On The 666 Journalist we interviewed Tuomas Seppälä from AMBERIAN DAWN to talk about their new album "Magic Forest", check it out!
First of all Congratulations, “Magic Forest” is your sixth album and it feels very fresh and powerful!!
- What can you tell us about this new album, what can we find in this new Amberian Dawn album? Apart of Capri of course :p
This is our first studio album with Capri on vocals, we did record a compilation album last year with her but this album is the first one with new songs on it. There's some changes in musical style on this album. Magic Forest isn't as progressive -kind of metal than our latest studio album, Circus Black for example. Of course there's still also some progressive elements on MF's songs, but not so much. MF puts a lot of emphasis on vocal lines and melodies. MF album has also a lot of AOR -feeling.
- Is there any concept behind “Magic Forest” what is lyrically about?
Not really. Capri has wrote all the lyrics but I still named one song as Magic Forest in advance because it felt so right for this song. Capri liked that title too and wrote the lyrics based on that title. Later we also thought that MF is a good name for the whole album.MF is not lyrically a concept album, just like any of our previous ones aren't. There's some relationships though between some songs but nothing like the whole album is like a one big story or something.
- How was the experience of doing this album, sign up with a new record label
At first when we started to work on the new songs, we didn't have a record deal in our hands. So we needed to find a new label and we couldn't find a new good one right away. That's how we got an idea to raise funds with IndieGoGo-project and was able to get the recordings started. Later we got signed to Napalm Records. I'm very happy about that because I've always had a big respect towards this label. Otherwise the recordings etc. went in usual way, so we did record the album during a relatively long period of time, maybe 6 in months.
- Comparing this with "Circus Black", what would you say that is different?
There's a lot of differences between these two albums. My way of composing songs has changed a lot after CB- album. That's nothing new to me on the other hand because my way of writing songs varies a lot during time. This time the change is more obvious and we have almost moved to an other genre. Many people are still naming our style as symphonic metal or symphonic powermetal. I'll rather let other people to decide the genre which we are representing though :D
I'm a big fan of Jens Johansson so I asked him (again) to make a guest appearance on this album. Jens have been on our albums already twice before, so this wasn't anything new really. He's awesome keyboard player and his solo-playing is 100 % -suitable for AD's music. The second guest on MF is opera singer Markus Nieminen. He's also been on our productions before so it was easy to continue working with him again.
- Who was in charge of the lyrics and the music and how was the composition process?
We did it in traditional AD-way, so I compose all music and singer is in charge of writing lyrics. Capri did an excellent job with lyrics despite that this was the first time for her to write music for a rock band. I write music at my home studio and I always make a demo of all the songs. For demoing purposes I play the vocal lines with guitar or keyboards and then send the demo to the singer. Then singer writes the lyrics and those songs are ready to be arranged in more detailed way.
- How was the production of the album, working along with Mikko Mustonen and Henkka Niemisto?I was the producer on this album (like on all AD-albums) and I invited Mikko Mustonen to be the co-producer. I've really enjoyed working with Mikko. He's also our mixing engineer. Together with Mikko and Capri we finished the vocal lines and made the final polishing. Henkka Niemistö wasn't part of this album at all. Henkka was the mastering engineer on our Re-Evolution album. This time we used Mika Jussila as mastering engineer, just like we did on our Circus Black album
- What’s your favorite album song?
It depends on the mood I'm having but I can still name “Cherish My Memory” as one of my favourites. It presents a whole new side and feeling in AD's music. Before MF I wasn't able to compose this kind of songs for AD since our previous vocalist has so different kind way of singing and it's not suitable for these kind of songs.
- What are the plans for touring to present the album? is there any place you'd like to visit?
At the moment we don't have any tours in sight. We're planning to do an album release show here in Finland. It might be possible for fall 2014. Also we're looking for (with our management) a suitable European or US tour on which we could take part in. Let's see if a new tour for us is going to happen.
- Could you share with us three albums that you’ve been spinning lately?
I don't listen to music so much anymore, but when I do I usually like to listen to classical music, music by Ritchie Blackmore and ABBA for example.
- Something you would like to say to the fans over the world?
I hope to see you on tours soon. We really love to tour and play our music to live audiences. Hope you're liking our new album also ;)
I really appreciate your time, thanks very much and keep doing this amazing music!
Thanks to Napalm Record and Amberian Dawn