Interview With Tomi Koivusaari, AMORPHIS: “It would be odd if we were singing about fast cars”

Interview By Alison Booth

Finland’s progressive metal veterans AMORPHIS are currently storming through Europe on their “Under The Red Cloud” 2016 tour, in support of their 12th album which was released last September.

“Under The Red Cloud” which was produced by the world renowned Jens Bogren, achieved great chart results all around the world, including their first ever entry in United Kingdom and Australia, as well as their highest ever entries in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. AMORPHIS have been busy touring since the release of the album, touring Finland in September and October 2015, before ending the year in style with a run of dates appearing with NIGHTWISH and ARCH ENEMY.

On the last date of the band’s British and Irish dates, at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, I caught up with guitarist Tomi Koivusaari for a chat about the tour and album. You can read a few excerpts from the chat and view the video below.

Tomi Koivusaari, AMORPHIS
Nottingham 2016

Discussing the reaction of the fans to “Under The Red Cloud”, Tomi said:

“A lot of people have said that it sounds somehow fresh and there’s new elements, but there’s also a lot of stuff from our history as well. We are still very satisfied with it, how it turned out.

On the gigs, it’s nice to see how people are reacting to the new songs. It feels like the new songs are even more popular, at least here in England, than the very old ones.”

On the band’s longstanding collaboration with lyricist Pekka Kainulainen, Tomi stated:

“None of us are into writing lyrics, so we don’t want to ruin the songs with our lousy lyrics (laughs). I think it works to us, this subject, it’s not from Kalevala any more, but the way the stories are written, it’s like based on Kalevala stories and also the same kind of subjects. It would be quite odd if we were singing about fast cars or something!”

Regarding future tour dates, including a first for AMORPHIS to South Africa, Tomi enthused:

“Very excited to go there! This time we will play Cape Town and Johannesburg and having a safari of course, so looking forward. I don’t know what to expect.”