SunriseAve ITALY

New Video & EBBA Etc. from Sunrise Avenue Diary

Hey all!

It's been a while. I've been mostly having time off and recharging my batteries for the year 2008 and all the challenges ahead. I must say it was really strange waking up at home so many mornings (really early afternoons ;) in a row after all the traffic last year and it was somewhat challenging to find stuff to do. I was really restless and a bit depressed even for the first weeks of this year but now things have started to roll smooth again.

2007 was quite a year. We performed 169 shows, released the album in many many new countries and received 8 gold and platinum single and album awards and other trophies for the work we did together with you guys and girls. Four big tours and all the stuff in between. Also there were some negative issues we needed to deal with and of course those things are not nice, but still I wouldn't change one second of all we went through. It's life as it is. Thank you so much for all!

Obviously many of you have heard that Janne has filed a court case against Jukka, Sami, Raul and myself. He wants all of our money and also the name Sunrise Avenue away from us. It's so sad. Our lawyers say there is no need to worry, so I hope you could also have patience with it. We will keep on playing shows and recording albums no matter what happens. Even with a name "Sunrise Mental Hospital." I still hope all the fighting will not affect too much on the way we are able to work together. Of course it's a challenge, but somehow all this has actually brought the rest of us even closer together. We will meet Janne and his lawyers soon and I hope we could come to some sort of a settlement and face all this as grown-ups. I guess it would be better for all sides. It's the first time we are allowed to sit down together after the change.

We shot our fourth video (Choose to be me) in London last week. I must say I really like the story and how it looks. In the clip, I am this guy doing a magic trick because this girl makes me do the stuff. Things get really dangerous and actually something very bad might happen to me in the end. Maybe I wrote this already before the shootings. Maybe I didn't survive ;=) You'll see it soon; In Central Europe already this week and in Germany for example they play it on Wednesday right after the evening news at 08 PM on RTL II. A British actress Jenny Evans plays the leading female role and she does it just so amazingly well! I think we will have some things to do also with the German Big Brother show. CTBM is the theme song and I heard we might visit the show or even the house if all goes well.

I think this video will be the last one from "On the way to wonderland" and actually we are just building a new studio in Helsinki to start recordings of the second album. I have played many new songs together with Sami and Raul and I must say they sound really cool. It's funny. Everybody said as a songwriter I would have huge pressure writing the 2nd albums tracks after the successful 1st one, but all seems to be really relaxed. I must say Raul and especially Sami have brought a lot of great ideas to the new songs. The atmosphere seems so be right finally.

There will be shows around Europe and some are already confirmed. I hope we could confirm all the dates they are negotiating right now but as soon as they let us know, we will update the info on our websites. The goal is to release the album this year, but let's see. There are a few special tracks I'd love you folks to hear right away but lets be patient.

We came back home from Cannes, France yesterday with Jukka, Riku, Sami and Raul the Nutcracker. Riku was there with us and as I wrote before, he will continue playing with us on live shows and let's see with the future plans when the 2nd album is done. Anyway. The EBBA (European Boarder Breaker Award) award (presented for the most selling European artist outside their home country) we got was a very cool thing. The gala itself was technically a nightmare and performing two songs has never made us angrier. I hope they learn something from our feedback. But it was nice to hang out at the boulevards and of course avenues (; by the Mediterranean Sea when the sun was shining and the temperature rose higher than 20 C on the afternoons.

I have started reading books. I don't know what happened in Africa with my mom and my little brother but I suddenly realized enjoying the relaxing effect of a great book and now I'm going through different band / star biographies to understand my / our feelings a bit more in the entertainment world. Maybe I am pregnant or something… The one on the loop is Stings life story. Jesus, there's cool stuff he did and survived from.

I hope you all have a great spring and I hope you have enough strength to make it to the summer. It'll come. Don't forget to check out the new demo track we wrote with Jukka for my friend who got out of jail. The name is "fail again" and you can find it on the Choose to be me single among the versions and some cool remixes.

May the force be with you & See U soon!

Samu