Congratulations, you have a new album in March. Of course I remember you made a few albums with acoustic things and now you are back with the heavier side. I think that must have given you new energy or do I see that wrong?
Yes, these acoustic albums have been sort of brewing for a long, long time. I think I started dreaming of recording something like this almost twenty years already. We had a few shows then, acoustic songs and then it fixed with these songs very well. So over the years we have played acoustic songs at some point in Finland and finally, when we got around 2016 or a little bit later, I don’t know, time flies, we were able to do this acoustic tour in Europe and against all odds things went well. Nobody believed that it would work so well and our label guys, when they saw the performance, they were flabbergasted and so we were able to go to the studio. So we got out of the system. It was fun to do something else and also the previous album turned out (Talviyö’) pretty softer than we anticipated and hoped for, so we wanted to correct that by bringing in Mikko Karmila, the original sound guy, and the creator of the Sonata Arctica sound back in the game and then meanwhile playing those 20^th anniversary shows around the world. We played a festival in Finland and when we saw the reaction of the people, they all went crazy. When they heard the old songs, they went crazy, they all react and we were thinking about how much energy these songs gave us. Being on stage and seeing the people go crazy is really a great thing to experience. This all made us go back to our roots, it is something we want to do from now on. Before the pandemic I had been hoping for a break, a little bit longer break on everything Sonata Arctica related. In the future and in hindsight, I must be very careful what I wish for (laughs). I got my wish at the whole world, that’s what happened, but it gave me the rest I needed. And here we are, after all that.

I think the song-writing process happened in the Autumn of 2022…
Yes, around that time and also early 2023. I kept writing, up until the point when we hit the studio. I think it must have been like February or March, around that time last year and it was lots of fun. As soon as I managed to write the first real old school Sonata Arctica song, the rest was very easy. The songs just kept on coming and this was the first time that we actually – not the first time, but it did not happen in a while – that we have more songs than we actually need for the album. I had to stop song-writing, because the songs just kept pouring out of me. We had a little bit briefing with the guys and I decided to concentrate on perfect songs. That was a smart choice and consequently I have a few cornerstones and starting points for the next Sonata Arctica album as well. That is a good thing obviously.

I think you already started to play live again pretty fast after the pandemic: the acoustic shows. Can you resume that a little bit. When were you allowed to come out of Finland again?
Everything in Finland was open, especially during the Summer when we started to get through the first bits of the pandemic. We were able to play few shows and then they closed everything down again, because autumn time and schools started spreading the virus more easily again/ So it was like jumping back and forth and really not knowing what and when  you can manage to do. During that time we went out to Norway with Nightwish. Opening for them, that was one of rare outside of Finland shows that we played during that time and then of course the ‘acoustic adventures tours’ which were postponed again and again, the same as the release of the albums, because as a band we thought that would be able to release the albums right away when we could go on tour right away. It kept going on forever and you never know what’s going to happen and we decided to release the albums just regardless of whether or not we were able to go on tour or not. We did better and better. That was actually the only time that I was absolutely sure that I was down with it. Fuck! During that tour – and as a professional I was sick on the only free day off. My worst day, high fever and all that.

Can you tell something about the lyrics? What inspired you to write lyrics this time?
It is pretty much the same as always. Human relationships are something that I like writing about, the darker side of things too. From early on in our career, I got positive feedback. People who said: oh it is lovely’, but at he same time I got a lot of dislike from people who wanted power metal to be something totally different. So that is one thing and then of course I try to raise my voice over the state of the world and where we are headed. In ‘First In Line’ the biggest concern we right now have, is the development of and upcoming things with AI. People are just not ready. It is very open, but I think after a while people will not be able anymore to think for themselves as true human beings. That is one thing, but anyway, how we are using it… children are using it in tests and arts are suffering from that, because it is so easy to create artwork or even a song or whatever in the style of a more established artist. I think it is just wrong and there should be put some restrictions for such things. It is destroying our ability to use our own brain eventually. If you get everything by pressing a button, it is not the true metal thing and of course I also touch other subjects in the lyrics. Like ‘Clear Cold Beyond’, is about a young boy who goes fighting a war, only to impress a girl. It is devastating.

‘California’ seems strange to me. I don’t know if I have to see this as a positive lyric or a negative lyric…
That is a more positive lyric, the whole lyric thing of that song does not have anything to do with California… ‘metal home California sliding into the sea’. I actually looked into the subject. The whole song started with this line and this phrase. I thought that was going to be a great catchy line to sing and I have been building the song around that thing. California falls into the sea, it basically means the same things ‘when cows fly’. That will never happen. It is about a human relationship when someone is interested in you for not really you, but maybe she gets to use you to get to some other person or things that she wants to have. So it is like an interest for strange reasons and you realize that and just say; “yes I will be yours when California falls into the sea”. If the cows fly. I actually had to look into it a little bit in scientific magazines. I saw this like a big thing that California should never be able to actually slide into the sea, because our continental plates are moving in a different direction. There will be tremors, the continental plates will keep moving, it will cause a lot of damage and all that, but it will never be able to physically slide into the ocean.