BiografieThe first lines of the album Next Chapter were written in the summer 2001. Little did we know what was ahead of us when we entered our rehearsal place, but we were committed to write good music and we had only one rule, everything is possible!!! We kept that open-minded way of thinking through the whole writing process and I can say with a hand on my heart that Next Chapter is the best release in the history of Maple Cross!
I still remember when we got together for the very first time. I was nervous and excited to write new songs again. I thought that it would be a slow start, but a couple of rehearsals later we had 2 brand new songs ready: Au Revoir and Invincibles are the guilty ones! Those songs gave us some idea what to expect from us in the future. Few months later we had 8 songs more or less ready to be recorded but we felt we still needed to work on them.
The next few weeks went running by. We were practically living in our rehearsal place, but little did we care, it was what we wanted to do. At that point I still wasn’t ready to tell the world about Maple Cross being alive, but I was asked to participate on a TV program about metal scene here in our hometown. Well, they only used one sentence from me and that made me happy. But at the end of the program they played an old Maple Cross song and announced that we’re going to record a new album soon, yeah right!!!! We were going to record a demo but an album so soon, no way. After that I received lots of e-mails and phone calls about Maple Cross and I just had to admit it’s true, We’re back!
So, we recorded the Promo1, and the first thought was to keep it to ourselves, but during the session we decided to send it out to various zines, radios etc. The response was just what we expected: some people liked it and some hated it but that’s just how it should be! I don’t want to write just ok music, I want to write music that I can honestly say I enjoy listening to and I thoroughly understand that many people don’t like what we are doing. If you don’t like metal with aggressive vocals with minimal melody, Maple Cross is not your cup of tea. There are other bands out there who have great melodic singers, so just listen to them and don’t tell me to change my voice, because there’s no way in hell I’ll ever do that!
The Promo2 was basically recorded just to get some idea how the songs work. We didn’t really distribute it that much, but some of our friends have it and it’s been available for everyone to download on our website. 3 great songs showing everyone the other side of Maple Cross, simple straightforward metal!
In the summer 2002 we played a couple of shows, one behind closed doors for friends and the other one was at the Jalometalli 2002 metal festival. We really didn’t know what it would be like since these were the first public appearances with the new line-up and to tell you the truth, I was nerve wracked, but everything went great and we gained a lot of positive feedback out of those gigs.
After that we concentrated on writing some new material and right then we decided that the next step is to record an album. We didn’t want to rush things, so we just kept writing those fuckers and when we had enough material, we recorded a rehearsal tape and fine-tuned some of the songs and kept practising them until we were sure they sound just like they should! That’s when we set the day for the recordings to start.
January 24th 2003 was the very first day of the Next Chapter recording session. Everything else went according to plan, but I lost my voice when I started to shout. Luckily I realised it was, because outside it was –38 celsius and inside the air got very dry. So, I took a couple of days off and after that I had no problems with my voice. During the session we were working hard and drinking a lot of beer, so when we went back home I was physically drained and just slept for couple of days.
The name of the album Next Chapter was Ville Hyry´s (our ex-drummer) idea. He came to see us play live last summer and I can tell you he was very excited about the new line-up. After the show he told me that he’s really happy that Maple Cross is still alive and kicking and this is like the next chapter in the history of Maple Cross. That’s been haunting me since then and finally one day it hit me; the album should be called Next Chapter!
I’m really lucky that I made the decision to reform Maple Cross again and I’m extremely lucky that I’m working with such great musicians like Sami, Aki, Late and Ollari. We have a great understanding when it comes to writing music and that’s all I can ask for so this album is dedicated to you guys! Cheers my friends in metal!
Ok, enough bullshit. My brothers and sisters in metal, may I introduce you the NEXT CHAPTER!!!
Marco R.J.
Quelle: http://www.maplecross.net www