Santeri Kallio – Keyboards for Amorphis

1. Tell our readers about your music who have no idea what you sound like.

SANTERI: Well we when started we leaned more towards a Death Metal style with a lot of growls in the vocals. The last few were a bit more experimental. Our new album just came out in Finland and it debuted at number one on the charts which was real nice. The new album is a bit heavier I think but still has its roots in death metal. Our music has always been influenced by seventies rock n roll. We have been experimenting with Finnish sounds, using a flute sometimes, two guitar riffs.

2. What kind of arrangements will we hear on the new album “Eclipse”?

SANTERI: There are some basic rock songs but with the different arrangements and sounds it comes together with the special Amorphis sound. The last two albums didn't have any grunts but with the new one and our new singer we started to use them again, and he's a big Death Metal fan as well. He's a real energetic guy and makes the music a bit heavier this time.

I think the new album represents what we have done over the past 15 years pretty well, everything is basically there just with new songs. Maybe not as extreme as the older stuff and maybe not as mellow as our last album.

3. How much touring have you done in the States?

SANTERI: In 1994 we toured with Entombed, then 2000 with Moonspell and The Covenant, one with Opeth in 2001. I am looking forward to coming back, it would be nice to go out with Opeth again. The crowds have been pretty good so far in the States.

4. Do you consider yourselves an extreme band? Do you like that term?

SANTERI: Yeah why not, I would consider us an extreme band since our music changes with each album. I think its pretty extreme to play a basic metal song with grunts from hell Haha.

5. Is there anything musically that you have not done with Amorphis that you would like?

SANTERI: I would like to have some visual stuff on stage, like some video projections. We have done some acoustic stuff. I don't think we are ever going to sound like a punk band though, I like that stuff but can't see that in Amorphis' music. I can't see us wearing makeup and doing glam either, at least not with this band Hahaha.

6. What is the creative idea being the artwork on “Eclipse”?

SANTERI: It was done by Travis Smith, I think he did covers for Opeth and some other bands. He had some nice ideas based on the title. We were very satisfied with his design, its very us.

7. Touring and other plans for 2006?

SANTERI: We will do a lot of the European summer festivals so its makes every weekend rather busy. A Soilwork/Hypocrisy tour in Europe and one headlining is the fall. We may go to South America I think its time for us to go there. I would like to return to the U.S. as well, maybe come back with Moonspell and Opeth.

8. Any DVD plans?

SANTERI: We have some old films and 7 promo videos but no promo shot footage yet. We did a new video for “House of Sleep”, it's a band performance basically. I have seen it on MTV a few times too, it represents our new singer pretty well. I think we are recording some shows from this tour over the summer at some festivals.

Official website: www.amorphis.net