AMORPHIS Frontman Talks About Upcoming DVD

U.K.'s Terrorizer.com recently conducted an interview with vocalist Tomi Joutsen of Finnish metallers AMORPHIS. A couple of excerpts from the chat folloe below.

Terrorizer.com: You have a new DVD on the horizon, celebrating 20 years of AMORPHIS. How did this idea come about?

Tomi Joutsen: "I think the main reason is that there is a new DVD with the band is that it's like one complete DVD, whereas before there is only music videos, no live things at all, so we wanted to make DVD with live shows. We recorded one show in Germany and one show here in Finland, so there's two shows. and there will be also an hour documentary about the history of the band so its a really nice package for our fans."

Terrorizer.com: Did you have a big professional production at the concert? That must have been fun/exciting to play in front of so many cameras and cranes? Did it take a lot of preparation?

Tomi Joutsen: "Yeah, the show in Finland is really professional, but Germany show is more like just festival cameras and it's still good quality. We practiced the day before the show so it wasn't so horrible during DVD shoot, but, of course, you want to make a good show when there's lots of cameras and lots of money and lots of people working, so I think we worked really well and I've seen some clips of the show and it's really nice."

Terrorizer.com: You only joined the band in 2005, and you've spoken to Terrorizer before about how you were a fan of the band before that, so was making this documentary interesting for you, to get an insight into AMORPHIS before you became their vocalist?

Tomi Joutsen: "It was really nice because it was the first time I met Oppu [Laine, 1990-2000] the former bass player. I've seen the guy like couple of times but we haven't spoken or anything, so this was the first time I met him really and of course it was really interesting to hear the stories and see old video tapes with bands like ENTOMBED and bands like that and there are lots of funny things happening and nice memories. The only thing I missed is that we didn't have opportunity to speak with Pasi [Koskinen, 1995-2004] the former singer, so I was quite disappointed about that but you can't have it all, ha ha. Also, I think it's not like a 'taking of money from the fans' thing. This is more like good quality and it's really nice. The documentary part is probably the most important thing we did, really."

Terrorizer.com: So, the DVD is out in the summer, it's called "Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes". What are you favourite memories of making it now it's done and dusted?

Tomi Joutsen: "I think my favorite was the filming of the documentary, because it was like a family meeting in a way and it was so nice to see past members, to see how big this band have been in their life and for me this is a really big part of my life too. So it was like a family thing. Also shooting the DVD was really nice because there were loads of people who enjoyed the show and that was a really big relief after that. This is like something for all the fans, I think they've been waiting for this DVD for many years so this is for them. Of course, this is a good promotion for the band with the 20th anniversary year and we are not releasing any new songs, so this will keep us busy."

Terrorizer.com: So no new album on the horizon?

Tomi Joutsen: "Yes, I think we will, we have some songs already but we haven't practiced them, though, I think we are recording the album at the end of this year. We have no ideas about the lyrics, we just have some riffs and melodies and stuff like that, but I think we will continue with the Karelian feel."

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