by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
Sometimes a band name doesn’t mean exactly what it seems. That’s what happened to the Finnish Hard Rock ensemble Temple Balls who recently made the headlines explaining surprisingly non-anatomic origins of their moniker. With their new album Pyromide out on April the 16th on Frontiers Music SRL and the pre-release livestream just a day earlier, Temple Balls’ lead singer Arde Teronen checked in with Hardrock Haven to discuss the details of the new release, their longtime collaboration with H.E.A.T.’s own Jona Tee, songwriting, band image and more.
Hardrock Haven: Pyromide is the third Temple Balls album overall, but the first one released on Frontiers Music SRL. What circumstances led you to the record deal with this label and are you happy with how things turned out?
Arde Teronen: Well, we started out without a record label, you know… (laughs) So we’ve been searching for one and found Ranka Kustannus, which was our first label. We did those first two albums [Traded Dreams, 2017, and Untamed, 2019] with them, but we kind of wanted to do things a little bit differently than the label wanted. And also, we got an offer from Frontiers, we thought about it for a while and decided to give it a shot. Everything was arranged the way we felt comfortable with and that’s how it all happened. I couldn’t be happier about it and I think we made the right choice.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. So far, reviewers worldwide were pretty enthusiastic about your works, especially your second album Untamed. Do you pay attention to the feedback you receive from them?
Arde Teronen: Of course, I’m reading all the comments all the time since I’m a social media manager [of the band] and I do most of the posts and follow every channel we have – YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… I usually check the numbers, reply to the comments, reply to the e-mails and stuff, so obviously I’m always somehow aware of what people – and reviewers – are talking about us. And that’s really nice to see and hear that when it comes the two singles we have released so far, for example on YouTube, we’ve had a lot of great, positive feedback. It’s really amazing to see that.
Hardrock Haven: Do you think it still makes sense to do reviews these days, especially in a traditional written form, when everyone has access to music via YouTube and streaming platforms and can basically check it out for themselves, without paying attention to someone else’s opinion?
Arde Teronen: In my opinion, there’s always need for reviews. I think they’re really important actually, because people are kind of busy nowadays as we have social media and stuff like that… People just don’t seem to pay much attention to things. But there are those who are actually looking for the new music, and I bet it’s like this with other people as it is with me – that I constantly read something online. And if there’s some sort of an album review and I have heard the name of the band or an artist a few times before, I start to pay attention to the review. It takes just having heard or seen the name somewhere when somebody’s written a review about them to make me go, “I really gotta check it out.” I think there’s really still a room for reviews and similar forms as well and I read those all the time myself. I’ve found a bunch of great new music to listen to through those reviews as well, and when people say we don’t need reviews anymore, I think that’s not actually true at all. Also because there’s still a number of people who order the physical copies [of music albums] and they won’t listen to music online, like ever… So there is and there will always be people like that, and for them it’s also really important.
Hardrock Haven: So it’s good news for the reviewers! The new albumwas produced by Jona Tee of H.E.A.T., who in fact has been working with you guys since your first record. Back when Untamed was released, you went as far as to name Jona “the sixth member of the band.” What do you think is a secret of such a longtime collaboration you have with him and do you think you’ll continue working together in the future?
Arde Teronen: We haven’t signed any papers (laughs), but he’s always pushing us forward to write new songs and he’s eager to hear new stuff – like new demos we’re actually working on already as we speak – and I think he’s gonna be the producer of our fourth album as well. With Jona, we share the same kind of humor I think and the same kind of taste in music as well, and these things are really important for any relationship to last long time. He’s like an older brother or a sixth member to us really, and it’s been fun to work with him.
Hardrock Haven: The band’s guitarist, Niko [Vuorela], was quoted as saying that all of you participate in writing lyrics, so can this brainstorming method be challenging at times?
Arde Teronen: Oh, it’s always difficult in the first place… You might have fifteen very early demo-type-of-things (laughs) in your drawer, and then you have twenty guitar riffs, or a couple of lines for a verse or a chorus… (laughs) So we always tend to argue about what to put on the song or on the album, but I think that’s pretty normal when you have five or six guys – or girls, for that matter – in the room and everyone has obviously got their opinion… And then you just have to somehow find that red line to follow. But I think we’ve always ended up having the best solution for every song that we have written. So it’s quite normal to have one’s own opinion I guess, as long as we are able to find the final solution which will satisfy everyone eventually.
Hardrock Haven: Was the songwriting or recording process for Pyromide any different than before?
Arde Teronen: Obviously, it was a little bit different compared to our debut album, since we recorded Traded Dreams in Thailand (laughs), but it didn’t differ that much compared to Untamed. The studio we used was the same now and then, the producer was the same and even the engineer – Pasi Kauppinen – was the same, although he didn’t do much engineering on Pyromide in comparison with Untamed. This time we’ve had a week and a half more time to record than before, so we were having a kind of a laid-back schedule (laughs). We could easily work ten to twelve hours a day and still had much time off which we spent mainly kicking football, sitting in a hot tub, going to sauna and such… (laughs) That was really nice and I’m pretty sure that we’re gonna record our fourth album at Studio 57 as well.
Hardrock Haven: When I interviewed Jona Tee over a year ago, it was right in the middle of pre-production of Pyromide. He said there are some similarities between the new material and Untamed, mentioning “Kill The Voice” and “The End” as points of reference. Do you agree with his opinion?
Arde Teronen: Yeah, I could agree with him, although I’d add it’s kind of a mixed bag of Traded Dreams and Untamed, because I think we have more fast tracks and maybe a little bit of Pop-ish songs on Pyromide as well. Untamed was actually a pretty dark for our standards, but while we have the Untamed side on Pyromide, we also have this rock’n’roll positive energy of Traded Dreams on it.
Hardrock Haven: And speaking about Pyromide, can you take us through the albumtrack-by-track?
Arde Teronen: If only I could remember the order… (laughs) But seriously – track by track… The first one – the opener – is “Thunder From The North”. That’s one of my favorites. It was released as a first single and probably is going to be our opening track for a live set as well – but nothing’s set in stone so far, so we might change it after we have rehearsed the setlist a couple of times more. I’m not sure if that was one of the first songs to be ready for the album. I think it was one of the first indeed, but I cannot remember precisely.
The second song, “Long Ways, Long Lies” is a story about a douchebag person (laughs), dedicated to all the assholes out there (laughs). I think it’s just an attempt to let off some steam and let go of pressure, and that’s pretty much all about it. That’s actually one of my favorite tracks as well – although I could say that about every track on this album (laughs)…
Hardrock Haven: But isn’t that how it should be?
Arde Teronen: Yeah, precisely. But you know, on the previous two albums I’ve always had one or two tracks which I don’t like at all, but they ended up on the album because we always decide by voting and everything is chosen by democratic means (laughs). But back to Pyromide, number three is “T.O.T.C.” It’s really a great, great song – I remember doing those first demo versions of this with our guitarist Niko and I think we fell in love with the track immediately as soon as we gave the rest of the guys the demo to listen to. It’s pretty much about fighting your way back up, especially if you’re young and willing to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. That’s what stands for “thrill of the chase,” or actually the whole line which would be, “It’s not the kill/But it’s the thrill of the chase.” It’s like doing whatever is necessary to reach your goals.
Number four is “Fallen Youth.” That had a lot of different versions lyrically, but eventually we ended up writing something about the fallen youth and the struggles of being some sort of an outcast. That’s pretty much it. And then we have the sexiest song on the album (laughs)…
Hardrock Haven: …which, in my humble opinion, is probably the best one – or at least it’s my favorite (laughs).
Arde Teronen: You think so? That’s nice to hear! That’s the one we wrote with Jona and Erik Grönwall (ex-H.E.A.T.) and one other guy, whose name I don’t happen to remember (laughs). I have bad memory – I’m really sorry… But anyway, he wrote some lyrics for “Bad Bad Bad,” and as I’ve said, that’s the sexiest song of all.
The next one is “What Is Dead Never Dies.” Actually, I wrote a couple of versions of it – a couple of sets of lyrics – starting when we were having a pre-production session in Stockholm, probably in the fall of 2019. I had a vision of writing a song about nightlife in Stockholm, but eventually I tossed that… I think that was Jona who actually suggested that we should use the title “What Is Dead Never Dies,” and that was when I realized that’s pretty much the same as in Game Of Thrones – “what is dead, may never die”. So I wrote what I think is my version of what was happening in the Game Of Thrones, the book series and the TV series as well.
Then, we have “Unholy Night,” which is my absolute favorite of the album. I love singing it, as the range fits my vocals perfectly and also, I love the lyrics which are actually completely by Niko – we’ve just tweaked some things while recording – as well as the whole song, it’s also his own. It’s really a great track and I’m really looking forward to get to sing and play it live.
The next one is “Heart Of The Warrior,” which is – once again – one of my favorites… (laughs)
Hardrock Haven: Surprisingly! (laughs)
Arde Teronen: Yeah, surprisingly! (laughs) “Heart Of The Warrior” is pretty much about Julius Caesar and how he was about to start a civil war – although I don’t necessarily think that it was a great decision (laughs) But I just love the story behind the Roman Empire and I’ve just finished watching the documentary and reading a couple of articles about the ancient Roman history… When Niko introduced the riff, I think the song was pretty much done but it didn’t have any lyrics or melodies. And as he put the title as “Heart Of The Warrior,” I went, “Oh my God, I’ve just watched this documentary about the Roman history” and I wrote about that, so that’s how it eventually came out to be.
“You Better Run” is, I think, one of the oldest songs which wasn’t actually written for this album but Untamed probably; it’s just we didn’t finish it back then. It’s more Pop-oriented type of song of the album and I like that too. Not sure if we’re gonna play that live though – but only time will tell…
“If Only I Could” was real fun to do with Niko. We were pretty sure that the rest of the guys wouldn’t accept the track – but when we introduced it [to them], they liked it so much that we decided to put it on the album eventually. It’s a very personal song in terms of lyrics. And it’s real fun to get to sing lower octaves. I love to use my voice [this way] ‘cause I know I’m able to do pretty high vocals, but usually I just scream at the top of my lungs to make that high pitched stuff (laughs), so it’s really nice to have some variety vocal-wise. It’s actually a funny story as the verses of the next and the last song on the album, “Something To Die For,” were originally on “If Only I Could,” so it wasn’t like a full-type, proper power ballad in the first place. We kind of mixed these songs eventually, and “Something To Die For” was actually one of the demos we had made for Untamed and ditched because we didn’t have proper verses for that track. So we left it in a drawer and then we found out that the key matches and the tempo matches pretty much the same, so we decided to complete it and that’s how it came to be on the album. And that’s pretty much it. We have eleven tracks on the record and I love each of them – and also, I’m one hundred and ten per cent sure that every band member loves all of them. And everyone who’s listened to the album say it’s the strongest album from us, so I think that’s pretty well-said and really sums it up. I’m so surprised that we finished it and it came out so good.
Hardrock Haven: Well, it is your strongest album to date indeed – that’s a fact! You’ve revealed a bit about more Pop-oriented tracks on the album, and for example “Bad Bad Bad” has this underlying almost Dance-esque vibe and rhythm to it, whereas other songs on the album are pure classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. In general, while listening to Pyromide, the ‘80s influence is obvious. What do you think was so fascinating about that era in music?
Arde Teronen: Thank you! I think it’s the melodies, the punchlines… probably the lyrics as well. There’s so much to discover about them – whenever you listen to music from the ‘80s, or the ‘70s or the ‘90s, whatever… it’s just that every time you listen to an album, you just find something new and it’s not always about love (laughs), or hate, or joy. There’s history and all other kinds of stuff – for example, in songs by Iron Maiden, DIO or Black Sabbath there’s joy and sorrow, there’s history, there’s sex and drugs and so on… There’s so much you can discover and listen to, and the punchlines and melodies are the icing on the cake.
Hardrock Haven: Very true! And when we think the ‘80s, we have this very particular image of a Rock band that Temple Balls continues – but overall, these days the rules seem to be way more relaxed. Do you think it’s better now that there’s generally less focus on band image?
Arde Teronen: I think it’s really important for the band to look great on and off the stage, but I don’t think it’s necessary to use a lot of hairspray or wear make-up… (laughs) We can do without it. I mean, you could obviously do those things if you like – I don’t mind at all and I think no one does these days… But I think the image of the band should look good – like a complete look – and everyone should fit the rest somehow. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s really necessary to set any rules. If you want to wear shorts, wear them onstage if you like (laughs). It’s not completely forbidden. For example, in our band we’ve agreed that we need to improve our image all the time and we have decided that we can wear whatever we want as long as it fits the group. The overall look of the band should be consistent and in order, if I may say.
Hardrock Haven: As we’re running out of time, all I’m able to ask you are the band’s future plans, so what are you up to at the moment?
Arde Teronen: Well, since this pandemic is still going on, we don’t have much plans other than to rehearse our setlist… But as we won’t have a proper album release show, we decided to something else. We’re going to do a livestream on YouTube and it’s gonna take place on April the 15th 9:00 PM CET+1. We’re gonna listen to Pyromide track by track and people can drop by and say hello and have a few cold ones with us (laughs). Or, if they like, they can drink orange juice (laughs). But that’s what’s gonna happen on Thursday, April 15th, so stay tuned for more details!
Hardrock Haven: So we’re looking forward to the livestream of course – and is there anything you’d like to add in the end?
Arde Teronen: Thank you so much for supporting us, listening to our music, buying our albums and merchandise and coming to the shows! We hope you’ll all stay safe – see you at the gigs eventually, when they start! (laughs)
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