Interview Sonata Arctica: Henkka

Op het Power, Prog & Metal Fest hadden we een interview met keyboard speler Henrik 'Henkka' Klingenberg van Sonata Arctica.

Hi! How are you today, glad to play here at PPM Fest?

It’s really exciting, we haven’t played a show like in 8 months or something. We’re a bit nervous, but we think It’s going to be great.

Did you know the festival already or is it completely new to you?

No, I haven’t heard about this before.

The media often describes you as power metal in the early years but now rather as melodic or even symphonic. What is your thought about that?

Oh I think our music is a lot different from what it used to be, but I would say that melodic is always there, but I don’t care as long as people will check us out.

Concerning the coming new album, where does the title ‘Stones grow her Name’ come from?

It’s a line in one of the songs, so there’s your answer, haha.

Any headlining tour planned for the promotion of the new album?

Oh yeah, where’s going to start the touring in the Fall. We’re doing festivals now, during Summer just to play some new songs and to get used to be on the road again. And then the tour will start in September I think.

Will you visit Belgium, any idea of that?

It’s going to be later in the Fall I think, we’re starting in Finland.

Just a European tour or also America for example?

We do Europe first and then everything else follows. We’re going to do like a complete world tour. For the last album we did 180 shows in all different countries, I think this one is going to be just as big.

Must be quite intensive, no?

Yeah it is, but I mean, it’s what we do you know.

Could you tell us something more about the artwork?

Uhm, I don’t really know that much about it. I think the creator did a great job. We talked about it and made some changes to the original artwork, changing some things here and there, it was an entire process.

What’s in place of the head of the woman on the cover? It sort of looks like an apple or a peach?

I think it’s an apple. That’s where my clues end, haha. I asked Tony about it but I don’t remember what he said.

On the new album there seems to be a continuation of Wildfire, where did you get this idea?

Tony wanted to continue the story of that. Of course there are some musical references to the first Wildfire but that’s basically it, if you would have written different kind of lyrics, it would have become something else.

And musically, will it be similar or will it sound completely different?

It’s of course hard for me to say, because it’s so close to release date. But it will be quite progressive and quite aggressive as well, so I think it has some of the elements of the first Wildfire as well.

And why just the name Wildfire 2 and 3?

Well they have a subtitle, so it’s Wildfire and something behind it. When you see the lyrics it will all become clear.

Is there going to be a continuation of the Caleb story on the new album?

On this album, let me think… No, not as far as I know. But I strongly believe, I don’t know exactly of course, that Tony cannot leave this story alone. He’s gonna wind up doing something eventually, I think so.

Am I correct that you’re going to make 3 videos for the new album?

Yeah, we actually shot our parts already. So we’re done already and we’re just waiting to see what stuff is going to be put in and we’re still thinking about some ideas, it’s in progress.

Are you excited about that, because it must be the highest amount of videos for a Sonata Arctica album?

Yeah, usually we would just make 1 video and that’s it. But now you know, why not shoot a lot videos at the same time. So we did 2 days of video shooting at the same location, just change the set and change clothes and light and whatever so you would probably not know we shot them at the same time. But it’s cheaper and more efficient to do it that was, and it was because of that idea. Well, it was actually Marco’s idea that we could make 3 videos instead of just 1.

Are you going to play any new songs tonight?

Yes.

How does it feel when playing a new song live, does it give extra stress or tension?

It’s both scary and exciting. With a new album, the people don’t know the songs so it’s always a bit different when playing new songs before the album is out. But I think every time you play a new song live it’s a bit shaky, no matter how much you practice. But like I said last tour we did a lot of shows and we would kinda be cheating on the audience if we played the same songs again, so we discussed if we should play new songs or not. And so we are playing I think 3 new ones and one song that we haven’t played live before.

Being at the Power Prog & Metal Fest, how much power, prog and metal does Sonata Arctica have?

These days? I don’t know, haha. Metal, we have of course. On the new album we have 3 proggy songs. The rest goes more to hard rock or something like that. We always try to do what we feel like at the moment and that’s why there are these changes sometimes. This one is not as theatratical.

To end this interview, can you describe Sonata Arctica in 3 words?

That’s a tricky question… Bunch of idiots, haha.

Thanks for this interview.

Nice talking to you!

henkka

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