13.06.2008 : AMORPHIS (Niclas Etelavuori) - June 2008
Lucky: In your career you changed labels twice. Why did it happen? How is it going with label now?
Niclas: It’s going great now. We started on a small label that grew bigger and tried major label and kind of went back to a small label that grew a lot bigger, which is a lot better for us now. And our label has been growing along with the band so they understand where we come from.
Lucky: Lets talk a little bit about tours! Is there something you hate in touring?
Niclas: Waiting is boring, hangovers are terrible, other than that I’m fine with it.
Lucky: Have you ever had any difficulties with fans, for example, when they didn’t let you eat normally or met right near the train… ?
Niclas: I don’t remember any problems.
Lucky: What do you usually do in a tour bus?
Niclas: I sleep as much as I can. Sometimes we have PSP games or watch movies, the whole bus becomes kind of a high tech are everyone carries so much electronics nowadays with them.
Lucky: Is it difficult to leave your families for long?
Niclas: We don’t do that long trips straight that it would have become a problem, but maybe sometimes.
Lucky: What memories are left about Russia?
Niclas: I have really good memories from Russia. I’ve been there many times now and love to go there again. I’ve met so many great people there that it’s always a pleasure to go to Russia. Now when we toured there a bit more and saw cities further away like Vladivostok I must say Russia is an amazing place.
Lucky: What do you do in free time?
Niclas: If I'd have free time, I'd rather do nothing. Hang out with friends.
Lucky: Do you like reading? If yes, what books do you read?
Niclas: I don’t read that much. I just read Mr Nice by Howard Marks, it was an interesting story.
Lucky: Is it difficult to tell about your private life and know that many people will read it?
Niclas: I can choose what I say, so it has never been a problem for me and we don’t talk about private things that much.
Lucky: How does it feel when music becomes a job? Can you still understand fans, for whom to be a musician seems very romantic?
Niclas: I can understand them but for me it’s not that way. It doesn’t feel that much different because I’ve been playing for 20 years all the time anyway and nowadays we do the same but get paid.
Lucky: You play for many years, do you still have something to say to audience, or do you just search for some good themes for lyrics?
Niclas: We always try to make as good music as we possibly can at that time. We don’t really want to preach about anything we try to find themes that fit our music kind of things that will stand time.
Lucky: What is more important – music or lyrics?
Niclas: As a player music comes first for me. I can listen to instrumental music for a long time but solo song bores me pretty fast
Lucky: When you compose songs, do you think about how good it will be selling?
Niclas: No, more like if the other guys are going to like it. We make albums with different kinds of songs some songs get radio play some don’t but it’s still the whole album that matters to us.
Lucky: Have you ever got any gifts from fans? If yes, what it was?
Niclas: Yes we got pens, paintings, local drinks and food. The pens we always get from one fan because we never had a pen when she wanted something signed so now she brings one to us every time.
Lucky: Do you read all the reviews for your albums?
Niclas: Yes but not all of them, if I see a review somewhere I’ll read it if I understand it.
Lucky: Do you know any Russian bands?
Niclas: Only a few Anal Nosorog, Inside You and Gorky Park.
Lucky: Imaging: some unknown virus killed all musicians in the world except your band and one more. How do you think, who is this other band and why?
Niclas: Iron Maiden because they have their airplane, maybe they could give us a ride.
Thanks for help to Silke Yli-Sirniö, TOUGH ENOUGH PROMOTION
