SunriseAve ITALY

....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!!!