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THUNDERSTONE
2006

Thunderstone sound, porn movie soundtrack, "American"-sounding chorus and the promise to deliver a killer album

Suiciderock: I heard that you wanted to change your name but in the end you didn`t. So why did you want to change it?
Titus: Haha... it was simply because Thunderstone sounded so corny in the beginning. But after trying out even worse alternatives it just stuck and actually sounds like it couldn't be anything else now.

Suiciderock: In December was your first healining tour outside of Finland. Can you tell us a bit about the response of the audience?
Titus: The response was great. Of course the venues were quite a lot smaller than the ones we have been used to playing, but that didn't change the fact that we had a great time. Thanks again to everybody who came to see the show.

Suiciderock: What are you doing to keep your voice in a good shape?
Titus: Me? Drinking beer, drinking vodka, drinking... no, seriously, I don't have to care about my voice that much but it is really important for Pasi. He had some troubles again with his voice because of the cold and the shitty environment of the bus. Resting is also a very important thing - when you drink all night and all day it is rare, though...

Suiciderock: Do you have any special rituals before going on stage?
Titus: No. We discussed about this sometime early in our career and decided to drop any rituals.

Suiciderock: Will there be any specials whilest this tour? Any special effects for example?
Titus: This tour was very down to earth. Also, the venues wouldn't have had much room for special effects anyway. It was a nice club tour. Maybe next time we'll come up with something.

Suiciderock: Have you been nervous because it was your first tour as a headliner? Titus: Sure, we're worried about people showing up. As a support to a bigger band you don`t have to worry about that. But on the other hand it a privilege to play to people who have come to see us, not some other headliner. So that balances the smaller audiences pretty well.

Suiciderock: In an interview you said, that this was the most stressing album so far. Why?
Titus: It just turned out that the process was more difficult. On the second album I think we worked best as a team. On this one Nino pretty much handled all the reins as on the first album. Sometimes that can be difficult and it resulted in some arguments. But that's nothing exceptional anyway, we're still all great friends and work together extremely well.

Suiciderock: Can you tell us something about the songs of "Tools of Destruction"?
Titus: Tool of the devil: This was, I think, the first song written after "The Burning". It soundeed great from the beginning and also ended up as a single/video song. The story (as much as I can speak for Nino) is something about temptation and falling for it.
Without wings: This is a natural second song. Like on "The Burning" the first song was a slower one, so we wanted to put a more traditional fast double-bass thing second. I love the groove in the verse and the chorus is very catchy, too.
Liquid of the kings: This is a funny song. It has a this very heavy riff going which changes to a very melodic thing in the prechorus. I like combinations like this and if there was a Thunderstone sound, I would say that this combination of heavy riffs and melodic singalongs is the thing!
I will come again: The "compulsory pop song", hahaha! We have had lighter rockers on each album and this one just sounded so fucking good that we wanted to include it on the album. It's a great song to play live: people come in very often on the chorus and it has a great message too: thank you for coming, we will come again. Lyricwise, it would also be great material for a porn movie soundtrack, hahaha!
Welcome to the real: This is the first of my songs on this album. When I started writing the song I had this idea of combining the best stuff from the 70s and 80s into a modern heavy metal song. It ended up sounding like something between Led Zeppelin ans Dio, which means I pretty much pulled off my original idea! Pasi does a beautiful job on the vocals on this one.
The last song: The title is the last song not because it is the last on the album, but because it was the last one finished and Nino was hoping that it would mean a quick end to the recording process. It didn't, but the song's a good one, I think.
Another time: There has to be one ballad on a metal album, right? This one's it. Nice really "American"-sounding chorus. Never played it live yet.
Feed the fire: The second song I wrote. I scraped it together really fast and we recorded the vocals only on the last day of mixing. It's a very simple rocker. Tells the story of my past infatuation with a lady I could never have...
Weight of the world: This is probably the only "filler" song on the album. Not bad or anything, but just nothing special. No one really liked it, but we wanted to have enough fast songs on the album, so we kept it.
Land of innocence: The Grand Opus, haha. This one was very strange in the beginning - to me it sounded like a too long too slow song with no idea. But when the vocals came on I was just dumbstruck! One of the best performances by Pasi and a great song. Perhaps my favorite on the album at the end of the day.

Suiciderock: What inspired you for the songwriting?
Titus: We don't take inspiration from fantasy literature or anything like that. We write about everyday things and the songs come when they come. Nowadays the writing process is more professional, because you have to keep a certain pace up.

Suiciderock: (Nino) Is there a difference between producing "Thunderstone" and other bands? And how and why did you decide to become a producer?
Titus: I can't answer for Nino and he is in Thailand right now. But I can tell you that he never forgets to mention that working with Thunderstone is very easy because everyone knows their own instrument really well and we are really tight together.

Suiciderock: What was the best moment in the career of the band so far and why? Titus: Hmm... that's a difficult one. The first tour with Stratovarius was of course unforgettable, because it was the first big tour for us and everyhthing was so new and exciting. But a band has to move on, and we have had many awesome moments afterwards also.

Suiciderock: What`s next for "Thunderstone"? Do you have any special wishes for the future?
Titus: Right now we are starting to write new material, then go to the studio next summer, perhaps. A couple of gigs in Finland and Europe - and one in the States too! We really hope to make the next album our best so far. We know the message is being spread all the time and there are more and more people out there digging our music. We promise to deliver a killer album and be on tour again sometime next year. Until that, keep on sending us greetings and have a good time all the time!