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November 18th 2009, Key Club, West Hollywood CA
Andrew: Are you guys enjoying this North American tour?
Sami: Yeah so far, very good. Well we had a bunch of problems in the first week. Things are now starting to work finally. Its getting better all the time, and now that we are in LA everything is just perfect.
Andrew: Your show in Florida last week got cancelled. How did the band deal with that and are you planning on rescheduling that show?
Sami: Well, rescheduling that gig on this tour might be difficult because the last gig is in New York and our flight is already booked. I simply have no idea why it was cancelled. I actually heard about it from our portal. I was reading it one evening when we got internet. I was checking it out because I write there too, and someone wrote, 'Ok this gig in Florida got cancelled' and I said 'Wow, no one told us anything!' I still don't know the reason.
Andrew: Well I hope you guys can play there soon.
Sami: Yes that will be cool because the Hypocrisy guys told me that its been a very good place for them. We had a gig in Orlando and it was awesome.
Andrew: Are you disappointed that your support bands Hypocrisy and Ex Deo had to drop out?
Sami: Yes. I would say devastated. But I'm very happy that we could arrange things such that we could continue because that would have been a total disaster if we had to cancel the whole tour. I'm very happy that we got Lazarus A.D. Its always good to have Blackguard on board.
Andrew: It would have been nice to see those other bands too.
Sami: Yes. I think Ex Deo will be touring with us in Eastern Canada.
Andrew: I understand that you are here to promote your latest album 'From Afar'. What do you think of the crowd's response to the new songs that you are playing?
Sami: So far very good. There are people who sing along in the whole show and already know the lyrics. We are promoting the new album and since we are getting only 100 minutes to play, we are forced to leave some of the hit songs away. But we are doing some rare songs in the set, so for people who have seen us many times, we have surprises for them also.
Andrew: How much touring have you planned for this album in the coming months?
Sami: We did almost five weeks in Europe before this, and we went home for three days, washed laundry and came here for four weeks. In December we have three weeks have then we go to Australia for four gigs, then we have four gigs in China and one in Thailand. That's pretty much all we have confirmed now. But we are working on something for next spring and obviously summer festivals in Europe. We didn't do a lot of festivals last summer because we knew that obviously the album is going to come out, plus we were doing Summer Slaughter tour here. So I'm really looking forward to next summer and hoprefully at the end of next year, and this is just my personal wish, nothing confirmed and even negotiated, but I would like to come back to North America with a bigger band. That would be like a step ahead.
Andrew: The album is in the top 10 in Finland. Would you say its your best album till now?
Sami: Yes definitely. But you know, the charts in Finland.. it's a small country and its pretty easy to get into the charts. But the one I'm really proud of is when we hit the charts in Germany. I think it was #24 and the new Megadeth which came out in the same week was #23. Also on 'heatseekers' in the States it was number 6 or 8.
Andrew: The lyrics of your songs are based on Finnish Literature. How hard is it to come up with such themes? Does it take a long time?
Sami: Actually I write most of, in fact almost all the lyrics. I get inspiration from literature and Scandinavian names and shit like that. They are like pure fantasy and of course real life issues and news can also inspire us, just to get ideas and tranform it into Ensiferum (laughs).
Andrew: How was the gig in India last year? It was the first time a Viking Metal band had played there.
Sami: It was great. There are already some plans to go back there and do a small tour. That would be awesome. Most of us went there like few days earlier just to enjoy the culture and food. We love good food. At the show there were about 2,000 or 3,000 people and it was a big university. It was just great. There was also this local band who played progressive, Dream Theater style. They were very good also. They played just before us. We are really hoping we can get back there. Also there was this band competition going on earlier in the day and there were a lot of young metal bands so there is definitely something happening in India. Metal there will be big in a few years.
Andrew: What do you think of the band Lazarus A.D.? I think they are an awesome young band.
Sami: They are very good. As I said earlier, we are glad to have them on board. Though we could have done this tour with just Blackguard, but these guys sound a little bit different. Blackguard have the same kind of elements that we have. We are very happy to have Lazarus A.D. to have some different angle to the package.
Andrew: What is your favourite music these days?
Sami: Hypocrisy's new CD is very good, but I listen to all kinds of music. From classical to Scandinavian folk music to metal. If the music is good, its good (laughs). But Iron Maiden, of course, is THE band!
Andrew: Sami, thanks a lot for your time, have a good show and a good tour!
Sami: Namaste (you're welcome) and Dhanyawaad (thank you)!
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