Hailing from Finland, Temple Balls is again making a name for themselves. Their fifth album, the self-titled record, has been out for almost a month, and the reception has been nothing short of glowing. Vocalist Arde Teronen usually stays off social media to avoid the inherent negativity, but this time, upon reading comments, he has seen overwhelmingly positive reviews. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since their debut album.

“10 years goes by pretty fast,” reflects Teronen. “It’s crazy when you think about it. It seems like yesterday we were recording our debut in Thailand. It’s one of those moments that are unforgettable. If you think about it, each album contains about 10 or 11 songs, so it’s like 55 songs in total. And those demos and bonus tracks we’ve released; that’s way more than five albums in ten years.”

It’s impressive to keep the passion while still changing and evolving and growing over the years, especially when putting out so much music. The group is constantly writing, putting something on paper, and recording really raw demos to set up their future quite nicely, and this record shows a true recipe for what it means to be content with what you’re doing. Also, with a great group of people: Teronen and Jimi Valikangas on bass, Jiri Paavonaho on guitar, Antti Hissa on drums, and Niko Vuorela, who sadly passed away last year, on guitar.

“It’s a really powerful situation,” expresses Teronen. “We actually talked about putting on some brakes for a while, figuring out what to do next. Obviously, we want to keep his memory alive, but we don’t want to rush it too much. It feels like if we would like to continue, we want to find somebody who would fit the bill perfectly, and we don’t want to put shame on his glory.”

After doing some small gigging and just having fun since 2009, the band introduced Teronen as the new vocalist in 2014, followed by their real break in 2017 with their debut album Traded Dreams. Since that mark, they have never stopped, releasing Untamed (2019), Pyromide (2021), and Avalanche (2023). They have travelled the world, and luckily enough, done it as a family with a nice career to boot.

“Our goal was to make music in English and also tour around the world,” shares Teronen. “That’s what we’ve been doing. It’s crazy. Pretty much all of our dreams have been fulfilled because we got a lot of fans abroad. We’ve got to tour Europe a couple times, we’ve been to Japan. That’s one of the awesome highlights of our career.”

While the immediate future is a little hazy, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Temple Balls has had a wonderful go of it. It’s so easy to be swept away in the nostalgia of what they’ve created, but to be able to look back, identify the ups and downs, and learn from moments, and then ultimately better yourself for the future, well, that’s the icing on the cake.

“I’ve learned not to party too much,” laughs Teronen. “We used to do that a lot when we were younger. You get a little more conscious of what you’re doing and your actions in general. I’ve learned a lot about writing music and touring and the music business. You could write a whole book about that.”