For years, Finland's AMORPHIS have been a leading force in Metal. From the early days where they helped for the current Folk and Viking Metal genres to the middle-period Progressive material to the more recent albums where they have gone back to their roots, AMORPHIS have always brought the goods and played with passion. With their most recent album, "Silent Waters", and yet another album on the way in 2009, AMORPHIS show no signs of slowing down.

Tell us a bit about the album that you're going to be recording after the tour.

Esa: "We start the recordings in November. Almost immediately when we go back, we start the studio sessions. I think it should be finished sometime early next year, hopefully it's mixed in February, early February. Music-wise it will be... I don't know, probably a bit more complicated than the previous one. We had a lot of songs already finished and some of the songs include quite a lot of parts. It will be interesting. Theme-wise, we are surrounding with the same topics."

Tomi: "Yeah, we have like, eighteen songs ready right now, so we can pick the best of them out."

Who will be producing the album?

Esa: "We will basically do all the same things. Also we have now a sound engineer, different sound engineer. We start the recording with a guy who has done our engineering for years now and he's got his own studio, so we're going to fly him over to Helsinki and start to record there with him. But otherwise, same studio, same production team, Mikko Karmila to mix the album and Marco Hietala is coming to do the vocal production again."

As AMORPHIS is one of the forefathers of the current Folk Metal scene, what are your thoughts on all the bands that have been influenced by the style of music you have made?

How does it feel to be considered so influential amongst so many bands?

Esa: "Of course, it's an honor, you know, when you see bands who come to your show. We have been like idols or whatever, bands which are doing really good, like we met the CHILDREN OF BODOM guys in Cleveland, they came to our show 'cause they had a day off there. They are familiar guys anyway, but it's funny because they are really getting off in the States and they came to see the show and they were really inspired, (laughs) again about our works. It's a funny thing."

What are your thoughts on the rise of National Socialism within the Metal scene?

Esa: "You mean in the Black Metal scene or?"

Well, it's kind of branching off into other styles of Metal, but more Black Metal than anything else.

Esa: "Yeah, yeah. I think it's stupid. Of course, after we released 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes', we got some contacts from Finnish Nationalists, like the skinheads and so on, like 'great band and great stuff!' And they sort of misunderstood the whole thing. So what we was that for the 'My Kantele' EP, we made a statement that we are not a Nationalist band of whatever and we don't have problems with that anymore, but I think people should keep music and politics away from each other. But I know your point, because especially in the Black Metal scene, there are a lot of bands which are connected to Nationalism and stuff like that."

Tomi: "Yeah. It's easy to understand it because music is a powerful thing if you want to make your opinion, but I'm not into politics and for me, I guess it's quite dangerous being into political influences from National Socialist things, so I'm not into that type of thing."

What would you consider the high point of your time in the band and the low point of your time in the band?

Esa: "I think our career has always been uphill and downhill, uphill and downhill, but if I would really pick some highlights, it would definitely be after we released 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes'. We really stepped forward in the Metal scene and started to do proper tours, touring abroad, selling albums and with 'Elegy', it started to be more and more work. Then I think we had a stable era where we released 'Am Universum' and 'Far From The Sun'. 'Far From The Sun', it was quite a difficult time because we were about to past with our ex-singer, Pasi. We released the 'Far From The Sun' album through EMI, a major label in Europe, and that was pretty much a disaster. That's something I'd never recommend for a Metal band because a major label, that's the worst thing. You know, it was bad times, but then we find Tomi, we went back to Nuclear Blast, everything started to work again very well. But Tomi came to the band, we started to rehearse some of the old songs just for fun because it was a big time for the old albums. We took some of the songs we I don't think played for years and it really worked well. So we started to take these songs to the set list and with his very energetic stage presence, people started to talk again, like 'going to see AMORPHIS - I think they're back again!' (laughter) And that all inspired us very well, then we the 'Eclipse' album and it's now been very nice instead. The last two albums, 'Eclipse' and 'Silent Waters' sold gold in Finland, something we'd never reached before and it's doing pretty nice in Europe."

Tomi: "I've been like, three years in the band, I've only had good memories and good shows."

What do you prefer, large crowds or smaller crowds?

Tomi: "Well, it depends. I like clubs because it's so easy to get in contact with the audience. Sometimes when you play in a big festival in the daytime, it's really hard to get a good connection with people. But sometimes you play in the nighttime in a festival, it's really great when you see people out there and people are really digging the music, it's a beautiful moment. I don't know... it depends. If there's a really small club and there's people sweating and crowd-surfing and stuff like that, I really like that, too."

Esa: "Big festivals are nice if you play the evening or nighttime when it's dark, you have a good live set and you feel the audience there - it's a great feeling. On the other hand, we've done these indoor festivals in ice halls in Europe and so on and that's really where it's like you have a big hall there and people are somewhere there... you can't make the same kind of product in like within the club shows or with outdoor festival shows."

Tomi: "And I think audience also plays a big role, always. If you go to the States and you see, there's like, a hundred people, and you're going to be like, 'okay, this is not going to be a good show' and suddenly you've got a good reaction from the audience and you are like, 'alright, now we are kicking ass again!' You never know what happens."

What's the wildest show you've ever played?

Esa: "Probably in Mexico. Mexico City, because of the people. It's crazy. The electricity broke up, like six or seven times during the show. Every time we started the same song, you know, again and again and again. (laughter) It's was never-ending, (laughs) so that was pretty wild."

Tomi: "The shows in Helsinki, they are pretty intense, always because it's the hometown of the band and they are used to the sold-out shows and there's really good spirit and atmosphere, always."

Has there ever been a show where you've looked back and just thought it was a complete disaster?

Esa: "After we released 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes', we went to Portugal and we received a lot of good reviews from this album and the promoter was very excited to bring us over. It was one of the first shows we did abroad and we were pretty young at the time and what we thought was fun was to drink a lot before the show... (laughs) everybody was completely wasted and that's something I'm really shameful for because there was a lot of audience who was there to see us and the keyboard player at that time, he was in so bad condition that during the set, he was yelling to our drummer 'let me play drums, let me play drums!' (laughs) Then suddenly, he disappears from stage and the promoter took him back, you know - 'you should be on stage!' (laughter) It was a disaster, but anyway, I think it was a good lesson for us. (laughs)"

How would you say your relationship with Nuclear Blast versus your relationship with Relapse?

Esa: "I don't know. We got more contact when we were on Relapse, 'course they were like our mother label. Now it's Nuclear Blast and we basically are in contact with the German section and sometimes with the American part, as well. But I don't know, I think we were much more contacted withy the Relapse guys back then, because they were our mother label. They did an awesome job for us with 'Tales' and 'Elegy' and so on. I think because of them, we got a bit of a reputation in America, as well. It's good with Nuclear Blast and Century Media at the moment, as well. Nice guys."

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Esa: "Yeah, hopefully we will come back and tour here again - it would be nice to do something. I'm sure we will. First we record the album. The new album should be out at the end of May, so probably at some point with that album we are coming to promote here." [FIN]