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Petri Lindroos: His Metal life via Android App

The front man of Ensiferum (and back then also Norther) makes it quite easy for his fans to find out what is really going on in a musician´s life. A brand new Android app, developed in cooperation with WeAppU, was just released – and it works as his public virtual diary. Title: “Petri Lindroos Diary – My Life is Metal”. Now you can download it for free (webadress below), and sure, we had to get hold of Petri to find out some more details about it...


Please introduce this app to us – which services are provided?
This is my very own official exclusive app – a kind of diary for my fans, where I post my thoughts from time to time, pictures from tours (on stage and backstage), private pictures and of course there is a fun pictures section too. The app also includes tourdates of Ensiferum and a funny quiz about me and my life. And believe me, everyone should try the quiz (laughs).

Naturally this question comes to mind – how did you come up with this idea and how long did it take to make this idea work?
The idea for such a project was born long ago but it was only a few weeks ago that it turned out to be an app. I´ve never been a friend of Facebook (that´s why I don´t even have an official Facebook Fansite) because I think the social network thought of Facebook is going a wrong direction – it´s all about annoing game invitations and lots of useless stuff, and that´s why my friends of WeAppU and I are currently working on a social community option for my app too. So all my fans can join this community and get in touch with me and each other. But that´s all I can tell at the moment. The creation of the app, after fixing the design and talking about the options, needed about two weeks.

Have you been educated as eg. engineer or programmer, or did you need the asisstance of expert partners to create this app / this homepage?
No, I don´t know how to program anything. I´m glad I can use my smartphone without any technically accidents (laughs) but WeAppU, the company I´m working with and I´ve mentioned before, configured everything so easily I can manage all by myself.


This photo contains the download QR-Code – when you scan it with your cellphone, you get to the download immediately

Now a question to these expert partners: How did you meet each other, how long does it take to program such an app, what do you need (education, skills) – and can you acquire those yourselves? Is another Do-it-yourself-app scene about to develop, just like the selfmade- journalists/food&fashion critics (blogs) or -movie/music video directors (Youtube)?
WeAppU: Petri´s wife, a good friend of us (and knowing about our skills with marketing, homepages and apps) talked to us about his idea and so everything got started. And after we´ve talked to Petri, the „Diary“ idea came to life. As Petri mentioned before, the creating process after agreeing to design and app options (and of course getting the questions for his quiz together) took about two weeks. But surely it depends on the app. If more complicated parts are needed, it might take some longer. Time, knowledge and technical understanding are needed to create something like that. Sure, if you search for it you can create your own app... but it´s not just only the creation of the app, it´s the idea and the service after programming it.

The app itself is just one part – our service is the other. When you create your own app by yourself in most cases you just have service if you pay a monthly service fee – or you just don´t have any service at all. Here you see the difference. We create the app, homepage, whatever...together with our customer. And... our products have fix prices, without any hidden costs or fees. Everything we create belongs to our customers, all rights are reserved to our customers. We don´t see our customers just as „customers“ - we appreciate them as our partners. And of course we want to collaborate with our partners as long as possible. But if a partner wants to leave our service it wouldn´t be any problem with us. As mentioned before, everything belongs to our partner/customer. Our goal is to achieve satisfied partners who collaborate with us because they WANT to work with us, not because they are forced to do so, because they have to pay for „frozen copyrights“.

How do you get this app? Does it work on any smartphone model?
Just take your Android smartphone, open Google Play Store and search for „Petri Lindroos Diary“ or „WeAppU“. You can download it for free.
At the moment the app is available only on Google Play Store, for all Android devices. Maybe there will be a version for iPhone in the future.


Now back to Petri – when I moved to Finland, everybody asked – WHY? For a metalhead like me it was easy to explain – but now you wandered offinto the very same area I left behind (and I´ll be a bit vague about it on purpose), a place being a total desert compared with the blooming Finnish Metal garden (meaning, no clubs, bars, performance opportunities, rehearsal rooms, media, or business networks, public acceptance etc) – so what do you like about your new home area?
I did it because I wanted to be away from the centre of all metal (laughs)...just kidding, my wife/my love is here and I like it here because it´s very peaceful, nobody knows me here so I can get a little rest and don´t forget about the cheap beer. I´ve made myself a home here in Carinthia where I can find peace and rest between tours, come down and be myself without any kind of stress. It´s perfect.

How about your German language skills, and how well can you handle the local dialect?
Still bad, I know how to order a beer (and of course I know how to thank for the beer), because as you know, we Finnish people consider alcohol as food (laughs). The understanding of Austrians depends on who is speaking, but actually good.

Comparing Finnish and Austrian mentality, what are the differences, what are (surprising?) connections?
Austrians aren´t that good with English, but basically the mentality is the same (sure, it depends from person to person).

And finally: What´s up with Ensiferum in the near future?
We´re going to play a couple of shows next year and hopefully we´ll go back to studio recording our new album, but let´s leave it to that...

More info and download option:
http://www.weappu.com/news/555-neue-android-app-the-private-diary-of-petri-lindroos.html



Author: Klaudia Weber, photos: Robert Lamprecht
Date: 2013-12-04

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