Lucem Fero | Interviews | Thunderstone

A Darwinian Approach - Thunderstone bassist Titus Hjelm notes Evolution 4.0's birth

By Anthony Morgan

Formed in the opening year of the millennium by erstwhile Antidote guitarist Nino Laurenne, Thunderstone cut several demos that year in preparation for their 2002 eponymous debut album. Amongst his chosen bandmates, Laurenne recruited Titus Hjelm who'd previously handled Antidote's bass duties during their final years. Thunderstone proved a strong yet not innovative effort, a weakness which the group attempted to rectify in the following releases that came; 2004's The Burning and 2005's Tools of Destruction. Notching up a notable support slot with Finnish legends Stratovarius, Thunderstone's decision to compete for the chance to represent Finland for 2007's Eurovision contest brought them to widespread attention in their native country. Despite coming second in the Finnish finals, it significantly raised their native status and now Thunderstone wish to take this to an international level.

Fourth effort Evolution 4.0 was released in March 2007, once again recorded at the now well known Sonic Pump Studios. An album which professes to live up to its title name, Evolution 4.0 is said to mark another transition in the merging identity of Thunderstone and to be yet another step in the group finding an unique sound. More importantly, it's helped them discover another piece in the puzzle, and as a consequence another aspect of who they are on the Metal landscape. A crunchier sound seeps through, and the album bursts forth with the heavier segments that 2005's Tools of Destruction hinted at while retaining the group's "landmark" melodies. Rather than a U-turn, the fourth effort pledges to expand upon the stronger aspects of previous releases while sprinkling some fresh ingredients into the mix.

Playing their instruments with a tighter, more realised passion, Titus Hjelm kindly gave Lucem Fero an insight into the ingredients that made this album and also a little information on his earlier days. With a grasp of English much superior to most of his native people, Titus proved a joy and delight to converse with in our telephone discussion.

Could you tell me about how Evolution 4.0 came about?
Well, it's a bit different from the previous albums we have done. This time the whole writing process for me is pretty together, whereas on the previous albums mostly one or two of us contributed to the songs. We also actually knew how to play all the songs when we went to the studio this time which is a new thing for this band, so in that sense it's a very different thing from the previous albums. I think that also contributed to the fact it's a bit different from the previous ones also music wise; I hope so.
How would you describe Evolution 4.0 musically?
I've never been a big fan of Power Metal which is a label that we have been tagged into. I think that already on the second album we pretty much steered away from that; the generic dragons and wizards style of Power Metal. I would call this Melodic Heavy Metal with a kind of, I don't know, Pantera kind of groove in it.
Could you tell me why you hate genre labels like Power Metal?
Well, to be honest, I think especially there's especially a lot of crap going under the name of Power Metal. I think even if the first album (Thunderstone) wasn't as original as it could have been, it's still above a lot of the music that goes around there - I'm not being proud in a bad sense, but still it's something that we really didn't really like. Besides, the first album was more or less a project that our guitarist wanted to try out though we never thought we'd end up being a real band. We have steered away from the original direction already on the second album (The Burning), and even more so on the third one (Tools of Destruction). With the third one people were already saying we'd found our own sound, and I hope the album really shows that we are not about kind of generic Power Metal thing. Labels are good in the sense that they're useful for marketing purposes of course, but it's not only a disservice to our band but a disserve to every band in the world to just put a tag on a band and think that tells everything about a band. I've seen some Metal websites that have short descriptions of bands, and they list us as Power Metal without ever having heard the albums which is just unprofessional I think.
Would you say the band has found its sound on this album?
Yeah definitely. I think we already did that on the last one, but this one has taken it even further. It's something... I don't know as I don't listen to this kind of music that much at home. I know the scene very poorly, so I really don't know if I should... I would have to compare our band to somebody else's or other contemporaries. I don't know what to say as I don't know the bands so well, but at least to my knowledge not many bands play the same thing with the heavy background, the heavy riffing type of thing and then the very melodic vocals on top of that.
How would you compare your bass performance on this album to past albums?
Well, I'm a very basic kind of player. On the first two albums we tried to do something which was a partially fast, solo type of thing and I can't do it even if I wanted to. I just became more comfortable though, as I actually started out as a guitar player and that's why I actually can't pull off the fast stuff. I just became more comfortable with picking the low end and tried to work with the drums more than actually guitar. That I think is the secret of a good rhythm section; for the bass player to listen to the drums and not just to play what the guitarist is.
Are you trying to learn the faster stuff on bass then?
Yeah, well I can do some fast stuff actually because in the beginning we even disccussed if I would've taken the second guitar in the band because I used to be a guitar player with Thunderstone more or less, but then I actually found it much more nice to play bass, and not only because it's different but it's very powerful also. It's very good for on tours because you can have much more beer before the show (laughs) when you play bass.
What lyrical themes does this new album explore then?
Well we've never been a really thematic band in that sense. The only thing we decided in the beginning was that we would never sing about fantasy stuff that the generic Power Metal bands are known for. This album is not that different from the previous ones in the sense we mostly talk about everyday walks of life - things that piss us off or things in personal life, and not just our lives but in everybody's lives that are difficult or a little gloomy. A lot of our songs are about how you can feel when you're really hung over in the tour bus (laughs).
Could you tell me how the new album title Evolution 4.0 came about?
I know that there are a couple of albums called Evolution by other Metal artists so we didn't want to do that. We definitely like the idea of evolution though because that also reflects the development of the band, and we just added 4.0 because it's our fourth album and it's a neat computer programme style of title.
Do you think the new album title is appropriate?
Yeah definitely. The 4.0 doesn't really have any deeper meaning (laughs) in that sense, but I definitely think that there has been an evolution from the beginnings of the band.
How do you feel the album best represents where Thunderstone are now at?
Well, I mean that's one thing about the album titles generally in our band - we never wanted to name any of the albums by any of the songs on the album. Now we have “Evolution 4.0” on the album and that's only an intro song, well it's an intro speech and not really a song. Yeah I think it's been an evolution not only musically but also if you look at the album covers etc. they came from a colourful, generic type of thing if you want to call it that, to a darker, kind of gloomier style. I think that also reflects the evolution of the band and the whole style.
How do you feel this album retains the “landmark” melodies of Thunderstone?
Well I think it's working really good as we changed some of the things. This is compared to the first album where basically the guitars especially just fade into the background of the chorus vocals pretty much. Now there's some really heavy riffing, the songs are much more guitar orientated and the keyboards have been put in the background more or less. The vocals are still pretty much the same though I would say, and that's one of the things which is the trademark of Thunderstone if there's one. If there's a trademark of Thunderstone it's that we really have the heavy guitar riffing but very melodic vocals, even though some of the melodic lines have changed a little bit. That's because the background has changed a little bit, though still we're aiming for the good chorus that you can remember - it doesn't sound like Pop, but I always appreciate it if there's something you can remember from a song, and that's usually the chorus.
So Pasi's part in the band is really important is it?
Yeah of course. In the first stages of the writing process he isn't really involved - mostly the day is the four of us together and then Pasi comes along later. He has a really important part in finalising the vocals when they are recording them, and his voice has changed so much during the five years or so we have been doing this stuff.
So his voice has evolved as well then?
Yeah. On the first album I think that he was open about the fact he wasn't really comfortable singing Heavy Metal - he had only sung in cover bands, which was more like Rock of sorts. I think in hindsight if you listen to the first album, he's not really giving everything. There's been a huge progress from that in the last albums though, and I think now he is really giving his best sides; it's much more darker and has a much more raspier sound if you will.
How do you feel this new album brings in some of the heavier stuff that Tools of Destruction hints at?
Yeah, that's why we wanted to call it Evolution 4.0. It's not really a jump from something completely different to a new kind of style as we already had some Thunderstone material on Tools of Destruction, and I think its sort of a natural progression to a more heavier direction this time. In my opinion I really think it's a good direction and that the heavy stuff really suits both for me and our guitarist Nino; We have played in a Thrash, Speed Metal band (Antidote) before it's our dark path that is now actually being used.
Is there a reason you chose the heavier style? Or was it because of the Thrash band (Antidote) you was in?
It's not really that we made a conscious choice in a sense that we really decided now we're going to do something heavier. Like I told you, the whole writing process was different last time on the previous albums as we pretty much thought about the songs from beginning to end. This time though we just went there - I might have had a riff quite heavy and then somebody else added something else to it. The songs are just structured differently, and I think that this time the riffs we had were just heavier. Of course we were a little doubtful about whether this would work in the beginning. In the beginning actually without the vocals it's quite frightening, because it sounds like a really big step from the previous album though when you add the melody on top of the heavy guitars, we're back to the same old Thunderstone again.
So it's a natural progression?
Yeah, I would say. That's exactly why we wanted to call it Evolution 4.0.
Could you tell me about your favourite track on the album?
My favourite track?
Yours personally.
Well that's a difficult one to choose because on most of the past albums I've definitely had at least one favourite, but this one has so many good songs. Even though it's heavier, there are so many different kinds of songs. Personally I like “Swirled” a lot as it's so different from anything which we have done before, but also on the other hand I like melodic stuff such as “10, 000 Ways” and “Forevermore” contains, It's really difficult to pick a favourite song, though I'm compelled to say it's “10, 000 Ways” - that's probably the first song that we ever rehearsed together and it has a really really great, groovy beginning. I really like that song.
What are the lyrics about on that track, “10, 000 Ways”?
The lyrics? Well actually that's about drunk driving, and that's one of the few social issues that we have used in our songs.
Does that come from a personal perspective?
No I don't think so. Finland is actually a funny country because we drink a lot, but we're quite strict about drunk driving compared to America for example.
Or the UK..
Yeah yeah, this is what I've heard.
Yeah. Over here you get around 6 months or something similar if you kill someone through drunk driving usually.
Ok yeah.
That's pretty bad isn't it?
Yeah, but anyway it's not really about personal experience. It's a lament over the stupidity of driving drunk (laughs).
Could you tell me about the two covers the band recorded for the album?
We did Nik Kershaw's “The Riddle”. That was actually the only one we did this time if I remember right - do you have any other information? (laughs).
I heard you did two covers.
Actually we were supposed to do another cover song for the Japanese edition but then we dropped it. We did Nik Kershaw's “The Riddle” which is a really great 80's hit, and I think that actually came out as a really good version too.
Was that the first cover you done?
No..
I don't mean in the band, but was that the first one you did of the two?
We did some covers on the previous albums, but this is the only one...
No I didn't mean it like that, I meant you did two covers for the album didn't you? There was one you did first and the second one which you found challenging?
It's just we didn't really have time to do it. This time we wanted to do the whole process and thought we would be on time for a change. This occurs every time - we end up being in a dreadful horror at the end of the day, and of course at that time it's the cover songs which are usually the first ones to get dropped. There were actually a several more songs, our own songs, that we wanted to put on the album but just didn't have time to finish them. They were not so great though so I don't feel like we missed anything, but still.
How would you describe Thunderstone's version of “The Riddle”?
I think basically it's quite faithful to the original version, but of course it's much more heavier and the verse is also quite interesting because that's quite heavy too. The original rendition is actually one of the strangest songs I've ever played, because it's very difficult actually. It's also very complex, and it's not like the normal four chord Pop song - it has about every possible chord imaginable that you can get, so it's actually a very complex song. We've never played it live because there are a lot of chances of playing it really badly.
Are you a big fan of doing covers then or you don't like it?
The first covers that we ever did were ones the record company suggested we did because they issued some cover albums, with many bands playing Judas Priest for example, Iron Maiden or something similar. That's why we did some of the first covers we ever recorded - actually most of the covers that we've ever done have been from the suggestion of the record company. This one we wanted to do because this is not a Metal band cover, but is something completely different from what we've done before.
Was the record company after hits or not?
No not really, as the previous times they were doing these compilation albums where all of their artists played. For example I think Nuclear Blast has Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Metallica or whatever tribute albums, so we did the covers for those.
Could you talk me through the video concept for “Face in the Mirror”?
The point is, I think (laughs), well I'm not sure because I live in Amsterdam nowadays and wasn't involved in the video part that much. I just flew in, did my part and flew out so that's bit of a weird experience for me. When I partially got the idea from their original concept though the concept was that it's basically a band video, so it doesn't have a really deep storyline or anything. The only story there is that there's a line at the end of the chorus which says “When the darkness takes over the light”, and this is reflected in the fact that in the beginning of the video he is singing with a white shirt on, but by the end of the video the other part which is evil takes over with the dark black shirt. We had to do it in a really really short schedule, so we couldn't start figuring out any actors or a more complicated storyline for that.
Is there a reason why you weren't in the video that much?
This was something that was almost a favour from a production company that we know. We have friends in Finland, so we just put material together and that was because I'm here in Amsterdam while the guys are in Helsinki. We didn't have any email discussion or anything about it, but I was pretty much confident that they would do good script and I was fine with that. I just went there and played my part.
Does living in Amsterdam make things difficult for you?
Well, yes (laughs). If we hadn't had big promotional things happening in Finland then it would have been cool because I wouldn't really need to pop over - we don't rehearse that much though we rehearse only when we have shows coming up. It's easy, but when we were involved in the Finnish Eurovision thing I had to fly back and forth quite a lot so it's quite a drag now actually. It's actually just been getting better now.
Do you have any other music videos planned at the moment?
No not at the moment. I think we would really hope to put together a video from one of the more heavier songs. “Face in the Mirror” was actually the only song composed for the Eurovision thing; it's not really a Pop song, but I don't think that it's the most representative song on the record so we would really like to do something different. I don't know anything about that yet, but we have a lot of live video clips from our shows during the years overall. Maybe we could put something together like that, even if we don't shoot a completely new video.
Is there a song you'd like to make a music video for from this album?
“10, 000 Ways” could be a good contender for me, though “Roots of Anger” is also a good song. It's really difficult to decide, but maybe if I decided it would perhaps be “Roots of Anger”.
How would you describe the “crunch” sound on this album, the one you described in your studio diary?
Well that's something, especially compared to the first two albums. Those first two albums were mixed by Mikko Karmila who does a lot of work with Finnish bands such as Nightwish, Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica etc. - he does a great job but his sound is very discernible, and he has a very clean trademark sound. On Tools of Destruction I think we already went to a more rough direction when Nino mixed it, and this this time we hired a friend of ours who works at the same studio that Nino works at. He has never done Metal bands before but he actually brought a really fresh perspective to the thing which especially brought the guitars out more in front, and I think that's sort of the crunchy sound that we get.
How do you feel rehearsing the songs beforehand affected the way they turned out when recording them?
I think they are much tighter. There are some songs on the previous albums for example that I had never heard before; there was only a drum track in the background, and I just went to the studio. There were some demo guitars on the tape, so Nino who's produced the albums just told me “Play like this” and then I did it. It's very hard to play with a lot of feeling if you haven't internalised the whole thing, but this time it was different because I actually knew what I was doing. I think this pretty much goes for everybody in the band.
Is the band going to do that for future albums?
Yeah. We try to be as prepared as we can when the recording starts, and this time we were quite prepared. It happens sometimes though that you get this one song that you have an idea for, but you don't really finish it before you start recording it - then it's going to be difficult. Yeah, we're doing our best though.
Do you think the band should have rehearsed the songs on past albums before recording them?
Yeah, we do that anyway a little but not a lot. When you've toured especially there's a huge difference between these bands that have never toured and those that have - when you play a certain set fifteen, twenty times every night in a row it really makes a difference because the songs are just so embedded into your spinal cord. For example, I didn't even have my bass here before I went to Finland for the record release party, and we played a great gig. We only practiced the new songs and not really the old ones, so I was a little scared about that as I wasn't really sure if I was going to remember the songs. The minute the first lines started though, I put my fingers on the chord and everything came back because it's just so embedded in there somewhere.
Nino said the riffs on the new album sometimes remind him of Antidote. Do you feel the same way?
Yeah of course. You can hear the influences that we've had and what we did when we were a lot younger (laughs), but it's not going to be a second Antidote in any sense. We took some of the good stuff from that band and mixed it with the good stuff from this band, so that's what you get.
Is there anything written for a follow up to Evolution 4.0?
No. We've had heavy promotional things happening in Finland at this point, and we're now trying to negotiate a European tour so we haven't really had time to think any further than that. We're just going to do this and see how the promotion goes for the rest of the year. We put Tools of Destruction out in slightly over a year after the second album which was really really quick, though this took almost two years so I don't think we're in any hurry. It's sort of a natural thing that if you have the ideas in your head and have the feeling that now it would be a good idea to rehearse and use material, then it's ok; it might end up being a good album or something. Right now though we haven't really put any thoughts into it.
So there's no date pencilled in for recording?
No not really.
Why did the band compete for Eurovision?
For us it was mostly a promotional thing because in Finland we're not really well known; we are known, but not as well as any of the other artists that were competing in the competition. If Lordi hadn't won last year it would be very doubtful that we would have agreed to take part, but Lordi's victory changed the whole thing. It's not a Rock contest yet because I wasn't quite sure when I saw some of the songs from the other countries, though still it's not that embarassing as it used to be like five or ten years ago. As I said, for us it was mostly a promotional thing - we got a million TV viewers for our performance which is something you could never achieve with the promotional campaigns that we had done before.
Would you like to emulate Lordi's success then?
Well, it would be great but (laughs) it would be really difficult. It's helped being part of the Eurovision thing, well in Finland it has because we didn't actually qualify for the finals so it remains to be seen whether that has any significance on the international market. I think though that people have a different view towards the whole Eurovision thing because Lordi won last year and it would've been really good to be there to represent Finland with actually the first Metal song in the contest. We're not sorry for it though because I think the person who is representing Finland is really good and that's ok. We never took it so seriously that we would've lost sleep over winning the contest.
Have you garnered criticism over entering Eurovision then?
Well everyone keep's asking “Why did you it?”, though I don't think anybody has really said it or asked these things in the sense that “You sold out now” because I don't think we did that. The song is still pretty much the same that we are doing - it might not be the most representative song on the new album, but it's still pretty much the same material that we did anyway. It's not that we sold in the sense we started making Eurovision Pop songs for this contest, so I don't worry about that too much.
So you don't feel there's the danger of Thunderstone losing its credibility for being associated with Eurovision?
No. Those people that are worried about authenticity or things like that, well, Gene Simmons has said that “Authenticity has never sold one record for them” so it (laughs) may be a pretty pessimistic way of thinking. I still think though that trying to be really authentic, really cool and be true Metal has never brought any band any success, so I think we have nothing to lose in this because that's the reason why we took the opportunity.
Are you going to try next year for Eurovision?
No I don't think so as in Finland the artists are chosen by invitation, and we were just lucky to get the invitation this year. I don't think they will invite us (laughs).
But if you got invited, would you say yes?
Well if they would invite us, it's hard to say; we finished second in the Finnish finals, so that's not a bad position and also why not? It's very hard to say what we would say if we were to be asked again.
Do you still teach at the University of Helsinki?
Actually no, I am at the University of Amsterdam right now. Yeah, I work at university still.
Considering you studied sociology related subjects, how integral do you feel human interaction is in the success of Thunderstone?
I think I got the best of both worlds, though of course if Thunderstone sold a lot more records then it would be difficult to try to keep up with both jobs. The good thing about being a researcher, because I'm a researcher mostly and don't teach that much, is that I'm not obliged to be at the university every day for example. Research is a really great thing because of that, and I don't even have to tell my boss that I'm going away on a tour as I'm just a researcher with my own responsibilities which is a very good thing. If we did sell a lot more records I would take that opportunity because you can always come back to the university, though it's not so easy to get a lot of success in the Heavy Metal arena if this doesn't work out.
Could you tell me what you most remember about your time in Antidote?
Well that was great as that was the reason that I started playing bass. I joined the band because they had just kicked their bassist out and they had booked a gig, needing somebody to play the bass. They called me to ask did I know anybody who played the bass, and I thought of a couple of friends but everybody was busy. Instead, I just said “I can come and play this one gig” but I just ended up staying in the band which was actually at the end of the day quite nice. Antidote was really nice - the guys had had some European success when they were really young, though then they just had problems with the label. From the beginning almost when I joined the band it felt like it was not going really well, and in that sense I wasn't happy that the whole band was buried with pride so to speak.
Would you say that you and Nino having known each other for so long has benefited Thunderstone?
Yeah. I know that musically we know each other pretty well, and that's also great to know. I'm probably the best friend in the band with Nino, and that's a good thing. Sometimes it's a problem because we know each other so well that we are the ones who easily get into fights, but that's also a very productive thing because we can actually talk about things with each other. I think that the experience we had in Antidote together has been a really good thing for us in the new band.
Could you tell me about your time in Incredible Brainshells?
(laughs) You've really studied your homework because that's something I've never been asked before (laughs). That's a very interesting thing, as that used to be the time when I played guitar. Incredible Brainshells was a great, small band that is quite well known on the Helsinki club circuit and also outside of Helsinki. I had a lot of fun out of it, and I really liked playing guitar in that band. There were some great guys as well, but they were going through an indentity crisis of sorts and I happened to come in the middle of that so I couldn't really help. They were already having internal problems and it wasn't my job to try to solve those problems so it was short lived in that sense.
You considered doing a book about the first Thunderstone tour with Symphony X and Stratovarius? Have you given that any more thought?
No, that was my plan. I did some interviews, talked with the people and I'd really like to publish it sometime. I haven't really had the time though, and I still think it's very difficult to write about things that you are so close to, and to detach yourself sociologically and then try to do it.
When do you think you'll sit down and write it?
Well I don't know. I hope to some day, but right now I'm busy with other writing projects.
Do you think it'll be when you're retired?
Yeah that's a good idea (laughs), yeah definitely. I hope that's not too soon (laughs).
When you was nine you heard “Lick It Up” by Kiss. What impact did that have on you?
That's probably the first Metal or Rock song I ever heard, and that was when I was roughly nine years old. We had this new guy who came to our class, and I hadn't really thought about music at all before that. He said “Kiss is a great band", and when I first went to his house he played "Lick It Up” to me. I was blown away - that's why I'm here basically if you want to cut a story short.
Did the style on that song influence you in any way? The guitar, the bass or anything?
Not really, as I wasn't playing anything at that time. I actually wanted to be a drummer first, but then the reality of city life hit me too hard. Instead, my dad bought me an electric guitar which is much more neighbour friendly - I lived in a block of flats. I actually started thinking about how they played the material years after I heard it the first time, though it was just the whole thing about the band and their whole outlook which inspired me.
Is there a reason you wanted to be a drummer at first?
My dad was a musician, and he had a studio. I got to play drums a couple of times there, and I just thought it was really great just to be able to hit something with your full strength and ending up actually not sounding quite too bad.
So you come from a musical background?
Yeah, but I listened to Classical or music like that when I was very little. Like I told you, the Rock thing only came when I was roughly nine.
So your family were very supportive when they knew you wanted to enter music?
Yeah. In the beginning they didn't really like the idea that I'd like to grow my hair long (laughs), but other than that they've been really supportive.
Do you think that helped then, in any way? Their support?
Yeah. A lot of the stories about Rock stars are about how difficult a time they had with their parents, that they were rebels etc. I think that's one way to go, but for me it's been really great. Every player in this band has had support from their parents or grandparents; I think even our drummer had his first drumkit bought for him by his grandparents.
Could you tell me what you like about Lemmy's bass playing style?
Yeah, he's been a real influence since I was a little kid. Motörhead was one of the first bands that I ever heard.
Yeah, they're brilliant aren't they?
Yeah, his sound is so brutal that I really like it. I also play with a lot of distortion and overdrive in my bass.
Would you like to tour with Motörhead or something similar?
Well, yeah (laughs) of course. That would be more than a dream come true, and that would be really cool.
Which other guitarists and bass players were you fond of when you started out?
For me it's hard to say. I didn't really try to imitate the chops of any bass players, but obviously players like Lemmy, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and Gene Simmons and people like that have been important to me. I really only began studying bass playing though after I already played bass in a band. About the guitarists, in the beginning of course Ace Frehley was really important. Very early on also I really got to like a lot about Tommy Bolin who was the last guitarist in Deep Purple back in '76 or something like that. He played on one of the albums.
Was there certain styles of bass playing or guitar playing you particularly liked when you was starting out?
I'm more into the '70's material, and I wasn't pretty much into the guitar hero vein of the early '90's and late '80's. That not withstanding, I've always been into the 70's stuff which is more down to earth and has a rootsy kind of sound. It's hard to name any names, but for me it's mostly been about doing the basic job and trying to retain it so it sounds like a real instrument. In this I mean not a machine which is a very unfortunate outcome of many of the contemporary studio techniques - instruments don't even sound like instruments any more.
Could you tell me what Thunderstone's upcoming plans are?
Right now we're trying to negotiate a tour for Europe. I don't know any details about that yet, but we will be able to publish information on the website as soon as we know anything about it. After that we're doing some promotional gigs in Finland and some festivals in Finland mostly this summer. After we know about the tour, then probably we'll start thinking about possible new songs at the beginning of next year. You never know how long that will take though.
Are you looking forward to touring?
Yeah definitely, because that's the only way to go. Metal albums don't get much promotion in the media or anything, and they don't play Metal videos that much so touring is the thing to do if you want to promote yourself. I'm really looking forward to touring.
Where would you like to take your career in the coming years?
It's very hard to say, but I think we're on the right track right now. I hope that whatever happens in the future that people would buy the record (laughs), as it would be so much easier for us to arrange things and arrange to play every possible corner of the world. That's what I hope for the band mostly.
Do you think the band can achieve all that then?
I think it has a lot of potential, but when you achieve a certain level of fame if you will many things get out of hand. You can't do anything about things yourself anymore - as long as you're a very famous club band in your local town or whatever then you pretty much influence every decision you want by yourself, but when you get to a certain level you have management, booking agencies and record labels. You have to deal with them, and sometimes negotiations are not very easy. It's not up to you whether you can play in Mexico even if you wanted to or if you don't as support or whatever.
It's pretty difficult when you get so successful then is it?
When you get really successful it gets easy again. On the middle rung of the ladder though it's quite difficult because your successful enough to need international exposure, but then you're not success enough to do it by yourselves. You need people that can arrange things for you and the support of the record label is really important.
So you're hungry to take it to the next level then?
Yeah. In that sense touring is really important as it's the only way to go in order to sell more records and to take the band to the next level.
Are there any musical goals you have outside of Thunderstone?
Like I said, I'm happy with the direction we have taken with our last album. I think that if we can achieve something as fresh as heavy, yet still sounding as good as Evolution 4.0 then I would be really happy with that.
Do you have any messages for the fans?
Well, just go out and buy the record (laughs) as that's your ticket to seeing us live. We'd really like to come over and play in the UK and every corner of the world.
If you come to the UK make sure you come to Wales.
Wales? Ok, yeah (laughs).
Because bands never come to Wales and it's really annoying.
Do you have any clubs there?
Yeah we have clubs and so on, but most of the bands never come. They all go to London but they never come to Cardiff, which is really frustrating.
Ok, I'll have to keep that in mind (laughs).
So come to Cardiff.
Ok (laughs).
Sorry, I'm preaching now (laughs).
That's cool, that's cool (laughs).
Thanks for the interview, and I wish you all the best.
Ok. Bye.