Auri – interview met Johanna, Tuomas & Troy
Johanna Kurkela: “I think it is always an indicator when you listen to music and it gives you shills and goose-bumps and then you know you are on the right track and go forward. It definitely has to move something within you.”
Nu Auri al toe is aan het derde album ‘III – Candles & Beginnings’, besloten we eens een gesprekje te voeren met dit zijproject van verschillende Nightwishleden. De drie kernleden tekenden allemaal present aan voor onze zoom-invitatie. Het werd een gezellig onderonsje dat heel ontspannen en vrolijk verliep en ons inzage gaf in de werkzaamheden en sfeer rond Auri.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 21 augustus 2025
First one question about the birth and foundation of Auri. Tuomas and Troy had already a busy life with Nightwish, so when and how did you decide to start this new folkloristic side project Auri?
Johanna: ‘That was already in 2015 and the same year we married as well. Pretty soon after we met in 2009 and discovered each other and that we love each other dearly, we became huge friends and started sharing music. It took us actually quite a bit time to get to this stage. We have three albums now, so it took a while. The first song I wrote was ‘Aphrodite Rising’ and that was around 2011. Auri has been in the air for quite many years before developing to what we have now.’
Tuomas: ‘Our first album came out in 2017, the second one in 2021 and now in 2025, because we have been pretty busy with other things, but it is coming to full development now. The tour starts in about six weeks and it could not be better. We could not be more excited, it is just a perfect time to start playing live with Auri.
Indeed, finally you are going to do a first trek through Europe! When did you start writing the material for ‘III – Candles & Beginnings’?
Tuomas: ‘Each of us started writing songs in different times. I started doing songs in 2023, about two years ago, but the other ones started much earlier.’
Johanna: ‘Yeah I remember the title ‘Museum Of Childhood’ came to me already in 2018, but it took many years to actually finish the song.’
Tuomas: ‘Some songs need time to marinate. You need to let them sink in.’
What is the song ‘Museum Of Childhood’ about?
Johanna: ‘It focuses on childhood apparently, not about teaching specifically but what it is growing up in this world and the different things you need to learn about life to appreciate the beauty of life and embrace it. It is an invitation for rediscovering childhood that goes over in being adult. But it can be something else as well. I am going to leave it up to the listener to decide what it is about.’
There is also another video for ‘Shieldmaiden’…
Johanna: ‘Coming up this Thursday yeah.’
Is it inspired by the Vikings?
Tuomas: ‘A lot of people think that. I don’t know why…’ (everybody laughs)
Johanna: ‘Many songs are open to many interpretations.’
Tuomas: ‘That is why archetypes are so popular. We love to use them, but we also like to take them to very different places from where they originate and that is the deal with ‘Shieldmaiden’ as well.’
Troy: ‘Yes it is. It can be a metaphor for something completely different. It is interesting. All three of us had a different interpretation for what a shieldmaiden is. Even within our band. We did surprise each other and ourselves.
What was your interpretation Troy?
Troy: ‘It comes down to how you interpret not only the lyrics, but more importantly the atmosphere that the music generates, the chord movements, the different shifts… these are all things that can fire imagination into creativity and your very own story, your very own film inside itself, so my reaction was completely different. The shieldmaiden in my story is my grandmother, she is my shieldmaid. It can be something completely different for someone else and it will be for Johanna. What is your interpretation of shieldmaid?’
Someone who is really strong and resists all the things in life that are not so good… someone with resistance and a brave attitude…
Troy: ‘Sure. Absolutely’ (all agreed)
Tuomas: ‘It is definitely about strength and it is definitely about perseverance. All those positive aspects of fighting against demons and evil and Norns.’
Does the music have a calming effect on yourself as musicians?
Johanna: ‘I think it has, definitely. I think it is always an indicator when you listen to music and it gives you shills and goose-bumps and then you know you are on the right track and go forward. It definitely has to move something within you.’
You don’t mind that some people call it storytelling or even fairytale-like?
Troy: ‘No, not at all.’
Johanna: ‘It is a compliment.’
Tuomas: ‘We don’t really care what people say. I know that’s a bit of a cliché but when it comes to Auri, it is actually true.’
Johanna: ‘It is a window, it is like a mirror. You look into a mirror and then you see yourself. At the end of the day it has nothing to do with us anymore. It is about self-discovery.’
Troy: ‘We have no control over how people react, if they like the music or if they don’t like the music.’
Were you satisfied with the reactions on the previous albums?
Johanna: ‘Yeah immensely. Amazing. We are really grateful.’
Troy: ‘Absolutely. We love it when people make contact with what we do, it is a fantastic thing. There is a wonderful quote from Rudyard Kipling, the writer, poet and novelist I particularly love. He said: the two effects of praise and hate must be nought in equal measure’. No, the twin impostors… that’s a better word… Isn’t that a wonderful quote?’
Johanna; ‘At the end of the day, these are just things. The qualities of the things that we give are just happening in our minds. So it is all an illusion.’
On a more joyful manner, there is a song about your favourite pub ‘Blakey Ridge’ on the record. What is so special about The Lion’s Inn?
Troy: ‘It is a 16th century pub and building. The building is actually older than that. I wish we could take you there now and show it to you to see what it is like. The title not just describes the pub, it is an experience depending on how your antenna works. It can be quite profound this connection. It is so magical, it is so beautiful and what we really hope is that this album, our song ‘Blakey Ridge’, will do what ‘Lord of the Rings’ did to New Zealand.’
Becoming a famous tourist place…
Johanna: ‘Yeah I hope people will discover that.’
Troy: ‘It is very special to us three. We love it there. It is an atmosphere second to none, isn’t it? We hope to perform one day in that pub. One day, I hope so.’
Johanna: ‘That would be a dream.’
Troy: ‘The song really captures everything we feel about it. Fabulous lyrics about how we feel about it.’
For the mix of the record you went to Spain with trusted engineer Teri ‘Teecee’ Kinnunen, that must have been a totally different atmosphere… what did it do to you?
Troy to Johanna: ‘Tell her the truth…’
Johanna: (laughs): ‘We were happy to be there. Mixing the album in such a lovely, sunny warm environment in another country, it had to be done.’
Troy: ‘Johanna is so fed up with mixing the albums in really miserable weather. It has been freezing cold in Finland, minus 50. Same in England: shitty weather. We realized that the band was about to split up.’ (joking, general hilarity). No seriously… we were happy to mix the album in Spain, with a very, very happy Johanna.’
The mastering is done in a studio which caught my attention and I want to know more about: it happened at the Real World Studios from Peter Gabriel from Genesis! What impression did it make on you?
Troy: ‘We have a little bit of relationship with Real World. The first Auri album was mixed there. We mixed it in the main, big studio, the one in which all those famous records have been made and so we loved it there. We like to stay in touch with Real World and we do, so we decided to master the new album in Real World, which is what we did. So we are still connected and who knows we might make another album there. It is really very special. It is down south on the way to Cornwall in England. It is about 25 miles from Bristol.’
Kai Hahto, drummer in Nightwish, is more connected now as official member of Auri as well, it seems…
Tuomas: ‘Auri is we three and Kai Hahto is a guest on the album. He played the drums and he will be playing in the live set as well, but he is not a member of the band. It is just us three.’
How do you like the pause with Nightwish from touring, because you decided not to go on tour for latest album ‘Yesterwynde’? Is it feeling like a relief, having more free time and less stress probably?
Tuomas: ‘I don’t think we have more free time now. We have a very big plan going on, it is full of stress, because Nightwish – as you know – is very large and Auri is very small. We are really looking forward to play in small venues, back to the roots… we did a lot of arenas for a long, long time, so it will be nice to be back to the public eye.
Club atmosphere is different of course… I can understand that it is refreshing. Nightwish is larger than life, a cosy small atmosphere is within reach with Auri now…
Troy: ‘Yeah absolutely and also the prospect of going out on the stage. For me and Tuomas it means something we have always been in, BUT, having our fabulous Johanna right in the middle of the two of us, that is a wonderful thing, a wonderful prospect.’
I like to know a bit more about ‘A Boy Travelling With His Mother’, the 11 minutes long closing track on the album. It is very atmospheric.
Troy: ‘When you listened to it, did you listen to it at the end of the album? Was it the final last track?’
Yes.
Troy: ‘Good, because some people said when they downloaded it, it was the first song, which was not meant to be. The foundation of that song I actually wrote when I was 19 à 20 years old, the chord structure is from then, but it has always been waiting for the right moment and the right people to complete it. Of course it is completely, massively developed since then in a very good way. ‘The Boy Travelling With His Mother’ can be interpret just like that or it can be a case of what is the boy and what is the mother. So it can be listened to in different ways.’
It speaks to the imagination. This weekend I have seen an old movie called ‘Barry Lyndon’ from Stanley Kubrick with an atmosphere from the 18th century and every scene in the movie was like a kind of painting…
Troy: ‘Wonderful, that is what ‘The Boy Travelling With His Mother’ should be like. It also has a wonderful narrative, narrated by Johanna. She takes the place of the mother.’
It came over to me as if every instrument has a moment of glory in it.
Troy: ‘Absolutely! Yeah! You get it!’
There are some guest musicians on the album, for instance on cello…
Tuomas: ‘That is our string section, from the Netherlands actually. It is led by Frank Van Essen who is a fabulous string arranger and he brought Jonas to play the cello. They built string sections themselves in the studio, by multi-tracking and highlighting solos and things like that. It is kind of our own wonderful orchestra, isn’t it?’
Troy: ‘It is our own little string orchestra. It is wonderful. We had them on our last two albums. They are from Zwolle, I think.’ (note, Martijn Westerholt, who is in Eye Of Melian with Johanna also resides in Zwolle)
Well, I wish you a ravishing experience when bringing this to the stages in our area…
Johanna: ‘See you soon and hope to see you on tour as well.’
Tuomas: ‘Thank you Vera, that was good and nice.’
