Blog
Seasons Change
My product manager Benny from Universal Music is asking for my permission for album countdown campaigns and my manager Mikko is asking about interview timing preferences on tour. That means only one thing. It’s 19 days to the album release and tour start. Less than three weeks.
“Swans can find their way back home…”
I see my life as an artist in four seasons. First, it’s the creative times when I totally live in my own bubble and I just write songs. It’s one of my favorite “seasons” as then everything is still more than possible and there are no real deadlines or rules. I do what I do and I don’t think about if something makes sense or not. Does a song work or fit on an album, here it really doesn’t matter. I’m somehow free. I meet new song writers and I try to gather a new great team around me where I would be both safe and challenged the same time. These times I experience life around me and also my loved ones and I write stories about what we go through. War, Freedom, Love, Hope, Heartbreaks. There’s nothing like lying on your hotel bed after a song writing day listening to the demo you just made. There’s somehow no world outside that moment. And the next day you do it all over again.
“Summer kisses don’t need clothes…”
Then comes the music production time. Let’s call it summer. You start choosing songs that you wanna produce to the final form and you also try different producers. I’m very hands on here too and I like to co-produce my own songs. I’ve done so always after the second Sunrise Avenue album as I really know what I want and what I don’t want. Here it gets a bit more technical than on the first season, but it’s also super creative. Songs come and go from my “next album” playlist and I listen to all the demos a bit too much as I try to understand their true spirit and potential and days are long and nights are even longer. This season you also start playing new songs to your record label and agents and you also start to think about art work and music videos. It’s kind of the phase where you need to decide when to go out with tour dates and music releases.
“Don’t swim far the sea is too cold…”
The third season is when you still do much of the stuff above but it’s the time to present the next era of your journey to the world. Some call this the salesman time. If you’re lucky like me, you sit in radio and TV studios and backseats of cars and airplanes for a million hours and you talk about what’s going on in your life. It’s mostly a lot of fun and the nervousness level rises these times too. Your art gets exposed after hiding it all in the closed circle. These times the audience will start slowly hearing what you’ve been doing the past months. The releases always at midnight are exciting. And the comments and messages from everyone following you are always so sweet and meaningful. This time is sometimes a bit exhausting, but knowing it’s a very important part of the journey, it gives you energy. Because you know the best season is yet to come. And even on the longest promotion day, you need to push through it to get where the real reason doing all this is.
“We make angels in the snow…”
Then it finally comes. Time to release the full album and to go on stage. I love all other seasons too, but nothing beats this. Every moment is unique, different and special. In studio you can have another take if something goes wrong, but here you can’t. It’s all here and now and a 100 % honest and so naked as it happens. And this year (once again) I know I’m gonna play for full rooms only. That’s one hell of a wow. My favorite part of the show is when you actually go on stage. There are some steps to each stage in the world. Big arenas or festivals have more steps, small clubs have less. But there’s always this meaningful last step you take before standing on the actual stage in front of your crowd. After the final step there’s no turning back and all you can do is be yourself, give your best and to go with the flow. That last step makes your heart beat fast and your legs go a bit spaghetti every time. Then you breathe in, remember there are people on and off stage you trust to the moon (and in front of it too) and the fire in your heart to perform your songs wins over your nervousness. Then you go to the light and let go of control. I so love it. Can’t wait to climb the final stage step at Club Den Atelier in Luxembourg. And all the final steps on shows to come.
Thank you all for the love you shined last week on the promo tour. Was quite exciting having the first show outside Finland with Risto, Janne and Tomas for over 17.000 people in Berlin and the second one for 350 listeners in Würzburg. I told the guys we shouldn’t expect massive applause at the shows because everything is new to everyone and even the artist name is kind of new. How wrong was I. I can’t say which performance last week was my favorite as they were all so amazing. Thank you for taking us with such warm arms. We even played a version of Hollywood Hills in Berlin as the RTL radio station people asked for it kindly and even that felt really good. I was wondering how I’d feel about it as it’s a song I wrote for Sunrise Avenue and everyone of course connects the song to that band. But playing it felt actually very good and easy. Damn you still sing it so beautifully.
The next few weeks will be super easy for me. I like that. All is pretty much done now and we have one final rehearsal left with the guys before we jump on a plane towards Luxembourg. The rest will be about martial arts and other sports and just recharging the batteries full. Now would actually be a great time to get sick too as there’s still almost three weeks to go. I’m not gonna start licking public toilet doors, but dear universe, if I’m gonna get a flu this autumn, now would be a great time.
So. See you in a few weeks. I know October and whatever follows will be something we’ve never lived through before.
"…Seasons change. And so have we. But I still love you…"
Samu
PS. Thank you for your votes at World’s Okayest Guitar Player © 2024 voting. My tenth victory in a row means the world to me. And thank you both Joonas and Henkka for fair and hard competition at the finals. Maybe your time will come next year. NOT! ;)