Thunderstone
This interview with Thunderstone's
guitarist was one of the funniest and most amusing I've ever had, since
not only have I learned a lot of things about the band and their goals,
but I've also found out that we are dealing here with an honest and sincere
band that deeply loves the music they play! Enjoy this discussion like
I did!
1. FIRST OF ALL A TYPICAL QUESTION, PLEASE
COMPARE “TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION” WITH “THE BURNING”. WHAT NEW ELEMENTS
CAN FIND IN THE NEW ALBUM A FAN OF YOURS?
Well, I would say the most important thing
I have already heard that...of course on the first album, the people were
comparing us every time with Stratovarius. The truth is that we had some
elemnts, but on the second album we have started finding our personal sound.
Many people have said that it's very hard to imagine someone comparing
us with Stratovarius. Now we really sound like Thunderstone.
2. I HAVE LISTENED TO YOUR PREVIOUS WORK AND I
CAN SAY THAT YOU REMINDED ME A LOT OF STRATOVARIUS. HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN
PEOPLE COMPARE YOU WITH THEM? DO YOU THINK THAT THIS COMPARISON IS NOT
FAIR TO YOU, THAT GIVE A WRONG IMAGE TO THE PEOPLE?
Well, in the beginning it was OK to compare
us with Stratovarius. We don't deny that we were influenced by them, in
the sense that we started to compose similar kind of music. I think after
a while we started thinking with our own brains and with our new album
you can really tell that we achieved a more personal sound. However, there
are still some Stratovarius touches to our sound. If someone still supports
that on our new album we sound like Stratovarius, he/she has to check his/her
ears... hehehehe!
3. LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE LYRICS OF
THE NEW ALBUM : TELL ME IN FEW WORDS WHICH IS THE THEME OF EACH SONG AND
WHAT GAVE YOU THE INSPIRATION TO WRITE SUCH LYRICS.
Do you want me to go song by song?
-YES! IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU DID SO!
I have to remember which songs we have included
in the album... well the first one is called "Tool Of The Devil"...ahhh
pff... well most of the lyrics are written by Nino, so I can't really tell
for what kind of things each songs is about... But I'll try to do my best
:))... "Tool Of The Devil" is like the biggest part of the songs, about
the modern world. It has nothing to do with the devil, but that eevryone
can be bad and provoke evil and harm other people... (note: the truth
is that the guitarist of Thunderstone couldn't tell us many things about
the lyrics, since he isn't responsible for them, but their main topic is
everyday life). "Liquid Of The King" is the only song I can remember,
because it talks about my favorite subject, which is drinking. On our previous
album we had the song "Spire" which tells the story of ours, having a hangover
and this is the second part of that song. It's a song about drinking and
feeling like shit the day after...hhehhehe! Also "Welcome To the Real"
talks about how is life being a member of a metal band and how wrong it
is to have a rock star attitude. You have to be realistic if you want to
achieve something... "The Last Song" which isn't actually the last song
of the new album talks about some bad moments that we had during the recordings
of the album (we have great times mostly though...) and the relief you
feel when you finish the recording sessions...
4.MOST OF THE BANDS FROM FINLAND WRITE MELANCHOLIC
LYRICS. HOW ABOUT YOU? ARE YOU PESSIMISTS OR OPTIMISTS?
No, we want to keep a positive side in our
music, although our new album is named "Tools Of destruction". However,
this is the darkest album that Thunderstone have ever composed.
5.ON YOUR NEW ALBUM YOU ALSO HAVE AS A BONUS TRACK
FOR THE JAPANESE EDITION A DIO’S COVER SONG (RAINBOW IN THE DARK), WHY
DID YOU CHOOSE THIS ONE SPECIFIC? WHICH WAS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THAT YOU
HAVE CONFRONTED BY DOING THIS COVER SONG?
Well, this is a song that we have played a
couple of times live and it worked really well. Also the Japanese labels,
always ask for a bonus track. They wouldn't release the album, if they
didn't have a bonus track. So, we didn't have any compositions of ours
and we decided to put this song as a bonus. We didn't have any specific
problem adapting it. The voice of our singer has changed a lot since the
first album and his voice in the cover song sounds pretty similar to Ronnie
james Dio's. We didn't change the song and thus it's very close to the
original verison.
6.DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO RELEASE AN ALBUM WITH COVER
SONGS?
Ohh, well I don't know, but I don't think
so. We have put some cover songs in our albums as bonus tracks and we have
played some covers live, but I don't see the reason... except if you give
a different interpretation of the original songs. But if we decided to
do such an album, we would cover bands from the 70s and 80s, cause we are
fans of this eras of metal music. We would choose to cover bands like Iron
Maiden, Dio, Deep Purple...
7. IN MY OPINION THIS SPECIAL TREATMENT TO THE
JAPANESE METAL FANS IS UNFAIR FOR THE REST FANS OF YOURS AROUND THE WORLD,
CAUSE YOUR LABEL FORCE THEM TO BUY THE JAPANESE VERSION WHICH IS MORE EXPENSIVE.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
Yeah, I know, but we didn't have a choice
on that... there is a possibility to include the "Rainbow In The Dark"
as a bonus track to our next release for the rest of the world, bit nothing
is sure yet... I will keep a note about it though and speak with out record
label, because you are not the first one that complained...
8. DO YOU PLAN TO RELEASE AN ALBUM THAT WILL INCLUDE
ONLY COVER SONGS? LET’S SUPPOSE THAT YOU CREATE SUCH AN ALBUM WHICH ARTISTS
OR SONGS WOULD YOU LIKE TO COVER AND WHY?
It's actually Shiva, but her face has been
changed a little bit and because of that it's hard to recognize her. basically,
I wanted to have a black and silver cover since in our previous albums
we had a blue (debut) and a red cover. Now, since this is a dark album
we wanted to have a dark and silver cover. So, I told our cover artist
Thomas Everhart to find us a naked lady and make her look like she is made
of silver and put something in her hands. So, he came up with this idea
of Shiva, which we liked a lot and gave him the freedom to do the artwork
in the way he wanted...
-SHE SEEMS VERY EVIL FOR A NAKED LADY...HEHEHEHE
9. THE COVER ARTWORK OF YOUR NEW ALBUM SHOWS KHALI
IF I AM NOT WRONG. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO SUCH A DARK COVER AND HOW IS
CONNECTED WITH YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS? WHO IS THE ARTIST THAT CREATED IT?
Ah, well you know it's very difficult! If
we were selling 4.000.000 albums, I wouldn't mind but we are not such a
big band and in a way MP3 downloading threatens our existence. After all
the CD doesn't cost so much... So, if you like a band you have to support
it by buying its album. On the other hand internet is a very useful tool
and that's the reason why I am not condemning it. Especially, smaller and
younger bands like us promote their music better through the internet.
It's OK to me to download a couple of songs, to see how the band sounds,
but not the whole album. It's strange to get emails telling us how great
our new record sounds, before we ever heard the completed version of it.
I think that's insane! hehehe!
10. LET’S SUPPOSE YOU SEE A PERSON DOWNLOADING
YOUR ALBUM FROM INTERNET, HOW WILL YOU REACT? ON THE OTHER HAND DON’T YOU
THINK THAT THIS WAY INTERNET HELPS YOU TO SPREAD YOUR MUSIC TO EVEN MORE
PERSONS FASTER?
Oh, so far we have got really, really good
feedback from the press and that makes us very happy! Of course, the more
albums you make the more pressure you get... On the first album we didn't
have any pressure, because we were having fun and if someone wanted
to release our album, it would be great!!! With the second one we had some
pressure, but with this new one we were very anxious since we consider
it as the first Thunderstone sounding album. However, it's very nice to
see that people like it so far... Well, the best reviews we read are those
saying that thunderstone found their personal sound and those that piss
us off the most are those saying that we sound like Stratovarius. We don't
agree with that, because it's not true. If you pay attention to our music
and vocal lines, you can hear clearly what I'm talking about... We don't
do anything on purpose. We want to make good songs and have our own sound.
11. HOW DID THE PRESS AND FANS RECEIVED YOUR NEW
EFFORT TILL NOW? WHICH IN YOUR OPINION WAS THE BEST REVIEW THAT YOU READ
TILL NOW AND WHICH ONE PISSED YOU OFF BECAUSE YOU THOUGH THAT THE REVIEWER
DIDN’T UNDERSTAND YOUR MUSIC.
Even though I said before, this is our darkest
album it doesn't mean that we want to make the people who listen to it
to feel bad. On the contrary we want people to feel great and enjoy good
music. To have a nice time! That's the thing that we want to achieve when
playing live. But our new songs are about everyday life and as we kow life
is not always good. However at the end of the day we want people to feel
good, when they listen to out music...
12. IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN YOU HAVE DONE VIDEO-CLIPS
IN THE PAST, SO DO YOU PLAN A NEW VIDEO-CLIP BASED ON A SONG FROM YOUR
NEW ALBUM? IF YES, WHICH SONG WILL YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE?
Yeah, actually we have already made a video
clip for the song "Tool Of The Devil" from our new album. We made it very
very quickly because the label that shot it, had a really tight schedule
and so we had to make it the first weekend after we finished the recordings
of the album. So, the video is ready and we try to give it as much airplay
as possible around the world. Actually it's a typical video clip showing
the band playing live on stage, because we were in a hurry and we didn't
have any time to do a cinematic video, a video with a concept story behind
it...
-IF YOU HAD THE TIME AND MONEY, HOW DO YOU IMAGINE
A THUNDERSTONE VIDEO CLIP TO BE?
Oh, oh, well it would have a huge amount of
naked women and it would show Thunderstone drinking beer hehehehe (note:
we couldn't stop laughing here!)
-YOU KNOW THAT SUCH VIDEOS THE CHANNELS ARE OBLIGED
TO SHOW THEM AFTER MIDNIGHT...HEHEHE!
I know we have to create our own adult channel
to play it! hehehehe!
13. NOW I WANT TO ASK YOU A GENERAL QUESTION,
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE CAN UNDERSTAND BETTER HOW THE WORLD WORKS A PHILOSOPHER
OR AN ARTIST AND WHY?
It's not about understanding the world better,
but it's to understand the world in a different way. Being a philosopher
is to think rationally and be logical all the time. The artist on the other
hand tries to understand the world through emotions...
14. I BELIEVE THAT AS A METALHEAD THAT YOU ARE
YOU HAVE LISTENED TO PEOPLE THAT DON’T LIKE OR KNOW OUR MUSIC SAYING THAT
IS A BUNCH OF NOISE OR THAT IS AN ART THAT LACKS OF REALISM. WHAT DO YOU
HAVE TO REPLY TO THEM?
Well, in my opinion there are two kinds of
music: bad music and good music. It's all about taste and you can't really
argue about the taste. I think this is something that most people forget.
So, I can't tell my grandmother that she listens to shitty music, because
of course she can say that the music I play is shit. But I can understand
that her ears are used in different kinds of music than ours... However,
I am happy that there are people that don't listen to heavy metal and told
us that our music is good! (note: He means heavy metal in general).
15. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS? IS THERE ANY CHANCE
TO COME OVER HERE, IN GREECE? DO YOU HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH GREEK METAL
FANS?
We actually plan to do a couple of live shows
with Hammerfall. It will be for 3 weeks and we will only play in countries
like Germany and Switzerland. We haven't played in Greece yet, but we would
like very much to come. We also have heard from the guys in Stratovarius
that Greece is a great place to play live. So, we will try to come there
as soon as possible. We plan a tour this fall, but nothing is certain yet...
16. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. LEAVE
A MESSAGE TO THE FANS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE AND SAY WHAT EVER ELSE
YOU WANT…
Thank you for the support and hope to see
you as soon as possible and one more thing: DRINK BEER AND GET NAKED!!!
Hehehehe!
-HEHE! YOU MEAN THE WOMEN, RIGHT?
Oh, I don't mind! It's something that we do
all the time!!!
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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