As a little boy me and a friend used to play “Bloodsucker” screaming out those high notes: An interview with Arde of Temple Balls

Mid march when the snow was fighting for the last breaths I had an interview with Arde of Temple Balls. He has a very disarming laugh which is a relief for a nervous writer

At first glance on your album covers. It seems like you play Power Metal rather than your high octane hard rock. Do you think you will loose fans over that?

Yes, it has a power metal vibe because the guy who makes the artwork for our albums mainly do jobs for Power Metal and Death Metal bands. I don’t think we will loose fans because people seem to love the covers. The covers has so many details too and we like to keep it very detailed.

What’s the story behind the band name? I read an explanation on Loudwire and I instantly thought of Manowar when reading it.

Laughs. Actually some members of the band are big fans of Manowar. And its kind of funny because our label, Frontiers records, asked if we wanted to write the origin of the band name just for them, they fell in love with the story and they send it to Loudwire who then published the story.
But it’s our bass player Jimmy’s idea. He read the autobiography of Andy McCoy (Hanoi rocks) and the phrase appear a couple of times and he was like “that’s an awesome band name”. A memorable name

What is your musical backgroud and inspiration?

Classic hard rock. Bands all the way from 60s to 90s. I grew up with Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Queen. But in the band we can all agree on D.A.D. as a band everyone likes, except for Hanoi Rocks of course laughs, and H.E.A.T….

I would come to H.E.A.T.. The first time around hearing the forthcoming album I think you sound like a heavier H.E.A.T.

We love H.E.A.T. since hearing them for the first time. Its a gift from the gods that Jona Tee from that band is our producer and did some keyboard and backing vocals on our first albums too.
We are influenced by them and our musical taste matches Jonas. Old school heavy rock bands. We have a good time with him, listening to music, discussing music and drinking beer. We can toss ideas back and forth with each other.

A few songs that I want to know more about is:

”You Better run” sounds like a H.E.A.T. song.
That might be one of the oldest songs we’ve done. I don’t think Niko our guitar-player was in the band when he wrote it. He introduced the track way before. A great song, maybe more AOR and happier song than the rest, but dramatic.

T.O.T.C.

It stands for ”Thrill Of The Chase”, you’re not the first who ask about it. Its a big thing for us when people keep asking what it means because people are eager to know what the songs are about.

Fans really want to know what the songs are about. I know bands might want to keep it to themselves and for the fans to figure something out. You can kind of get your own idea of what songs can be about.

I totally get it. Couldn’t say it better myself. There are certain songs that I like to keep as sort of a shroud or something. But with “T.O.T.C.” if you listen again and read the lyrics you probably know what’s going on. Not such a mystery.

”Heart of a warrior” is the 3rd track that got my attention.

That is actually a personal favourite. Nico, our guitarist had a demo with that name but no text or melody. He asked me to put some lyrics and melodies on it.
I had just watched a documentary about Roman Empires so that is how the track came to be. I got instant inspiration from watching those kind of documentaries. Everyone in the band like the song and the story behind it.
Its my version of how Julius Caesar was about to start the civil war, and was about to cross the Rubicon river. In one interview somebody said you know Caesar was a bad man? And I said ”yes he might have been a bad man but I just didn’t want to involve negative or racism. I just watched the documentary and got inspired.

If I Could” – I wrote a note on the track ”An 80s / 90s power ballad.

I might actually agree on that. Another favourite track of mine. A personal song for me, once again Niko was involved with the lyrics. We wrote it together. On the demo version its Arttu from Arion who plays the keyboard part. But on the final album its Jona you hear, he had completely different approach on the verses. If you listen to”Something To Die For” the verses on that was actually verses from ”If I Only Could”. We changed it a bit during the process

You have a tour planned for November with H.E.A.T.

Yes. I am a bit scared, I would love to tour but at this point I am sceptical. I am not at all sure it will happen. Still, we are eager to tour with H.E.A.T. and Reach is also on the bill. Finnish festivals are cancelled or postponed, major European festivals too so…

As a young band playing with Deep Purple and Uriah Heep how was that?

A dream come true. As a little boy me and a friend used to play “Bloodsucker”(from Deep Purples In Rock album) and open the window screaming out those high notes. And get to open for them in our home town of Oulou was amazing. We didn’t get to meet them though as we had to leave to play another gig the same evening 100km away. But it was an intense weekend. On Friday we played South Park Festival in Tampere with Slayer headlining and the day after we were playing the same day as Uriah Heep Deep Purple and Peer Gunt.

As a Producer you have Tobias Lindell. Known for his work with Europe among others.

He has done some work with Hardcore Superstars too and tons of Rap stars from Asia, I don’t know any names but they are big in Asia. The connection here is H.E.A.T.

A few years back you were voted Brightest Hope and Newcomer of the year in Japan. How did that feel?

That is one highlight in our career. We had just released our debut album in Japan and got to play a showcase gig on a festival. It was huge for us, we got to play there and readers of “Burn Magazine” voted us second brightest hope. We also did some TV and interviews that was our big rock star moment LAUGHS

Is anthemic melodic rock the right description for your music?

Yes, i would agree on that.

Hearing the album the first time I thought that you kind of snatched the best part of the 80s LA Scene.

We all share a common factor of listening to NWOBHM. That has an important role on how we mix together hair metal and NWOBHM, grunge and old school rock. We pick pieces from here and there and make it our own. Its easier when you have various scale of music you listen to. Easier to write songs than when you only have one genre that you listen to.