SunriseAve ITALY

2010 - It’s been a while…FROM SRA DIARY

by Sunrise Avenue Diary

Home sweet home

 Monday, 14 December 2009 at 16:54

Welcome on board to Lufthansa flight LH/5C4HZS from Munich to Helsinki. We have a strong tail wind and we will land in Helsinki in 65 minutes. The weather in Helsinki is like a perfect winter evening. Snowing, -5 Celsius. No wind.

I get “post-tour-depressed” every time I go home after a longer trip. I love home for sure, but it’s just the way you have been whipping your own ass for the whole trip and then it finally doesn’t matter if you have any clean stage pants or if you get a bit ill. You suddenly don’t have to worry about your throat or cleaning your hands like an idiot after every door handle. I heard some artists sleep with their TV on after the tours just to have some noise as they’re used to the crowd around them in the night. I have tried it a few times. It helps. It’s amazing how I actually didn’t get ill during the whole tour even though almost everyone else did.

You’re also so used to the guys around you from wakeup until the nights last cigarette and it’s hard to be alone in the huge bedroom tonight. Sure we had a soft-landing-period from the tour by traveling a week in Greece, Albania, Russia and Germany. Actually it was everything but a soft landing. The time goes by so slowly when there’s nothing to do. We had only 3 shows this week and still we had to travel 7 days. A lot of time for nothing.

Last shows of the tour

Even though the first two shows in Austria were a bit of a shock for us, it got better the further it went. Of course Sami was really sick the first two AUT shows, but the better mood started in Graz (mostly because of the great crowd) and all was super good in Vienna, Salzburg and even the small city (it’s a city??) of Dornbirn rocked really great.

It was a bit difficult to adapt to the smaller shows after the huge German crowds. The stages were also very much smaller and there was no support band either. Sure even the first two the nights were ok, but my point here is that we could have done better. But I hope everyone thought it was worth coming to see us.

Then the Swiss show was the only one left before we took off home for one day. The night in Zurich was a perfect ending for a perfect tour and if I had emotions taking control of me a few times on the tour before, that night was very very emotional. I could not sleep at all the night before and I just had a short nap before the sound check. The Zurich club was super cool and the audience was just so damn loud.

After the show we had a little party with the guys around & inside the bus. We actually didn’t sleep at all with Riku & Sami and we must have looked fresh on TV in Athens the same night ;) But it was worth it.

You know we recorded all the shows from Helsinki to Zurich and we will release the stuff one way or the other early next year. The samples we already listened on the way sounded really good. I didn’t know you really sing SO loud. On stage you can’t always hear it but on the recording it really comes across well. I’ll let you know when / how the live stuff is available.


We started this week on Monday by flying to Tirana, Albania. We performed at this political event where the biggest star was the Albanian prime minister himself. We also met the minister of culture at his office and he told us that Albania is now actually one of the new candidates for the EU and they are really trying to join the Schengen countries next year to make their tourism business easier. If I am totally honest, they still have a lot to do and there are many walls to break. But it’s nice that they flew us over and we got to perform to the supporters of the big guy.

The strangest thing was that there were some young people gathered in front of the stage before our show and the security people dragged them away. The focus was on the political things but still I have never seen anything that before. The stage was full of the minister’s balloons and stuff and I really felt strange swimming in all the campaign promotion stuff. And sure it started raining and the stage had no roof ;) When we started, there must have been 100.000 listeners. I guess there were 10.000 left after the last song. I partly blame the rain ;)

At the airport we were treated like diplomats. We’ve been at the diplomat lounges and private airport vans before, but this time nobody checked our bags and we just walked into a van that took us to the plane. As the metal detectors beeped at the security control, they said, “it’s ok” to us all. Cool ;) I hope our trip to the Tirana rock festival works out next year.

On Thursday we played in Moscow. This time we had no problems getting our gear (the instruments and stuff) into the country. Last time it took hours as they wanted to check every cable and mark it so we really bring it back too. The Moscow show was the last club show on the tour and even though the club was not sold out, I must say the night was very enjoyable and fun for us. And the ones who were there, rocked like hell. I actually don’t remember being that relaxed on stage for a long long time.

I don’t know what it is with Moscow, but the after party was rough again. I remember in 2008 when we were there, we didn’t sleep at all and we had this huge wrestling thing through the night. And the next day I had to enter the German Big Brother house with my hangover. I felt like dying…;)

Same wrestling championships took place again with no winners and no medals. Just a very tired gang flying away the next day. The crew and Osmo flew to Helsinki. The crew is off for the rest of the year from our dities and Osmo had a show in Turku (Fin) the next day. Karri and band flew to Munich where we got ready for an acoustic show at the Mediamarkt Christmas party. It was actually quite ok. They had A-HA as headliner and we played after them at this easy lounge.

Our set ended at 2:45 AM (In the night!!!) and poor Osmo had to leave to the airport right after to join this song-writing session in Poland today. The rest of us went to bed and now we are on our way home. I must say it feels very good. My mom is waiting for me at the airport because my car (my sweet sweet baby) is in her garage. I think she also wants to make this “mother check” on how I am doing. I will try to look healthy and well slept ;) Even though I am just the opposite.

Next week I will be really busy with interviews and some rehearsals Finnish TV show and stuff. On Friday and Saturday we will be in Zurich again for this TV show and an acoustic performance for charity.

The thought of my own bed, my own coffee machine, my own gym (only if I feel like it) and racing with my car against the falling snow fakes makes me happy.

Remember, You still need to be nice. Santa Claus can still abort all your presents if you lose it now!!!!

Samu

PS: My ice hockey team HIFK won almost every game when we were on tour. As soon as the tour ended, they only won one game. I am not superstitious, but hey..????

....Diario di fine Novembre del Sunrise Avenue Tour....

Servus!!!!

30 November 2009

I am sharing a hotel room with Riku, who is sitting at the other end of the room playing his guitar. Very nice actually. We have a couple of songs “almost” ready and we are trying to find solutions for the chorus ends and stuff. A little blog writing break might bring in some new ideas.

It’s only three shows left of this road trip and I don’t know… It makes me feel kind of sad. Only three left and I could do a million more. Sure there are more shows this year, but the trip with the guys in the bus is always something extra special.

I must admit the first Austrian shows were really really hard. Sami was very ill with high fever ( in Innsbruck & Linz) and you know the drummer is the back bone of the band. He did a really good job, but when you know someone on stage is really sick, you can’t have the gang feeling as good as on the days when everyone is fully up. And even though I love the small club feeling, we had problems fitting our stuff on stage. In Innsbruck I hit the drum over head microphones with the back of my guitar a hundred times and one of the mics fell. And so did my own microphone since I started worrying about moving too much ;) Club-phobia ;)

Now that even Sami has been feeling better, the shows have been 100 % fun again. I guess we had one of the best evenings of the tour in Graz. Great audience! And the legendary Flex-club yesterday in Vienna was super cool too. I was very worried if the clubs would be empty because of the lottery system of the local Bank (Reifeisen Club), but no, the mood has been super great every night.

We stayed outside the Flex club last night and sleeping was a bit hard. First because we had a Play Station Ice Hockey tournament FIN-SWE. And after that the asshole idiots who left the club in the morning had to bang our bus windows on their way home. A gang of these smart-ass window bangers almost got their asses kicked at 5AM by our crew guys when they almost broke the windows. But they managed to run away. Aki & Tuomas run half a kilometer after them. Pussies!!!!!!!!! I don’t mind, but our driver sleeps in his own little sleeping quarters and he has to wake up at 8 to drive us to the next city. Well… now we are safe in Salzburg and the hotel rooms can’t be entered.

I have been here once before. It was Christmas 2007. We had performed at this TV thing in Zurich with the guys on the 22nd of December and instead of flying home, we took a flight to Vienna with Jukka (our former keyboardist and the guy who’s produced our both albums). It was really cool. We stayed the first two nights in Vienna and then we just drove all around Austria (once we even ended up in Munich because we were just talking and talking and didn’t realize the time and kilometers passing by). Anyway. It was here in Salzburg where we had our Christmas dinner with all the other lonely people who didn’t celebrate the family evening with their own ones. There is a special mood in the restaurants on a Christmas Eve. Almost everything is closed.

And sure this is also the place where W.A. Mozart grew up. I will try to keep my songwriting ears open and my mind clear in case there are some good melody vibrations floating around in the air.

So tomorrow we play here and then the last Austrian show in Dornbirn. I just hope there will be people in the clubs even though the towns are a bit smaller than Vienna and Graz. I heard a rumor that there might be a go-cart-race in Zurich on the day off so I must start getting ready ;)

Good night everyone,

Samu

PS: Now we will start watching Indiana Jones (The newest). I wanted to watch Rambo (The new one also) but Indiana won… John Rambo is da man!!!!!!

PPS: As soon as I have reached 5.000 friends here (it’s the maximum and a problem because I have added everybody), I will delete everyone I don’t know for real. Life will go on ;)

Thank You Germany!

23 November 2009

Ludwigsburg - Munich

Sami, Riku, Osmo and MP (our tech guy) are getting totally wasted downstairs in the bus and I just watched “The Lord Of The Rings” for the first time ever. It was actually pretty good. There were a few interruptions when Osmo had spilled drinks on Sami and he had to report to me (??) and also when Riku had been in a difficult situation with his Mc Donald’s order during the stop. That was also reported to me, I guess I needed to know these incidents. Nice ;)

I am having problems getting the pulse down after the Munich show. Tomorrow is the first day off after a straight 4 show days and I’d like to do something nice in Innsbruck instead of just sleeping in my hotel room. And I rather not join the monkeys downstairs, they are way too deep in their “get-rid-of-reality” rituals and I also like being alone after so many days face to face with the guys. Quality time…

Music business is pretty tricky to predict. We knew that the tickets had sold well all through the summer, but since we are not the “hottest” act out there right now, we weren’t sure what to expect from the shows. We have felt a very strong connection with many of the fans, or should I call them friends / people, and with their little campaigns and stuff I am sure the SA train moves a little faster than it would without them. But still you never know. And of course we knew we would need to earn the applause every night by proving the folks that it was worth to come rock with us.

So putting all that together with the typical tour tiredness and the illness that always gets the travel party sooner or later, we really were just hoping for the best when we got ready for the tour. We only swore to give everything we have for you every night. Every one of us, crew and band. And we did.

I must admit we expected quite much from the German audiences, but you people just blew us away every night. We must have done something right in our lives to be allowed to stand on these stages with such warm crowds in front of us. We have seen some great audiences before but this time it was magic. We have always wanted to perform just as guys with no rockets and circus tricks, but this time every night on stage felt more natural than ever. And that is mostly because of your hands in the air during the show. You can’t have any idea how good you made us feel every single night. Thank you!

It’s funny how I look back at the 11 shows now and I realize that there was no need for being nervous and worrying about empty venues. Even yesterday the whole club was packed even though Pink had her show the same time just a mile away.

The Munich show was a perfect ending for a perfect two weeks in our lives. It’s funny how again the show there was the last one in Germany on the tour and as we did the last minutes of the show, I remembered feeling the same kind of relieved sadness before on that very same stage. Last time we ended the German part there too. But life will go on ;)

Also huge thanx to our great support band BLACK SHEEP. In our point of view, they are far the best tour support we ever had and these little girls did their job 110 % professional every night. There are some support bands who, after a few nights together, think they are on a joint-tour with the headliner and things can get complicated. Now there was nothing but great time with the rock-chicks. The ladies are young and very talented and if they only keep up the good work and give all they have for music and their dream, I am sure we will all hear from them sooner or later. Thank you & Good luck girls!

Austria

We are on our way to Innsbruck where we play the first Austrian show on Tuesday. I heard the clubs are a bit smaller and it will be very intimate with the crowds. I love it! I really hope the bank’s ticket system / lottery has worked out and that there will be a club full of hungry folks ready to be popgasmized every night. I swear we are ready for you ;)

Good night now and thank you once again!

S

PS: We took our van today with Osmo & Riku and went to BMW welt. The mission was to buy BMW underwear for Osmo but the shop was already closed. “You see it is not easy…”

49 Kilometers to go

21 November

Neu-Isenburg – Köln – Dortmund – Saarbrucken

We have a problem with the weight of the technical gear we travel with. Sure the crew guys made all the calculations and all before we hit the road a few weeks ago, but when our crew guys started packing the trailer behind our bus in Kiel, they realized there’s way too much weight. We had a few different options. Hiring onwe more truck with drivers was one, but we decided to rent a van for the extra things and drive it ourselves. This is also cool when we have days off because we can use the same car for city trips and shopping instead of the big bus. The bus is really hard to park in the cities and we’d also need to have the driver with us. This van we can drive ourselves with normal driver’s license. The crew guys mostly drive the extra van from the show cities but we decided that nobody drives alone. So there are always two guys in the car. It’s in the middle of the night and we don’t want anyone falling asleep on the dark roads.

So tonight, after the Saarbrucken show, it’s my turn to be in the van. “Gorilla” Mikko (our FOH guy) is driving and I am trying to keep him awake by talking bullshit to him ;) Imagine all the ice hockey stuff he has to hear tonight ;) It’s only 259 Km to Ludwigsburg so I bet he’ll survive. The best thing about this van driving is that you can have a break whenever you want. With the bus it’s different.

We survived Cologne, one of the “extra pressure” shows. It’s funny how you do all the things on stage following your instincts every night and many of them very much the same way no matter where you are, but when there are “important EMI people” in the crowd, you get this extra beat inside you. Ok, I must admit that the super warm welcome in Cologne, like every evening so far, made it a lot easier and took a lot of the pressure away, but still.

The tour is half way. Already???? Well, it might get a bit longer because we heard about some new shows for 2009 today. We will let you know as soon as we know. It’s funny how you first wait for the trip for 6 months and when you get on the road, the days go by so so so fast. It has been just amazing this far. The audiences have been bigger and louder than ever before on our tours and also the feeling on stage has felt better than on any of the past tours. And the thing we have with the guys in the bus, back stage, on stage, etc. it just feels so right! Even though you spend every day with each other, there hasn’t been one single fight or stupid misunderstanding so far. For the very first time. And that feeling of friendship is something that follows us on stage every night. I haven’t felt this good about any group I have played with before. It feels so good when you look into the eyes of the guys on stage and the feeling is 100 % warm no matter if someone plays wrong or something unexpected happens with the tech stuff. Same goes with the crew. They are working their asses off every day to make the shows go great for you people and I have felt sorry for some of them sneezing through the day but still sweating the night with us. I will reward them with a big hug after all this is behind.

We have been able to avoid major sickness, even though today Karri, Riku and Osmo felt really sick. I have felt this kind of tiredness too, but I am NOT going to let it get me. Yesterday in Dortmund I felt very strange the whole evening and I was sure I was gonna be sick today, but no. At least now I am feeling very ok. Being tired is normal on tour. The first week usually goes in this kind of tour-hype and then when you forget to be nervous and excited 24/7 the lack of sleep gets you. This “4 shows in 4 days” is a pretty heavy load especially for the crew guys who have to be there from morning until the night, but I bet we will make it. Then we have a day off after the Munich show and then we start the Austrian part of the tour.

We play 6 shows in Austria. All the shows are organized by this Austrian bank and I guess you can only win tickets to these shows. I am actually still not sure how the whole thing went but I am sure it will be fun. The clubs will be smaller and I really like that idea. Even though I have felt very much connected with the audience every night, it’s even easier to get the feeling in the smaller venues. We will finally also perform in Salzburg, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and I will sure make my camera very busy there on our day off before the show.

I must say getting straight to the warm bus after the shows has been great, even though it would be nice to meet some of the loyal people who have been there fort us for so long. I think one of the reasons we are not all ill at the moment is that we have been able to eat pretty soon after the shows and the bed has been available too if you feel like it. I remember the last tour 2007, there were nights when I stood out for 2 hours in cold and that can actually do bad stuff to your throat. I am very happy we decided to play it a bit safer this time.

I hope they are following our van with the bus and we get to dive into our beds soon after arriving in Ludwigsburg. I have skipped the training three days now because I felt I have no energy, but tomorrow I might do the sweating in the afternoon again. If I feel like it when I wake up. If my bed arrives in town early enough. In the afternoon I will go shopping. There must be something in the city worth buying ;)

I will keep Mikko awake now. He is coughing pretty badly and we will stop at a gas station soon and I’ll buy him some stuff for the throat. Last night on the road I medicated Osmo at the upper movie lounge of the bus with hot drinks and medicine because he was feeling bad. I am becoming a real doctor.

Good night every one, whereever you are, and thank you so very much for the super fantastic evenings so far. There are more to come ;) We are listening to Seal Soul. Great album. “I was born by the river….”

Samu

PS: My absolute # 1 single from PopGasm and my personal # 1 song of all SA songs “Welcome to My Life” is released today (Finally…….). Go get it!!!

Bremen – Berlin – Leipzig

I am sitting alone at the lobby bar in Neu-Isenburg (Near Frankfurt) on a day off. The rest of the guys are sleeping and getting ready for the Go-Cart race we have arranged finally for this evening. The whole band & crew & Drivers and Toby (merch man) Basty (tour manager) will join and I am already thinking about my tactical stuff. I hate losing and I must be in good shape mentally in a few hours to kick their asses.

I have been on tour before, but I must say now this is something better than ever before. All the shows have been so super wonderful. Of course when you travel a tour like this, there will always be evenings when everything does not go exactly by the book, but even these little “mistakes” haven’t taken one percentage of the feeling away. And I have seen many kinds of audiences but now you have no idea how happy you have made me / us. It is an amazing feeling when you have to fight against tears to continue the song at some part of the show. Yesterday the group hug after the show with the guys lasted for a minute. You were so super great!!!

There are 2 shows on this tour where we have extra pressure. The first one was in Berlin because our families were there. I don’t know why, but somehow you still wanna show the moms and dads & sisters that this is really a serious thing we are doing, not just fooling around and drinking beer. I was very relieved after the great show. And who the hell said folks in Berlin are too cool and that they can’t have fun??? The crowd I saw there on Friday was one of the warmest, loudest and relaxed crowds ever. It was great to play there on such a historical week.

The next extra pressure show is in Cologne. There we have our fellow countrymen “Clarkkent” supporting us and also many record company people. The challenge with these shows sometimes is that you start thinking about one person, your sister for example and how she feels about the show, and you may lose the focus. But if it went well with moms and stuff in Berlin, I am sure a few record professionals won’t make it any more difficult.

I must say our support band “Black Sheep” has been the nicest band ever to be on tour with so far. They really just do their job every night and give us the space we need. They have been a positive surprise all the way. And their show is great too. Go check it out!

But now… I will have shower and get ready for the race. Today my name is Samu Hasbermacher ;)

S

PS: Releasing the live album early next year looks good. We have recorded every show and we will keep on recording. So just remember to make some noise to make sure your hometown get’s on the album ;)

PPS: If you don’t hear about the go-cart from now on, I am sure there was a problem with my car. And it’s Karri’s & Aki’s fault. Karri said yesterday that if his race doesn’t look too good, he will concentrate on destroying my race. WTF????? This IS serious...;)

Germany – Kiel & Hamburg

Okay ;) The first two shows are behind and what can I say? I have never ever experienced anything like this. Even though the first shows of the tour are always a bit challenging with technical stuff and the song arrangements, I must give huge credit for the crew guys and everyone around us how super great things have rolled during the shows. And the audiences… I really do not know what has happened but there has been this special something in the rooms both nights. It was already there at the Finnish shows but now the whole set has been better than ever before.

Yesterday in Kiel we had the “smallest” crowd looking at the ticket presale results and we didn’t expect that much from the show. But even though they might have been able to fit a few more people in the room, the mood was just amazing. And the same today at the sold out Hamburg show at the legendary Grosse Freiheit 36 club. We still tried a few new things today, like playing “Choose to be me” after a years break and it felt so good. We have always planned to play a different set every night and I guess now we will keep the whole show more interesting by changing a thing or two every night. It’s so great that we have all the songs of the two albums to perform. Every night we need to skip some of our favorites to keep the time close to the agreed 90 minutes.

I must say I am very happy for the understanding we have gotten from the most of you for the efforts we take to stay healthy through this trip. I have felt a bit strange walking straight into the bus from the venues just waving at the ones waiting outside but the fact is, this is something we need to do. Sure we can still get sick and of course I / we have played shows before with flu, even fever, but at least we try to secure the upcoming shows. And the shows are the reason we are here.

I always have had this kind of a “stay-away-from-flu” stress on tour. It’s really hard to do anything when the fever gets you, but singing is just something you really can’t do if the throat does not work. And with the sweating on stage, it’s really not smart to do it when you are ill. You can get really sick. We tried to get the swine flu shots in Finland, but we are not important enough to get it yet. And I agree, the babies and people who have permanent deceases are in the risk group number one and therefore they should get it first. I knew some of you would not understand our decision. We are all selfish. Just like me trying to stay away from the flu. I can have it in January if it needs to come. But that’s enough about negative stuff ;)

Tomorrow is the first day off. Usually I feel great knowing there is a little break after a few shows, but right now I would give a lot to get on stage tomorrow. It has been so great. But anyway… We will do our Girya-training with Sami tomorrow at the hotel and after that we have a little camera meeting. We are 4 guys REALLY into shooting photos and we need to share experiences. Osmo just bought the same Nikon d90 that Karri (our stage boss) and I have and our tour manager Basty has his Canon set with him. Very “rock credible” I know, but it’s fun ;)

We are also trying to arrange a carting car race for tomorrow evening for the whole gang. There is a place in Bremen where you first do a warm-up for 20 minutes, then the qualifying and then the 20-minute race. I am SO going to be in top 3. I guess Aki is my worst enemy, not because he’s experienced. Just because he hates losing. Just like me. Boys with toys ;)

Some of the guys also want to spend their night in the bus instead of the hotel. I know after a few more days everyone will respect the privacy of the hotel room instead of the bus, but now it’s too early. It’s amazing how much space you have in this 2-floor bus with 10 guys.

There’s always food in the bus when we drive to the next town. This time we asked for healthy food like soups and salads for the night, but it really is not enough after the shows. Last night I could not sleep well because I was hungry and today our crew asked how long they’d have to eat the “rabbit shit.” I guess we will tell our tour manager tomorrow to arrange some pasta, wok or Chinese food for the rest of the nights if possible. We had to stop tonight at this gas station to get sandwiches because our stomachs were making this “hungry sounds.”

I will take my blanket and my pillow now and get to the front lounge upstairs with Riku. We will watch the “Death Proof” movie even though I have seen it already. But it’s just so good. I can recommend it warmly for everyone. Rose McGowan went above Scarlet Johanson on my “Top 10” list after that movie. Such a neighbor girl ;)

Good night everyone and thank you so very much for the wonderful two nights. You have made us / me feel more than happy. These events are the reason I really wanna give my life to this up ‘n’ down circus. I love you all right now. I hope Thursday comes soon….;)

Samu

PS: Raul measured his show “exercise” today with a calorie / pulse meter and he burned 780 calories in Hamburg!!

PPS:I finally met one of my biggest Ice Hockey idols ever, Mr. Jere Karalahti yesterday. He is THE defenseman of all times and has given me Goosebumps at the Helsinki IFK games a hundred times. He was at the Kiel show with my other ice hockey idol-friend Mr. Kimmo Kuhta. They both play for the Hamburg Freezers this season. Imekää kaikki jormaa, Jere on äijä!