Apocalyptica wary of stage chaos

Apocalyptica’s Franky Perez says he has to take extra care on stage as he’s worried about wrecking the band’s cellos.

He joined the Finnish orchestral rock outfit for this year’s Shadowmaker as the band wanted to work with one vocalist rather than several guest singers.

And he says one of the first things he learned was to look where he was going in case he fell over one of the band’s three cellos.

He tells Metal Insider: “The cellos are a big thing. I have to basically avoid three expensive big instruments on stage every time I get out there which is funny.

“These guys are like, ‘Lesson number one: Watch out for the fucking cellos.’”

Eicca Toppinen previously said he felt Perez had been part of the group since day one. And the singer confirms that he feels right at home with the band who will play Download later this month.

He adds: “We just gel on a personal level we just hit it off and the music just followed.”

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.