Finnish melodic death metal exponents Insomnium will shortly be hitting the Australian road, playing shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in support of last year’s excellent Winter’s Gate release. So of course we decided they’d be fine candidates to be the latest participants in our On the Road strand – And we sent Sentinel Daily editor Scott Adams off for a chat about tour bus life with the band’s vocalising bassist, Niilo Sevänen…
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Hello Niilo, and welcome to Sentinel Daily! You’ve signed up for a lot of touring for the rest of the year – I know that touring constitutes a band’s best way of making money these days but do you prefer the live arena to working in the studio? “Both are part of the job. Studio work is only some weeks every couple of years, but touring goes on and on”.

It certainly seems to! And that being the case, what do you look forward to most when touring outside of Europe? “Every place is unique, and getting out of Europe is always a bit exotic. Coming to Australia is very special and we are looking forward to doing some tourist stuff as well, like Surfing on the Gold Coast”.

You’ve nearly pre-empted my next question there – You say every place is unique, but isn’t it the case that the world is getting smaller now thanks to communications technology? Don’t you find that metal crowds are becoming similar wherever you go? Or do headbangers still maintain national characteristics in each country? ” Every country is a bit different and so are the metal crowds. The Dutch are high all the time, Eastern Europeans get really crazy, and so on. Asians are sober but they still get crazy!”

​What single item could you not do without on the road? “My Phone”.

​And what luxury item that you probably shouldn’t take always seems to find it’s way into your tour luggage? “I try to travel light but I always have my iPad and some reading”.

Reading! That’s an answer I don’t get very often to that question… well done sir! Now, what’s an item you’d like to see on an Insomnium Rider that never seems to actually be there? Any horror stories of tight fisted promoters making the band share an old ham sandwich and a bottle of water? “Nowadays our riders are usually what we asked for but, well, some places are bit rough. Like the UK and especially the US… Sometimes it’s just some water bottles if you are the support band”.

Ridiculous! Looking back again to the upcoming Australian tour, what sort of set can we expect to see from you? “Winter’s Gate and then a collection of older songs. This kind of set has worked well so far”.

Sounds good – we’re looking forward to it! What would be an ideal tour package for Insomnium to appear on? You can pick any bands from any era, and expense and death are no object. “Insomnium, Queen, Type O Negative, Emperor and AC/DC“.

Nice and varied! At this point I’d like to ask for your advice – to any bands considering mounting an international tour for the first time – what’s the best way to combat (a) boredom and (b) homesickness? “Good question, since those are some of the biggest problems on a long tour. Make sure you have something interesting to do when you have to sit and wait or travel for hours. Shoot videos, read books, play games et cetera. Otherwise you will just end up bored and drunk and hangoverish all the time”.

Yep, hangoverish musicians are little or no good to anyone! Any last words? ​Anything else you’d like the readers of Sentinel Daily to know? “Come to see us in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane! We are really looking forward to coming over there and moshing with you guys!”

And us with you – thanks for taking part!

 

Fancy seeing Insomnium when they hit Australian shores? Find out when and where they play in the Sentinel Daily Global Gig Guide!