Originally Wintersun was founded as side project and you were focusing on space and more atmospheric elements. Is that still the same today?
Yes, that is always a part of Wintersun, but Wintersun has always been like a project of mine. There is no limit with music. Ever since I was 15 years old, I started writing lots of different kind of songs and experimenting with different kind of music styles, especially lots of different metal styles. I was always interested in different kind of melodies. Especially scales and multi melodies, they all give you different feelings. So I have always been interested in exploring all these kinds of atmospheres of music. So I was 15 when I started making a lot of different songs and it kind of went on and on, but then, of course I joined Ensiferum, but besides that, I always kept doing my own music. When I left Ensiferum, I made the first debut Wintersun album and that was mainly a kind of exploring. Stars and the universe, winter atmosphere, after that album, I wanted to start exploring more different styles with the ‘Time’ album and that expanded with more Asian kind of melodies, more about life and human relationships, life and death. That has always been a big theme of Wintersun: what is this thing called ‘life’ and this experience that we are all having? It has been growing ever since.

‘Time’ was expanding and during the process you discovered that it would be too much for one album. So strictly seen, you started it already in 2006 I found out… How far were you in the process when ‘Time I’ was out and it was time for this new album?
Well, after the debut album, ‘Time’ was actually one album. It was the plan to do one album, just called ‘Time’ and then I just kept writing so much music that the whole thing expanded in over 80 minutes and I wanted to add big orchestrations and a lot of synthesizers and a lot of different vocal styles and choirs. Also this kind of ‘canon’ vocal style singing. All of different singing parts coming from left to right, these crazy vocals lines… So the whole project expanded a lot and it turned out… it was very hard to do all these orchestrations and all those tracks, because I did not have the computer power at the time. I did not have a studio, so I needed to do all the vocals in rehearsal places and stuff like that. So I did not have the resources at that time. Then Nuclear Blast, our record label, suggested that I would split the album in two, two albums ‘Time I’ and ‘Time II’. We agreed. We thought: okay let us do this, because there is so much material, it could work as a double album. Like Guns ‘N Roses’ ‘Use Your Illusion’ part I and II. So we made the decision and we released ‘Time I’ in 2012 and went on touring. The plan was then, after that, to mix ‘Time II’, but it was still very difficult and I wasn’t really fully happy with the ‘Time I’ mix, so I really wanted to succeed with the ‘Time II’ mix. I was just not getting it done. In 2014 I was like ‘I cannot do this. I must do something else, before getting this done, with better computers, a better studio and better resources. So then we kind of took a side road and did ‘The Forest Seasons’ album. We did a crowdfunding for that album to get better resources, to get the time to get it done. That is why we did ‘The Forest Seasons’ and the campaign was a very big success. We got enough resources, not like a full studio, but like a – I call it – semi-studio jokingly. But it was enough, so that I could finally finish ‘Time II’ and get it done. It is a relief. It has been quite a journey.

Lyric-wise, is there a concept within or is it a sequel on ‘Time I’ lyrically?
All the songs are about different subjects and they are different, but there is this red line continuing throughout both albums about time and how time relates to every song somehow. So it is kind of a concept album, yes. On both albums, multiple.

The first song is a kind of instrumental introduction and I was surprised to hear so much Asian influences. The song is building up, almost like Mike Oldfield once did. Where does that Japanese or Asian tinge come from?
I think it started when I was a little kid. There was this Commodore 64 computer, a way old computer from the eighties, with these games called ‘The Last Ninja’ and ‘Last Ninja 2’. So I played these games a lot and the soundtrack was amazing. It still is amazing. It has those kinds of Asian influences. So that was my kind of first introduction to that kind of melody style, but then in 2004 – somewhere around there – these Asian movies started coming out, like ‘Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger’ and especially ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. Those movies influenced me a lot and those soundtracks. Those were big influences for the ‘Time’ albums.

The second song is more recognizable as Wintersun ‘The Way Of The Fire’…
It is of course the opening track of the album, the real song after the intro. It is indirect about fire, but not in direct way. It is like a metaphor, it is like an exploring emotion. Everything is always emotion and it is about the energy source of the stars, the source of life. Of course that also connects to time. It is also kind of this philosophy, kind of a way of life and the universe. That is what the song is about.

In ‘One With The Shadows’ there’s a lot of harmony vocals. Symphonic arrangements are here a bit more in the front I think…
This song, I wrote it originally already in 1998, even before the first Wintersun album. I took some songs from my early demos. Some songs were written right before the album came out, also for the ‘Time’ albums, most of the stuff were written around 2004 till 2006, but ‘One With The Shadows’ I picked from those early demos. Actually I never really understood or thought about what I wrote about those lyrics, but now I think – when I read the lyrics again when I mixed ‘Time II’ – I think it is about regret, because of this regret, you are living in the shadows and you try to move on pass the regret and try to move on with your life you had before this regret. So it has this kind of feeling like the sun is dying. I don’t know how to describe it, like you think about your passed life and you have this regret and you are in the shadows alone. I think that is what the song is about.

Then the clouds are gathering. I think it is a kind of sequel to the former song, because then the clouds gathered in ‘Ominous Clouds’, an instrumental. I really like the guitar licks, because they are bluesy and Pink Floyd alike…
Yes it is a kind of interlude between ‘One With The Shadows’ and ‘Storm’. I wanted to build up the atmosphere to ‘Storm’, like the clouds are gathering slowly and during ‘Ominous Clouds’ the rain starts actually coming and you start to hear the thunder before the storm comes. It is kind of a ‘calm before the storm’ moment on the album. I wanted this, because the album is quite heavily, the track amount and all the orchestrations, so I wanted to create a little bit of peace, a calm moment between the songs. So it is not all the time the music in your face (chuckles).

In ‘Storm’ we have nice contrasts, going from serenity to fervent guitar soloing…
‘Storm’ is the heaviest and darkest track of the album. Of course it needs to be, because the track is called ‘Storm’. It is also the second last song on the album. On the debut album, there was this song ‘Beautiful Death’ after the last song ‘Sadness And Hate’ which was more a kind of slower song. I did a kind of the same strategy on this album and the first album. First the heaviest and darkest song as second last song and then have a last song, more calm song. ‘Storm’ has also a little bit different melody style. It is more classical music influenced, like musical scales and the melodies, because there is of course the Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and the opening riff, this guitar part, that actually reminds of Vivaldi. I think it is a winter track, like this violin descending. So I wrote that guitar part. ‘Storm’ is classical influenced music with really furious guitars and heavy drums. The lyrics are about chaos and chaos of life, chaos of human relationships.