SunriseAve ITALY

BLOG ESTATE 2010 - PART 2

Summer of 2010

by Sunrise Avenue on Friday, 20 August 2010 at 15:56

Hey all. It’s been a while…

This has been the strangest and also the best summer ever. So many things have happened around me and us that it has kept me busy from writing any updates here and also some things have been so damn complicated that I really didn’t know what to say about them. I guess I needed some time on my own. And I still do. It’s funny how even if I’m so used to sharing my thoughts with everyone through my blogs, it’s really hard to express myself when things are a huge mess. Even though many of the things are good. Too much is too much.

 It’s been a great summer. Not only the weather, although it’s been the hottest summer in Finland ever. And can’t really blame the weather man elsewhere either. The temperature didn’t drop below 24C one single time in the whole July in Helsinki. We can live with that ;) They sold out all the air-condition equipment and fans in a few days and we’ve been sweating more than ever. I guess that’ll change soon, even though today has still been super sunny and nice.

 We have worked like hell with the guys. Even before my trip to Los Angeles in April, the song writing mood has been on most of the time and I must say there are some songs that I am super proud and happy to have for our next step. We have a very much deeper connection with Riku as song writers now and that helps a lot. Especially now that Jukka lives in Paris ands I can’t join him that often with my guitar. Maybe it needs a few years to get to know a new guy better to really let go and to jump into the other guys visions but now I must say that feels great. We / I have also worked with some new producers and especially Mr. Jukka Immonen feels like a full member of the team after a few long sessions. (What is it with us and guys with the first name JUKKA???) The “old” Jukka will also produce many tracks this time too.

 On business side the mess has been the biggest. It took very much of my energy to play the song writer, singer, business man, manager, tour planner, lawyer, etc. through the summer but now most of the “office shit” is in better and more suitable hands. It was a good and also a challenging thing putting together a new record label team & management for SA but now all that is in pretty good shape and there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We have some new great partners / friends to join us for the next steps.

 I really can’t promise when the next step will be taken, but I have a strong gut feeling that the next album will be ready to go out right after new year. There’s a lot to do before that, but we have time. It’s funny, but I feel very confident with the new stuff and about the next step. And of course all we can do is to do everything as good as we can following our hearts and then just see where it takes us.

 I just heard about the presales of the tour in December. It’s so amazing that you people are so loyal and just keep supporting us so great. From what I heard, the tour will be great and we will not have to play for empty rooms at all ;) We will fix some new cool things for you for the tour. We have a million ideas what we wanna do ;)

 I actually thought about you people many times this summer. I mean what it is that makes you join us every time no matter where we play. You have no idea how much that means to us and how happy you make us. Thank you! Soo… We will inform you about our future plans in the bear future. I am so excited ;)

 I will join Raul, Riku, Sami & some friends on a U2 show at Helsinki Olympic Stadium now. I have been listening to the today’s greatest bands songs for the whole week and I can’t wait to get my E-L-E-V-A-T-I-O-N!!!!! Tomorrow we rock you in Cologne and next week in Greece. JEEEEEEEE ;)

I love you all. See you very soon.

Samu

by Sunrise Avenue on Thursday, 26 August 2010 at 23:05

I am sitting on a plane home after a 3-day trip to Crete Island. It’s so cool to have a job that takes you “working” in places like this. Usually the Finnish families go there for holidays, but we flew over with our working gloves on ;)

 The only down side is the 6 flights we needed to take. There aren’t that many direct flights from Helsinki that can also take all our cargo in, so it’s another 14-hour travel day. I am starting to know the European airports pretty well by now. And every guy in the band & crew know how to find Starbucks at any airport.

 It was a super nice day yesterday. I woke up very late, around 12 and just had something to eat and went to the beach with Osmo, Riku, Karri and Mikko. We had a little beach volley tournament and of course we lost with Karri against Osmo & Riku. They had better winds and the sun was shining against us, but yes yes, we lost ;)

 This is pretty bad because my ranking is pretty low now in the SUNRISE AVENUE SPORTS RANKING after I did really badly on the table tennis tournament last time we were in studio. Here are the results from there:

1.       Riku (5 Wins)

2.       Arttu (4)

3.       Jukka (3)

4.       Raul (2)

5.       Samu(1)

6.       Sami (0)

I am sure Riku has bee practicing. He was really good. Me and Sami were more just entertaining the guys. I think Jukka had a few great shots from my “deadly strikes” on video, so maybe we see those later….

 Back to Crete… The show was too short but very nice. And JESUS they sang loud again. It was the last one of the Amita motiuon tour festivals for us that we’ve been doing all over Greece this summer. The trips to Greece are always very cool with the weather, shopping and stuff, but again it feels like I gained 10 kilos with the Saganaki cheese. Mmmmmm ;) Thank you everyone for the great night yesterday!

 Now we will have a few days at home and we have a WEEKEND FREE!! Juhuu!!!! I will SO go out in Helsinki after a long break. Then next week we will play our last festivals this year, on Saturday near Frankfurt with a full rock setup and on Sunday an acoustic show in Bochum. We really hope to see you all there again before we will let you rest for a few months before the next tour ;)

 It’s kind of sad that after those shows our summer is Officially over, but on the other hand it means we’ll have time to finish our new album before the end of the year. According to the plans, the next album (working title “Out of style, Yeah!”) will be out in early march. We have set a deadline for our selves to January 31st. That would mean we could start with a single right at the beginning of the year. But let’s not hit anything in stone yet. We need to make the 12-14 tracks ready and perfect for you before we let anything out. However, I have a very good feeling about all this…

 I will watch “Green Zone” with Matt Damon now. I have seen it once already in way better company than the farting business man next to me, but it’s a good way to kill the rest of the flight.

 See you next week!

 Samu

by Sunrise Avenue on Monday, 06 September 2010 at 18:03

I really didn’t know what to expect from this summer when I thought about it after the winter. There were no new releases or anything new really from us to keep the interest in Sunrise Avenue and I was a little worried if people would find their way to our shows after we had been silent for so long on the music market. You know I STILL have this “empty room phobia” before the shows. Osmo was laughing at me in Russelsheim when I was wondering if the people will stay to see our show too after the Eurovision winner Lena. It’s not that I don’t trust you, you’ve always been there for us. It’s just something in my small head. Can’t take anything for granted.

I just got home after the last two shows in Russelsheim and Bochum and I gotta say that the ending for this period could not have been better. On Saturday we played a full stage “rock show” at this Opel festival and that was one of the coolest shows this summer. Even the weather was great! And damn I love the catwalk!!! And yesterday in Bochum at the sold out tent… I honestly had problems holding my tears a few times when you sang so loud for us and I knew it would be some months without you now.

 Thank you everyone so much for the great summer everywhere and I really hope we see you very very soon!

 Now we’re gonna focus on the new album and stuff around it and in a way it’s great that there are no shows before December and we have a lot of time for recording & writing. I have set a deadline in January 31st for the new baby and this means we have nearly 5 months to put the pieces together and even write a few new songs more. In my opinion, we have 10 ready tracks for the album, even the singles we need, but of course now we need to do the necessary chats with EMI and Universal and other parties so the whole package is fully perfect when we let the baby out. There are some songs that I have wanted to play to you already on the way, but probably it’s better to keep them in the closet until they all come out together.

 I will update you on what’s happening in studio with the guys and as soon as there’s some dates or other info too, of course.

 So take a little rest now and see you all on the acoustic tour in December. I really can’t wait ;) We will rehearse a brand new acoustic set for that tour with a lot of new stuff. Maybe Osmo could be the Santa…? ;)

 I love you all very much right now and you should know that you have made us all very happy through the whole summer.

 Thank you!

 Samu