Jouni Nikula

Member in bands

JOUNI NIKULA IS FORMER MEMBER IN

Biography

I was at the age of six when my cousin played me some classic heavy metal bands like Accept, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Manowar etc... I fell in love with that music immediately, never heard anything like that before! I started to collect all those metal bands and I recorded them from my cousins. My absolute favourite in that time was Accept`s "Breaker". When I was seven years old we were planning to start a real heavy metal band with my classmates in the first grade, but nothing really happened. I guess it was ?cause everyone wanted to be either the guitarist or the drummer..."

I never played any instrument seriously in those days, but of course I listened to all kinds of music, especially metal! I made also some "early demos" by singing on the tape my own songs.

I have a very strong athletic backround. I was at the age of 13 when I started to concentrate more on the long distance running. I started to practice harder and I managed to advance the Finnish national top level. Between the ages of 14-19 I won many championships in our local area and I was a member of the Finland`s national sport team of juniors. My best events were 800m. and 1500m. At the time my absolute favourite bands were Helloween and Gamma Ray.

I stopped my athletics career before I was 20. To be honest, in the end, I was sick of all that training and competiting all the time. It just felt like I was seen it all...

I bought my first electric guitar at the age of 18 and it was the really kick-ass-start for my musical career! I started to train very hard the guitar playing and I was really motivated. It was also a nice choice to do instead of going out jogging;)
In that period I became more and more interested of progressive rock/metal bands like Rush, Dream Theater and Fates Warning.

My first band was called Carpe Diem, founded in 97`. It was something like progressive metal with programmed drums. There were just me who played the guitar and vocals, and my friend who played the keyboards and programmed the drum tracks. We made a demo called "Silent Image" and it included 7 nice songs. It was released in the summer 98`.

My first REAL BAND was MysteriuM. I mean a real band, `cause then, for the first time we had the opportunity to play live also! Mysterium was founded in the autumn of 98?. That was also the start of a real hard practicing with our band. When we just had some time, we were almost living in our training place!
We played our first gig in the spring 99`, which was also the first gig for me!
We made two demos with Mysterium. The first, titled "Shelter in the Sky" was released in the summer 99`, and the second demo "The Eternal Expedition" was released in the winter of 2000. In that period we played also many gigs together with REQUIEM !!!! ...and what comes to Requiem, I must say that I was pretty surprised when I first saw them playing live. It was so energic with a great guitarplaying and a powerfull drumming, something that I will never forget...!

Mysterium broke up in the summer 2000. Then I was for the first time wondering that what would it be like to be just a lead vocalist, no guitar. So, I kept the door open for a new interesting band offers. Then, in the late summer 2000, my friend called me and said that Requiem was looking for a new lead vocalist to the band. I called immediately to Arto Raisala, and in the following weekend I had my first training sessions with Requiem. Things progressed very fast and soon I became the new Requiem member!

Joining Requiem was also the point in my career when I started to take the vocals more seriously. I`ve been taking lessons in classical singing since the autumn of 2000. I must say that I`ve been very lucky to have such a great teachers as Hannu Ilmolahti and Bill Ravall. They are both pure professionals and they have gave me a lots of motivation and new aspects to use my voice.

Favourite bands: Pain of Salvation, Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Rush, ARK, Conception, Helloween, Symphony X

Favourite singers: Ray Alder, Geoff Tate, James LaBrie, Chris Salinas, Marco Hietala, Mark Boals

Expression: "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are as dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted." -William Shakespeare

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