Symfonia was formed not too long ago. What were your first thoughts when Timo Tolkki talked to you about it? My first thoughts… we really didn’t mean to be a band in the beginning. It was supposed to be more like a project and we would come up with a “duet” kind of album. We didn’t know what it would become.
He [Timo Tolkki] called me and said: “Hey Andre, you are living next to me now, in Sweden., it’s very close to Finland. Why don’t you come over so we can write some stuff together?”
After we had the real material on hands and the other members started to join the band, then it started to shape in a different way, so we started to see it more like a band.
In the beginning, to be really honest, it was really an unpretentious thing. If it was cool, we would go forward; if we thought “this is not working out” we would stop and [most likely] not go forward with it.
At that time were you looking for a new project or even thinking about having a new project? And for all of the Symfonia band members… would you say that all of you were planning to start something new? Or was it just a coincidence?
I think it was pretty much the same situation for each one of us: Nobody was really looking for a new band or a new possibility. It just happened. It was just a sequence for happenings - of coincidences in a way. We didn’t plan this out, and then it was cool and we just asked ourselves: “Why not? Let’s try it!”. It’s exciting to have this opportunity, to play together, to share our experiences. That was actually the biggest enthusiasm on my part: to work with these guys for the first time.
Not that I was really looking for something because I have been involved with my solo band for five years now. We already did two studio albums. The solo band is not over. Whenever we have concerts there, I fly over to Brazil. If they come to play in Europe, I meet them up there. These are two things that must work in parallel, coexist in a way. [Andres is currently living in Sweden but the other musicians of his solo band live in Brazil. They have released the albums “Time to be Free” and “Mentalize”].
Can you describe to us a little bit the first contact of the band members, the first meetings?
We met in Finland before the actual recordings. It was the first meeting with everybody together for the first round of interviews and the first pictures we would take together. I think it was around September or October last year. It was pretty cool. It was a very nice feeling.
Whenever you have such a constellation of people, everything may go bad somehow and you might have a problem: everybody is too much on top of their own egos and nobody understands each other. But it can also happen that everybody is very respectful and everybody is really looking forward to working together and that’s actually what happened. Those [Symfonia’s band members] are very experienced guys, respectful people, nice people to talk to, clever people… so, it was really cool. We met many times after that, but that was the first one.
Since you guys live in different countries… how was the composing / writing / creating / recording process for this album? How was the “work flow” between all of you?
We are all living in different countries, but nevertheless we are living in Scandinavia. We are no more than 1 hour away from each other (flight wise).
The composition was made by Timo and I alone, at least for this first album, for a matter that we started together and we had a pretty clear picture of what we wanted from the music. We decided to carry on with it and finish the whole writing process by ourselves. It was pretty much 50/50, regardless of who wrote what. Some songs I wrote more lyrics, some songs he wrote more lyrics… music it was the same. So in the end, when we were down to define which credit goes to whom, we just said: “Come on… it is just 50/50. We pretty much helped each other with everything”. And that’s how it was. It really represents both points of view, musical and lyrical-wise, for both of us.
What inspire you? Did you have something in mind for the vocals?
Well, obviously every time I go into the studio for a new album, I try to do something better than what I have done before… to overcome somehow, style and technical wise, something I might have done before.
I think the most important point for me nowadays is to be able to express more with the voice. It’s not so much about being technical (the high pitch notes are there, it belongs to the style) but it’s more about how you can express emotions through the voice.
This is a kind of music that belongs to the same music style that I have been doing for over 20 years, but this particular sub-s
tyle I had never sung before and that was already challenging for me. I tried very hard to get the best expression I could have in the voice. So, I think this was my biggest goal in this record.The ambience helped a lot. We did it [the recording] in a very special ambience. It was not inside a cold studio, we rented a “summerhouse” during the winter in the middle of the woods in Sweden. There was nobody around, just a lot of snow. It was completely quiet and completely isolated from civilization. So, it was quite interesting. We had to dive deep into work, focus, really get inspired. It was the first time that I have recorded a full album like this.
The new album was released in Europe (In Paradisum) a few days ago. How have the reactions been until now?
Well… very fine! I heard that the album is already escalating the charts in some countries.
This is exactly the music that people would expect from us. But, of course, there is some criticism on the other side. People that say: “Well, Symfonia’s music sounds way too much like Stratovarius, Angra or Helloween.” But I wonder if we would have come up with an album that was completely trashy or completely prog… or whatever. Well, then I think that the criticism would be even bigger. People would say: “Yeah… but I expected more Stratovarius, Angra and Hellowenn in this…”
For those who like this kind of music and for the ones who are somehow connected to our previous carreers, they will really enjoy this album. I think, in my humble opinion, it is very good music, we have very good songs and this for me is the most important thing!
So now it’s up to the record labels to market it properly. We’ve done our part. Now let’s see what happens. I hope it’s really “touching” people.
What do you expect to achieve with this album?
I just expect to achieve some continuation for this. Whether this means playing live on real tour, all around the world or getting in studio for a second album, keeping this team together. This was a good experience and I would like to carry on with it, of course. And never forgetting that I have my solo band to take care of and this is going to work all at the same time.
This was a very nice experience, with Symfonia. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t go on with it.
How was the first Symfonia live concert? I know everybody already asked you but I still have to ask!
It was surprisingly good! I didn’t expect any reaction at all from the Finnish audience (laughs). They are considered to be the warmest audience in a way but they are very demanding. There are so many good bands coming out from Finland and those guys are used to such great concerts every week that it’s a hard task, you know, to impress the Finnish as an audience.
But in the end of the concert they were screaming for more, they wanted more! We were very surprised. We didn’t expect such a reaction in this first concert.
That was also the first time that the band met on stage (laughs). It was quite an experience for us as well. We had to get used to each other “on the go”. It worked out just fine. After this, I think all the rest will be way simpler.
You have your first album released, the first gig done… until now, what was the hardest step for the band? Do you think that the hardest step has already been taken or is it still to come?
Humm... this is very difficult to answer. I have no crystal ball (laughs). Well… whatever it is, if there are harder times to come and to overcome, then somehow we have been through so many experiences in the past that I think we are prepared for any kind of “hardships” that we might face.
I think that the music market, in general, is a hardship in itself right now. It’s not easy for anybody now to work with the music. There are so many changes in the market, the whole situation is changing so fast that I think that everybody, even the big bands, are experiencing somehow some kind of change in their musical careers. This is something that we all have to deal with. Somehow we are still surviving, we are still persistent, so whatever may come I think we are ready to face it.
So, coming back to the question…. What do you think has been the most difficult step until now, for the release of the album?
Maybe gathering the members together, but we were kind of lucky in this regard. Those are the very first names that came up to our minds and these are the guys who are in the band. So, somehow we accomplish in a lucky way, to have the people we wanted to have.
Another difficult point for me personally was the vocal recording. We were isolated in this little cabin in the middle of the woods, with the snow. In the end of the process we
started to see some weird thing around (laughs). That was a funny part of the experience.Knowing that all of the band members are such big names in the metal world… does this bring you all some kind of “weight on your shoulders”? Does it create too much expectation?
I don’t feel like there is a weight on my shoulders. Like I said, we didn’t have any big pretension with this. We didn’t want to be the new “Iron Maiden”. This was not the idea. The idea was just to make good music together. So, whatever comes out of it…
I mean, maybe people will like it or maybe not, but we like it… this is it. I think that if we have some faithful fans, they will like it as well because they will notice that we are putting our best in it. This was the main concern.
This pressure… I don’t think about it so much, I don’t feel it so much. The pressure is always to do the best you can, every time. Put 100% of yourself in the work and that’s what we’ve done.
Talking about the metal scene in general… Do you think that power metal is still the same as 10 or 5 years ago?
Well, it depends on the territory you are talking about. In North America it is growing. It was nothing 10 years ago and now it’s something. In other territories, like Japan for instance, it went down. It was very popular and now it’s not as much. In Eastern Europe, for instance, it’s growing. In Germany it went down. In England it’s the same phenomena as in the US, I mean, they are somehow re-discovering this style.
This whole discussion about metal… whether metal is a music style that is meant to last forever…many people said in the past that metal is dead. Well, it has been there for more than 40 years now, so we can absolutely affirm that metal is not dead and it’s never going to die.
There is some sort of renewal, always. You see young kids starting to listen to this music. This is the good point about the internet, I think. These young kids, when they get interested in a band like Led Zeppelin, they go there [on the internet] and they find out.
You see pretty young boys and girls, listening to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc. Somehow the old dinosaurs [are] still influencing the new generations. So, this is the beauty that’s in this music style.
In metal… any new bands or style that have caught your eyes lately?
In metal I must be honest: there is nearly nothing new that has really caught my attention in the past few years. I guess the last band that I was like impressed with, was still Rammstein, and that was 10 years ago.
Of course, you have this new harvest of bands like “Avenged Sevenfold” and so on. But this for me sound just like a big collage, it’s not really something completely original. Technical wise, yes, these boys are really good.
It’s like the phenomena “Dragonforce”, which became so popular because of the game “Guitar Hero” or whatever. This is Ok, I understand that very young teenagers get impressed. But then, after that, you might want some real music. Still today, if you want some real music, you gotta go back in time and listen to the old stuff because there is where the real music is.
Last question… we kind of already talked about it but… what do you want to accomplish with Symfonia by the end of this year? Any plans?
This year is gonna be pretty busy, because besides Symfonia and all the plans that we have for it, I’ll be back in Brazil now, in the beginning of May, and I have concerts with my solo band. We also must discuss about the next solo album, so I might go to one or two more studio recording, two different tours, travel back and forward between Europe and Brazil.
I know it seems very busy but I think it’s very manageable - it’s not a big problem. And besides that, as I usually say, this is the job that I like and when you like the job you do, it doesn’t feel like a burden, it’s a pleasure to do it.
We have a lot of perspective for this year and we really hope that we can achieve as much as we have planned to.
Anything you would like to tell the web site readers?
Ok… what I can say is that we have a concert for the 8th of July, in the Sonisphere festival in France, near the city of Metz. This year they will have Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath, Dream Theater, Symfonia… It is going to be a really great festival, I’m really looking forward to playing there. After that we expect to play again in Europe, for late summer festivals, or for next headliner tour, after summer. We would like to visit the usual countries where we used to play in the past.
Thank you for the interview, and I hope you get better soon!
Thank you!
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Interview done by Deesse_de_la_nuit
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