What a complicated year it has been for Lordi. The Finnish glam/hard-rock band has now announced that their longtime keyboardist Awa will leave the band. She will be seen on stage for the last time at Simerock in Rovaniemi, Finland on August 11, 2012, when Lordi will be celebrating the band's 10 year anniversary. Awa joined the band in 2005 and her first Lordi album was the record The Arockalypse. Awa has played altogether on three Lordi studio albums.

Awa's successor, a new keyboardist, has been selected already. The keyboardist will therefore be playing on the band's next studio album, which is planned for early 2013. Awa will not be heard or seen on the next album or on the next tour. The characters and character names of the new keyboardist and the drummer will be revealed together with new masks and outfits before the release of the band's next studio album.

Awa tells about her decision as follows: "Playing in the band has been an incredible experience and clearly one of the best times in my life. I have always been very fond of Lordi, its music and image, and will surely be following news about it closely. The band and the crew were and will always be a second family to me and I will be missing them and our fans greatly. However, seven years in the band has been physically and emotionally very demanding. You have to be in a band like this 100 %. If you are not able to do that anymore, you have to let go and give space for something new."

"I want to emphasize that I am not going to leave music or making music, because music is the most important thing to me in life. I am on a creative break now, but have several new ideas already. You will hear about them if and when the time is good. I also believe that I can still be seen behind the keyboards some day," she continues.

The leader of the band, Mr. Lordi states: "We have been discussing this behind the scenes for quite some time, but nobody knew that this year would be this kind of a year of changes for Lordi. Of course you always believe and wish your current line-up would be permanent and final, but these are not issues of faith. Situations change, things happen and plans are renewed. All the rest of us in the band wanted her to go on with us, but we also understand her decision and respect that. We know that this decision was not easy for her either. It took a long time to come to this conclusion."

"We agreed already earlier, that she will not participate our next album studio sessions. In this case she would have had to hang out with us for the next couple of years. Naturally it would have not been fair to her, to the band or to our fans," Mr. Lordi says.

Source:	lordi.fi
Band profile:	Lordi