BURNING POINT (Eng.)
– Hello, thank you so much for answering our interview. How is everything doing right now with BURNING POINT?
Hello to you too! Everythings great, played our first show, great reviews and interviews!
– I guess, even your long career into the music scene, some people won’t know you yet so, could you please introduce the band to all of the them? Let’s say some background story of BURNING POINT.
Jussi Ontero (Drums&Keyboards), Jukka Jokikokko (Bass), Pekka Kolivuori (Guitars) and me, Pete Ahonen (Vocals&Guitars). We started in the fall 1999 and we made just one demo which brought us a deal with Limb Music. We made 2 cd’s with them Salvation by fire & Feeding the flames. Then there was some legal hazzles with the Finnish label who licenced us to LMP and we lost the deal with them. 2004 we made one single, To hell and back, throuh a small label and it was released only in Finland and Sweden. 2005 we made promotional cd and that brouht us together with Metal Heaven and we made 2 albums with them, Burned down the enemy and Empyre. Late 2009 we decided to move forward and look for another label. We recorded another promotional cd and luckily labels were interested to release the new BP album and here we are, new The Ignitor album in stores and a new deal with Scarlet Records! Tha’s about it in a “nutshell” :=)
– You have a new album coming out in a few days, “The Ignitor”. What are your expectations with it?
Oh yes, very excited about it! Well, as always we are very happy to get the album out and as always, I really try not to have any expectations…I keep an open mind and take it as it comes! :=) Of course it would be awesome if it sells good and we could do shows all over, but all in all, we are just happy to get it to the stores!
– What’s the main concept or some of the ideas covered in this new opus?
No concept really, we just try to write as great metal songs as we can.
– The cover artwork has been done by seasoned Felipe Machado Franco, who has already worked with several well-known bands. Would you mind to tell us how did you work on the art and what does it represent?
Yes, Felipe is awesome! We love his art! We have worked with him earlier (Empyre & Stargazery’s debyt album Eye on the sky) and he has this “6th sense” of knowing perfectly we want 🙂
– On the other hand, production is just as good as the cover artwork is, really clear and detailed. Could you tell us how was this process like? And are you satisfied with the final result?
Album was mixed by our drummer Jussi and it was mastered by Ahti Kortelainen. Ahti has worked previously with Sonata Arctica, Sentenced etc. Oh yes, album sounds excellent! Very happy 🙂
– If I’m not mistaken there’s also a Japanese version containing two bonus track: “Ice Queen” and “Blood will Win” so, what can your fans expect form these two tracks? Will they be available anytime for your European fans as well?
Both are basically double-bassdrum songs, heavy as hell but very melodic. They are only in the Asian markets.
– On this new effort you also have some guest appearances by Pasi Hiltula and Marco Sneck; how did you come up with this idea? And what could you say have them both brought with their cooperation?
Pasi is our former keyboardist and Marco is a member of Stargazery. They both are world-class players! Basically just wanted these awesome players to “shred” their asses off in their solos!
– This time around the guitar technique is just impressive, in fact I think guitars are really important on the album and on your music in general so, how do you use to approach your guitar work?
Thank you for the nice compliments, I really appreciate that 🙂 Well, I’m really those kinds of players that just don’t analyze their playing…I just pick up the guitar and go!
– In fact I’d dare say this new “The Ignitor” combines perfectly all your elements. Could you say you have shaped a bit more your own personality with this new record? Is what we find on it the actual BURNING POINT’s personality?
Hmm, I’ve never thought things from that point of view…I think that BP has always been a mixture between hardrock, heavy metal and power metal and we accomplished that big time!
– All this being said; how could you describe this CD in just 3 words?
Melodic Heavy Metal 🙂
– This has been your first release with Scarlet Records; how has everything been with them so far?
So far so good. Hopefully they will advertise in mags and websites!
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
We are doing few shows with this summer and also negotiating more shows to Fall. Lot’s of “iron’s in the fire”, let’s see what happens!
– So that has been everything from our side, thank you once more for taking your time. If you now want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
First of all, thank you very much for this interview! It was my pleasure to answer 🙂 We really hope you’ll love the album and also feel free to leave any comment to our webpages! The Ignitor comes!
All the best,
Pete
