• Freternia is a land of fantasy created by the guitarist of the band. This is a land that people can visit through some portals and meet there creatures and listen to voices that become a reality on lie and death. This is were  Martin, Tomas, Peter, Pasi and Tommie want to take us. So, read in Tomas' one words his view in music and life in general.

• Important moments: The release of ²Warchants & Fairytales², I say this because it was the last release ever through Loud N/Proud records. Also I find the breakup of Freternia a very important moment. This breakup made us stop and think about what we were doing and how to continue. We made a decision to restart and continue with a different lineup which I can say is the best thing we have ever done. Finally the signing with Arise records must be  considered very important, this gives us the opportunity to release a couple of more albums and hopefully a lot of  live performances. In the end this is why we are recording our music.
• Current lineup:
• Martin Tilander-Drums
• Tomas Wappling-Guitars, Backingvocals
• Peter Wiberg-Bass, Backingvocals
• Pasi Humppi-Vocals
• Tommie Johansson-Keyboards

2.HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR MONICKER? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? DOES IT HAVE A SPECIAL MEANING TO YOU?

• I am not sure what this Monicker thing is but I guess that it has to do with our bandname? If so Freternia is a fantasyland that I created. I also wrote a song on the ²Blood Of Mortals² demo called ²Last Battle Of Freternia² in 1998. The word fret is a musical term. The ²frets² are placed on the neck of a guitar.

3.TELL US A FEW THINGS ON YOUR NEW ALBUM. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO RECORD IT? IS IT A CONCEPT ALBUM? ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH THE FINAL RESULT OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE?

• For this recording we had 3 weeks in the studio of which we used 2 _ weeks for the recordingpart and the rest were used for the mixing. Yes, this is a conceptalbum! This story tells about a man who keeps dreaming the same dream night after night. He hears voices and strange creatures that seem to tell him something that at this point he cannot really understand. Slowly a pattern can be seen in all this and finally he finds out that when a human being is asleep he can travel through a dreamportal and enter the ²dreamworld². So he decides to make the journey and in this world all these strange creatures and voices take shape and becomes a reality on life and death. Yes we are very satisfied with the result of this recording but if it would have been our third release we wouldn/t be satisfied with it. We always try to improve what we do and I think that ²ANS² is a good start.

4.YOUR MUSIC DOESN'T DIFFER VERY MUCH FROM THE OTHER POWER METAL BANDS OF YOUR COUNTRY. WHICH ARE THESE ELEMENTS YOU THINK YOU HAVE THAT MAKE YOU DIFFER FROM THE BANDS OF YOUR GENRE?

• We often get this kind of questions and the answer must be that no other band has Peter Wiberg on bass: Peter has a very personal style and I can/t imagine that anyone else would play in exactly the same way as Peter. Besides Ironware noone has got Pasi Humppi on vocals. Pasi has a unique voiceregister and a unique voice as well. This could be said about each member of Freternia and it is this combination of members that gives the special sound of Freternia which in some peoples ears sound like ²everything else², I say we don/t.

5.I READ IN YOUR BIO THAT YOU RELEASED A SPLIT CD WITH PERSUADER. SUCH THINGS ARE NOT USUAL FOR POWER/HEAVY METAL BANDS (WE SEE IT MAINLY IN THE EXTREME METAL). WHICH IS YOUR OPINION REGARDING SPLIT CDS? DID YOU GAIN ANY EPXERIENCE FROM THAT?

• When we signed our first deal with LNP records they asked us if we wanted to do a split CD with Swedish band Persuader. We were told that it would be for promotional use and that it would be good for the band before the release of ²Warchants & Fairytales², so we thought why not? My personal opinion about this kind of releases is that I wouldn/t go and buy it myself and the only experience that we gained was that it could be found in several mailorders for sale. Great promotion! HahaS

6.WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOUR PREVIOUS LABEL AND SIGNED WITH ARISE RECORDS? WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING FROM THEM AND THEY DIDN'T DO? HAS ARISE SO FAR DONE WHAT YOU WANTED?

• LNP had some financial problems and it took almost a year to release ²W&F². Finally we were told that we were free to search for a new label and so we did.  Arise records has done more for us than we could ever dream of. The best part with such a small label is that you get a more personal contact with its staff and we are in contact with Arise almost every day.

7.WHEN YOU HAVE A NEW ALBUM, YOU TRY TO PROMOTE IT BY DOING AS MANY INTERVIEWS AS POSSIBLE. DOESN'T THIS MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE MERCHANTS, TRYING TO CONVINCE THE OTHERS TO BUY THEIR PRODUCT? DON'T YOU THINK THAT ARTISTS SHOULD REMAIN ARTISTS AND NOT TURN INTO MERCHANTS?

• In a world of dreams it would be that way and we would love to remain ²artists² in the way you mean. But the truth today is: No recorddeal-No liveshows, No recorddeal-No Audience. And for every release a recordcompany needs to get their money back so I guess that all this promotion is needed. Personally I would much rather be on stage instead of answering a lot interviews in front of my computer I find it quite boring most of the time. The bands of today could well be described as merchants I think.

8.YOU'LL TAKE PART IN THE HELLOWEEN TRIBUTE ALBUM WITH THE SONG "MURDERER". HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THIS SONG AND WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ON TRIBUTE ALBUMS IN GENERAL?

• We had to choose a song that wasn/t already chosen and also we wanted the song to sound a bit like Freternia so we found ²Murderer² to be a perfect song for us.  I have a Kisstribute in my collection and I think that 1 or maybe 2 songs are worth listening to. In general I think that tributealbums suck. In our case it was a great honour to participate on a Helloweentribute but I prefer to listen to the original version of ²Murderer².

9.I'LL NAME 5 BANDS AND I WANT YOU TO TELL ME INA  FEW WORDS YOUR OPINION ABOUT THEM, HELLOWEEN, MAGO DE OZ, RUNNING WILD, IN FLAMES AND BLIND GUARDIAN.

• Helloween: ²Keeper Of The Seven Keys part I² is a really brilliant album but ²keeper II² is the one that I used to listen to the most when I was a kid. When ²Pink Bubbles² was released I refused to listen any more to Helloween.
• Mago De Oz: I have never heard of this band and I guess that I havent heard them either.
• Running Wild: I love the albums ²Under Jolly Roger², ²Ready For Boarding² and ²Port Royal². Running Wild has been a great source of inspiration for me.
• In Flames: I don/t like what I have heard with In Flames so far, the music is great but I cannot stand the vocals.
• Blind Guardian: I have heard only a couple of tracks with this band and I must say that this is not my music at all. I find it ironic that so many reviews let us know that we sound a bit like Blind Guardian.

10.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?

• I would die!

11.IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE A PROPER AND EXPENSIVE VIDEOCLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?

• I would like to do a video for ²The Dark Side², I imagine the environment to be taken from the dreamworld. We should use blue colours, and dreamportals could be seen together with the creatures called the shadowdancers. I think we would mix sequences from the dreamworld in blue with clips from the real world in grey. In this video a female being would appear that in the end would turn into a dreadful beast.

12.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION BE?

• I would ask ²it² how come you never find a suitable answer when you get an interesting question for a change.

13.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?

• I would visit Egypt around the time when they built the pyramids. I have to find out how they created them. I would miss my Volvo 740, my guitar, my bed & Mac Donalds.

14.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?

• How about ²Rise From The Ashes²?

15.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

• I think you covered it all very well! Thanks for a bunch of interesting questions, I had a great time answering them!
• Tomas Wappling/FRETERNIA
• ²In The Darkest Of Dreams, Trust Noone But Yourself²
• www.freternia.com
• [email protected]