also good. But ‘Time I’ is the summit for me, probably they will not do albums like this anymore. Who knows?

In Metal Archives we can read that there was a band Power Rose before it was called Wind Rose. Was that the same band or is it a different line-up?
No, it is wrong information, also because Power Rose – as you can see – is a band from 2000, but in 2000 I was ten years old. That is impossible, but you are not the first one asking this question, but it is wrong information.

How did you come to the idea to focus on dwarves, having that as a kind of mascot or a kind of theme?
On the second album we made a song called ‘The Breed Of Durin’. This song had a different taste from other songs. So we thought that it was a very good idea to continue on this path. I mean, this song was the strongest one. So we wanted more of these kinds of songs, to see where we could go with that kind of style.

There are three main writers and composers in the band…
Yes, it is me, it is Claudio and it is Federico. The vocalist, the guitarist and the keyboard player.

Do you know each other already for a long time?
Yes, because we started together and now it has been fifteen years that we play together. So it is a long time.

Who came up with the band name Wind Rose?
The band name was already there and we wanted to keep it, because it is a cool name and it is easy to remember. At first we wanted to change it, but in the end we did not find a better name. We kept it like this.

The last song on the new album ‘No More Sorrow’ is slightly different from the rest, but is that a direction you want to explore more in the future?
‘No More Sorrow’ is totally different, because usually the last song on the album is always the song where we can put more feelings in and do more what we like, because it is the last song and it is not important for the marketing. We like to express what we like for real. We just had this idea long time ago and now we do it on every album.

In which countries or areas in the world are you now the most famous?
In Europe it is probably Germany and North Europe, but most of the listeners are from the US, just because it is bigger.

That is probably because you use a lot of social media to support the band and then it does not matter if they are living far away….
Yes, the social media are very important, because you have to understand that social media is the new language of communication, for promoting your stuff. So it is important to keep it always at the best and to put always good stuff on that. I think it is a work that we like to do and we are good in doing that, so it is important for us for sure.

So it is an addition to the work of the label…
Our label is not very strict in what we have to do, we can do basically what we want to do. They have trust in what we do, so it is okay. We work together very good, there are no problems at all.

What are your five favourite albums of all times?
I would say ‘V: The New Mythology Suite’ from Symphony X. I would say ‘Stand Up And Fight’ from Turisas. ‘Time I’ from Wintersun. And then it is difficult from Ensiferum, probably ‘From Afar’ I guess, anyway the good old albums from Ensiferum. The first one from Wintersun is also a very good album. What else? (chuckles) The people will probably not agree, but I don’t like much like for example Iron Maiden (laughs). I don’t like them, because for me they don’t give me anything more than the same songs. Those songs were good, but their entire career they make songs in the same way. I don’t like them anymore.

Then you are probably also not a fan of AC/DC?
No, AC/DC in the end is hard rock. I don’t expect a lot of hard rock, it is like this, but with metal music you can do. For example ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ is probably one of my favourite songs from Iron Maiden and it has a lot of different parts. I need more to satisfy me. They are good, but there is something I don’t like. For example even Metallica, they have something I don’t like. Okay they are legends. I will not say that they are not good, they are legends, but there is something in my music taste that I don’t like. What I don’t like about Metallica is that they spill their best riffs on guitars before the song starts. I have already heard everything then, it is like they do the riffs of the song and then they start singing. This I don’t like, because it does not give me any surprise when I listen to the song. It is just something about music taste of course.

For example I don’t like all those kinds of ‘core’, like deathcore or metalcore…
I like some of it, but I guess metalcore, now it is already related to the past, because now things are in vogue or a trend for three or four years and metalcore is from 2007/2008. They became very popular and now when you hear metalcore, it sounds old. I don’t like it.

Soon you will be on the road with Powerwolf and HammerFall. What are the expectations?
The tour with Powerwolf and HammerFall will be an interesting one, because we never joined a tour this big before. So it will be in arenas and it will be very interesting. I guess that people will like the show, because all the bands who are playing there will give their best gig possible, every night. I guess it is an interesting tour for us to spread our music.