Esa Holopainen has been known as the lead guitarist for Amorphis over the last thirty years. And while his highly tasteful lead guitars are all over the Finnish band’s albums, including the upcoming double album ‘Live At Helsinki Hall’, there is a whole different side of him that can be heard on the self-titled debut album of his solo project Silver Lake. Holopainen’s characteristic melodies are all over the album, but the sound is calmer and there are more acoustic guitars than on any Amorphis album.

“It was so different than anything I have done with Amorphis“, Holopainen admits. “Some elements of it are pretty close to metal, but there are also elements that I would not have done with Amorphis. ‘Ray Of Light’, for example, is almost a poppy song, so I think our producer would have shot that down immediately at an Amorphis session, haha! But my fingerprint is still there, even though I worked in a very different way than with Amorphis.

For an Amorphis session, things are always very secure. After writing and arranging the songs, I just have to worry about my own parts. I play leads, cleans and melody lines, while Tomi (Koivusaari), our other guitar player, is always responsible for the rhythm guitars. This time, I had to do everything by myself. It was hard work, but very satisfying.“

Relaxed

During the conversation, Holopainen repeatedly emphasizes the influence of producer Nino Laurenne. It was a phone call from Laurenne that started Silver Lake. “He was super important“, the guitarist insists. “I don’t think I could have done this by myself. I could always ask his opinion about the arrangements. And we worked on the vocal arrangements together. Besides that, of course, his studio knowledge is on a totally different level than mine. As is his studio.

Nino is my old friend. We started our old bands around the same age when we were kids. At some point, he started to focus more on building his studio and he has been very busy with that. But then, pretty much the same thing happened that happened to other musicians last year. Because of the pandemic, his studio suddenly wasn’t fully booked. Under normal conditions, he is always working in his studio. Now we really had the time to focus on this album.”

When asked if he would have made the album without Laurenne’s help, Holopainen is frank: “I don’t think so. I think I would have just wondered what I should do for a couple of months and played PlayStation in the meantime. My son taught me how to play Fortnite, so I’m addicted to that now, haha! So yes, it’s a good thing that Nino called me and we started working on the album. What else can you do when there are no shows? I knew that I would probably start working on Amorphis songs by the end of the year – we are recording the next Amorphis album now – but I really didn’t have anything else to do. As a matter of fact, I felt really relaxed while doing the album. There were no other things to interrupt the recording process. The most exciting thing for me was to go to the studio.“

Nuances

In many ways, ‘Silver Lake’ is an atypical solo album for someone mainly known as a metal guitarist, however melodic his playing is. The focus is on simple, yet powerful song structures with calm, atmospheric guitar melodies. “A catchy chorus and melodic lines don’t make music worse“, Holopainen smiles. “That is also the type of music that I enjoy listening to myself. I enjoy a catchy chorus, a nice musical theme and some melodic lines. So that was the way I also wanted to approach my own album.“

A very defining factor in that approach is the use of multiple lead singers. “I played a couple of songs to Nino before we started the whole thing“, Holopainen explains. “These songs were ‘Sentiment’, ‘Ray Of Light’ and ‘Promising Sun’. I just wanted his opinion about the songs. He really enjoyed them, but he reminded me that I should find a proper singer for the songs. or different songs. He thought we shouldn’t make the whole album instrumental.

So I started to think about the little nuances in the songs. ‘Ray Of Light’ is quite poppy and the only person I could imagine doing that sort of thing was Einar Solberg from Leprous. There were some parts in the song that I could really hear him do, so I sent him an e-mail asking if he would be interested in working with me for my solo album. He liked the song and he was happy to work with me.

The same thing happened with Jonas (Renkse, Katatonia’s singer) when I sent him an acoustic version of ‘Sentiment’. He liked the song and Björn (Strid, Soilwork’s singer) liked ‘Promising Sun’. That sort of gave me the guideline for the album. I started to write more songs based on the idea that I would be asking some of my friends and a couple of good singers that I admire. Basically, I startred writing for them.“

Talent

Not every song had an immediately obvious singer. Perhaps surprisingly, first single ‘The Storm’ is the most prominent example. “It came out great, but it was one of the songs that I had some trouble finding the right singer for“, Holopainen says. “I sort of had the vocal tone I would like to hear on the song in my head, but I didn’t know anyone who sounded like that. It was Nino who suggested we should ask this Swedish guy Håkan Hemlin, who was in the folk duo Nordman. Fortunately, he was into doing the song and it turned out great. There are probably not a lot of people outside of Scandinavia who know him very well, but he has a great vocal sound and a really unique voice.“

Most voices on the Silver Lake album are male, but when Anneke van Giersbergen – who sings the track ‘Fading Moon’ – comes up, Holopainen appears to be a fan as well as a colleague: “She is just great! We worked together on her Vuur album and she recorded a duet with Tomi (Joutsen, Amorphis’ singer) on the last Amorphis album. And I really like her new solo album. I think that’s one of her strengths. She is at her best with just her and an acoustic guitar. Her vocal tone is just unbelievable. That shows great talent. She doesn’t need a wall of Marshalls, double bass drums or orchestral tapes, haha!“

The new Amorphis double live album ‘Live At Helsinki Ice Hall’ will be released on May 21st by Nuclear Blast. ‘Silver Lake’ will be released the next week, on May 28th.