Sentenced
Nothing lasts forever.
The bells have chimed, the end in near, so let us follow, for one last
time, Sentenced to their funeral pyre and let us cherish these final moments!
Salvation, purification and dignity are at hand for this remarkable band
and "The Funeral Album" is here to prove this! Sami Lopakka, the band's
leader and guitarist is here to talk about Sentenced for the last time
and close a 16 year chapter once and for all!
1. FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATIONS FOR “THE FUNERAL
ALBUM”! IT’S ONE OF THE MOST DIVERSE AND MULTI-DIMENSIONED ALBUM’S I’VE
LISTENED TO!
2.NOW SINCE THIS IS, I SUPPOSE THE LAST SENTENCED
INTERVIEW, I’D LIKE YOU TO BRIEFLY POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF THE BAND’S CAREER.
Hmm… There are quite many of them as it has
been a really long way and it’s difficult to see all those highlights,
but as a musicians, the moments when we had just finished an album, listening
to the freshly recorded end result, the new songs that have just been completed…
well those moments are really special with every album. Then of course
there were those big shows we played, the first big festivals, the first
times we sold out clubs in our country and in other countries in Europe…
and also the times when the album went number 1 in the Finnish charts and
stuff like that! Still I would say that the greatest and most satisfactory
moments, those little ones are when you are alone with something new!
3.BY THE WAY YOU SEEM PRETTY DETERMINED THIS IS
THE LAST SENTENCED ALBUM, HOW CAN YOU BE SO SURE?
It is something we have thought about 2 years
now and not something we’ve rushed into or something caused by one reason.
There is a series of reasons why we’ve decided to split. After this long
thinking process everyone said this is the right decision and the best
for the band and us as human beings. Moreover through that all I think
that’s also the best for the listeners and our fans. This way we are….hmmm…
-PROTECTING YOUR CAREER?
Yeah and keeping it pure!
-SO LEAVING WITH PRIDE IS WHAT YOU REALLY WANT….
Yes! Definitely! The way you go out it’s something
very important and I think this is a remarkable move we’re doing as we
are still friends and we have a new album together, which is the funeral
of the band, giving Sentenced a proper burial. Not many bands in the past
have succeeded in doing that and ending their career like that!
4.YEAH AND THAT’S SOMETHING I WANT TO ASK YOU
ABOUT…YOU END YOUR CAREER IN DIGNITY SOMETHING THAT MOST BANDS AND ARTISTS
NEVER HAVE THE GUTS TO DO IT. HOWEVER, HOW AND WHEN DO YOU KNOW IT’S TIME
TO LEAVE? HOW CAN YOU BE SO SURE THIS IS THE RIGHT MOMENT?
The main reason I think is that the band has
become so big during the years that the amount of sacrifices were so big
and at the same time our personal lives, our “real” lives” have also grown
too and we are not really willing anymore to be away from home for most
of the year. Then again we never made any compromises with Sentenced and
we don’t want to make them in the future either. I think ending it like
this it’s something that keeps our career pure and it also shows the main
character of Sentenced, which is doing it all the way or not at all! I
think the music world generally nowadays needs character and principles.
At least we are trying to show some…
5.WE HAVE A GREEK SAYING “NEVER SAY NEVER”. SO,
WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE A SPACE FOR A POSSIBLE REUNION? I MAN WE’VE SEEN LOADS
OF BANDS SAYING THE VERY WORDS YOU USE AND THEN REUNITE SOME YEARS LATER…
Yes I have seen those bands as well and I’ve
always hated it. They never come back stronger or even at the same level
they were when they quit…
-YEAH IT’S TRUE THAT USUALLY THESE BANDS BECOME
THE SHADOWS OF THEMSELVES…
Yeah! They are lame and doesn’t seem to be
a real reason for them to come back and piss on their own history. They
kind of ruin their own career and this isn’t something we would like to
ever do and we are very certain about this decision. This is the only way
we have be sure that we can look back at this long career and period of
our lives with satisfaction and something to be proud of! Returning in
10-15 years, we’d be a bunch of lame middle aged guys and it just makes
no sense! (laughter) We close all doors and we make a funeral and there
is no turning back…
6.SO, WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SENTENCED CHAPTER
CLOSES? HAVE YOU DECIDED? WILL YOU PURSUE SOLO CAREERS? YOU MUST HAVE SOME
SORT OF PLANS!
We are very much in this band still and we
are very concentrated on Sentenced, so there isn’t really room in our minds
or in our hearts to make specific plans for the future for other bands
or projects… Personally I will take some sort of rest after the last concert.
I have this idea of writing a book for years now and I have never had the
time…
-WHAT KIND OF BOOK?
It’s a fictional book, but it’s about European
tours, but it also contains stuff from reality and it’s good material to
use in the book. All in all it’s fiction and till now I only have about
100 pages written, now finally I will have the time to finish the book
and see what comes out of it and that is the nest big thing for me. However,
certainly at some point on I will return to my instrument, as the music
inside isn’t something you can ever stop!
7.WHAT IMPRESSED ME IS THE FACT THAT THIS IS PERHAPS
YOUR MOST COMPLEX AND SPECIAL ALBUM, MEANING THAT WE LISTEN TO THE STAMP
OF EVERY SENTENCED PERIOD WITH REFERENCES TO ALL YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS.
I DON’T MEAN THAT YOU COPY YOURSELVES, BUT THE MAIN ESSENCE OF EACH SONG
IS DIFFERENT AND POINTS TOWARDS A PREVIOUS ALBUM OF YOURS… DO YOU AGREE
WITH ME? DID YOU DO IT INTENTIONALLY?
Yes and it’s very nice to hear also other
people saying that. These chains to the past, these elements from our earlier
albums and this atmosphere isn’t something we were really planning on having.
Perhaps they came out on the new and last album in a subconscious way…
-YOU WANTED TO, LET’S SAY, PAY TRIBUTE TO YOUR
CAREER.
Yes, kind of looking back and looking forward
at the same time. I think it’s a natural step from “The Cold White Light”
and the next step for that musical style. But there certainly are some
references to the past summarizing our whole career! Another big point,
for me at least, since this is the last one, we wanted to have a wide variety
of different types of songs and write the word “goodbye” in the music in
each and every one of the songs. So, it was a very challenging and exhausting
writing process, but it turned out to be something very rewarding in the
end!
8.LET’S SUPPOSE THAT YOU WERE GIVEN THE PROMO
OF “THE FUNERAL ALBUM” AND YOU HAD TO REVIEW IT… WHAT WOULD YOU SAY, TRYING
TO BE AS OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE OF COURSE!
Hmm… Being objective it’s impossible! (laughter).
I’d hope that people could recognize the outstanding way of ending a career
and at the same time recognize the little new steps we made for the last
album. It has songs that are faster and more rocking and then there are
slower and more mellow songs, melodic ones based on atmosphere… and then
there are serious songs and more humorous ones. I would just hope that
the listener could recognize all these little elements and I think it will
take many many spins on the CD player before every single detail is found…
-YEAH, IT’S THE KIND OF ALBUM THAT THE MORE YOU
LISTEN TO IT THE MORE YOU GROW TO LIKE IT…
Yes, yes I agree and I hope people have the
patience to go through all that listening. I’m sure when they will, it
will be worth it!
9.WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AND WHAT THE WORST
PART IN YOUR MUSIC? IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
OR EVEN EXPERIMENT WITH?
Ahhh we always did what felt right and felt
best, so to have any regrets, it would be stupid. So, I think one of the
main things in the music is to create strong atmospheres that include real
feelings and I think that is something that people can relate to in the
same way we can relate, when we are writing and playing that stuff. I think
that’s the strongest part of Sentenced, but maybe for some people this
is our weakest or the lowest point in our music. The themes and topics
that we talk about are always dark and negative. Maybe some people don’t
like to dwell into this kind of emotions, but for us it has always been
different…
-WELL I THINK IT’S SOME SORT OF SALVATION…WHEN
YOU ARE DEPRESSED OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I THINK YOU NEED TO LOOK DEEPER
INTO SUCH EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS…
Yes, that is exactly what I was going to say!
When you drown yourself in this sea of misery, when you come back to land,
you feel kind of purified and for us it has worked as some sort of therapy
and it seems that it is working the same way for many people. This is always
very satisfying people saying to us such things!
10.WHAT THAT THIS I READ WITH THE SCISSORS, ZIPPERS,
COMPRESSED AIR AND OTHER STUFF YOU USED? HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THIS?
You know…the scissors, the spoons and the
zippers they were just something that would break the normal recording
and mood in the studio…
-SO YOU DID IT FOR FUN…
Yes and to make something different and refresh
the mind. The recording process is always quite stressful and exhausting
and you are totally concentrated on your own instrument and it takes everything
you have to get it all right! Then when you do something crazy or even
stupid and recording some things that are not instruments, it takes your
mind somewhere else for a moment. It results on having a fresh mind when
you return on your real instrument.
-OK! WHOSE IDEA WAS IT?
It was mostly the producer’s idea, especially
with all the stuff from the studio kitchen (laughter)! Being behind the
microphone and trying to make rhythms with spoons and forks, just
anything we could take from over there… The producer is always very innovative
and that way he wants to have something different always and what is more
different than stuff like that? (laughter)
11.TELL ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE LYRICS…DEATH
AND SUICIDE ARE THE MAIN SUBJECTS YOU DEAL WITH. WHY? ONE MORE THING… I
SENSED A SLIGHT IRONY AND A NEED FOR HOPE AND SOME LAUGHTER IN SOME SONGS.
AM I RIGHT?
Yes! I think more or less always, even when
we write about shadows of the human lives or death, we always, at least
at some level, have the irony and sarcasm, the black humor in it. Sometimes
this stuff is a bit hidden. Those subjects have been important for Sentenced
and we felt like a canal to express those kind of feelings. The lyrics
are mainly written after the music, so we try to capture the mood and melodies
of each song. Most of the times they are pretty melancholic so it’s natural
when something melancholic also comes out in the lyrics. On the new album
there are also themes like losing someone you care about, vengeance, unity,
disappointment…
-ALL THE HUMAN FEELINGS ANYWAY…
Yeah and we tried to make it a rainbow of
human emotions and I think that is always healthier than just to concentrate
on one thing…
12.OK, SINCE THIS IS THE LAST SENTENCED ALBUM
AND YOU’VE PRESENTED IT AS SOME SORT OF A MASS SUICIDE OF FIVE, PLEASE
TELL US WHAT THIS SUICIDE NOTE, YOU LEAVE BEHIND, SAYS ON IT…
Hmm… The album is in a way the suicide note
we are leaving and to capture everything on this album it’s basically impossible
in a note like that. In the same time we are saying “Goodbye” we are also
saying “Thank you!” for the support from people from all over the world.
It’s been overwhelming to see how much this band has meant to so many people!
It makes this ceremony even more special and to make a long story short:
“Thank you! Goodbye! Have a good life!” (laughter)
13.IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, YOU WILL TOUR AND APPEAR
SELECTIVELY IN FESTIVALS. SO IS THERE A CHANCE TO SEE YOU IN GREECE?
It’s not confirmed yet, but we certainly hope
so. I think the Greek audience is one of the greatest in the world and
the last time we were here, it was last summer in a festival on the beach
in Athens and everything went wrong… The circumstances were terrible!
-YES I KNOW! I WASN’T THERE, BUT I HEARD THAT
IT WAS A DISASTER!
Then be glad that you weren’t there! (laughter)
That was the wrong concert to see us! Some bands didn’t play because it
sucked so much and all the equipment and the arrangements of this festival
were terrible. The schedule during the day also went wrong, so we only
had 30 minutes to play with shitty equipment. Still decided to do so though,
since we travelled all the way here and there were fans waiting for us!
The concert wasn’t good at all because of all these problems and we hate
to think this will be our last show in Greece. We hope that there will
be a farewell show for the Greek people, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Our management is actually booking the last shows, so we don’t have a final
word to say yet but there seem to be a lot of people asking, on our website,
us to come and play. We’ll let everyone know as soon as we know!
-WILL THERE BE SOMETHING EXTRA IN YOUR SHOWS?
Yeah, first of all the live set will walk
through the whole career since these are our last shows and probably we
won’t concentrate that much on “The Funeral Album”. For example, we have
bought a real coffin for the band and we are carrying it on stage at least
in the places where we can take it to the airplane with us!
-THIS MUST BE CREEPY!
Yeah! (laughter) You know the coffin is actually
a little bit used, someone was in it…
-OH GOD!
It was a guy who died in central Europe and
he flew to Finland in that coffin and then switched to a Finnish coffin,
so we bought this second hand coffin. It still has this smell in it, even
tough we cleaned and washed it…the smell doesn’t go away and it’s really
creepy! We took some photographs in it…
-YEAH I’VE SEEN SOME!
Yeah (laughter) and you know the hair and
skin smelled afterwards like death.
14.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE?
Hmm… energetic melancholy I’d say.
15.IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Well these days it would show and open grave!
16. LET’S SUPPOSE THAT SUDDENLY ELECTRICITY CEASES
TO EXIST. WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN TO METAL MUSIC? WOULD IT DIE OUT
OR WOULD IT BE TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
I think it would transform. It always finds
a way from under the ground to come through.
17.IF YOU COULD BE A FAMOUS PERSON FOR A DAY,
WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BE AND WHICH PERIOD OF HIS/HER LIFE WOULD YOU LIKE
TO HAVE A TASTE OF?
I have to think… Let’s say Al Pacino! Do I
also need to explain why?
-ONLY IF YOU WANT TO…
Ok then leave it like that! It’s pretty odd!
18.THANK YOU! IS THERE A FINAL MESSAGE YOU WANT
TO SEND TO ALL YOUR DIE HARD AND DEVOTED FANS AROUND THE WORLD?
It has been great with them, their support
and their devotion! They have made all these years worth going through.
Many of them say “Thank you” to us and we say “Thank you!” to them! I wish
they join us for the very last meters and for the funeral and after that
I wish all the best to everyone!
Christine Parastatidou
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