STRATOVARIUS Guitarist: 'I Live My Life Completely Outside Society'

STRATOVARIUS guitarist Timo Tolkki has posted the following message on his personal MySpace page:

"I am getting lot of wishes for whatever particular feast is going on in whatever country. Let it be known that I don't celebrate birthdays, Christmas, any Finnish feast (juhannus etc) or any traditional feast at all. So please do not send me wishes like that. Most of the big feasts are just fed by the society and tradition and being followed by like a dog on a leash by the masses enslaved by the capitalistic machinery. Consume consume!!

"Tradition is a real enemy of freedom and creativity. I refuse to be a prisoner of that. I live my life completely outside society and I am only in minimum contact with any part of it. It's a beast that is in no control of itself no more, although its participants think it's under control.

"I dislike neurotic people who hide their true face behind the mask and cover it with meaningless chit chat. You can tell a lot about a person when you listen to how she/he laughs. Very seldomly you come to a contact with a person who is not scared. Everybody is so scared these days. And rightly so. But our basic nature, our basic core is not scared, it is at peace. Our organisms are just polluted by centuries of brainwashing from different kind of authoritatrian institutes and family systems that don't allow ourselves to think freely. For any kind of revolution to take place, it starts on an individual level. From yourself.

"I am sick and tired of watching the present system systematically destroying healthy life by distorting backwards everything that is healthy. For sure, the only way to save this planet would be a massive global revolution by people who care about the future. The present countries and governments will not do anything to prevent the catastrophe that is happening."

STRATOVARIUS recently entered Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland to begin recording its new album (whose title consists of two separate words that both start with "R"). An early 2008 release is expected.