Interviews

The Legacy Of Stratovarius
      

Interview By: David Priest
Photos By: Becky Hoyle © 2007 On Track Magazine.com

Finland’s Stratovarius are by far one of the most inspirational artists that I have ever found myself drawn to. With a history that spans twenty two years and eleven studio albums to they’re credit, they have paved the way for many of today’s most revered musical talents. Currently the guys are in the studio preparing the release of their twelfth full-length release. Trials and tribulations are nothing new to Stratovarius who have been to hell and back again in their musical, personal and spiritual endeavors, and the emotional outpouring contained within their songwriting continues to allow the listener to embark on new journeys that tantalize the heart and stretch the imagination. I’ve waited a long time to speak with guitarist and founding member Timo Tolkki about his unique outlook on life, his creative forces and how he battles his personal demons. After meeting him for the first time and putting the bug in his ear about setting some time aside he told me that he doesn’t do many interviews these days but had a feeling about me. I was, needless to say, extremely flattered. It took an entire year before we would finally have an opportunity to sit down and chat and I must admit I was somewhat surprised at some of his insights and philosophical points of view, and at the same time very intrigued with what he had to say. In what I can only describe as one of the most intimate, heartfelt and deeply revealing interviews that I have done, Timo drove home the reality of the Stratovarius legacy and reaffirmed to me why I am a fan of, not just the band, but Timo Tolkki himself. So, without further adieu….,

OT: (Mellow classical music is playing in the room as we ready for our interview) Y’know it’s interesting how so many people would get the idea that because of the music that you play, this would be the furthest thing from your daily listening habits.

Timo: Yeah I guess some people would think that. But to me, I do listen to rock and metal, but mostly it’s very peaceful stuff.

OT: I always tell people that artists who only listen to the kind of music that they play usually don’t have much originality or freedom in their artistic expression; they’re real limited and they end up sounding almost exactly like what they’re listening to.

Timo: That’s the thing what everybody’s looking for – originality; trying to find it is not easy.

OT: That’s a difficult thing to do, yeah, but I think there’s more likely a chance to find originality with having more influences; the broader musical spectrum that you listen to and appreciate the better will help your own creativity.

Timo: Yeah sure. It starts with songwriting, listening to some stuff you like and then you start poking around at other stuff and develop a new style, hopefully. Which many bands just copy when it comes to band writing and, of course, there’s a million bands who sound like each other and there’s not much originality at all – which is ok to me, because there’s room for everybody.

OT: As long as it’s good music.

Timo: Good music is extremely dangerous though.

OT: You think so? (Laughing)

Timo: Yes I think so.

OT: Why would you say that?

Timo: Because it cannot be defined; what is good. Because everybody has their preferences and who am I to say what is good, for example. If some guy likes some kind of music that I don’t like, that doesn’t mean that the band’s bad. To define something - what is good - I don’t think we even need to do that. Because we can have all of it and everybody can listen to what they want.

OT: I appreciate a lot of different kinds of music but I kind of apply my own philosophy when judging it. Like movies: you have the “B” movies and there’s poor acting and poor production, it’s the same in music. I mean, granted, there are different styles of music and all, but some things are just lacking. Like you can tell there wasn’t a lot of thought put into it and that there’s definitely talent there but sometimes artists just need to do better but they don’t really put forth the effort; I kind of use that premise to judge music on.

Timo: I know, but for me these words, in relation to music, are just something I never use: good, bad, judge, criticize. But I understand what you mean.

OT: See you don’t have the job of getting fifty to a hundred CD’s a month to review.

Timo: Maybe twenty. (Laughing)

OT: But you don’t have to write about ‘em do you?

Timo: No I don’t have to write about ‘em.

OT: And say why people should or shouldn’t go out and buy the CD?

Timo: I hope you like it.

OT: The ones I review…, I always review stuff that I like. If it’s something that I can’t find any interest in at all, then I’ll just pass it up. Because there’s just so much, there’s no way that I could ever review all of it.

Timo: Yeah, of course not.

OT: So I stick to what I know and what I think people will come to our magazine and read about and say, ‘Oh yeah, ok, I’ll have to check that out.’

Timo: It’s hard to be a critic.

OT: (Laughing) It is.

Timo: For me, I don’t like the word ‘critic’ because that comes from Latin and it means, actually, ‘to find fault with’ i.e., critique.

OT: Really? I didn’t know that.

Timo: Yeah. So it’s like, ‘I find what’s wrong with this.’

OT: I like the opposite of that: let’s find what’s right with it.

Timo: Critique, I mean you know many music critics are close-minded. If you’re not objective at all, if you just voice your own taste you are not representing the artist accurately. To me a good musical critic is a kind of person who is objective; even if he or she doesn’t like the music, he or she can write an article or a review that other people can really tell what kind of band it is, not just that it sucks.

OT: Right, well that’s the whole thing, I have always had problems with people who will say that they don’t like something but they can’t explain why they don’t like it.

Timo: Exactly, exactly. That’s very unfair to do something like that.

OT: I mean I’ll tell someone, “You know what? I would never go buy this album, but I respect them a lot because they’ve done this, they’ve done that. I can name a whole bunch of different things. Recently I’ve been talking to different friends about Green Day. Not a fan of Green Day, but I respect them for everything that they’ve done with their music. There’s talent there, I mean they have good harmonies.

Timo: Very good album titles.

OT: Yeah. And I love their humor, they’ve got great humor. (Laughing)

Timo: What is this one album title……

OT: Ummmm, Dookie?

Timo: No the recent one.

OT: American Idiot?

Timo: Yes! (Laughter) That’s pretty good.

OT: That says a lot right there!

Timo: Yeah, I think so. (Everyone’s cracking up!)

OT: Well let me kind of start by saying that your music has definitely been inspiring to me. I mean it’s really moved me in a lot of ways and definitely moved her [Becky Hoyle, Staff Photographer.] in a lot of ways. There’s two artists in the world that will make her cry at shows and you guys definitely did that the last time you were out here. I mean obviously you are just breaking ground over here in the States so we’re kind of late bloomers to the whole Stratovarius legacy. We came in on the Elements Part II album, actually, but since have added many new CDs to our collection and really enjoying everything you’ve put out so far.

Timo: Cool. It’s a long story. (Laughter) Twenty-two years.

OT: I know, it’s amazing to me. Honestly, I grew up with all of the 80’s music and I was pretty depressed through the 90’s. There wasn’t a lot of stuff that I was really enjoying, and I was just looking in the wrong area: I was looking here in America and there just wasn’t anything here. And it wasn’t ‘til… I was actually talking to Ronnie James Dio and he mentioned this band called Blind Guardian and that they did this Tolkien-like thing, so I went and checked them out, and of course they were on Century Media and there was just this whole list of hundreds of things and so I started looking to all the European stuff and was just amazed at what I found and it’s been never-ending since then. I don’t think I’ll ever get everything that I want.

Timo: Yeah, it’s cool you opened the doors.

OT: Yeah, definitely… So my first question for you, is: how are you feeling these days?

Timo: Pretty okay. I mean I went through some really black depression after the last tour again, ‘cause I get this.

OT: Really?

Timo: Yeah, yeah. It can be, like, six or seven months; really, really black, where I don’t even go out. Maybe I went four times, it was from February into the summer and at that time I was supposed to write the new songs. It’s, for me, very much like this. I do take medication for that though and I’ve done therapy for seven years. I have a lot of baggage but I’ve gotten rid of most of it, there is still more though. I guess I’m one of the tormented artists. (Laughter) I’ve just accepted that.

OT: You know what? People are people and sometimes the public forgets that just because you’re a musician doesn’t mean you’ve left all your problems behind or that you’re exempt from that.

Timo: Oh yeah. We are very much humans.

OT: Well I’m glad to know that you’re doing ok now.

Timo: I am doing ok, and I enjoy this tour very much, actually. The songs are very up-tempo.

OT: Very good, excited about that. I know a lot of artists are really fueled in their writing when they’re at low points; you’re talking about being at a point so low that you weren’t able to write anything.

Timo: Yes, just surviving.

OT: But generally, do you write a lot of stuff out of your anguish, out of where you come from or do you try to focus more on the positive side of things, or maybe a blend?

Timo: I don’t try to do pretty much anything, actually, when I write; I let it flow. It’s very much a natural thing. I know when the time is right, and when I start writing the songs they just come, I have a space where I go... For this record I rented a space where I went every day. I walked three kilometers listening to classical music, and usually I always got a song, in two hours; they just come. And if they don’t come, then I know that the time isn’t right; I don’t push it.

OT: That’s definitely the mark of a good writer, being able to write something that’s not forced.

Timo: Yeah, of course, as far as the craftsmanship goes, I can write a song, of course, no problem.

OT: But you’re in a position now, after so many years, to where the record label’s not goin’, ‘Come on, we need another album. Let’s put it out.’

Timo: Yeah, they are doing that… but… I don’t really like to be pushed. I always have this thing - I guess it comes from childhood - if somebody tells me that I have to do something, I can’t do it.

OT: Isn’t that human nature though? That’s just the rebellious streak that all of us have sometimes.

Timo: Yeah maybe it is, I don’t know, could be. For me it’s very extreme. I’m aware of that and, of course, sometimes I have to do this, y’know.

OT: I know that prior to the release of the last album there was a huge explosion that happened….

Timo: No kidding. It was a real field day.

OT: Obviously there were some struggles within the band and the band was breaking up and then there was mention of a female vocalist coming in for awhile there and the fans were even torn in half on that - some were in support of it, some were highly offended by it. Do you remember much of what happened during that time? I mean this all led to your breakdown.

Timo: Well one of them. That was typical manic-phase where you start doing very weird things. We had a very difficult record deal with Sanctuary and all this stuff happened. You see, many people actually think that it was some kind of publicity stunt.

OT: Oh really?

Timo: But that almost ruined us, the fact that stuff like that happened. The fans were completely divided, they were really angry of course, I could tell. We had a female in the band, and ‘F*ck.’ Imagine if Maiden…. and Dickinson was out and they got a female replacement you know? So that’s when I realized when I was over with that, that I needed medication for that. So now I actually take Lithium, which is medicine for bi-polar disorder which keeps it in check. But there’s a down-side too because it does take away the edge of it, it takes away the edge from the ‘manic’. Because ‘manic phase‘ is extremely creative, full of energy and ideas and stuff; many records I wrote I was pretty manic. But for this record it was easy to write. I sense that it takes away some of the edge, I don’t like that, but I have no choice.

OT: Well your health’s gotta come first.

Timo: I have this thing, it is like a cancer - bi-polar disorder is an un-curable disease and many artists have this; Hemingway had this, Beethoven, Curt Cobain, the list is endless.

OT: I was gonna ask: what was it that eventually saved you? Obviously you mentioned the medication but I know you went through some spiritual things as well.

Timo: Oh that started already in ’98 with the Destiny record; I went through some kind of spiritual awakening. I started reading a lot of books; I have, like, over 700 books which I bought in the last ten years. They’re all about psychology and behavior and philosophy and stuff.

OT: You got into Kabala for awhile?

Timo: I read about it, which was one of those manic things I did.

OT: Have you reached any kind of enlightenment at all?

Timo: Enlightenment I think I have reached, yes. But I don’t subscribe to any particular ideology or religion; I think it’s a way to control people in different ways. I mean if it helps someone ok, it’s great, but I don’t subscribe to any of those things, I just don’t like when somebody comes to me and tries to sell me a religion, I mean that insults me.

OT: That’s something you have to find for yourself.

Timo: Yes it is. And to me, I don’t need any fixed ideas about God. I asked some questions couple of years ago; I got the answers, y’know.

OT: That’s cool. Now upon getting past this time and releasing the self-titled Stratovarius album, when I heard it, in a lot of ways it came across kind of dark with a little bit of despair in there.

Timo: Mmmmm, so… (Laughter)

OT: Do you think that’s a reflection of where you were at were; where you were coming out of at that time?

Timo: That record was just put together from bits and pieces; I really don’t like that record. It wasn’t how it’s meant to be done with us. The process wasn’t the usual way how we do things because actually, when we were in the studio, that was when I had the breakdown. Jorg, the drummer had to do his parts alone because the bass player didn’t want to come to the studio. That was a weird time; I was lying in the hospital with the drummer playing songs alone in the studio.

OT: Yeah I know that whole time just kind of confused fans.

Timo: We’ve come to hell and back together. Somebody like Kotipelto, he’s extremely sensitive about things and I put him through a lot. We both learned a lot actually, through the process, and we have a very good relationship now. Actually the whole band is doing excellent; it’s a really, really great feeling.

OT: That’s really good to know. And I hear the new album, it’s gonna be more of a traditional Stratovarius type sound?

Timo: Yeah, I wanted to write more old sound songs, not so dark. But it’s still…, it’s not completely like Visions, I mean you can’t really write the same record twice; well you can, but I can’t. (Laughter) I would say that I just wanted to write good melodic heavy rock songs. I call it heavy rock because heavy metal is to say we’re like Manowar or something. Heavy metal, I don’t think we’re heavy metal. And then there’s this power metal, I don’t know what that is either; people have these categories.

OT: It’s so hard to avoid that and to describe it to somebody.

Timo: I know, I know.

OT: The easiest way is to say, you listen to it and describe it yourself, don’t ask me.

Timo: I understand the kids, they wanta know and they have their preferences and make all the stuff, but I was listening to Maiden when I was sixteen and I don’t remember trying to think what is this, what kind of music it is? I just liked it so much. Or Rainbow, when I listened to Rainbow I didn’t think, ‘Is this rock?’ or whatever it is, there were so many good songs, I liked it.

OT: How would you describe your sound, because when I was down in the lobby trying to find someone that might be with the band, I talked to a guy about it and he asked, “Stratovarius, is that a band? What kind of music do they play?” And I’m like….. (laughter) I just stood there with all these thoughts running through my mind…….

Timo: If you can’t say what it is, then I’m very happy.

OT: I couldn’t really…. it’s like neo-classical rock fusion, like heavier but yet melodic.

Timo: It has many aspects, because we do have a lot of different things; it’s not just power metal. Like I said, too much categorizing is something I would gladly leave to other people.

OT: (Laughing) Well, right on. Now there was a song that was going to be put on the last album about Hitler.

Timo: That’s this song; (pointing to my Gotterdammerung shirt). I wrote a song called Hitler because I am extremely interested in him. So I have been studying him and his character and I just wanted to write a song about him and naturally I wanted to call it Hitler, and then hell broke loose when I let the record company know; they’re a German label in Berlin.

OT: (Laughing) Oh no…

Timo: I told them, one of the songs is called “Hitler” and they freaked out, and it resulted in some very bizarre events. I had to send the lyrics to some very strange German internal ministry that was checking them to make sure that there are no Nazi references and the record company was giving me heavy pressure and saying that I just can’t name a song “Hitler”. And when there is somebody telling me I can’t do this…. “I am an artist and I did something and I want to do this, you can’t tell me I can’t do this, what is your reason?” And they said that it would promote Nazi image. And I told them, of course they are in Berlin and we are dealing here with the collective guilt of Germans from the Second World War and I have managed somehow, once again, to cause this…, whatever it is that it was, I don’t even know. Then there was Jorg, our drummer, he’s German, I was mixing that song and somehow it leaked to the press that we have a song called “Hitler”. And in Finland it was like huge tabloids, “Record Company Bans Stratovarius Song Called “Hitler”. And then we are there in the tabloids - a Stratovarius picture next to a Hitler picture. (Laughter)

OT: (Laughing) Oh no!

Timo: Then the Berlin office heard what’s happening in Finland and then Jorg calls me and screams at me that he leaves the band. I was just mixing that song in the studio and he calls and he shouts at me for, like, fifty minutes and the funniest thing is that he sounded exactly like Hitler. I just let him vent and put the phone somewhere, and then I explained to him, ‘I don’t know, I want to do something. The song is anti-Hitler, very much.’ There was also part of a speech by Hitler in the beginning of the song, and that was another thing they said I can’t do. And to me that’s like stifling my art, I mean I did a song and somebody is telling me that I can’t do it; I hate that. But then I started to think that maybe I should, at this time, back off because it is a touchy subject. I was really pissed off, and the next title I actually said, well I’m gonna call it “Why”, the song. And then I came up with this “Zenith Of Power”, Gotterdammerung. It’s a German word which means, actually, “Twilight of the Gods”. And there is his speech at the end, it’s very low but you can hear it at the very end, it’s like thirty seconds. And there is on the net, on uTube, there is some fan who made a video of that and there is the speech in the beginning and it’s like World War II stuff and it’s a great video. It’s really very good, really well made and it’s exactly the point I wanted to make with this song, because to me the Nazi’s and Hitler actually represent the ultimate evil of all mankind. Just one guy managed to almost destroy a whole culture: just one guy. And this must be studied. Why? So it will not happen again.

OT: You mentioned in a previous interview that you were wondering how an innocent child could become a Hitler-like figure.

Timo: It’s easy to explain, actually. He was being hit daily by his father, extremely. So he became this extremely angry, extremely narcissistic individual, who was undoubtedly also a genius in many things. But to use the power in this way, which resulted in things we know, should be studied. I think there’s something fundamentally wrong in the human character if this kind of thing can happen. I mean, why the f*ck it happened? It shouldn’t happen, it shouldn’t happen.

OT: No, no it shouldn’t. And, yeah, I agree that it should be studied as well. I mean, God forbid that anything like that would ever happen again.

Timo: But these insane mechanisms are operating in the world at the moment. It’s not about Hitler, it’s about humanity. Hitler was one guy but he had many followers, so you can’t help something like this along, something in the human character; we have to find out what it is.

OT: I think now, more than ever, there’s the possibility of something like that happening again just because of all the terrorism and the things going on in the world; it’s just not a good time.

Timo: I would say the whole terrorism thing is just, I think that it’s not so, it’s actually not as bad as it’s made to look like. I don’t think so, but….

OT: You don’t think it’s as bad as what people make it out to be?

Timo: No. I think many people are using this for their own purposes. In the next fifty or seventy years we’re going to run out of oil and it’s gonna to be very big changes in nature, temperature-wise, we don’t know what’s gonna happen. I mean in the next hundred years we really don’t know what’s gonna happen. It’s time to pay the consequences of our actions. In the last hundred years with the industrial revolution, we managed to do a lot of bad things and we think that we can control nature, but we can’t. We’re gonna get a big celestial kick in the butt. To me, I don’t think it can be stopped anymore, unfortunately.

OT: Yeah the ball’s kinda already rolling; it’s just a matter of how we’re going to contend with the results.

Timo: Yeah it’s gonna be harder, it’s gonna be much harder I think.

OT: I have one more question concerning the last album. To me it seemed like a comeback statement, “this is Stratovarius”. Were you trying to make a statement by just having a self-titled album?

Timo: Sort of. I couldn’t think of any better name, it sort of felt right. It wasn’t like…, it’s not a record that I’m proud of and it’s not a record that has the best songs in it. We don’t play any songs from that record anymore.

OT: Oh really?

Timo: Yeah. (Laughing)

OT: Wow. Ok.

Timo: That says something. But for some people it’s their first Stratovarius record that they hear and I don’t think that really gives an appropriate image, how the band really is.

OT: I really liked “The Land Of Ice And Snow”.

Timo: Yeah of course, that’s a nice song. “Back To Madness” I wouldn’t like because it’s extremely weird and opera and…… I like very much to find some new lyrics to express myself. Find something that doesn’t have form. I’m very, very, very bored of any form, any kind of ‘form’. I’m looking for ways to express myself without a form or any preconceived ideas.

OT: That probably answers my next question which was, have you given any thought to doing another classical album?

Timo: Yes. I don’t know if it’s gonna be classical, but definitely I want to do something with a female singer, like the opera, little bit opera singer; something even much more sensitive than Stratovarius even with our drums, something etheric - atmospheric stuff. I have this need to do something different. I’ve actually auditioned some American and Canadian singers in Atlanta and Quebec. I found one really good one.

OT: Cool. What about the vocalist that you were gonna work with in Stratovarius?

Timo: Miss K. I have some songs for her but at the moment she’s singing in a band which is in Finnish. I’m not really so much interested in that kind of stuff, I want to do stuff in English. She was just in the band for a couple of weeks. It was just one of those things; I mean ‘manic’ you can do pretty much anything.

OT: I just wondered about her because she just kind of disappeared after the whole thing and I didn’t know if you’d had any contact with her.

Timo: Yeah I do have, actually. I haven’t been having any time really, with the record for her and stuff. I wouldn’t mind really because she’s a good singer.

OT: Right on. Now I’ve wondered about your tattoo, what’s the meaning?

Timo: Everybody’s asking.

OT: Yeah are they?

Timo: This is sandscript and it’s like Tipperton, the Tipperton Monks chant this in the mornings. It brings me good luck, it’s a good luck charm, that’s what it is, and I like it very much; it’s a most painful thing.

OT: So everything that you’ve sought out, philosophically, what’s the most important thing that you think you’ve learned?

Timo: I can’t say just one thing that I learned…. thankfulness, humbleness, just being really humble, because life brings you to your knees if you think you are too big; ultimately. So I’ve learned to actually be thankful for all of it. I appreciate each moment; I’ve learned to live in the present, which is actually extremely difficult. I live in here and now, in this moment, there is no past there is no future, there’s only the here and now. That is one of the biggest gifts I’m trying to achieve.

OT: I’m sure. Takes away a lot of the stress factor.

Timo: Yes it does. Of course you have to plan out some things but, for me, when I look at this crazy world outside, I feel so separated from that, some kind of belonging; I don’t belong there. I don’t want to be part of this; I don’t want to go to that madness any more. So I am an extremely alienated person, I have very few friends; I live in a very different place. But I am a musician and I go on tour and I play to people; I serve them. I go there, we go there, and we play to them and if they have worries they come to our show. We serve them, we really, really play for them and try to make a name of the event and when they go home they have something good to remember.

OT: Absolutely. We feel good when we get home, we do.

Timo: That’s cool. And the energy we have now, that is extremely possible. Like the shows in Canada, this has never happened before. This is something new because I believe that you actually affect a lot, to the energy in the club, on stage. I mean it goes back and forth; it was amazing, just unbelievable.

OT: I’ve managed a couple bands in the past and that’s one of the things I’ve always told them, the more energy you put forth the more you’re gonna get back; it’s a give and take situation. If you go out there and you don’t give anything, then you’re not gonna get anything back.

Timo: Exactly. It’s completely like that. And also I feel extremely thankful for the fans and that they are still there after all these years. They’ve been with us for all the records and that is a good thing. Although I’ve been having all these problems and troubles, there’s another side to it too, and I feel like I’m real lucky; and that makes me happy.

OT: That’s cool, man. Now what about doing a live DVD?

Timo: Yeah, we’ve tried many times. The last one was Brazilian, Sao Paolo just last year and I was listening to the tapes. Because I don’t want to go and repair the stuff, many bands do as they play the guitars and vocals. I don’t want to do this so I said to the guys, “We can’t release this like this.” It’s eight songs but it doesn’t sound good. I mean it’s a huge financial disaster, if you never release that. But to me it’s more important to have a really good sound and performance.

OT: You have to have an accurate representation.

Timo: Yes, yes. And I think that we’re going to do something in a few years because we have many gigs actually recorded, we have a great sound from three or four gigs, so we can maybe combine stuff and make sort of a package with history of the band, and interviews of old members, how it started and stuff like this.

OT: Yeah that would be interesting. Definitely something the fans would like.

Timo: Yeah. But a whole concert, maybe it never happens. (Laughter) We need something to happen.

OT: So when we saw you the last time you said that you had a lot to say, and you’ve said quite a bit today. Is there anything else on your mind, in your heart that you want to share?

Timo: There are a lot of things.

OT: Probably more than what my tape will hold.

Timo: Yeah. I think I would like rather to say them in forthcoming songs because that’s really where…. I mean it’s very naked, it’s all there.

OT: Well great, we’ll look forward to that then.

Timo: Yeah, cool.

OT: Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

Timo: You’re welcome, you’re welcome.