Interviews

Timo: Well I think there was an agreement about doing the last ten shows together. I heard some rumours that there was something with the day where we were supposed to play Dynamo Open Air. Maybe there could be nine basically left. But I wasn´t so pleased with what happened there in Spain because - I don´t know if you read about some things on the stage which should not be there... em, if you´re playing your music and then some of the guys don´t care so much about it. So, it´s not very nice for me because every time I go on stage I´ll try to give the fans a show as good as possible. And then there´s - let´s put it like this - there´s some idiots in the band who behave the way they want to behave and who are almost ruining the whole show. So that´s not nice. I´m not really very interested in doing these shows in the future. Let´s see what happens. Probably we will do them if the guys calm down. But I mean if they´re acting like stupid idiots it doesn´t make any sense.

So it is true, that Jens was literally pissing on stage in Piorno?

Well, I didn´t see that because I was singing the song, standing in front. So I didn´t see it. But I saw some pictures because we had some Finnish journalists there, one of them is also a very good friend of mine. And then later in the evening one of the journalists showed me some pictures and I couldn´t believe them, I said: "what the fuck?", he really did that ...

But Jens is still in the band, and you are not...

I´m not, but I don´t know about the others. Probably he is. Maybe Tolkki even liked this kind of piss-games, I don´t know.

I only get my daily news via Blabbermouth as well, which is mostly rumours, confirmed rumours and non-confirmed rumours...

Exactly

So I mostly don´t know what I can take for serious. How do you stand playing with the other guys right now after they behave like children?

Well, of course it helps that I don´t see them normally. Well, I´m getting along quite well with everybody else except Tolkki, but of course I never really supported what Jens was doing. That was something very stupid. He can be a really funny guy, but very often he is also doing something I that wouldn´t do. This kind of things they did there it has nothing to do with the music.
But of course it helps when we´re having separate backstage rooms and I don´t have to really see them that much. I mean, they´re very good players, I like their playing and et cetera, but I don´t like this kind of behaviour. And everything what some of the bands say in interviews... I haven´t really followed it that much, but of course I hear from my friends that somebody said something about someone again, so that´s not very nice.

In my opinion Timo Tolkki is making a complete fool of himself - or an elk, as we would say in German. First nobody could really understand what has happened and why. Now, after you all gave your statements to this I still can´t understand why there´s so much fuss made about it. But I mean after STRATOVARIUS is no longer maybe it is a good time for your new album?

Of course I´m kind of relieved that the future is wide open in that case. The truth is that I don´t expect anything big. If the people like the album it would be nice of course but if the fans don´t like the album and the songs, there´s not much what I can do about it. But at least I tried to make it a good album as possible. I will try to do some tour and some shows after these STRATOVARIUS shows. I have not many confirmed gigs yet but actually I´m in the same building right now giving interviews where my booking agency is as well. I´m gonna see the guys downstairs afterwards to talk about it. But... It´s kind of a fresh start for me, you know. When I did my first album "Waiting For The Dawn" it was just a dream coming true, I always wanted to do a concept album. And now I´ve done a concept album, and it´s done, I don´t have to re-do it again, so this is like basically I would say, the first "real" album for me and of course especially when I´m not in the band anymore. A new start for me.

It still seems refreshingly like a fun project to me. it seems to be done with lots of fun, lots of friends of yours who are engaged in their own bands as well. Is it someway different if you have a new band really which you rehearse with or something like that or if you do such a project? There´s so many members in it, for example, did Nino Laurenne (of THUNDERSTONE) help you as well this time or didn´t he?

He´s never been there.

But you there are some pictures from the recordings on your website!

Yeah, but he wasn´t on the album. Of course we did something in his studio, that´s true. And also we did something some transfering stuff at Sonic Pump studio this time, too. So he let me in with one of the guys to do some transfering shit. But - you ask too many questions in one question. When I started doing this project I was still in STRATOVARIUS. It all started let´s say at the beginning of the last year because I started composing the songs then. And then I wanted to have most of the guys of the previous album also on this album, that´s why I contacted Mirka Rantanen (THUNDERSTONE) and Janne Wirman (CHILDREN OF BODOM), because they are also very, very good friends of mine. At that time I thought that I won´t have a band anyway because I´ll be too busy because of STRATOVARIUS. The things did change literally in the end of last year so of course right now it is a slight problem when it comes to touring. I was supposed to do some touring in april/may but it is not possible because of Janne. He is in the States with CHILDREN OF BODOM. And then I guess THUNDERSTONE will have some shows, and then Bodum will have more shows, and so on. And Mike will be touring probably with Symphony X. Having a band for myself, that would mean that this album should sell very, very well that I could pay these guys enough to live from my album and from my band. Of course that would be a dream and I don´t think it will happen. It is probably not possible. I don´t even know who´s gonna be on those shows with me. I´m quite sure that I will get good players, but it´s still a little bit open. Of course I would like to have Mirka and Janne there at least, but let´s see.

Of course THUNDERSTONE and CHILDREN OF BODOM are going to be on tour, but afterwards I think for Janne and Mirka it would be easy, isn´t it a bigger problem to team up with the SYMPHONY X guy?

Yeah, you could be right. I talked to Mike Romeo in January about touring, and he said, "yeah, yeah, sounds good, sounds good." But then I tried to call him three times the next week and he never answered. He´s a little bit - let´s put it this way - an artist. The plan is to tour, but it depends on BODOM. But, I also talked to Janne that if I would get a nice tour somewhere and he´s not available then of course he won´t be there. I told him: "You won´t cancel any COB-gigs because of my band, you will do everything that is offered for COB and this is just your second option." H told me that he really liked to play in this band, but of course I told him that I don´t wanna be in that situation that somebody from your booking agency or someone of Bodom will call me like "What the fuck is going on?" Of course that´s not the way it should be. There is actually a priority, you know?! But I mean if Janne can´t do it and I have a good tour then I´ll have another keyboard player who will possibly do the tour with me. But my first option is of course these guys. But then again, my songs they are not so difficult to play. I mean even I can play these songs and I´m a terrible player. Of course I can´t play them so well but the thing is that the guys in the band who are playing on my album they are very, very talented and so very good players. If I would get somebody new to the band he should be on the same level, otherwise he will maybe feel not so good on the stage. Cause, except of me of course - they are so very good players.

Yeah, but you´re the good singer, that´s your job. Yeah well, I just try to make some noises. Thanks god I don´t have to play anything. Let´s see. Probably I know more about it next week but I would definitely like to do some touring. Maybe a small club tour in Europe, maybe two or three weeks . And I´ve been also in contact with some promoters in South America, so I might do a South American tour. Because I was supposed to tour there already two years ago but it got cancelled two weeks before. And somebody from Taiwan contacted my booking agency as well. But I mean these are just offers and I´ve been in this so called music business now for so many years that I never trust in these first offers. They will always change. It´s probably better not to say anything about touring to you when it hasn´t happened yet. (Of course, and we´re not in an interview situation, are we? - da ed.) But those are the plans.

But for sure you´re playing Wacken Open Air this year.

Yeah. That´s confirmed, and also one festival in Finland. Those are basically confirmed, and I´ll try to fill in some other weekends. But then, well there´s this COB South American Tour, COB United States tour coming up, so let´s see.

Has Janne said this to you seriously, that he would rather tour with you?

No, no, no, no, no, he didn´t say like this, don´t get me wrong. But he said that he really would like to play in my band. Like, if there´s a chance that they have something which is not confirmed than he is rather saying: "Don´t confirm that, I have something else." But they´re CHILDREN OF BODOM, and that´s his main job. And that´s the way it should be.

I think CHILDREN OF BODOM as big as you´ve been with STRATOVARIUS maybe five years ago.

Yeah, they are big, and I think they´re getting bigger, because they are young, and they are very talented and they still wanna work hard and do a lot of touring and they´re into what they´re doing. I think they will be bigger.

Didn´t you want to work hard and tour hard during the last years with STRATOVARIUS?

I did, but not everyone else. So that´s one of the reasons why we didn´t get along so well in the end.

Concerning friendship or something like that: Timo Tolkki helped you on this album still to record drums and bass. Hasn´t it been a little surprise how it works out? Jari is still playing with you, and Timo did help you record this shit?

I don´t have really problems with Jari, I mean, we are not "best friends", but we are still friends. Sometimes I might even call him. (He´s saying this with a grin, so don´t get him wrong this time - da ed.) Timo promised me already last spring that when I´m doing the next album he might do some sounds. So it was just bringing some microphones and that´s it. And that was already in September. That was like a deal done.

What´s up with you and Jörg? I just read Jörgs Website and this was a little bit cryptical. What is between you and him?

I don´t know about it. What´s written there?

Something like: Hope we are getting along some day again. (And here I did a mistake, because that´s the exakt word that´s written vice versa not on Jörg´s but on Timo´s own page... - da ed.)

Em, yes? Maybe I am not either, of course, but he is not the easiest guy to get along with. He´s got his personality and his special ways of doing things. And very often it´s just his way and not somebody else´s way. But I understand him and I respect him because he is probably the only sane person who was in the band. But, like I said, it´s not that easy.

Let´s keep the past the past. Let´s go to the present: Your last album was a concept album about Egypt. Now it´s "Coldness". Seems a bit like a Finnish concept album.

Exactly. Yeah, well. The first album was just fulfilling my long-time dream, cause when I was younger I was listening to a lot of metal albums, and especially some concept albums like "Operation Mindcrime" of Queensryche really hit me hard. At that time I thought, "Fuck, maybe one day I could do a concept album myself." We never did it with STRATOVARIUS, we had some themes on the albums but never really a story behind it. I wanted to do it once, and now I´ve done it, and that´s done, and I don´t have to redo it again. It´s funny because "Coldness" has a total different atmosphere. From the hot sand of Egypt we go to the modern fucking ice cold Finland. It´s a total different change in my life. And also I mean of course it´s everything related to the changes in my life in the couple of month, or six month time so...

You started recording in september last year, didn´t you write the songs in September and October as well - if I get it right from the BLOG on your website?

Yeah, but I didn´t write the lyrics then. I started writing one part of the lyrics probably in august, but than the other part was later, much later. And I actually wrote some of the lyrics for the last songs in the studio when I was singing and that was still almost in january. Cause it happens to me very often, well, and it happens to everybody I know: When they´re recording they´re still writing the lyrics. It´s quite easy to get the picture that it´s only about the STRATOVARIUS shit that was going on at that time. But it´s not about that only. There´s been some "personal things" as well. It´s just everything what I´ve felt during those month. So basically it´s about more than a six month time period.

There´s "Happy Metal" on your album, but there´s a kind of rock song as well. Did you listen to such influences a little bit more during the last time? What makes you write songs like this?

No I haven´t been listening to actually anything. My music is obviously a combination of different things. There´s a lot of things from the eighties, and some people even found some things from the seventies when they´ve heard the album. And of course there´s maybe even something from the nineties, and maybe even some newer stuff. I´m combining my roots, and of course there´s my voice there and I can´t change the fact that I´ve been in one band for ten years. Of course there´s influences from STRATOVARIUS, that´s something that I can´t help. I didn´t wanna do the same kind of songs anyway but I didn´t plan it like "this song will be heavier, this will be faster, or this will be like blablabla". I composed whatever I felt and then when I had the songs together I noticed that I had different kind of songs. I think it´s a good thing. But of course, I don´t know what kind of people might like this album, don´t ask me. Maybe nobody.

Oh, I don´t think that nobody would like it. So, good luck to you. Any wishes for the future?

I wish that I could do this kind of a little european tour somewhere. It would be cool. I wouldn´t mind to support some other band - if the guys in that band are nice (laughing). It would be very, very nice to do a little tour, maybe play two or three shows in Germany, and maybe some in Spain, Italy, France, maybe Belgium or Holland and then I will play some shows in Finland for sure. Of course I also hope that the fans will like the album. And: We´ll see on the possible tour!

Alright. So, see you at least Wacken.

Surrendering with a little laughter:
Ok.

(laetti) am 15.03.2004