2010 - It’s been a while… Wednesday, 13 January 2010 at 00:09I actually wanted to write a New Year’s update at the end of the year, but I just didn’t know what to write. I actually wrote a few lines once but I stopped, as everything felt so unclear. I really needed some time to clear my messy head after everything that happened.I really don’t know what to think about last year. Now after a month, I am remembering the good moments more and more, but as the tour ended in December I was more tired and lost than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, you all made the tour and the whole year totally unforgettable for me and us all, but 2009 included just simply so many ups and downs that I felt like I could just cry for a week and then sleep for two. And I kind of did. I got really sick immediately after the last session in Zurich and I was sick for a month. It’s funny how it hits you when you can finally let go of everything. Actually it’s better that way. We’ve still never cancelled a show because one of us was sick. Amazing! It’s the healthy Finnish tab water ;)The year 2009 with all it’s Popgastic efforts was quite a ride. A lot of things were great. And I will not even get into details with music video problems, tricky multinational record company politics, studio businesses, court cases (victorious though) and other shit. I am way too lucky doing what I do for living to complain at all, but it’s funny how things can bring you really down no matter how sweet the cream around your cake is. So now I have done basically nothing for a month. I will be off until the end of January snowboarding at the Alps and then it’s time to get back to business. You know I have been on my snowboard only twice before, so let’s see in how many pieces they send me back to Finland in a few weeks. It’s good that the next tour is an acoustic /stripped down kind of a thing, so I can easily do it on a barstool with black eyes still wearing the hospital outfit because nothing else fits on the bruises. No I’ll be fine – knock on wood ;) I heard the acoustic tour would be sold out in almost all cities already before the tour start and that makes me very happy. It’s so amazing that no matter how well the albums sell or how well the singles perform on the charts, you people still join us when we get in town. Thank you for that. Again! We will perform this softer set with more acoustic instrumentation. Sure there will be drums and some effect stuff, but I’d say it’s somewhere between our normal stage show and the acoustic concerts we did late 2009. I L-O-V-E- IT! That is actually how I started the whole Sunrise stuff 17 years ago and it kind of feels like coming back home. Osmo will join us for most of the shows. Osmo has his 2nd album coming out near the tour and whenever he can’t be there, seems as if Mr. Jukka Backlund will replace him. Looking at our tour manager’s day it doesn’t look too easy. One of the keyboard guys (Osmo) is losing all his stuff (sometimes even himself) all the time and the other guy (Jukka) is like Circus Finlandia on the road. But on stage it will be great, I am sure. We have spoken about the songs and arrangements and there are some great ideas, but nothing is clear yet. Sure we wanna do something totally new to keep it fresh for us all. It’s actually good that we all are in different parts of the world for the whole January with the guys so when we start building the set early February, I am sure it will be refreshing. I am a bit nervous what they will say about my ideas for the set, but I will use my bulldozer technique if al else fails…We have also recorded a few new songs this month with Jukka & the guys at our studio. Especially recording a song called “Kiss Goodbye” felt like the good old times when we recorded just songs without any bigger album plans or other targets. Just for the fun of it. Let’s hope it will be released someday somewhere…The year 2010 seems actually pretty nice. Seems as if we’ll play a lot of shows and festivals especially in the summer and if all goes well, we could have some new music out already before Christmas. I will have some songwriting and producing sessions already in February with different new people but also with our own home team in Helsinki. And I guess we will try to fix some studio time for the summer too and I see no problem having a full new album ready to be released in a year’s time. All this depends on the corporations working with us, sure, but I think we all learned many lessons with Popgasm how things can be done a lot easier. You don’t need to shoot videos twice from now on. We call the next album “Project Threesome.” I hope someone will come up with a descent name before we release it ;)So… One more HIFK ice hockey game in Helsinki on Thursday (they really need to win this one) and then on the weekend I will pack my snowboarding gear and get ready for the slopes. And my ass ready for bruises ;) The thought of fresh air away from everything sounds very nice even though the winter here in Helsinki has been more beautiful than ever. We have so much snow and the trees are all white. It’s cool walking home from a bar at night (well in a cab because it’s -20 Celsius). You feel like in a Disney movie. Or maybe I am… Ok. That’s it. ;)Have a great rest of the winter everyone and see you all very soon, Samu
2010 - It’s been a while…FROM SRA DIARY
2010 - It’s been a while… Wednesday, 13 January 2010 at 00:09I actually wanted to write a New Year’s update at the end of the year, but I just didn’t know what to write. I actually wrote a few lines once but I stopped, as everything felt so unclear. I really needed some time to clear my messy head after everything that happened.I really don’t know what to think about last year. Now after a month, I am remembering the good moments more and more, but as the tour ended in December I was more tired and lost than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, you all made the tour and the whole year totally unforgettable for me and us all, but 2009 included just simply so many ups and downs that I felt like I could just cry for a week and then sleep for two. And I kind of did. I got really sick immediately after the last session in Zurich and I was sick for a month. It’s funny how it hits you when you can finally let go of everything. Actually it’s better that way. We’ve still never cancelled a show because one of us was sick. Amazing! It’s the healthy Finnish tab water ;)The year 2009 with all it’s Popgastic efforts was quite a ride. A lot of things were great. And I will not even get into details with music video problems, tricky multinational record company politics, studio businesses, court cases (victorious though) and other shit. I am way too lucky doing what I do for living to complain at all, but it’s funny how things can bring you really down no matter how sweet the cream around your cake is. So now I have done basically nothing for a month. I will be off until the end of January snowboarding at the Alps and then it’s time to get back to business. You know I have been on my snowboard only twice before, so let’s see in how many pieces they send me back to Finland in a few weeks. It’s good that the next tour is an acoustic /stripped down kind of a thing, so I can easily do it on a barstool with black eyes still wearing the hospital outfit because nothing else fits on the bruises. No I’ll be fine – knock on wood ;) I heard the acoustic tour would be sold out in almost all cities already before the tour start and that makes me very happy. It’s so amazing that no matter how well the albums sell or how well the singles perform on the charts, you people still join us when we get in town. Thank you for that. Again! We will perform this softer set with more acoustic instrumentation. Sure there will be drums and some effect stuff, but I’d say it’s somewhere between our normal stage show and the acoustic concerts we did late 2009. I L-O-V-E- IT! That is actually how I started the whole Sunrise stuff 17 years ago and it kind of feels like coming back home. Osmo will join us for most of the shows. Osmo has his 2nd album coming out near the tour and whenever he can’t be there, seems as if Mr. Jukka Backlund will replace him. Looking at our tour manager’s day it doesn’t look too easy. One of the keyboard guys (Osmo) is losing all his stuff (sometimes even himself) all the time and the other guy (Jukka) is like Circus Finlandia on the road. But on stage it will be great, I am sure. We have spoken about the songs and arrangements and there are some great ideas, but nothing is clear yet. Sure we wanna do something totally new to keep it fresh for us all. It’s actually good that we all are in different parts of the world for the whole January with the guys so when we start building the set early February, I am sure it will be refreshing. I am a bit nervous what they will say about my ideas for the set, but I will use my bulldozer technique if al else fails…We have also recorded a few new songs this month with Jukka & the guys at our studio. Especially recording a song called “Kiss Goodbye” felt like the good old times when we recorded just songs without any bigger album plans or other targets. Just for the fun of it. Let’s hope it will be released someday somewhere…The year 2010 seems actually pretty nice. Seems as if we’ll play a lot of shows and festivals especially in the summer and if all goes well, we could have some new music out already before Christmas. I will have some songwriting and producing sessions already in February with different new people but also with our own home team in Helsinki. And I guess we will try to fix some studio time for the summer too and I see no problem having a full new album ready to be released in a year’s time. All this depends on the corporations working with us, sure, but I think we all learned many lessons with Popgasm how things can be done a lot easier. You don’t need to shoot videos twice from now on. We call the next album “Project Threesome.” I hope someone will come up with a descent name before we release it ;)So… One more HIFK ice hockey game in Helsinki on Thursday (they really need to win this one) and then on the weekend I will pack my snowboarding gear and get ready for the slopes. And my ass ready for bruises ;) The thought of fresh air away from everything sounds very nice even though the winter here in Helsinki has been more beautiful than ever. We have so much snow and the trees are all white. It’s cool walking home from a bar at night (well in a cab because it’s -20 Celsius). You feel like in a Disney movie. Or maybe I am… Ok. That’s it. ;)Have a great rest of the winter everyone and see you all very soon, Samu