"I'm definitely not a guitar hero!"

Just a few days before invading Bulgaria for the first time ever to play at the 20 Years Nuclear Blast Festival on November 3 in Sofia, Amorphis' founder, leader and guitar player Esa Holopainen warned us what to expect from the live performance of Finland's metal leaders...

Vassil Varbanov: Amorphis just came back from a concert in Japan. How has it been?

Esa Holopainen: Really nice! It was a two-day festival called Loudpark. Everything is really well organized in Japan.

V. V.: I guess this is not the first time you play there, right?

E. H.: No, but it's been several years since we last played in Japan. This was the first time we did a festival there, and a lot of bands took part in it - Heaven & Hell, Marilyn Manson, Lacuna Coil... A very big indoor festival, you know.

V. V.: In ten days you're going to play your first show in Bulgaria ever. What do you guys expect?

E. H.: We have very good expectations. We've always craved to come to your country, as we haven't been there before. I'm sure this will be a great happening, especially as we have enough time to play our full set, with songs from the first album to "Silent Waters". It's a shame we haven't played in Bulgaria so far, but it's about time now.

V. V.: We have a list of questions from our listeners, and that was the thing cRAZY Elena wanted to know: Shall you play old stuff in Sofia?

E. H.: Oh, yes, we'll play some songs from "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" (1994) and more old ones...

V. V.: ...however with your new vocalist, Tomi Joutsen. Is he a pleasant guy to be on tour with?

E. H.: He's a great guy! When he came in the band, we did those 4-5 weeks in the States - this was our first tour with him. In the course of time we found out not only he's a great vocalist, but also what kind of a person he is. We have a very good chemistry, and he's definitely one of us now. He understands our black humor, as we joke all the time on tour, and he's a great guy, very down to earth and the last person who's gonna pretend being a rock star.

V. V.: What about you? Do you consider yourself a guitar god?

E. H.: Ha-ha, no! Definitely not, even though I'm involved in the album "Guitar Heroes", which is going to be released here in Finland. I think I'm a very down to earth person as well. Of course I appreciate when somebody likes what I'm doing, but I'm definitely not a guitar hero or something.

V. V.: Our listener Pasi Koleva sent us following question: Is it true that six years ago, when you did this show in Macedonia, you were forced to land at Sofia Airport because of a snow storm?

E. H.: Yes, that's really true. We were heading to this festival in Macedonia and the trip became unbelievable, because the plane couldn't land in Skopje due to the really bad weather. The concert's organizers were on the same plane with us and decided to land in Sofia. It was better to leave the plane there and book a car to Macedonia. So yes, we stayed at your airport and then were driven from Sofia to Skopje. It was very, very weird.

V. V.: Now you'll visit Sofia to play at the 20 Years Nuclear Blast Festival together with your label mates Edguy, Benediction and Agathodaimon. Do you have friends among these bands or they’re just good colleagues of yours?

E. H.: We've met Edguy at a couple of festivals and we know them. We toured with Benediction over ten years ago, so we're familiar with them, too. We all do very different types of music, so I think it will be a good package in Sofia.

V. V.: Two more questions to go. In the booklet of "Silent Waters" we can read that the new Amorphis logo has been designed by a girl with a very Bulgarian sounding name -В Viara Gentchev... We tracked her on the Internet and found out she's based in Finland doing design and artwork stuff, as well as DJ-ing in clubs. How did the whole thing happen?

E. H.: Our bass player Niclas Etelavuori knows her very well. They're close friends and... I think he met her a year or two ago and she told him about her art study. She tried drawing a new Amorphis logo and it became pretty nice. It also fit the artwork for our new album very well.

V. V.: The last question comes from our listener Hristina. Regarding your lyrics, it's quite a recurrent topic for you to talk about hair and dreadlocks... Do these have any particular meaning in Finnish mythology?

E. H.: Not exactly, especially dreadlocks... Hair is something that's mentioned a lot in the Kalevala, but it does not have any deeper meaning - it's just hair. The question is good anyway!

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock