Rockezine.com interview with Celesty on Oct 23, 2006

with Jere Luokkamäki on Oct 23, 2006


		To start off, could you please introduce yourself, Celesty, and describe the kind of music that you play? Ok, Metal greetings to everyone, my name is Jere Luokkamäki and I play drums in a Finnish Epic/Powermetal band called Celesty. Including me Celesty is Antti Railio: Vocals, Tapani Kangas: Rhythm guitar, Teemu Koskela: Lead guitar, Ari Katajamäki: Bass, Juha Mäenpää: Keyboards. We have released two album so far –Reign of elements 2002- and –Legacy of hate 2004- Our 3rd album -Mortal Mind Creation- will be on stores 30th day of October.
		How do you promote the album and the band? Well, our label Dockyard1 handle all the promotion work in Europe and in Japan, Marquee/Avalon. I believe that there will be advertises in different magazines and websites. Ourselves we have created some flyers and posters and spread those here in Finland. Also we started Celesty Street Team this year and there have joined quite much people all over the world, who wants to help to spread the word Celesty. So I promote here too go and join Celesty’s Street Team PRISONERS OF DRAMAR in our website http://www.celesty.net
		What are your expectations of the album? Are there any clear differences in comparison with the previous release? I think that we will get new fans with this new album because there is lot’s of unique things in the album music. This time we used different sound engineer than our previous albums and I think that Sami “Hannu” Koivisto managed to create us something new into this powermetal sound. The songs are also very Aggressive and there is lot’s of Dark effects in the music but it’s still very melodic and catchy also.
		Can you describe the creative process of making this album? How did the songs get written, arranged, produced, the lyrics.. who does what in the band? Our composing times are always painful, only tears, blood, Every member compose songs at their home and then we collect different ideas on our rehearsal and also arrange the songs together. In this album we had also outside producer Arttu Volanto helping us in the composing process and he was big help for us. We also compose 15 songs and from those songs we selected 9 tracks to the album together with label. This time I did almost all the lyrics by myself only that Antti helped with some of the parts of course.
		Which of the nine tracks took most time writing and recording? I believe that the most time we used when we compose the song Arrival. It was more progressive in the beginning but when we listened the songs with our producer he made the song more simple and this way also one of the fastest tracks on the album. All the way recordings went quite fast and there wasn’t any bigger problems.
		Is there a certain message you`d like to pass on with your music? If so, what is it and why? Like you probably know we have Fantasy story on our albums and this album story continues from that point where -Legacy of hate- ended. This time I wanted the lyrics be also something else than just Fantasy story, so in the lyrics there is also all kind of thoughts about this world and where it is going. We have had concept in our music from our demo times and we liked to keep it that way, because not so many band create own worlds, characters, places etc. to their albums.
		Do you agree with labeling your music as melodic power metal? Why (not)? Yes I agree but I would also like to add there Epic, because we have concept in our album. We have also called our music as Fantasy Metal, so maybe good explain for Fantasy Metal would be Melodic Epic Powermetal.
		Could you define in five words where the band stands for? Fantasy stories with powerful melodies!!!
		Why should our readers check out your new album? Because it’s unique stuff and the songs are great. There is few very fast and aggressive songs, but there is also few slower ones. Something for everyone.
		Thanks for answering my questions. Anything left to say? You`re welcome!!! Keep the metal flame burning and remember to stay metal!!
(Romana Pavesi)