So how has your latest album/EP gone so far with fans then?
Reception overall has been well. Of course there are people who would prefer us playing New Dawn over and over again, but we don’t mind. World moves on, so do we. It’s always pleasure to find people who really get the idea and concept behind ‘Virtuality’ and take the time to go through the lyrics and story as well.
Tell us something about the release no one knows?
Lyrics were written in one weekend when we were supposed to go through some of the guitar parts, but our guitarist, like usual, noticed that he has to do full maintenance on his guitar instead.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
On our latest album, we worked together with three guest vocalists and one guest bassist, so that’s enough cooperation for now. It was really refreshing working with multiple vocalists, although it’s a lot of management to get everything and everyone set up.
How has your latest release been received?
Our latest release was the AI music video of ‘Mindcaptives’, our longest and most operatic track of ‘Virtuality’. Reception has been very good, it is our fastest growing video so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4ksNUpzVg
Can you tell us about the meaning behind the album ‘Virtuality’ ?
It’s a theme album, with over 65min long, featuring five lead vocalists in a story about near future virtual world gaming. Main character, our very own Tomi Viiltola, ends up tinkering with vr headset patches and accidentally open up a vulnerability in the system, which is then exploited by a villain, sung by our drummer Matti Auerkallio. The guest vocalists, Emily Leone, Jukka Nummi and Peter James Goodman play their parts in the story as well.
What tours do you have coming up, and what can you tell us about them?
We gave up touring after ‘Vis Vires Infinitus’ was released, so that was about 2015. We decided that we’re best at a studio environment and dividing our focus between live and studio was just making our albums not reach their full potential.
What else can we expect from you in 2024?
We’re currently working with a new album, hopefully we can soon share some details.