Through the years, I've become friends with the guys in Callisto. It's interesting how you can become close with people who live so far away from your own home. Actually, you can become so close that you feel like home when you meet certain friends after a couple of years without having seen eachother face to face. Meeting these Finns does that for me.
Musically, I got interested in Callisto from the first time I heard their material. I discovered the band in 2003, when they had released their first EP. The sound of that release isn't what they're sounding like today anymore, though. They keep changing, expirimenting and -in my humble opinion- developing themselves as musicians and as a band. However, it took a long time before their third full-length got released and promoted on tour. I had the pleasure to ask Finland's finest some questions about that and I hope it brings some answers that are interesting for you, as well. Enjoy reading this!
Q: Hey guys, it’s been a long time since you visited our country and actually saw the entire continent of Europe. What happened?
A: The process of making the new album Providence was long, so we had planned the touring break to be able to do things in peace. Constant touring is not easy because we all have jobs, families, loans and stuff like that, so we have to priorize things. We were actually supposed to tour Europe already in May 2009 but one of us had to be acutely operated in the hospital, so the entire tour had to be cancelled.
Q: On every album you seem to put more and more layers instead of keeping the metallic and post hardcore influences you used on the early recordings. On the new album ("Providence"), you’ve even invited a clean vocalist to join the band. Can you tell us why you chose to take this musical direction?
A: We don’t want to repeat ourselves. We like to experiment with our music and these days we all tend to have our own different likings in music, so this has an influence in Callisto’s music, too.
Q: Next to clean vocals, what other new influences can we expect on Providence?
A: Different variety of instruments, such as trumpet, english horn, oboe, mandolin etc. Thus the touch of this album is more varied than before, and also the keyboards are in bigger role than before.
Q: Most of the songs on the new album have been written about 2 years ago. Does this mean you already have a lot of new material too, and what can we expect from that on the Providence tour? Also, what can we expect of you live, concerning songs from ‘Noir’ and ‘True Nature Unfolds’, your previous efforts?
A: We have some new material already but we will not be playing any of that on this tour. We don’t have any actual songs ready yet. We will be playing songs form all three albums, that is for sure.
Q: Since it’s been a long time you hit the road and you’ve developed as a band, what can we expect from you on stage, this tour?
A: Our live performance has a lot more layers and details than before. We always try to build the gaps between the songs as interesting as possible, by adding different landscapes and also improvisation.
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