CAIN'S OFFERING Guitarist Jani Liimatainen On Leaving SONATA ARCTICA - "There Was Not Nearly As Much Drama As Everyone Would Like To Think"
October 15, 2009, 15 years ago
BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with former / founding SONATA ARCTICA guitarist Jani Liimatainen to discuss his new band, CAIN’S OFFERING, and his 2007 firing from Sonata Arctica:
On leaving Sonata Arctica: “It’s an interesting question, even if I’ve heard it a million times already (laughs). I just wasn’t really enjoying the band anymore and it started to feel quite a bit like work. I also wanted to write my own songs, and in Sonata Arctica that’s pretty difficult because Tony (Kakko / vocals) is a very prolific songwriter himself. I didn’t want to step on his toes and I didn’t know if my style of writing would work in that context. I also realized at some point that Sonata Arctica was taking up so much of my time that I never had time to do anything on my own. I started to lose my motivation for Sonata Arctica and it started to show in my relationship with the guys in the band. I just wasn’t into it anymore. There wasn’t really that much drama. Not nearly as much as everyone would like to think because that would sell a lot more magazines (laughs). We just kind of grew apart.”
On the Unia album: “It’s not my favourite out of the albums I’ve done with them. It’s my least favourite, actually. Unia got mixed reviews. Some people liked it a lot and some people really disliked it. I’m kind of leaning on the disliking side as well because it just got too experimental for my taste. It kind of lost that red line bringing us to the things we were supposed to do, like hooks and melodies. Instead we were trying out a lot of weird shit (laughs).”
On Cain’s Offering: “It took quite a while to get it from an idea to an actual album. I think it took one-and-a-half years or so. I started really working on it in February 2008, and it just came down to getting the right people and the right songs, and booking the studios. I think a lot of people will be surprised when they hear the album. It’s all my stuff. I wrote the lyrics and the vocal melodies, and then I sent Timo (Kotipelto / STRATOVARIUS) the demos with me singing the songs. He learned them from that and then we went into recording with me producing his vocals. He did an awesome job.”
On fan expectations: “They probably expect Cain's Offering to sound like my old bands because I have this big stamp on my forehead saying ‘Played With Altaria / Played With Sonata Arctica’ (laughs), so that’s the kind of stuff they’re expecting. I didn’t actually pay an attention to any of that. I didn’t really care that much about what people would think. I was more concerned with getting the songs across. It was quite funny because for a long time while I was making this album I didn’t play any guitar because I was so into the production part of it. I only had rough guitar tracks down, so when I went in to record the tracks for real I was kind of anxious to see how things would go. I was wondering if I’d be able to pull it off (laughs). I guess it was a good thing because it got me to think outside the box a bit and not to all the things I’m known for. This is much more diverse than the stuff I’ve done in the past. This album takes stuff from a lot of music that I like and putting them in a blender, and this is what came out of it. If you’re expecting run-of-the-mill power metal or something the likes of Altaria, you’re going to get a bit more than that.”
Check out Cain's Offering at the band's website and/or MySpace page.
The tracklist for Cain's Offering's debut album, Gather The Faithful, is as follows:
'Oceans Of Regret'
'Gather The Faithful'
'Thorn In My Side'
'Morpheus In A Masquerade'
'Stolen Waters'
'Elegantly Broken'
