Burning Point
Get the Firehouse

18.02.2022

It was the first time ever that we had to do an interview so early in the morning. Our Moscow time was 10 a.m., which is early enough, but we cannot but give a hand to Pete Ahonen, guitarist and mastermind of Burning Point, as his time in Finland was 8 a.m.! Nevertheless, Pete was fully awoken, quite optimistic and very happy to share with us the details of his band’s latest album. “Arsonist Of The Soul” comes after a five-year-break and introduces a new singer, Luca Sturniolo, who has replaced Nitte Valo (ex-Battle Beast, now with Dreamtale). This already gives rise to quite a few questions, but we also had a lot to ask about the history of Burning Point, who have been around for more than 20 years and done quite a few records, many of which should be familiar to power metal fans among our readers.

In summer this year Finland was one of the few countries where live shows and even festivals were happening. What is the current situation with coronavirus restrictions in your country? Does Burning Point have any live shows scheduled in the near future?

I think festivals are kind of opening up, but in the last few days a lot of new coronavirus cases have been reported, so I don’t know what’s happening. I hope festivals will open up, and all the clubs will open up. There’s no live shows or festivals scheduled at this point, but we are making plans. We have a sales person who is in contact with festivals and stuff, so hopefully we will get to play live very soon.

Your previous album “The Blaze” was released in 2016. Why did it take Burning Point so long to record the new album, and what happened to your singer Nitte Valo and other guys in the old line-up?

(laughs) Basically the whole line-up changed. I don’t know what happened to Nitte, to be honest. We never got any answers, she just faded away. With the other guys, time was the issue, they didn’t have any time for the band. I needed to seek other players, and that’s one of the reasons why it took so long to get the ball rolling, so to speak. The former drummer, Jussi (Ontero), had already played drums on the album, but as Tuomas (Jaatinen) got into the band, he wanted to re-record the drums. All these things piled up, and years just passed by.

Your new singer Luca Sturniolo is great, but he hasn’t played in any famous bands before. How did you find him?

We had a gig together… was it 2014 or anything like that? Burning Point had a gig in Pietersaari, a city in Finland, and he had a troubadour gig there. We met and hit it up immediately. He’s a really cool guy, easy to get along, and a great musician. When the Nitte thing kind of faded away, I thought that I’m not ready to sing in Burning Point, so I wanted to get a new singer. I remembered Luca, and I knew that he’s a capable singer, even with high notes, as you have heard. He was a contester in “The Voice of Finland” a few years back, and he’s doing troubadour gigs all over Finland, so he’s quite known in small circles.

For a long time you were the singer of Burning Point yourself. Why did you give up lead vocals after “The Ignotor” (2012)? Don’t you think it would have made the life of the band easier if you had continued singing?

You know, at some point in 2014, I felt that I wanted some kind of change. I’d been doing it for so many years with Burning Point. I still love singing, and I sing a lot, but I thought some kind of change was needed. That’s the main reason. When we play live, it’s much more liberating for me just to concentrate on guitar, not on singing and playing guitar.

How was it like recording a studio album during the pandemic? Judging by the video for “Blast In The Past”, everybody recorded their parts separately - was that indeed the case?

The album was recorded before the pandemic. I think it was January or February 2020 when Luca came here to sing his parts, and then the pandemic started. The video was done when everybody was at their homes or studio, but the album had been recorded earlier.

Why did it take you so long to release the album then? If the vocals were recorded in February 2020, and the album actually came out in October 2021, then there’s 1.5 years in between.

(laughs) I don’t know what usually happens, time just flies by. The album needed a mix, and there were some personal issues with the guy who did the mixing and mastering. Weeks and months just fly by. There was no particular reason why it took so long, but I learned that sometimes things just take their time.

We have watched the lyric video for “Arsonist Of The Soul”, but it’s still not quite clear to us who this Arsonist Of The Soul is. Who or what are you talking about in this song?

There’s no specific person or persons. They are just persons who are very negative, and they are always on the opposite side of your opinion. They don’t have any reasons, they are just generally negative persons who are destroying your soul… burn your soul with their negativity.

Your debut album “Salvation By Fire” turns 20 years old this year. Did you expect the career of Burning Point to last for 20 years when you started the band? Have you managed to realize all of your musical dreams that you had back when you were a young musician?

Yeah, I have recently discovered that “Salvation…” is 20 years old (laughs), but I really haven’t thought about it that much. My dreams… I try to keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds. Of course, one of the dreams was to be able to support myself financially, to be able to get into that kind of circle when you are releasing an album and you go on tour for a few months and then go back to the studio to record the next album. Unfortunately it hasn’t been that way, there’s really very few gigs or tours in our case. It always depends on album sales, and money is the issue. If we had money, we could go on tour.

Are you still in contact with anyone from the original Burning Point line-up?

Yes.

Are they still playing music? We know that Jukka Kyro (guitar) went on to play with National Napalm Syndicate, but we haven’t heard anything about the other guys.

I think Jari (Kaiponen), our drummer, is doing some doom or black metal thing, and bass player Toni (Kansanoja) hasn’t really done anything apart from being in Catamenia a few years back, but he isn’t there anymore. Jukka is still doing National Napalm Syndicate, but otherwise, not so much. We are friends on Facebook, and I have seen Jari a few times, but not the rest of the guys.

On the early Burning Point albums, pretty much everyone contributed to the songwriting. But on later albums like “The Blaze”, for example, you personally wrote all the music and lyrics. Do you like it better when you are the only songwriter, or are the other guys just not willing to contribute?

No, no, I don’t have the need to be the only writer, but on “The Blaze” only Pekka (Kolivuori, guitar) and I were songwriters, and Pekka didn’t have any songs for that album. However he has a few songs on “Arsonist…”. No, I don’t need to be the only songwriter, but I’m really picky, so to speak. I have to listen to songs if anybody else is writing them - do they suit Burning Point? I want to keep that control in my hands.

For the “Empyre” album (2009) you did four very interesting cover versions, and you invited original musicians to play on them. How did you manage to get in touch with such people as David Feinstein (The Rods) and Majk Moti (ex-Running Wild)?

It was pretty easy. I think I contacted them through Facebook or something like that. I just sent them emails or messages, “Would you be interested?”, and fortunately they were.

These four songs are a great addition to the album, but have you ever considered doing a full-length covers album with special guests?

Well, yes and no. I have thought about it, and there are so many great tracks in the world that I want to cover. But we also have so many new songs, original songs. Maybe if we have some time in the future, we will be able to do a full cover album.

When Burning Point started, a lot of people were talking about the Finnish school of power metal, which started with Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica and continued with Dreamtale, Altaria and many other bands. Was there indeed any kind of unity among Finnish power metal musicians back in the day? And how has the situation changed over the next 20 years?

Not so much, as we live in the north of Finland, although Sonata Arctica is from Kemi, it’s far more to the north than us. I think we’ve always been out of the circle, so to speak, out of the circle of bands. We knew them, we would say hi to them when we played at the same venues, but they didn’t have so much unity with us. It’s the same thing nowadays. We want and I want to have cooperation with other bands, I’ve been talking to Rami (Keranen, guitar) of Dreamtale about doing some stuff, but time will tell.

Burning Point went through quite a lot of labels during its first years, but for the last three albums you’ve been with AFM Records. What do AFM do better than Limb Music or Scarlet Records, for example?

Well, AFM is a bigger label, so they have a lot of different contacts throughout the world. We are very happy with AFM, and the staff there are amazing, they are very friendly and very professional.

Apart from Burning Point, you are also involved in Stargazery, Fire Action and Ghost Machinery. How do you manage to find time for so many bands? And why do you need to be in so many bands?

(cracks) At this point time has been on my side, so to speak. I don’t know – I love making music, I love heavy metal, and I write songs almost every day. As of now, I have written the next Burning Point album, 11 songs, I have written Stargazery’s new album, I have 40 new unreleased tracks. When I joined Fire Action as a lead singer, I told the guys that I wanted to be like a session member although I’m a full-time member. They are doing guitars and drums and all that, I just need to focus on vocals and lyrics, so that’s not much stress for me. You know, all is good for now, I love doing it.

We remember some of your early interviews, which you did in 2007 or 2009, and back then you called yourself “a child of the 80s”. Do you still feel like that nowadays, 15 years later?

Indeed, I am the child of the 80s, I grew up listening to all the 80s bands, and I still listen to them. I’m not longing to be in the 80s so much, but I do love the 80s music, 80s heavy metal or hard rock.

And what about present-day music? Do you check out any new releases, or do you prefer to focus on the classics?

Yeah yeah, I’m a huge CD and vinyl collector, I do check out almost everything. Nowadays they are releasing much more music than back in the 80s, dozens of new bands are coming up every week, and I try to keep up with the current music too.

Over the years you were involved in a couple of thrash metal bands – National Napalm Syndicate and Sarcofagus. Are you still into the thrash metal scene in Finland and worldwide? Have you discovered any recent thrash metal records that you would recommend to check out?

Mmm, I don’t consider Sarcofagus to be thrash metal. It was one of the first, if not the first heavy metal band in Finland. Kimmo (Kuusniemi, guitar) called me a few years back and asked if I wanted to sing some songs, and of course I was interested. I think Kimmo has just put Sacofagus to rest, there’s no Sarcofagus anymore. As to thrash metal, I think I like 80s thrash metal, Annihilator and stuff like that, but not so much new stuff.

We’ve already discussed the 20th anniversary of “Salvation By Fire”. How do you see the band in 20 years from now? In general, do you think about the band in terms of milestones and achievements, or do you prefer to live in the moment?

I prefer to live in the moment. As I said earlier, I prefer to keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds. In 20 years from now, I don’t know… I’m not going to give up, I’m not going to quit or anything like that, I have no interest in quitting playing or making music. Day by day and week by week – that’s the plan.

Burning Point on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/burningpointfinland

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova (AFM Records) for arranging this interview

Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
November 4, 2021
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