BURNING POINT (Pete Ahonen)

Burning Point have just released their new album, 'Empyre', via Metal Heaven and it is a real power metal feast for the ears! The new album includes a few guest musicians including the Rods David 'Rock' Feinstein and Q5 vocalist Jonathan K.

What are you currently up to?

We just held the listening party here in our hometown and the club was packed with peoples, it was awesome! Also we did our first ever acoustic gig there too and it was great also : )

We have a little tour coming in March with a Cryonic Temple ( SWE ) and Tragedian ( DE) , few gigs in Sweden and Finland at this point. Plans for more for sure, but all it depends on the album sales, promotion & advertising in other countries. We are also gathering the material for the new DVD, some new BP songs are also recorded ( for the next album ), I’ve been also busy recording the 2nd Ghost Machinery album as well as my other bands Stargazery’s debut. So, lots to do but I love it!

Could you take us through the new album 'Empyre'

We started the recordings early ’08 and we did all the recordings in a few different sessions. In between we performed few shows and changed the line-up which both took us time from the studio but were very important to do.

This time, first time in bands history, there were 4 guys composing the songs and to me personally it was a huge deal, it took a lot of weight from my shoulders and I didn’t have to “stress” so much for composing the new material. It was also a very cool thing to sing other peoples songs (or the melodies) for the first time and I think it brought much more variety to this record.

Lyrically we’re dealing with everyday life mixed with a little fiction. Also one the big points with this album was that we basically did all by ourselves, only the mastering was done in famous Finnvox Studios, engineering, recordings etc.and the final mixing was done by Jussi (drummer ) and Jukka ( bassist ).

They both have years and years of experience from working in the studios so; it was pretty easy to decide who’ll do the mixing when we heard that the guy who mixed all our previous albums wasn’t available. And to top it all, amazing artwork from Felipe Machado !

How did you hook-up with he various guest musicians you have on the cover versions like the Rods David 'Rock' Feinstein?

I’ve always been a huge fan of Q5 and the vocals of Jonathan K so, when we decided to do all these covers the first thing was that I wanted Jonathan to do the vocals on the Q5 cover. I contacted him and send him the BP cd’s etc. and as soon as he listened the cd’s and the basic tracks from the cover he said, I’m very interested! And you know, one thing led to another and soon I realized I’ve contacted all those amazing musicians and they all agreed to do guest appearance! Now we’re good friends, especially with Jonathan and Majk Moti (ex-Running Wild)

The band have had a couple more line-up changes. What do you think the new members have added to the band?

Well, you know line-up changes are not unusual and sometimes crucial things to do in order to move forward. Now the band is definitively at its peak what comes to the musicianship and I’m very happy that I’m surrounded with these amazing players, also they all are very good friends of mine too! And as I said, first time there are 4 members composing songs!

What have been the most memorable live shows form you and why?

There are lots of great shows I remember, but definitively one the great ones is full packed Tavastia club in Helsinki where we performed at the Tuska Festival. I must say that also this acoustic show that we did last Friday to the full club in our hometown was one the gigs I’ll remember a long time : )

If given the chance which bands would you like to tour with and why?

This gets asked a lot and I always say that, basically everything goes :) Maybe nice if it could be from the same genre of metal as we are, but otherwise…all is ok hah hah

How did you get your first break into the music business? What piece of advice would you pass onto budding musicians?

Well, we were fortunate in a way that we got our first record deal with our first demo cd and we didn’t have to go through that long line of demo cd’s before the contract. Advice hmmm … One of the paths that I’ve followed is that be true to yourself and the music you’re doing, don’t follow the trends and do your own stuff from the heart.

How do you view the current music scene? Have you seen an upswing in interest over the past couple of years in metal and hard rock?

I think that the metal music in general is very, very popular all over the world and If there is way in the future to control or stop the illegal downloading there’s no end in sight for the metal music! But if the illegal downloading can’t be stopped well, you know what happens…peoples, buy the albums :=)

What do you like doing with your spare time outside of music?

Music very big part of my life so, not so much anything else…watching movies, I read books, play with our dogs, you know the usual hah hah

Message for your fans…

Thank you very much for your support and we hope you’ll love the new Empyre album. Keep checking the websites for the latest news etc. and hopefully see you on tour!

 

Interview © March 2009 Jason Ritchie.
All rights reserved.

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