James caught up with Olavi Mikkonen of Amon Amarth backstage at Birmingham Academy to talk about their current tour and their new album 'Surtur Rising'.

We last spoke to you in October 2009, so what have you been up to since then?
Thats a long time ago, We’ve been touring a lot and wrote the new album

You have just released your latest studio album ‘Surtur Rising’ how has it gone down with the fans and press so far?
It’s been really good, I haven’t talked much to the fans yet because it’s only been out a week but the reviews from the press is all looking good.

How did you find writing and recording ‘Surtur Rising’ compared to your previous albums and what influenced you this time around?
It was kind of like the same procedure we used for "Twilight of the Thunder God" and “With Oden on Our Side”, whenever touring was done for "Twilight of the Thunder God” we would go straight into the rehearsal rooms and show each other idea’s we had, worked together as a unit and made lots of demos. The only difference is that the producer got involved in a very early stage. Once we had a few songs he came to the rehearsal rooms and showed him the songs then we made some rearrangements. Besides that we haven’t really changed that much, so really it’s just the fact its new songs, we don’t like to change too much.

What themes and stories do you cover within the album?
We have 2 songs about Surtur, the cover character and we have some other methodical topics as well; then obviously some battle songs and some anti religion stuff too so kind of like things we’ve done in the past but with a new touch to it.

The artwork for ‘Surtur Rising’ is epic and powerful, who came up with the ideas and final design?
The idea came from either Ted or Johan because in the very early stage before we even had any songs ready we decided we wanted to have Surtur on the cover because he is a very powerful character, we pictured it’d look good. Tom Thiel did the artwork he’s the guy who did “Twilight of the Thunder God” and he also did “The Crusher” and “Verses the World” for us so yeah its good stuff.

What is your favourite track from ‘Surtur Rising’ and why?
Wow. I don’t know it’s changing all the time. I don’t know, I like “The Last Stand of Frej” because it’s more epic; I personally like more epic stuff. “Destroyer of the Universe” is more fun to play live but I don’t know it’s just a great bunch of songs.

As you have grown older as a band and release more albums do you find the whole album process a lot easier than when you first started out? Like do ideas come to you quicker and better?
Not really, the recording is easier today. Since we don’t do anything other than this band we can put a lot of energy into practising and things like that. It’s not so easy anymore to come up with cool riffs because we’ve already done it and we really don’t want to repeat ourselves. I try different tunings and sometimes have it out of tune because maybe you will find something different, that sort of stuff; but hey that’s fun too, it’s not fun if it’s too easy.

You are currently back in the UK touring with Children Of Bodom, how does it feel to be back and also to be on the road with Children Of Bodom?
It’s great, we’ve toured with them a couple of times in the past and they are a great bunch of guys so that’s fantastic. Being back on tour also is great because the last tour I think was in April or so around a year ago so that’s fun too and being in the UK is always fun. Especially playing in Birmingham, we’ve never played here before in the home of the historical metal; Judas priest and Black Sabbath it’s all very cool.

Now you have so much material under your belts do you find it hard picking a set list?
Yes definitely it’s always a struggle. We kind of try to play all the new songs and the ones that get the best reception are the keepers but we try to really mix as much as possible. We try to throw in old stuff for the old fans but a tour like this when we aren’t headliners and only get 45 minutes we don’t really have time to do the wildcards so we go for the safe bets.

What do you have planned once the UK tour comes to an end in London tomorrow?
We’re going home for a day then flying to the USA and doing 4 weeks touring there; straight from there to mainland Europe. So touring till June, we’re having having June and July off and then back to America in August then in fall 2 months in Europe again so we have a pretty good schedule.

Can we expect Amon Amarth to head back to the UK in the summer to play any of the festivals?
No festivals this summer.

What’s your take on the digital revelation killing off the music business?
I don’t know. I can understand the kids that when they are growing up have stuff for free on the internet, well not free but they can just grab it. Since I’m so old the internet is still new to me, it wasn’t there when I was a kid so I’ve always bought albums and still do because that’s how I’ve always got music. It is as it is, you can’t do much about it you just have to hope that people will buy albums because if you’re not selling albums anymore then bands can’t survive or get good gigs. It is what it is; maybe in the future something will replace CD’s but I don’t know. I don’t really know what my take is on it.

Social network sites seem to be a big tool in the music industry these days, with artists communicating with their fans over it and some even ditching their own website and having just a social network page, what are your opinions on social networks as tools in the music industry?
I don’t do any of that; it’s not really my thing. Email for sure, you don’t do the ordinary mail anymore but I don’t do facebook or anything like that; some members of the band have it and they really like it, being in touch with everyone but I prefer to phone people instead I’m old school.

Where do you hope to see Amon Amarth in a year’s time?
On a good tour.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Perhaps Giraffe, I don’t think tigers or lions attack them I think zebra’s get attacked by those guys.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Get out and see us live! It’s a good show!

Interview By James Webb