I just realised (with a little help from a vigilant fan) that we have been bluntly ignoring our non-finnish fans. Since they need to work a bit harder to get their daily (hourly, minutely, weekly?) dose of Apulanta than our own countrymen and -women, I feel that they really deserve some special attention. So, here we go.
Like you guys see, we have given our page a makeover and also a technical revamping. This will allow us to be more directly involved in updating the page and stuff like that. However, the english version of the site is still under construction, so I decided to come and drop you peeps some lines to inform you about what’s going on.
The year -08 has been a very busy one for us. We started the year by parting ways with our record label. Arska, our dear friend and mentor, who ran the label decided that he wants to do something that definately includes no music for some time, so we made the desicion to become totally independent. We’re on our own, now. And we like it. I have to admit, tho, that it has increased our workload a whole lot, as we have to take care of all the business that comes with running a band/record label.
On February we entered the depths of the studio and recorded a four song EP, called ”Kesä-EP”. You prolly have seen the video for the song ”Paha ihminen” on YouTube. If not, go and check it out. It was filmed on Provinssirock-festival this june and it’s awesome. Anyways, the EP went gold and it served as a nice ”launching pad” for our career as record label moguls, hehe.
From April to October we really sweated our butts off in the studio and on tour as well. The result: our 10th album, ”Kuutio” will be released in Nov/5/08. And damn what an album it is!
It’s been an exciting time for us ever since we got the mastered version of the album in our hands about a month ago. We’ve been pestering each other with phone calls and SMS’s just to say what a kick-ass record we have. Well, things could be a lot worse, aye?
Right now we are less than two days away from the releasing of the album and to be honest, I’m …affected. I can’t really describe the mental state I’m in, as it shifts constantly from being thrilled to being scared shitless. I guess I’m never gonna learn to cope with the last few pre-release days. Anyways, this torment will be over in two days, thank gawd.
By the way, go check out our new video for our opening single ”Vauriot” on YouTube! The single, which is on red vinyl only, went straight to #1. It actually made us pretty damn proud for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the single really is sold only on red vinyl, and that’s mighty old skool. Which is great. However, nobody has a vinyl record player anymore, so it’s actually quite an achievement to top the charts with a single like that. I guess that people bought it mainly as a collector’s item, which is ont a bad idea, since vinyl 7-inchers are damn kewl.
Secondly, the single features Läjä Äijälä, a notorious hardcore idol from the 80’s, whose band ”Terveet Kädet” we have adored since ’92. Läjä is at #1! Wooo-hooo!
Between prancing around in a nervous manner and playing the role of a record label boss, we have been also practicing hard for our upcoming tour. The tour will consist of four parts Fall-08, Spring, Festivals and Fall-09 with a few weeks off between the parts. We’ll be playing a total of about 110-120 gigs (haven’t really figured the Fall-09 part out yet), so we should be able to work out a sweat or two.
Anyways, that’s basically what we’ve been up to the last few months and also what we’ll be doing for quite some time. I’m a bit skittish at the moment and therefore I’m brief with my words for now, but once we get the album out I’ll get back to you. We’ll also try and get the english site up and running asap.
Yours in exhilaration and panic,
Toni
