Somethings are too good to pass up.







Sonata Arctica should be in the studio readying their next album, but the chance to tour North America with Nightwish was too good an offer for Sonata Arctica frontman Tony Kakko to turn down.







“We should be doing something at this moment, but this tour happened to be right at this time so, Kakko said. “We will get right into the studio as soon as we get home.”







When the band gets back to Finland at the end of March, it has its work cut out for itself.







“We have a lot of work to do, actually,” Kakko said. “We are, kind of, in a tight spot here as we need to have the whole thing ready by the end of June. We’ll see, you know what they say about diamonds and pressure.”









One thing fans won’t see on this tour with Nightwish is Sonata Arctica trying out new material and you have camera phones and the internet to thank for that.





“The whole process would benefit well from it if we had the chance to play the songs live before we go into the studio. They might change in a good way. But today’s technology gives too many chances to ruin.”







One thing fans can count on is that the band’s next album will follow in the footsteps of “Pariah’s Child.”







“(The new album) will be along the lines of “Pariah’s Child.” We noticed while touring “Stones Grow Her Name” that the audience changed a lot. People that would be called ‘hipsters’ were coming in and there wasn’t any headbanging. We got bored on stage. It is fun to play, but we are a metal band. It was weird.”







Sonata Arctica crossed the 20-year mark as a band last year.







“We feel blessed to be doing this for a living because there are not many bands that can do it, especially where we come from.”







With that longevity comes a loyal fanbase which gives Sonata Arctica more freedom to do what they want even as the music industry continues to be an unsettled mess.







“(The music industry) is going through changes and unfortunately, a lot of bands are going to fall because of it. When you don’t get money and have to find a day job that is rough because you have other responsibilities than yourself and your band. If you have a family that should come first, if you can’t provide for the family, you have to find a way to do it.”







While streaming seems to be the go-to model right now, Kakko sees it as harming rather than helping.







“Streaming, at the moment, is killing the music industry. It is way worse than piracy if you ask me. With piracy, the CD is still sold and we are getting paid for our work. The streaming thing… It is really evident that someone can listen to a single song two or three times and we don’t get one cent from that. It has to accumulate after so many plays. And then we have to pay taxes on that. People can hear the album a number of times over and we get nothing.







“Even though it is possible to stream the songs and albums, people haven’t noticed the fact that they are, more or less, harming the bands they love by doing so if they don’t actually buy the album. If you really love the band, it is supporting them.”

