APOCALYPTICA: 'We Have Many Different Sides And There Is Something For Everyone'

ARTISTdirect.com's Amy Sciarretto recently conducted an interview with Perttu Kivilaakso of the Finnish cello quartet APOCALYPTICA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Do you think APOCALYPTICA is still considered the band who started off offering symphonic renditions/covers of METALLICA, even though that was so long ago?

Perttu: It doesn't matter so much. Our band has many different sides. We began as a cover band and we still play METALLICA songs in the live show. It is important for us, since it began from there. Of course, we have instrumental and classical stuff. We have many different sides and there is something for everyone.

ARTISTdirect.com: Over the years, you have worked with an array of artists, like SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor, SLAYER's Dave Lombardo and BUSH's Gavin Rossadale. How do you choose which artists you want to work with?

Perttu: We are a representation of something and people want to work with us. It is cool to meet with people and vocalists and talk of the possibility of working together and when we approach a song after, they generally love our attitude and what we do. It's really cool, to have people we admire like what we do and they have the same feeling towards our group. It is [about] trying to make great music together and bring musical ideas together. We do cool stuff together. It's a wonderful possibility to have this and it opens up a whole world. It is a new world for us, and of course, we get a lot of influence from different vocalists. There are different voices on the record, like different storytellers and characters bringing in their own opinion.

ARTISTdirect.com: What was your approach with "7th Symphony"? How do you keep yourself and fans excited about what you are doing combining classical music with hard rock. That's not to suggest it's a novelty, but there are so many places you have already gone, so how do you find the places you can go?

Perttu: We always want to make an album that would not get boring after a couple of songs. Therefore, we want to have the feeling of a bigger picture and you follow a musical path that doesn't let you go after it ends. We have a symphonic feeling when we are doing this. We wanted to capture the same young energy that we had ten years ago when we did our third album and that revolutionary attitude of making music, but with a 2010 sound, since we have been learning all these years and all the tours we do, too. We always need to break our own rules and borders and find new ways of using the cello and I think that "7th Symphony" is a good combination of everything we have done and it is a strong album but a really fresh approach. I think it is the studio album that finally has the energy of our live performance.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.