Power of
Metal.dk – ‘The Clouds of Northland Thunder’ is your second album, how does it
compare to your first one ‘River of Tuoni’ and what progress do you feel you’ve
made?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: I think that this
album is more advanced than our debut album. We also used a lot more time and
effort in production and I hope it can be heard on this album. The style in this
album is more symphonic, more aggressive and more diverse. We all are better
musicians than on our debut album and because we have been playing more
together, is our playing more tight and solid.
Power of
Metal.dk – what kind of expectations do you have for ‘The Clouds of Northland
Thunder’?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: We all in the band
love this new album and we really enjoyed the whole process of making it. We
hope that our fans will love it too and that we’ll get as much attention as
possible with this album. So far it seems that reviews have been good all around
the world.
Power of
Metal.dk – If you had to chose one song you feel represents Amberian Dawn today,
which song would you choose and why? Personally I would have a really hard time
choosing a favourite.
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: I would choose a
song from the new album, “Incubus”. I think it represents the music of Amberian
Dawn very well. It has beautiful melodies, strong guitar solos and it’s very
catchy. An other favourite of mine is “River Of Tuoni”. I have to mention that
too, although you asked for just one song.
Power of Metal.dk – I use the term symphonic power metal to
describe your style, do you feel that covers it, and what would you tell
someone, who haven’t heard your music before?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: Those definitions
are always hard…but your definition is quite good actually. The problem is that
in AD music is so many different kind of styles. On our new album is even one
AOR kind of song, “Kokko- Eagle of fire”. We have also a progressive style,
power metal style, hard rock style and many many more.
Power of Metal.dk – How did you come up with the title for the
album?
Amberian
Dawn – HEIDI:
There were
many suggestions for the new album's name.
Actually we
named few themes for the cover artist to already start planning the cover. He
made a picture from themes like ice, snow, Kokko (the firebird) and the contrast
between fire and ice. Right away we fell in love with the first picture he sent.
We hadn´t made any decisions about the album name yet so we started to
brainstorm possible names. Finally we came up with a sentence " The Clouds of
Northland Thunder" from the lyrics of "Kokko- Eagle of fire" and actually the
same sentence can be found from the English translation of the Finnish epic
Kalevala. It suited the cover art more than well because in the cover you can
see a figure of an eagle flying over the icy Amberian Dawn medallion.
Power of
Metal.dk - Who has produced and mixed the album? How does the final result
compare to the idea you had going into the studio?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: I was a musical
producer on this album and I’ve been participating in all phases of recording
and mixing this album. It’s hard work but also very exciting. It all started by
recording the drums. The second phase was recording the rhythm guitars. In this
phase I also started playing because I played about half of the rhythm guitar
parts. I have been monitoring or supervising all phases. In mixing phase I was
present a bit less because the guy who do the actual mixing work, needs always
some own space. Teropekka Virtanen was our mixing engineer. In fact Teropekka
mixed half of our debut album “The River of Tuoni” last year.
Power of
Metal.dk - Tell us a bit about artwork…
Amberian Dawn – HEIDI: The cover art is made by Tommi Häti, the same
artist as on the "River of Tuoni" album. In the cover art on the "Clouds"-album
as well as in the booklet there are some visions from the stories behind the
lyrics. You can also find a continuing theme, a flying spark, from the whole
booklet. The spark is also found from the lyrics of " Kokko- Eagle of fire". In
the story Louhi, a powerful witch, stole the light from the Northland. Ukko, the
supreme god, struck a spark from a Kokko´s feather to bring the light back into
the dark Northland. However the spark escaped from it's cradle and fell through
the heaven decks all the way to the sea and ended up into a pike's stomach. This
story tells how the firebird Kokko floats across the decks to find the spark.
Power of
Metal.dk - Amberian Dawn – any special story behind your name?
Amberian Dawn – HEIDI: Yes. The name itself was brainstormed. We figured
out that it would be nice to have a story for the name Amberian Dawn because it
actually doesn't mean anything. Of course it could mean a dawn in a land or a
region called Amber or an amber colored dawn but it felt quite boring. So, I
made a fictive story for the name Amberian Dawn. It goes like this: " Stars
shone brightly in the dark winter sky over the wilderness. Cold and dark was the
reign of Winter. The Day wanted to give The Earth something to cope with the
freezing Winter and The Earth wanted to give the Day something for the long
hours in darkness. So the Earth gave The Day the most rare and beautiful gift
from the abyss of the Ocean- a pendant of blue amber. The Day asked the Morning
for something to give to the Earth. The Morning gave her a ray of a Sunrise- the
hope of the day to become. When The Earth and the Day met in the horizon for
just a few minutes during the sunrise the first sun rays caught the pendant. The
sunlight shone through the beautiful blue amber colouring the sky with deep
azure blue. The World named this hour the Amberian Dawn. "
Power of Metal.dk –
Any touring plans
– any festivals booked?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: Yes, we just
recently played in Sweden Rock Festival and we are also doing one festival show
in Finland this summer. We are still focusing on next fall’s European tour. We
are now planning it and negotiating with several bands about doing on joint tour
together. So far we have already confirmed to play in Metal Female Voices Fest
in Belgium.
Power of
Metal.dk – Name the five musical pieces that you want to bring with you when we
send you to hell or heaven!
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: If you’re talking
about my own favourites and not the songs written by me, they would be: Yngwie
Malmsteen: Rising Force, ABBA; Winner takes it all, ABBA; Let the music speak,
Deep Purple: Perfect Strangers and DIO: Sacred Heart. And if you refer to my
own songs, they would be: River of Tuoni, Valkyries, Incubus, Lionheart and
Snowmaiden.
Power of
Metal.dk - Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last
rants for our readers?
Amberian Dawn – TUOMAS: We are doing
this work for you and we really appreciate our fans. Please write a message or
comment to us on our official websites:
www.myspace.com/amberiandawn
and www.amberiandawn.com.
See you all on gigs.
