Finally! I am sitting in a plane heading south from cold cold
Helsinki with the band & crew guys. The wakeup was quite a shock
this morning. On Friday it was still sunny and a couple of Celsius above
zero. The morning was bright today too, but the temperature had fallen
down to -15 in the night. I slept bad because the tour thoughts didn’t
let me sleep too much but the walk to my car in the morning really woke
me up.
We started the Big band shows in Finland already a
few weeks ago and I must say we were very positively surprised. The
first shows (in Lahti & Turku) were for seated audiences but still I
was amazed how much fun it was. Especially those two nights I was super
nervous. We all were. Even though we had rehearsed pretty well, there
are so many things we all need to remember on stage and even for the
sound guys and other crewmembers the night is a double challenge. And of
course I had nightmares of the crowd reacting to the new arrangements.
Helsinki was the third show and also the first “standing audience” and I
must say it worked even better. It’s always a stress playing in your
hometown because all your friends and family are there. But that was the
night I fell in love with the set 110%. I have sometimes complained
about Finnish crowds being passive and not too loud, but this time, in
all three cities, we were blown away by the reaction.
So…
Now we hit our first European dates in Germany, Holland, Austria,
Switzerland and Czech Republic. It’ll be a month driving the caravan of
two double decker busses and trucks all over the place. The first show
is already today in Kiel, in northern Germany.
A lot of
folks and fans have asked me if there’s a dress code at the shows. We
should have thought about that earlier, so no, you come as you are. Sure
it’ll make us happy if we see some cool gangsta suits in the crowd.
The
crew and our support Finnish band Superscar travel with one bus and we
share the (better;) bus with musicians only. This trip will be a total
excursion to Tero’s, Jay’s, Markus’ and Aleksi’s soul. If there’s one
great way of getting to know a person, it’s spending time with them on
tour. You’ll know exactly who snores, who stays up the latest, who
steals your shoes when they go out for a cigarette and who always
forgets to close the bathroom door and it bangs annoyingly when the bus
drives at night.
Between the shows we have been actually
pretty active in studio too. I just counted that we have 32 songs
already fully or half recorded with the guys and it wouldn’t be a
miracle if there’d be an album out late this year. There’s some very
cool stuff. I juts played Osmo a new song called “I Can Break Your
Heart” and by the look in his eyes and his moshing head we are on the
right track. Actually I’m listening to it now myself and damn it
ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
Last week I was in Stockholm writing songs
with a few trusted friends Peter, Carl and Sharon. We actually wrote
“Angels On A Rampage” with Sharon and Carl three years ago and I gotta
say I am very happy again for what came out at the sessions. Sharon is
finally coming to see our show, for the first time, in Berlin and that
makes me nervous in the good way.
I love to write songs
mostly alone, but these joint sessions are a very great way of
challenging yourself and of course you learn a lot from every person you
work with. The day usually starts with a quick coffee at 10 AM and then
we just write a song. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s just
something you can listen to later on for fun, but it’s always fun and
you never know when a hit could happen. Usually after we write the
lyrics and melodies down, we have lunch and afterwards I stay with the
“tracker” making the “one day demo” so there’s something to listen to.
This is very much fun too. I can play all the guitars, bass and stuff I
want and actually even some drums. Electric drums though… And if
anything sounds and feels good with me performing the instruments, it’s a
good sign. Then you ad Raul, Riku and Sami in studio to the track and
VOILA!
I was first against these sessions but especially
after doing full three weeks of them in Los Angeles in 2010 I have
started to like them. When you co-write, I guess it kind of awakes your
creative part of the brain. Last week, after working in the studios for
the whole day, I had this strange mood in the evenings for writing
lyrics. Good.
After the Berlin show tomorrow, I will stay
in Berlin for our day off to meet the Universal folks together with our
management. I know some of the UNI-guys already but it’ll be great
getting to know who we’re gonna work with on the next steps of Sunrise
Avenue. It’s kind of nice being with only one label now. The last album
was shared between EMI and Universal, but now that Universal bought EMI,
it’s gonna hopefully be even easier for us since we’re handled through
one office. I do miss the Emi folks a lot and I really hope many of them
will find new jobs at the Universal organization or somewhere else.
It’s so bad when you’ve been working with some people for years (us
since 2006) and you gotta leave some of them behind. We would not be
here without the determined work and the huge hearts of Uli, Julia,
Daniel, Kerstin, Andy and all the others. But we gotta move on and look
ahead. Business is business.
But now it’s time to dress up
and get ready for the night. Tonight is our first chance on this trip
to prove our Theory. The Big Band Theory.
Samu
PS. Remember we record all the shows again. The loudest crowd might end up on an album, a Big band Theory Album. Muahahhahha ;)
Still just a theory....
