When catching up with Johannes, he was clearly very pleased that he finally got to play at Tuska with Avatar, the festival he’s been at the most in his life. It felt like it was the opening of a new chapter considering their fanbase in Finland and maybe doing some more shows there. And while for an established band like Avatar it seemed they were kind of low on the bill opening for the festival, they enjoyed it a lot, and they got a foot in the door now to build up to get to the more theatrical shows they usually do. And on top of that, he really likes the fact that now he gets to kick back and enjoy the festival for the rest of the day instead of having to get ready to play a show later in the day.

We also discuss that they could very well be a headlining band for Tuska in the future, knowing what kind of shows they are able to do. Which Johannes agrees with, and he believes that Tuska is one of those festivals that could probably do that for them and is also why he has so much respect for the festival organization, them often picking out bands as headliners that aren’t the usual choices. Like the returning headliners for Tuska 2023 (Gojira and Ghost) got to headline a big metal festival the first time at Tuska. Which brings us to talking about another festival that has a similar mentality as Tuska: Alcatraz, where Alcatraz actually got to headline some years ago.

And lastly, we talk a bit about how busy they’ve been traveling through the world bringing their theatrical shows to the UK, Europe, US,… and even later in the year the US again and how he’s been enjoying it and how they’ve gotten to a point with Avatar that they actually can bring the consistent great shows they want to, and just nail every single show. And he ends it with expressing how insanely proud he is about the fact that he personally feels like they have never been as good as they are right now, especially on stage. So we urge  you, go see them!

Links