Hello, thanks for this interview, I'm doing great, sunshine and holidays!

A Taste of Freedom is probably dead, due to the schedule of the other guitarist Neogeofanatic who is now the new guitarist of the French band ADX and Guitar Master classes.

I wanted to start a new band with more Power Metal influences and more freedom in composition. I was the main composer in A.T.O.F. (Rhythm guitars, some lead, bass drums and keys) but a little bit restricted to show my Power Metal influences. When I compose, I want that all the members can be proud of the music they play and that include these little sacrifices.

I was in contact with Pasi for a long time and when I started to looking for a new singer for A.T.O.F. I asked him but due to their new album with Freternia he cannot follow me With A.T.O.F. so he introduced me to his old friend Johannes Nyberg.

So Johannes was first the new singer of A.T.O.F. but Neo quickly realized that he would not have enough time to work for the new album. So I proposed to Johannes to follow me in a new Band/project more Power, exactly the music that Johannes and me are fans and Season of dreams is born!!

Johannes is a real power metal singer with powerful vocals and real great ideas for vocal lines. I have always been a fan of Zonata since their beginning and working with Johannes was such a dream. He is now my brother of metal and we work together as one. I wrote the songs for this first album (intro and outro are from Johannes) but things are changing a little bit for the second album actually in production, he is an amazing songwriter and keyboards player and of course singer haha!!!

It's true. The work on this album was a deliverance at different points. I think that for many composers, music is a metaphor of life. For me, my shelter is my music. I can express my fears, my hopes, my thoughts with freedom.

I can express it in the lyrics, and it's a good work on my inner self, but I can do the same with my music too. Emotions are the most important things in music for me. You can be angry; you can be in love or simply love life. Everyone can be at the composer's place and feel what he feels. If someone feels something by listening to my music, the match is won.

That was one of the first thing that I loved on the vocals of Johannes. There is no compromise, he lives each song and understands where I wanted to go. The emotions he led on the different songs are just perfect and he added what could had been missed without his vocals. In fact he managed to bring the songs in his own emotions, what I cannot necessarily express in my music.

Not necessarily, I'm a normal person in a real life, I'm a Father and I think that I have a role to protect my family. We all live, in a way, in a shelter where we have our habits and what's outside isn't light and darkness or black and white. The world can be a dangerous place but it can also be wonderful made of discoveries and sharing.

It is not really a big change, I was the main composer for A.T.O.F. , the main difference from Season Of Dreams is that I write lyrics too (But I was behind Rhythm guitars, bass, drums, main keys for A.T.O.F.), so one of the main pressures was to work with such a talented singer to write songs that would fit perfectly to his vocals capacities. For this first album we wanted to work as a small team, so John Nyberg joined us only for solos. But things are surely to be changed for the second album who is 70% done already. We will announce soon if things will be going in this way.

Yes you're exactly in the right!! I started listening to Metal music at the age of 10 with 3 albums that I discovered with my neighbor's sister, "keeper of the seven keys part 2" from Helloween, "Metal Heart" from Accept and "Kings of metal" from Manowar. As much as I can tell you, I put my two feet inside and since then never stopped listening to metal! I'm a big Power Metal fan but I also like Heavy, Thrash, Speed, some symphonic and more. Of course this album is pure freedom to show a big part of my influences.

I have always worked with one element: Emotions. When you create something it's first for you, of course, but always in search for the best song that gives chills and smile to every listener. On this album, I tried to give the best of what I know how to do while trying to get out of my comfort zone.

When we started Season of Dreams we were only two, but I knew that I w as not a true lead guitarist. I can play melodies but I'm not a solo shredder. So we started thinking about a lead guitarist and John came up as a good choice. I loved his solos in Zonata and Johannes asked him to join us for this album. John took his guitar after a long pause and after his first solo we knew that he was the lead for this album. He understood the direction of this album and made a great work as lead

"In the Rubble" means different things for me, it's the first song that Johannes recorded and made an amazing job on it. It is also the first song that I wrote for Season of Dreams and what better way to show what we can do and attract the attention of the listener than a lengthy song with different sections, great solos, profound vocals skills, different ambiances …

Sometimes, might be even often, I say everything I have to say between 4 or 5 minutes but some songs need more to be completed, and "In the Rubble" is just it. So in this case it's relatively easy to have many ideas to take the listener for a ride of emotions. It starts differently for each song, a guitar riff, a vocal melody for a chorus, some lyrics who stay in my head…

"In the Rubble" starts with the melody of the first chorus and the second chorus comes easily. After that I made the intro with a place for John's solo, and the rest was very easy. It's hard to explain how ideas comes in my head but it's more like a routine, I record a guitar riff, then a drum to fits it , then some keys or melodies and bass… When you know finally how to write a song you can go everywhere you want and the limit is only in your imagination.

Always refer to metaphor, life is a war and at the same time the song just after the intro is "In the Rubble" who talks about war. So it was a good title to start the album, and in the same idea after the war which brings the calm after the war that created chaos.

It's always nice to take one's self less seriously even if I don't consider myself as serious haha!! I always loved songs like that. "Dr. Stein" is a good example but Edguy made some of those too as many other bands that I a fan of. For this song I started with the idea of this old guy Mr. Blacky who is afraid of everything and everyone. These type of songs are easy to write and create a memorable song. There will surely be another one on the next album.

It's typically the kind of Heavy /Power that I like to hear when melodies of power hit the hardness of the Heavy Metal. The lyrics are made with the fear of monsters in the cellars that my wife had when she was a child and music in kind of old Helloween style, a good combination, I hope so

For now the band will remain a project, but we don't know of what tomorrow is done. With good opportunities maybe we could hit the stages… We have hope in the future to come.

Press and Internet are the main promotions at the moment but why not make live video if it could interest some people … Everything is possible. We will see in the future probably.

Thank you for the support!! Hope there will be other people enthusiastic as you  See you for the second volume of Season of Dreams