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Samu's Blog 2010 auf Englisch

Blog from 12. January 2010

Samu

2010 - It’s been a while…

I 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


Blog from 04. March 2010

Samu

On Da Road Again

Finally!! January & February are the most boring months of the year because nothing really happens in the music industry and finally we are about to step into the tour bus again. As you might know, this time it will be an acoustic tour with a “light” setup and it’s something we have never really done before. A tour like that, I mean. Personally I love it very much. That is the way Sunrise started back in the days and it kind of feels like going back to roots. We tried a couple of these shows last year with some radio partners in Germany and it was just super great! I hope those of you who were there, were able to feel the relaxed mood in the room every night. Anything can happen and this time the rules are the same as last time: When I shout “Cameras OFF” cameras go off ;). If something stupid happens. It’s never me, but anyway….

We have been practicing the acoustic set for some weeks now and I am very happy! Sami will have his drums on a few songs but all is very much softer than normally. I only have an acoustic guitar (an in some songs the guys won’t let me play even that….;) There are a few older SA songs that haven’t fitted into the set on stage before and now is the perfect time to get them back to life. Also there were some great songs that didn’t “fit” on PopGasm and were released as B-sides etc. This is the perfect chance to enjoy them too. We have been thinking about some cover stuff too. And we have practiced a few songs from other artists actually, but we’ll see ;)

Osmo “Dr. Kaufmann” Ikonen will travel with us the 1st half of the tour and our dear Jukka will do the second half. Like good old times. Osmo has some duties with his own career and his own NEW ALBUM(!!) that was just released last week and it’s great that Jukka will fly over to do the job. The rest of us guys you know already ;)

We are starting to have plans for the rest of the year too. As far as I know, we will have many festival shows in different countries (hopefully as many different countries as possible) and that’s what we want. There’s nothing better than festivals in the summer, is there?? ;) We will also keep on recording our 3rd album all through the year. We started the sessions already around last Christmas and I am very happy with some of the stuff we have pretty much finished already. The plan is to have an album out early next year. Sure that depends on a million things but I think that is a good target.

It’s been a strange and very frustrating 2-3 months and there is no place on earth I’d rather be in than with you all the next weeks. I am 110 % sure we will have a lot of fun together.

See you soon!

Samu

Featuring Doctor Kaufmann; &
Nurses; Rajamaa, Ruutu, Osama & Backlund

PS: We received our Christmas presents late January and we were all spending our holidays all over the planet then. There’s a few pictures on FB & MS from the session we had opening the first presents with Sami. We took the best ones because the others were still in Thailand then, muahahahaha ;) Just kidding ;) Thank you so very much !!!

Oh yes, in Swedish too…

Congratulations Sweden for all the ice hockey Olympic medals from Vancouver ;)


Blog from 07. March 2010

Samu

Hamburg – Berlin

I didn’t remember how happy I feel in a tour bus bed. Everybody went to bed yesterday pretty soon after we left Hamburg. Of course we had an early flight in the morning from Helsinki yesterday but we were still in the center of Hamburg when the only one up was our driver Mr. Linus.

Damn I was nervous yesterday before the show. The whole day at the venue before the show was a huge technical mess and we were supposed to try the new versions on stage for a few hours before the first show, but fixing the cables and systems took all the time. And since everything was still not super fine after the sound check, that makes you feel a bit strange when you really don’t know how the “weather conditions” will be on stage.

Anyway… As the music and lights went off and I walked on stage, I remembered again why we make these trips and play these shows. The welcome you gave us was one of the warmest I have ever experienced and my feelings were pretty hard to handle as I sat there alone with my guitar starting the first song.

Whatta night! I have been on stage a couple of times before in my life with different setups, but I must say this acoustic / stripped down thing is one of my favorites. We tried this thing last year a couple of times at some smaller acoustic events but I didn’t remember it’s that relaxed. You were very super great and you made me / us feel very good. And even if we made a few little mistakes (that you probably didn’t realize;), I think the show rolled very well. I was very proud of us all.

I was also a bit worried with the fact that we are traveling only with 2 crew guys (Mikko Sound & MP Stage) because the production is so light this time, but I must give full 10 points to both of them. It’s so strange having only 9 guys (Band, 2xcrew, Merchandise Toby and tour manager Basty) in the bus in stead of the usual 13. Even though we travel with a smaller bus, there’s still very much space and it’s quiet. Nice!

Now we are sitting outside the Columbia Club in Berlin waiting for the local crew to open the doors. I guess we will have to check some songs with the guys on stage and then if there’s time, I could do some kettle bell training. Maybe…;) It’s funny how you practice songs back home, but you finally see how the things work when you do them on stage for the first time. Just little adjustments today.

My family is here checking us out and also my friend Kimmo from my “Spanish years” and he will travel with us to Dresden with the tour bus. Driving with us in the night and sleeping in the bus bed is definitely an experience for anyone. If things start getting really bad in the music business, I will start selling “Haber experience travel” tickets on the tours. 105 € Night, including breakfast and Riku’s cheap jukes…
Thank you all very much for yesterday. It was way cooler than we expected.

Love you all,

Samu



Blog from 14. March 2010

Samu

Good morning…

(Please listen to “Green Day – Peacemaker” while reading this blog. To get into the right mood. Of after reading, it’ll make your day better!)

I woke up today in Asch… wait, I need to check the town name… Aschaffenburg. It’s near Frankfurt in Germany. Actually I woke up as Osmo had his hands in my bus bed (“Put your hand on me!”) and he was looking for something. From my bed??? I guess the fact that he is leaving us after tomorrow’s show; he is feeling a bit sad and wants to maximize the moments together. I kind of told him to F**k off! Hope I didn’t hurt his feelings, but I think it’s good to be honest and straight with these things….;)

This trip has been far better than I expected. When we started this trip, I was a bit worried how people might taker the show with so many slow songs and us mainly sitting down. You have been great every evening!! On the ”rock shows” there are so many moving parts in the show that it’s hard for us on stage to really “sit back” and enjoy the show. These acoustic shows are perfect in that way. I have had every hair up in my body many times a night. Especially in “Dream like A Child” and “Forever Yours.” It’s so great how you have the patience to listen to the song until the very end and then the room explodes. That feels good on my shake barstool.

Now after almost a ten shows, Ihave learnt to sit down more during the show. Especially in Hamburg (1st show) I was still so nervous with the whole setup that I guess I went around my chair a hundred times. It’s at least down to 50 now ;)

I am so proud of my boys. Sure we have played a lot during these years and I knew that Sami can count to four without losing the rhythm, but the way how great the instruments and stuff fit together has surprised me. Last year when we played the acoustic radio show on a very short notice, it was more about hanging out on stage and making jokes and singing loud. Now there are so many cool little special guitar / key / drum stuff that make it fresh and new even for me. Some of the songs are on a brand new level. Especially “Dream Like A Child” is one of the songs that are better than the original to me.

Osmo is leaving us tomorrow. Even though he really would seem to stay, he has to take care of his own career. He has some own shows (Go check him out!) and he is also going to Philadelphia to write / produce some new music. I can’t describe the value he brings to the band on and off stage. I really hope there will be space for Sunrise Avenue in Osmo’s calendar in the future too. But thumbs up for Osmo’s world domination too for sure. I hope he hires me as something, a security guard or a dancer when he is a world class super star.

I remember worrying about the keyboard situation a year ago. Our dear producer and musical genius Jukka Backlund had to leave the band because his real passion is somewhere else than being a band member. He is a music producer and if you travel with a band, you just don’t have energy to do another job when you get back home. Jukka has been the biggest factor in Sunrise Avenue from the whole beginning and I would not sit here in Aschaffenburg or anywhere without Jukka’s huge talent & work during these years. Jukka was also a very important backbone for me when I had to start growing towards being a musician and a kind of a public person a few years ago. I’m still on the way – steady she goes... We have had our ups and downs with Jukka and even though he is probably not the easiest person on the planet, I love and respect him very much.

So the reunion is about to happen on Wednesday in Mannheim and I really hope you al give him a warm welcome. We recorded the shows with Osmo and we sent Jukka the songs / versions and he was really blown away. It has been a while since we have played together outside studio, but Jukka is one of the most talented guys on this planet and with a little rehearsal session it will be great. I am sure it will be fun!

I must admit that I checked some tagged pictures on my MySpace and I started missing the bigger stage shows, but hey, summer is on it’s way and soon we’ll be jumping more again ;) It’s so nice that we get to do all different stuff from Acoustic and clubs shows to TV-shows and festivals. Can’t complain about my life.

No kettle bell (Girya) training today. We are still following the 3-times-a-week program like scout boys ;)

Maybe it’s just this tour and you angels inside the clubs singing with us every evening, but honestly, I don’t remember feeling this happy and relaxed ever.

Sound check in 30 minutes, I gotta eat something before that.

Love,

Samu

PS: Way to go IFK!



Blog from 20. March 2010

Samu

Switzerland

I feel like shit today! It must the hay fever because the nature is waking up again after the long winter and my nose is super stuck. I felt pretty bad already yesterday but now my system is totally jammed. Yesterday I was quite sure I was getting really sick but singing during the show didn’t feel that bad, so it must be the seed stuff flying in the air. And maybe I got a little cold too a few days ago too but I will survive ;) It’s just that singing with a bad throat and nose is pretty annoying. But I will make it work with something…

We are already in Zurich and that means we are over half way. And I can’t repeat myself too much saying how nice it has been. One of the greatest things has been the amount of new faces we have seen every evening in the audience. Do not get me wrong, I really appreciate you trusted ones who come to our shows month after month and year after year. But now there have been some folks who have told us that it’s the first SA show for them and they only came because of the acoustic setup. I think we should (and will) do these shows in the future too in between the bigger stage stuff no matter what happens.

Jukka has been behind the keys from Frankfurt (3 shows now) and now it’s really starting to work! Yesterday it felt already super great in Solothurn (partly because of the great audience!) and is seems as if we’re getting the connection on stage right. It’s always a bit strange for a couple of shows when you change one guy on stage. Especially with these acoustic shows, because now you can hear every little thing we do and we can’t hide behind a stage production – there is none. It’s just us and the instruments. Me like ;) Even with the “rock” setup I remember how strange it felt taking new blood on stage even if the new player is as good as Riku or Osmo after getting used to someone else.

Of course the set is a bit easier for Jukka to learn than for anyone else because he has been in such a big role in making Sunrise Avenue music, but still… I really like Jukka’s “Jazz” vocals on one of the songs. Come experience it ;)

We have recorded every show on this tour and it’s so cool to have some night snack in the bus in the night and listen to the day’s show with the guys. And to check what was good and what we need to do better. We also recorded the tour in 2009 but I never wanted to listen to the shows because you get so much more exhausted on the bigger stage thing. I might make a collection of my “Top 10 stage speeches.” Jesus Christ, me and my mouth sometimes…;)

I love the spring weather!!!!! After a long WINTER in the Freezer called Helsinki, it’s just amazing to walk to the tour bus from the venue wearing only a T-shirt. Human is not meant to live in minus degrees. I thought about it in Spain back in the days. Spain is pretty much the same size as Finland, but for a reason or another their population is 8 times bigger. This must mean our system is built to operate better in warmer conditions. There are just some things that work better when toys & body parts are not frozen. And it goes with everything. The coffee in the morning feels so much nicer with a little sunshine and warm wind….

So today we are close to Zurich city in Winterthurn, tomorrow in my favorite Swiss city Lucerne and then back to Germany in Stuttgart. I am trying to rest well and stay healthy by skipping anything extra and kettle bell trainings etc. Then we have a day off and I will only sleep…

I’m off to sound check again. Show must go on! ;)

Samu



Blog from 23. March 2010

Samu

A perfect Day

(To get the best out of this blog, please listen to “Amos Lee – Supply and Demand”)

Life could be very much worse. We just did 6 shows in a row for super great audiences ending it with the warmest crowd I remember yesterday in Stuttgart. I am lying on my hotel bed in Freiburg, Germany. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. My right foot hurts after I landed a bit funny yesterday at the end of the show, but that will probably go away with a little rest. I am super happy.

I should probably get out and enjoy the spring, but it just feels so great lying on the bed with the balcony door open. I might force myself to the phone and order something sweet and a coffee from the room service. They say that summer and spring only feel so great because of the cold and dark winter is then behind, but I could really skip the cold part for good.

My hay fever is pretty much gone. I guess I was also a little bit ill. It was still a bit hard to sing yesterday, but I guess it was mostly because of the sixth show day in a row. Even though we mostly sit down and chill out through the show, it’s hard work for the throat because you actually sing more than normally.

The crowds have been just amazing through the whole tour. There have been some very nice surprises, like Lucerne for example where the ticket pre-sales were low and we were expecting a half empty room, but no. That was one of the coolest shows ever. And yesterday… Just perfect! When we walked off the stage with the guys, we were all like “What the hell just happened there??” There was something in that room. Thank you.

So now we have a day off and tomorrow we continue the tour here in Freiburg and then we drive to Austria. And then we come back for the grand finale in Munich on Saturday. And then I probably get the post-tour-depression again. No ;) This time the wheels will be turning and there are so many great things ahead that there is no time to get depressed. And no reason either.

Jukka Backlund

Even though Jukka has produced almost all our music and knows the system well, selecting him to replace Osmo made me really thoughtful before the tour. We all know his musical skills and there is no question about his live experience. It was more about the past we have. The tour bus life is very sensitive and if there are any kinds of wrong vibrations, it can get pretty messy.

After all the good and bad that came along with the first album, I have truly missed the kind of connection with that blond idiot very much. There has been so much studio businesses and other stupid shit that even making music felt a bit difficult and complicated at one point.

The few days together now have been just great and even the studio sessions in Finland this year have felt very good, but last night I felt it fully again. And call me what ever “sensitive princess” but getting that stuff ok makes me so happy I could cry. I can’t recommend him as a financial advisor (can get expensive) or a husband (have no experience) to anyone, but as a music producer or a friend, yes. The snare sounds great! Jukka is still far the biggest musical reason I am here today and he is a big backbone for me both musically and mentally on my career.

I think he will be the one behind our keyboards when Osmo can’t make it in the future. Not a bad situation for us and for you…;)

Sometimes when the sky is dark and the feelings are low, I really don’t like the emotional part of myself. But on days like today I would not sell it for a billion BMW’s. Thank you all again for making this circus perfect for us and see you all very soon!

I will have a little nap now. I love you all,

Samu

PS: Ice Hockey play offs start in Finland next week. I take no calls for… well hopefully many weeks IFK IFK IFK !!
PPS: Good luck to Philadelphia Osmo. We’re all crossing our fingers for you here. And do not lose all your cameras and stuff (and yourself ;) there and come back in one piece.



Blog from 26. April 2010

Samu

Fievel in America

(To get the best out of this text, listen to “Flamboy-Lingering” from their upcoming debut album. Ooops, but you don’t have it because it’s not out yet, muaaahahahahahahah ;)

I am Miles above the Atlantic Sea somewhere near Greenland on my way to Los Angeles to make some music. I love it!!! The weather there is 25 Celsius and it’s sunny. I got my guitar, a few pairs of shorts and my camera equipment with me. What a shitty life I have… God, if you exist, Thanx pal!

Our new EMI bosses have arranged these sessions with local writers / producers and I am very happy about this opportunity. These days when records don’t sell millions because children are stealing music from the Internet, it’s great that EMI folks see it as good business sending me over the ocean. I don’t know who I am actually gonna work with but I am sure I will be in good hands. There must be a million studios and teams in L.A. And if there’s nobody waiting for me, I will write stuff on my own on Sunset Blvd. Or Sunrise Ave ;)

It’s always a bit strange traveling alone without the boys but on the other hand it’s a way to get some time off from them too. I mean for them to get time off from me too ;) It’s great that we have our home team with Jukka and also these opportunities where I can hopefully bring something fresh to the whole Sunrise Avenue system.

Looking at the 3rd album, everything looks really great. We have recorded many songs and many are on the process right now. And I did a one-week session in Sweden and now this 2-week trip to USA. Then we will sit down in early June and decide how we proceed.

I must mention again how happy

I am that we have found our “thing” with producer Jukka again after the super difficult PopGasm period and stupid stuff making our recording difficult. Now I feel exactly as confident in our music as I felt with the first album, but this time I am not panicking that much. A little panic is good.

No panic = No emotion = No goose bumps and joy when all ends up fine. No panic fits for office jobs, for music No No No ;)

All this feels honestly very good. Of course I am sure the time will come again when some record industry person / people will be crying AGAIN in at our studio but until then ;) No, I will not let anyone with wrong vibes get even near this project this time.

I have never been to L.A. before and it’s super great finally getting the chance to smell the sweat at whiskey Go Go for real. I also checked that Los Angeles Kings (The ice hockey team) might make it to the next round at the NHL play-offs and that would be THE thing. I’ll check the team’s status at the hotel tonight and if it looks good, I’ll start begging on my knees. I guess everything is sold out anyway at this time of the season.

The acoustic album is getting together extremely great! It sounds far better than what I expected. When I listened to the first mixed track (Only) I had every (three) hair up in my body. I didn’t know the audience sounds THAT great and that you all sing almost everything with us. You can’t hear that on stage with all the drums and stuff. I guess the album will be out in June. Well, if the labels want to release it. There’s always the bureaucracy shit that might stop things, but I hope for the best.

I don’t know the final track listing yet because we wanna hear all the mixes first and then see what we want to put on, but I guess it will be close to the whole show that we all just enjoyed together last month. There will be songs with both Jukka and Osmo. Osmonaut I mean.

There is also the great photo contest, where you send photos to our email and we check them out and we put the best ones to the booklet. There has been hundreds of photos already, so I am happy being here and the other guys have to choose the ones we pick.

I’ve sat on this uncomfortable plane seat for 4-5 hours and it’s still 7:11 to go. But they have a great movie service on the longer flights. Even on this “pig class” and I just watched Avatar and damn it was good. I was expecting this children’s movie but it wasn’t that at all. I can just imagine how it must look on 3D with the glasses and stuff. I fell in love with the blue girl for a while. But Now I got over her. It wasn’t meant to be. Poor her…. ;)

Now I am gonna watch Sherlock Holmes. Sami said it’s really great. After Sherlock I have only 5 hours to go. Luckily the movie database is endless and I have more on my laptop. I really hope the volcanoes in Iceland keep the biggest rocks inside now and the plane gets “home safe.” On the other way it would be a rock star way to go... And I hope the volcanic stuff stays calm so I get back home too. I would not wanna miss the festivals.

So take care everyone and be nice while daddy is away digging for gold,

Muah!



Blog from 29. April 2010

Samu

The city of Angels

Here I am. It’s getting better with my jet-lag now and today I felt that I am fully here in full strength. I gotta say Los Angeles is absolutely the coolest US city I have ever seen. I have only been at the eastern coast so far but here’s something different in the air. It’s kind of relaxed in “The European way” and there’s folks from all over the world.

The weather has been pretty perfect for me. Not too hot but still warm enough to drive the top down even in the evening. Yes, of course I had to rent myself a convertible BMW. There are some things you keep the same no matter how far you go. It’s almost as fast as my own one in Helsinki (god knows how she is doing in Mr. Saukkonen’s hands) but fast enough.

I am on my way to see this local band at Whiskey a gogo. Their manager is actually responsible for my trip, planning the sessions etc, and it’ll be cool to see one of his own babies on stage. Whiskey a gogo is a lot smaller than what I thought. But still ALL the cool and very successful band have played there. If you have the Doors and Nirvana among others on your CV, you can call yourself a rock club.

I lost my damn phone in a cab two nights ago and even though my friend Liz from NY tried her best threatening the taxi company’s customer cervice center, I didn’t get it back. So if someone calls you from my number with a Mexical dialect, it’s not me drunk on sunset beach.

I have always hated traveling alone. I guess I would just feel lonely and I’d need someone to talk to 24/7 (you band guys know what I mean;) but this time it’s been super great. Of course it helps my flood of words when I need to be creative during the day writing songs and there’s always so much to talk about with totally new faces. I just love to walk these long boulevards with my iPod (that I had to buy because the old one went with the iPhone) and listen to music. And to look at the million souls heading somewhere and looking for something. Just like me. I listened through our whole acoustic album just now on my evening walk and I am so f**ing proud of my boys. My favorite mixing Engineer & drinking partner Jesse is doing a superman’s job again.

I have met some great music people and writers here. It’s so cool that no matter how far you go, there are still the same 6 strings on the guitar and nothing really changes. But I must admit that it has been really really inspiring here and we have already gotten some very good stuff together even though it’s only been 2 days working so far.

So… I am having a chicken salad by the pool and my “hosts” Andre and Liz are soon here to take me to the show.

So as Mr. Riku Rajamaa sings in one of his beautiful solo career songs, “Here I am alone.” But I must say I am feeling everything but lonely.

I hope I wake up early enough tomorrow for my morning swim at the hotel pool. Just like today. I can warmly recommend the Hollywood Standard hotel to anyone visiting L.A.

Good night everyone, where ever you are,

Uncle Sam

PS: I saw the BIGGEST tits ever today. There were unreal. She was probably 35 and the two HUGE body parts were literally all over her convertible car. I am not a guy who likes big breasts really. I like more the neighbor girl stuff, but I must say that was impressing!!!! A cow would be jealous….;)



Blog from 05. Mai 2010

Samu

Meatballs, iPads and New Songs

I just had the best meatball pasta ever. I actually tried ordering it yesterday too, but the waitress said they had removed it from the menu and today when I asked if they have something similar than the meatball pasta they “used to have,” the new waitress asked: “Why don’t you just choose the one on the menu??” I told her what the other lady had told me the night before but she said I must have understood something wrong… That made me look like a total idiot. So everything is not that easy around here ;)

Everything else apart from Meatballs is very ok. I am back in full strength again after the illness I had the last few days. Actually I heard from this photographer I met at the barbeque party on Saturday that many of the people there had been sick afterwards, so I guess it was not the sun after all. I thought I felt a little strange even the night before my sun-chair-day by the pool but then I thought I was just tired after a quite busy week. I had to cancel the Monday’s session with this top line songwriter and that is a shame, but sure he wouldn’t wanna have me throwing up on his nice studio sofa. It must have been the German sausages they served us. Not the beer because I only had two of them and I drove back to the hotel like any good fellow citizen. I hope they can still rebook the guy I had to skip for another evening this week before I fly back home.

Even though the writing sessions are very hard and intensive work, I must say I like doing this. For example, today I had breakfast at 9AM and drove right next to the Hollywood sign to write with this lovely Australian gang and I got back to the hotel at 8 PM. We didn’t even have a lunch break because we got so carried away with the song we were working with. Now that I have my stomach full of meatball pasta, there’s really no energy for anything else but this short update and then I’ll fall asleep like a baby. Tomorrow I have a day off and I am definitely gonna go to gym to get some juices moving. I haven’t done any sports here and not that I’d be the guy getting super fat super fast, it’s just the “stuck” feeling you get after a week in a studio chair and just driving a car. I’m so gonna sweat my pastas out ;) Then a little pool time perhaps and later I will go shopping for some photo shoot clothing (or some other excuse). We will probably have a photo session with this local camera master. Who also got si
ck at the party on Saturday.

The rest of the week I will be finishing the songs that are not quite there yet with different producers and I think all will be done by my flight back home on Sunday. I really like some of the stuff we have made here. It’s gonna be interesting to see how my band fellows take the new stuff. Sure it’s strange to hear someone else’s drums, backing vocals, basses and guitars (I did ALL the guitars here, even the solo parts, jeeee!!!) but it’s not outside the Sunrise Avenue world anyway so I am sure there’s something we can & will use. Or then I’ll have my first solo album half way done ;)

I will also have a meeting with my publisher’s SONY/ATV L.A. Office. They make great stuff with movies and stuff and you never know if they want me to be the next James Bond. Or maybe Bond’s enemy, Doctor “evil” Haber. You never know ;)

While I have been away, Riku, Sami & Raul have been responsible for mastering the “Acoustic Tour 2010” live album in Helsinki. I just listened to it all the way yesterday and I must say again it sounds so f**ing great! I hope they release it in as many countries as possible. I heard some rumors that it might not be out in every “SA country” but if that’s the plan now, I will put my foot down big time in front of the label people when I go back home.

I bought the iPad yesterday. Actually I got two of them, One for my mom and one for my dear friend Sami, our former Bass player. They were the first two to send the “bring me an iPad” request. I had one of the iPads with me today and I must say it’s very super cool and all but I really don’t know if I am gonna need one myself. Yes, I am an Apple addict and Steve Jobs is my GOD, but I just can’t figure out where it fits in between the MacBook and the iPhone. But it’s super cool and well… My suitcase is pretty full already now and since I am going to buy some clothes anyway, we’ll see. I will make my final iPad decision before Sunday based on the test drive on my mom’s product, muahahaha ;) I have her permission.

I heard that the volcano in Iceland is spreading the dust all over the place again and at least some flights have been cancelled. It would be SUCH A SHAME if I’d have to stay here for a few extra days. ;) I heard it’s snowing in Helsinki today and that’s really not on the top of my wish list after being warmed up by the nice Californian sun.
California dreaming (caalifoornia dreeamingggg) Good night everyone ;)

Doctor Haber

PS: I just tried having a Skype video chat with Raul. I couldn’t see Raul’s face, just heard his voice. He said the system just doesn’t work, but I am sure there is something he’s hiding from me. A new hair style or a new tattoo… You never know ;)



Blog from 12. Mai 2010

Samu

Back in Europe

(To get the best out of this blog, listen to the new Giant Leap album. Good stuff – well done boys!)

I am sitting here at Frankfurt airport after a long flight from LA. I am super tired but I have decided to stay awake the whole day and just fall asleep early at home. That is the only way to get over jet lag. The other way, when flying west, it’s a little easier because then your day just gets a little longer and you fall asleep at 8PM like a baby and wake up at 6AM the next day. The other way it’s always harder because you kind of miss one night. And I am a night person ;) I’ll be fine. Today they play a very important ice hockey game at 9 PM at the WC games in Germany between Finland-USA. That’ll keep me awake. Finland lost against DENMARK (???WTF) already but they beat Germany. So depending on this game, we either go further in the tournament or then we start fighting for a place in the tournament next year. Imagine, Finland could fall out of the A-league. God, if you’re there, now is the time again…

The City of Angels

Whatta trip. I was a bit worried flying over knowing that the days will be full of studio work and writing sessions but if I’m honest, I feel like after a 2-week holiday. It is just so super fantastic that these people who have produced and written songs that have sold hundreds of millions of copies sat down with me giving our Sunrise thing new vibes. And it’s really hard to say what of the ideas will be used for SA as my head is full of melodies and thoughts now, but I will take a few days off now and have an “Ear break” and then listen to everything again and see what I think. There’s definitely some songs we will record and use. I also wrote a song for the Hollywood Hills on my last night and I love it. It’s kind of sad..;( LA is absolutely the coolest town in the US. Of the towns I have seen. It’s very “Anti American” in the good way but still good old land of the free. I loved it!

Volcano in Iceland

They cancelled my flight on Sunday because the volcano in Iceland was still behaving a bit rebel and I “had to stay in L.A.” for another 2 days. Poor me ;)

So I just jumped in a taxi at the airport and just told him to drive to any descent hotel. I didn’t think about it any more. The driver took me to this place that, well… now thinking about it afterwards, looked a bit strange compared to the nicer areas, but I was so damn hungry that I just checked in and decided to grab something to eat.

I must say the difference between West Hollywood and the airport surroundings is pretty big. They called me the “white boy” at this local joint I had my burger & beer in the night and the smell of illegal smoke (that is obviously legal in California) filled my room as some surfer gang were relaxing after their day on their boards. There were also a lot of people begging for money and prostitutes trying to make a living around the hotel. So after listening to “love noises”, I decided to hide at the Airport Hilton for the last night. The LA Airport Hilton is probably the crappiest Hilton I’ve ever seen. There was this strange mood in the whole area. But they had a swimming pool and that was all I needed. To get a little sun burned ;)

iPad

I was originally against it because I didn’t know where it fits between the iPhone and my laptop. I promised to buy one for my mom and one for our former bass player. After playing with my mom’s pad for a few days, I had to go boy one for me too. I am totally in love with it now ;) I really don’t know what I’m gonna do with it, but it’s just so super cool. And now for the first time, it’s actually REALLY just as fast as it’s on the Apple promotion videos on their website. iPad is a killer with pictures and videos. There was this very nice Austrian couple from Graz sitting next to me on the plane and I kept on blasting about Apple to them. I think they will buy a Mac next time they need an update. Just buy it!!! When they release it here, I mean ;)

What’s gonna happen now?

I have no idea. Tomorrow we have booked a studio with Jukka and the guys (yes, quickly back to business;) and I guess some shows are pretty close already too. I have had these two killer tracks in the back of my head ever since I left Finland and we made the arrangements on these songs with Jukka ready before I left. We’re gonna record then tomorrow. And hopefully we can book many more sessions, because there is more to record. I hope Jukka is not moving totally to Paris yet; I need him ;)

We also need to start looking at the setup for our next album. I have a strong feeling it will come out right after Christmas. It will be great. At least making it. The rest always depend on how the winds blow and how badly the volcanoes behave.

It’s 3:30 AM in Los Angeles and I haven’t slept one minute. I must look like an angel… I gotta get myself a cold beer now. Wahrsteiner – Alles was ein bier braucht!

Samu

PS: I gotta say that one of the strangest & most beautiful moments in my whole strange and fantastic life was when I was sitting alone somewhere below the Hollywood sign (like any tourist or fortune seeker) one evening outside my car listening to The Giant Leap’s “Best Time Of Your Life.”

Thank you everyone in Los Angeles, Especially André for making this experience possible to me. I lost my phone and “a lot more” back in LA but I do owe you one man! This inspiring trip made me really happy and gave me a lot of strength & energy for the storms ahead. Thank you!



Blog from 06. June 2010

Samu

Let’s Festival!

Jeeeeee, here we go again. It’s been pretty long since we STOOD on stage the last time and I have been waiting for this first festival weekend for many weeks. We’re gonna play some new little things in the songs compared to the club/festival versions we’ve had, so that makes me pretty excited too.

Jukka is on keyboards this weekend and than makes me a little worried about how late the nights will be. We have a rough hotel-mini-bar-history and I will never forget those endless hangover morning flights with him. We will have different keyboardists this summer. Jukka and Osmo depending on who is free and there is another Finnish guy “Lenni” who promised to join us if needed. Lenni is also super great, so all safe there.

It’s been a good spring. I really don’t know what has happened but I have a very good feeling about what is going on. And even if the whole record company structure and the whole future planning is still very open and needs to be worked out, I feel very good about tomorrow. After the hard year 2009 and after really looking into the mirror and thinking weather I even wanna do all this music shit early this year, I have the feeling again that I know what I am doing and that the team is getting right. With the band and on the business side. Now all we need is hard work and a lot of song writing and wee can get far. If the winds are right. But we can make it.

Outside the Sunrise musical and business circus, I have been working or probably more trying to help some new artists on their way. And I am very happy how especially Jukka’s and my favorite pop Project “Flamboy” is getting together. The girls have had a very confusing and hard start to their career and we have been hit by every hammer (and idiot) already, but I still think there’s something there. And it’s looking good. And I think they’d deserve their chance after working so hard for almost 10 years together. Hanni is one of the best songwriters I have ever met. I hope I will write with her someday. There are also some other existing / public acts and also new projects that I try to give my small advices how to fight for their dreams, but all this is pretty much a hobby for me, not a day job. But I get a lot of energy from all the happy faces as we archive something small together. And it reminds me how damn lucky we are doing what we do with the SA guys.

We will play festivals through the summer and we’ll also spend a lot of time in studio. We have recorded already some 10-15 new songs and we’ll make many more with different teams / producers in Finland and outside. It’s been super great working with new faces so much. It’s sometimes exhausting of course and for example writing in Los Angeles every day for 2 weeks, makes you really dead when you come home and I don’t know if we’ll ever even use any of the tracks with SA, but the main thing is to do all that. You hear all the great life stories and find new ways of working and that inspires you a lot.

So now is the time to write a lot and to be creative. Then I will sit down with the boys after the summer and see what we got and if the stuff is good enough, we will hit the “release button” early next year. Right now I am very confident that January is the month, but let’s be patient and give our 3rd baby time to grow.

I must admit that I bought our own new Acoustic Album from iTunes. Yes, I get a free copy sure but I forgot mine at the record company and I wanted to have it with me on the way this weekend. I am super proud of it and I can warmly recommend it to anyone who likes the stuff we make. So just buy it ;)
I gotta quit now because Karri wants to talk to me about our performance at PitkäKuumaKesä this summer in Särkänniemi in my country. It’s gonna be very great because especially Torniaisenkalle and Taipaleenlennikalle are there poikineen and I guess we’ll perform together with the kokoporukka.

See you all soon. I am sure we will all have a great summer together,

************

Part 2 on Finnair wings on the way home
After landing in Hamburg on Friday, we realized that almost all our instruments and also our personal bags didn’t travel with us, so the crew had a busy day trying to find guitars, cables, cymbals, etc to make the show happen. It sounds pretty easy, but as we have some custom made systems for our monitoring and stuff, finding all that and making sure it works in 4 hours is a challenge.
We also had to go buy some clothes and toothbrushes with the guys. You don’t wanna get on stage straight from bed without having a shower no matter how hippy we’d get.
The show went ok. Well, we played pretty bad to be honest and I don’t know if the reason was the show being the 1st festival show this summer or the borrowed equipment, but it was still great fun. I gotta say I am super proud of our crew how they put the whole stage together for us from bits and pieces.

After the last song I usually throw my guitar to Karri. We’ve done this for more than a year. We had an accident last summer in Finland when I hit my own head with it and they had to fix my head with stitches. This time it was Karri’s turn. I never look if he gets the guitar or not and so also this time I just clapped my hands to the Hannover crowd, a great one btw, and bowed and walked away. Then our tour manager Basty came to me saying it was a good show and that Karri will also probably survive the hit. What hit???? I ran to the ambulance where they had him and he looked so bad. The head bleeds a lot even with a small scratch and my heart skipped a few beats. They took him to the hospital and it’s actually not that bad after all. So girls, be nice to Karri now. He needs it ;) Poor Possu ;)

Yesterday in Hamburg was super great. There we had our own instruments and the performance was better too. It’s the REWE family festival we will do in many German cities this summer and I am really looking forward to doing the rest of them after a super relaxing day and a great great audience.

After the show we had dinner at my new favorite restaurant “Da Capo” in Hamburg. The food was so great that it made Jukka laugh out loud. And the wine list was like never before. And the whiskey list - Ask Jukka & Sami, thery tried them all... Go check it out.

Now I am back home and my brother in-law had taken good care of my dear car. That means I MIGHT borrow it to him again. We’ll see how he behaves. The sweet guy had washed the car and the tank was full. Not bad ;)

Next week we’ll make some music with the guys and we also have some business meetings trying to make the setup for the next albums ready. It’s gonna be hard work but I have a very good feeling about it all.

Thank you everyone for a great weekend and see you all

soon,

Samu



Blog from 06. July 2010

Samu

Petrax Studio, Hollola Finland

Hey all! Greetings from Hollola Finland. We are here at Petrax studios, my new favorite place to make music. It’s some 100 Km from Helsinki and it’s the most relaxing place to hang out with the boys. We are recording a new song “Hollywood Hills” with a new Producer Mr. Jukka Immonen and his Left Hand Arttu “Narttu” Peljo. It’s seems as if SA will only use producers with the name Jukka. That’s fine with me. The new Jukka is also super successful here in the north with his productions and it’s very nice to work with new faces and fresh methods. New faces and fresh environments has been the theme for this year.

I wrote “Hollywood Hills” on my last night in L.A. and for me it’s far the best song from my trip to California some months ago. And I gotta say the boys have been doing some good stuff to make our baby sound great. It’s kinda cool recording a song called Hollywood Hills in Hollola. This place is pretty far from where the song comes from… ;)

This studio is like nothing else. It’s an old farm where they still have animals, huge fields and lakes around us and the view from the main control room is outstanding. I like the cool city studios for sure, but here you are so far away from everything that you just get to focus on music fully. The sweet couple owning the place, who also work with their farm from 6AM to night, cook us home food and we get to use their lakeside sauna and all facilities. Riku is a bit afraid of the horses. We might make a “Heppavideo” with him later on today…

I had heard about this place from all the Finnish recording artists but I had no idea it’s THIS great! Especially Teijo from Killer Aspect, who also played some tracks on our first album, has been blasting about this place forever. Teijo was right. Any band even outside Finland should try this place to get the best out of their recording team. And the price is not bad at all. I can give you a good discount ;)

The summer has been super amazing. We have had a perfect amount of shows all over and I am very happy how the audience still remembers us after a long break. And there are still many to go this summer and I heard about some new shows coming in… Good!

So… now we’ll just record the new stuff with both Jukkas and their teams and I bet the album will be ready for release in January 2011. It will be very great. There are already many songs I can’t wait to play to you all. I am feeling very confident with the future of Sunrise Avenue. It’s been a super great and creative year after the acoustic tour in March. Thank you all for being there for us when the times were a bit harder. We wouldn’t be here without you.

I love you all on Hollola Hills right now,

Samu



Blog from 18. July 2010

Samu

Ookey!!

I am on my way home after a super fantastic show in Frankfurt. It was one of the REWE family shows and today, I must say, it was super cool. We’ve done 2 of them before and the one in Hamburg was very good but one week ago in Munich everything went wrong. The whole system supporting us on stage (the stuff we hear etc.) was just f*cked up and fixed totally wrong and we even had to cut down the set because I would have lost my ears. I felt so sorry for the folks in Munich who had dragged their asses over there in the HEAT. But with these problems there’s nothing you can do.

Today was super great. The only little downside was the Sun shining directly on stage and I almost fainted a couple of times when I sang a longer ending to the chorus ( in diamonds for example) but the whole show was super fun. The Rewe shows are a lot of fun also because there are so many new faces along with the super sweet angels who come to our shows time after time. It’s so cool to see this 35 year YOUNG guy first checking us out with a little skeptic look in his eyes, and after three songs he claps his hands a bit- And in the end he screams “Put your hands on me” That makes me happy!

I was all over Central Europe last week. After the show in Munich, I rented a car (a BMW of course;) and I saw Salzburg, Innsbrck, Lake Garda, Lugano, Como, Zurich, a bit of Southern France and a lot of Germany. It’s so cool to drive more than 200 Km/h, we can’t do that in my stupid country with their stupid speed rules ;(

Anyway, even though the summer has been super hot, it’s just amazing how beautiful our continent is. Of course it helps a bit when the weather is as it is but here is one damn proud European Citizen. My plans getting a flat in Germany are one step further. It’s just so hard to choose the city. Hamburg is still on top of the list.

I’m gonna be home only for two days. Tomorrow is a gym & relaxing day after eating all the pizzas & cookies & candy on the road and on Monday I will go to Mr. Jukka Immonen’s studio finalizing our first production “Hollywood Hills.” I got a good feeling about the guy and our work. We will see. It’s funny now that I haven’t had any instruments with me for a week; my head is full of ideas. It’s good to have a break from everything every now and then. I must admit that my life has been pretty Sunrise Avenue focused the last 6 months. And now the batteries are a bit more recharged again.

On Tuesday we will fly to Greece to continue our Amita Motion tour in Thessaloniki. The last trip to Partra (Greece) was super cool and super relaxing and I am sure this will be fun too. Then after hanging out in Greece for 3 days ( I guess) we will fly to Germany (dunno where) for a day off and for a show on Saturday. On the day off we will have the first “Songs of album 3” meeting with the guys, There are already about 20 songs to choose from and more are coming. I have a very good feeling about the next step. I heard there could be a big tour in March-May 2011 if all goes well with the project and a if we can make the release happen early 2011. Now we just gotta work hard and follow our hearts with the musical decisions.

My friend & colleague Mr. Mikko Saukkonen has had my baby car for the week and I am a little bit worried how she is doing. Not Mikko, The car! It must be this feeling when you have babies and they have been at grandma’s place for a week… Soon we will VROOOOOOM together again. Top down ;) <3 <3 <3 LOL LOL OMG BMW

Thank you so much everyone for today. You made me really happy today. Again.

See you all soon,

Samu

PS: If you have iPhone, iPad or whatever apple product, please try the “Agry Birds” game. It’s sooooo damn great!!!!!!! Jaaaahuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!! I have passed most of the fields with 3 stars (maximum). Ok, I got some help from my “personal game assistant” on some of the harder ones, but check it out anyway…;)



Blog from 20. August 2010

Samu

Summer of 2010

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



Blog from 26. August 2010

Samu

On the way to Helsinki

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



Blog from 06. September 2010

Samu

Summer of 2010

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



Blog from 07. November 2010

Samu

Au Revoir et merci Paris!

I am on my way home from Paris where I spent the whole week with our dear genius maniac producer Jukka Backlund. Was a superb trip!

It’s been a while from my last blog. So much has happened and I actually thought about writing a couple of times in the past weeksd, but it’s been strange and tough creating the music and putting the pieces together and I had to focus all my energy into even more important things.
Where we are now…

My gut feeling was kind of right. I kind of knew the songs for the album would be composed 98 % until the end of November. Now we are putting the production together with the two producers (both Jukka;) and there is very much to do, but on the other hand we got a lot of time and we know what we are doing.

We just finished 4 new tracks with Jukka this week and I am totally happy about them all. I spent last night on my sofa bed in Jukka’s kitchen listening to the finished demos for 3 hours. And I accidentally drank one third of Jukka’s favorite whiskey bottle. I was so carried away by the tracks. And I deserved it after this week. It was like the good old days, Jukka & me and our adult jokes. I am happy for the rest of the guys that they weren’t there ;)

Tomorrow we will go to Stuio Petrax in Finland again with Jukka I (so much about my days off) and there are some tracks that I already know will sound great. We have produced a couple of tracks with the new Jukka too, and I am totally convinced in his skills & his team. I personally can’t wait to finish a track called “I don’t dance.” It’s so perverted ;) But a straight rock song and the title that fits me. Tomorrow will be more about instruments (Riku, Sami, Raul) and therefore it’ll be an easier day for me.

In general, I think we have found a great overall sound. Pretty rock and powerful with some fresh elements and a lot of programming. I feel very much “at home” with the stuff we will release next year.

I have booked the album mastering for January. That means it will be printed for you people then if nothing strange happens. December and January will be a lot of mixing while we are on tour and on Holiday after Christmas and if we just get the artwork and stuff ready, everything is ready to be released on the first quarter next year. There are so many songs, I’d even actually like to give out for free right now because I would want people to hear them. Unfortunately you must wait. There are a few EMI & Universal guys who’d kill me ;)

(Or they would do the same thing to me that Uganda Pastor thinks Barak Obama wants to bring to Africa as human rights. Sorry, This inside joke for Jukka was a MUST)

We have two major record companies working with us. In the beginning I was a little worried how that might go. You know when there are two big players, both with their own interests and the Ego stuff and all, but it seems to go ok. The greatest thing about the next step is, that everyone has agreed that Sunrise Avenue album#3 will be very heavily Artist driven. This means we will make the music and musical choices with the band and we also have the biggest role in selecting singles and video treatments. That is the way. Of course the great team around us will help as much as they can, but this time it’s great to have more free hands to give you people something real. Let’s hope the mood stays as it is.

I’d be very happy with the whole SA world as it is even with just releasing an album soon, but we are so damn lucky to even have a tour soon !!!!! I can’t wait. We have some great new ideas how we can all enjoy the evening together again. And of course we will do some of the stuff we did in March. Remember that the acoustic album will be out in many new countries soon!!! Check your local dealer!

Osmo will join us for the whole trip. That’s cool. Maybe Osmo could play some of his stuff on our show too. His album will be released in GSA countries next year, so that’d be cool. We are also bringing the two FLAMBOY girls to do some stuff on stage with us in Hamburg. The girls just released their debut album in Finland (Brilliant pop music!!!) and we decided to reward the Hamburg audience for selling out the first night so fast by bringing the girls on stage for both nights. It could have been possible for the whole tour too, but the girls weren’t available for the whole trip.

It’s always been my kind of a dream to have female backing vocalists on some of the songs and now we got to do it. Finally!!!! The girls already made their first performance in Helsinki at this Fashion TV show with us, and we were totally blown away. I hope everyone welcomes the ladies along with warm hearts. They are at the beginning of their career and this will be a very cool experience for them. I love giving the chance for other Finnish artists to try bigger stages. It would be the coolest thing to help someone’s career explode outside Finland. I think all of the artists we have taken along (Poets of the Fall, ClarkKent, Osmo and soon Flamboy) have enjoyed your support and found something new from these trips with the SA family.

We will play a version of Flamboy’s “Bitch in Me” together with the girls and that is kind of funny having us guys singing about bitches in us ;) It will be a great tour, I am so sure.

Now I will watch a movie and try to get some sleep. I must stay awake until 2AM for a phone call and tomorrow they start at Petrax at 10 AM. It’s cool to be busy ;)

2010 has been probably the strangest and also the best year in my life. A lot of pieces fell into the right places on my career and also on my personal life and I have been on the road making music with Fantastic people all over the planet from Los Angeles to the countryside of Finland and from Paris to Tokyo in late December. I am one lucky son of a Finnish loving mother. Of course there have been times when I have been super tired or clearly with too much stress, but it’s all a part of this game and you must take it all if you wanna play the game. And now I have a feeling that finally after some years in the business, I start to really know what I want. At least a bit more day by day.

(my mom is actually angry at me because I don’t play / give her all the new demos…. MOM please !! You’re the best. ;)

I hope you are all doing fine and I can’t wait to see everyone on tour again soon. Thank you so much for buying so many tickets already. It’s super great that we don’t have to play alone every night ;) It’ll be FUN!!!!

Love,

Samu

PS: Not a bad Start for HIFK. Kibe on Ihan liekeissä!!!!

PPS: There are some friends from Finland coming over to the Berlin show. These folks are pretty bad party animals, so I recommend everyone wear a helmet that evening. Poor you ;)

PPPS: Remember, it’s father’s day next weekend (at least in My country)!!!!



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