Interview Amon Amarth: Olavi Mikkonen

Artiest: Amon Amarth

Geïnterviewde: Olavi Mikkonen (gitarist)

Interview afgenomen via: e-mail

Label: Sony

Donder en bliksem! Bloed, zweet, zeezout en ijswater! Gigantische zwaarden en beenharde bijlen! De Jomsviking zal vanaf 25 maart de wereld veroveren. Inderdaad, veel beeldspraak om het nieuwe album van Amon Amarth aan te kondigen. We hadden het erover met gitarist Olavi Mikkonen.

What is the storyline behind the new album 'Jomsviking' and can you tell us something about the Jomsviking?

Jomsvikings were a group of Viking mercenaries, sort of elite force warriors and Johan Hegg [zanger] wrote a story about a young man who becomes one of them. Story starts with him killing a man, then flees for his life, becomes a part of Jomsvikings and in the end after many years end up back to his homeland shores. There is obviously lots of things happening in between, battles, dramas etc. Johan basically wrote a full movie script.

What are some similarities and differences between the previous albums and the new one?

It’s a concept album and that is something we have not done before.

Musically I think we wanted to try a little different approach on the melodies, find other ways to play them so they stand out more. We always had melodies but many of them sort of got hidden behind all other instruments. So we really tried different new ways of including the melodies in the songs. We also worked more on choruses, hooks etc, try to make the songs more memorable as well.

How does the new drummer fit in the band, did he have a big influence during the writing process of this album?

Tobias who was part of the writing and recording session, was an amazing add-on I would say. We knew him since long, knew that he is a fantastic drummer as well as an easy going guy. Tobias totally had free hands to lay down the drums his way and I think the four of us really got boosted and inspired having him along. Seriously, just listen to the last song, Back On Northern Shores, how can you go wrong with that?

We could hear Doro Pesch on this album, what is her part in the storyline? Why did you choose her for the album? Was she able to write some own lyrics or did she gave the song a personal touch?

We needed a female voice for one part of the story and pretty much Doro was the first and only vocalist we could think of. She is the Metal Queen, her voice is just perfect for that song and idea. Basically she came to the studio for a couple of days, sang her part, we just sat there enjoying and having the best time of our lives.

If you look back at this album what is your opinion about it?

At this point I think I had it for four months, so I had time to sink it in. But now I totally think it’s one of our strongest, such amazing song selection with many future live classics on it. I know it’s cheesy to say so, because that is what you are supposed to say about your new album. But I honestly think so and I am sure 5-6 years from now we will still play many of these songs live because that is what the audience wants to hear.

What are some funny/great/special moments you experienced during the writing/production of this album?

At one of the writing sessions we rented a cabin up North, a ski resort in the middle of the summer. Basically the whole area was empty, just a few tourists around hiking the mountains. So the first thing we did when we arrived was to go to the liquor store to stock up and in there was a German family with children that were AA fans. I mean what are the odds to that? We had a lot of fun writing this album, I actually think this was probably the most fun we had in a while and same goes for the recording. Happy days!

What songs (of the new album) do you think the fans will like the most?

Tricky question, but The Way Of Vikings, On A Sea Of Blood, One Thousand Burning Arrows, One Against All, First Kill, Back On Northern Shores, Vengeance Is My Name, Wanderer, A Dream That Cannot Be and probably At Dawns First Light. Raise Your Horns can be a divider, sort of those who loves it and others that don’t? But I’m sure Horns will be a massive live song!

What is the story of the Keyboard Warrior, a small intro videoclip that was made for the album? Who’s idea was that?

It was just a fun thing that our management came up with and I think it quite hit right on. Josh is such a badass and cool to see him do this. Funny thing is that I read a comment when it was online, the guy who wrote the comment didn’t even watch it and wrote something like “Should I even bother or is it the same snoozest of their version of melodeath?” Fucking spot on, this is exactly what we meant with it! Laughed my ass off!

Is it hard to make a good tracklist for the shows? Fans like all the albums and all the songs, how do you choose what songs to play?

Yes and it only gets harder with every new album. For the older songs we sort of know what songs work best and usually we keep the ones most fans want to hear. We also try to squeeze in “wild cards”, songs we have not played in a while. When it comes to new songs we usually try them all and we see after a while which songs should stay and what songs need to be replaced.

How are you going to visualize the album on stage? Are there plans for a real eye catching or awesome setting on stage?

We are building at the moment a really cool stage set, it will be awesome and I’m sure fans will enjoy it as well. We are also going to include theatrical elements to the show as well as really cool stage props. We are really excited to get this out on tour! Especially the main headline tour we are going to do in the fall in Europe which is going to be massive!

If you weren’t in a Viking metal band, what kind of band would you like to be in and why?

Metal is my music and I can’t think of anything else I would like to play.

Last question: you are going to do a mini tour in very small clubs. Why this decision (mini tour with very limited audience)? Will a full European club tour come later this year?

We have not done release shows like this before so we wanted to try something different. All these shows are really small and sold out fast. For us it’s a fun thing, sort of a warm up as well as good opportunity to try some new songs. The fans who got tickets are going to get a show that not that many have seen litterally, which is cool. As I said previously, we have a big tour coming in October-November and December, across whole Europe that is going to be massive!