Sunrise Avenue

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Sunrise Avenue

(from left to right: Raul Ruutu, Sami Osala, Jukka Backlund, Janne Kärkkäinen and Samu Haber)
Background information
Origin Helsinki, Finland
Genres Alternative rock, Soft rock, Pop rock
Years active 2002–present
Labels Bonnier Amigo Music Group, EMI
Website http://www.sunriseave.com
Members
Samu Haber
Raul Ruutu
Sami Osala
Riku Rajamaa
Former members
Janne Kärkkäinen
Teijo Jämsä
Jukka Backlund

Sunrise Avenue is a Finnish rock quintet. Their style varies from more dynamic rock (e.g. "Forever Yours") to more melodic ballads(e.g. "Heal Me"). Their most successful single was "Fairytale Gone Bad", which reached number one in several countries, and as a result, is one of the band's best-known songs.

Contents

[edit] The Band

[edit] History

Haber established a band called Sunrise, when he was 16 years old, together with Finnish singer and songwriter Jan Hohenthal. They performed in many different clubs, throughout Finland. Haber moved to Spain in 1998 for 4 years and as a result, Sunrise also performed at some Spanish private events. The band had several different drummers and other musicians performing with them at different gigs.

Sunrise recorded several songs during that time. One of the songs was "All Because Of You". This song can also be found on the debut album of Sunrise Avenue, On the Way to Wonderland.

In 2002 Haber moved back to Finland and together with Hohenthal and bass player Sami Heinänen, Sunrise evolved into Sunrise Avenue. Hohenthal soon left the band in March 2002 to focus on his solo career. After Sunrise Avenue lost their lead guitarist, Sami Heinänen introduced Janne Kärkkäinen to Haber.

Bass player Raul Ruutu joined the band soon after, and Sami Osala joined as the drummer in the fall of 2005. He was recruited by Killer Aspect's Teijo Jämsä, who plays the drums on several of Sunrise Avenue's début album's tracks. Haber had previously quit his day job in a sales office in 2003 and visited the record companies, producers and agents in Finland and in Sweden 102 times before they finally got a record deal. Producer Jukka Backlund got interested when he saw the band's live performance, and with him Sunrise Avenue decided to make a record, even before they had a deal. The first tracks Backlund and Sunrise Avenue did together also clinched the deal. Mikko Virtala, a copy machine salesman and a friend of Haber’s, sold his house to pay the costs of the recordings in studio.

In the summer of 2005 they were signed to Bonnier Amigo Music Group (responsible for the Finnish market), and later to EMI internationally.

Having released their first singles "All Because of You" and "Romeo" during the beginning of 2006, Sunrise Avenue published their "On the Way to Wonderland" album in Finland in May. Their third single, "Fairytale Gone Bad", was published on 23th August and reached 5th place in the Finnish music charts. This single also reached 7th place on Polish Singles Chart.

In Germany the album was released two weeks after "Fairytale Gone Bad" (25 August 2006). Around that time, the band played their first gigs in Germany - in Cologne's Underground Club on 23rh August and at The Dome (Germany's biggest musical TV-event) on 25th August.

On 20th October 2006, Sunrise Avenue received Platinum status with their debut album "On the Way to Wonderland" in Finland. The album became Gold in Sweden and Germany also. Moreover, on 19 January 2007, the band won four categories at NRJ Radio Awards (the biggest Nordic radio gala) for the best Finnish newcomer, the best Finnish song (Fairytale Gone Bad), the best Finnish album (On The Way To Wonderland) and the best Nordic artist.

On 20th January 2007, they sang "Fairytale Gone Bad" in St. Jakob Halle, Basel, Switzerland, in the build up to Nikolay Valuev entering the ring, where he defended his World Championship Boxing title against Jameel McCline.

On April 2007, the hit single "Fairytale Gone Bad" went Gold in Germany after selling more than 150,000 copies (as of 17th April, 181,826 copies have been sold in total). The single also reached Gold status in Sweden, selling more than 30,000 copies.

[edit] Biography

Sunrise Avenue On the way to Wonderland

"It's what the The Beatles did, and what Bon Jovi and Foo Fighters have done for years. It isn't about today's trends, its music that will work just as well today, tomorrow and in ten years time," Haber commented (about their style).

Their debut album, On the Way to Wonderland, is about Sunrise Avenue's road towards its dream, the moment when the band members have completed an album.

"This album is a very direct and personal portrayal of all the different stages of traveling towards your dream: you've got the highs, the moments of boasting, and also the times when everything is going to hell," Haber describes.

"When you go on stage, it's never about life or death. If there's even one person who's into it, that's great. If we're enjoying ourselves, even that's enough. And if a hundred people are standing with their hands in the air, then wow! But for us playing live is the thing, that's enough to make us happy," Haber says convincingly.

"Sure we've had the moments, when we didn't think anything could ever come out of this. But those feelings disappeared every time we got on stage, and saw the guy or the girl smile. When we saw that we became convinced again that there's something to our music after all."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

Year Title Album Peak Position
FIN SWI AUT GER SWE GRE ITA SVK BEL POL RUS ROM GRE
2006 "All Because Of You" On The Way to Wonderland 11
"Romeo" 4
"Fairytale Gone Bad" 2 2 3 3 10 8 23 1 12 1 1 8
2007 "Forever Yours" promo 82 42 35 10 19
"Diamonds" 14
"Heal Me" 16 58 28 28
2008 "Choose To Be Me" - 50 24
2009 "The Whole Story" Popgasm 14 82 36 26 17 77
"Not Again" -
"Birds And Bees" promo
"Welcome To My Life"

[edit] Albums

Year Title Peak Position
FIN SWI AUT GER SWE GRE
2006 On the Way to Wonderland 2 15 5 12 10 1
2009 Popgasm 5 7 13 16

[edit] DVDs

  • Live in Wonderland (2007)

[edit] External links

Interviews:

Rockpalast, Underground (Cologne), first gig in Germany (23/08/2006):

KAI3, local TV-station in Duesseldorf (24/10/2006 & 27/02/2007):

Song Previews (in MP3 Format):

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunrise_Avenue"