The Curtains Are Falling: Stratovarius
Begins Intermission
Interview with
vocalist, Timo Kotipelto
Interviewed by EvilG
I
know I've said this before, but every now and then when I'm interviewing
someone I am a huge fan of I have to pinch myself and say "Wow, I
am really talking one on one to this guy!" Such was the case with
Timo Kotipelto.
Over the past three years I have really grown to love
this Finnish melodic metal band. From their music to their lyrics, this
band has struck some kind of nerve in me and they have the power to
affect me unlike many other bands. Therefore, being given the
opportunity by Nuclear
Blast to talk to someone from Stratovarius was, to say the least,
quite exciting. The interview began 6am EST time for me - yes I was
willing to get out of bed at just about any time for a chance to talk to
this guy. I got to talk to Timo about his early days prior to
Stratovarius, the story of how he got into the band, his solo album
plans, the Finnish music scene and much, much more. I hope you
guys like reading the interview as much as I enjoyed doing it!!
Listen
to the interview in MP3 format
(40mins long, 9meg download)
I’d
like to start by talking about your new album INTERMISSION. Can
you tell me what the reasoning is behind putting out this compilation of
different types of live things, new songs, cover songs, that kind of
thing?
Well, probably the first idea to release something came from our
record label because we just, one and a half years ago, we signed a
contract with Nuclear Blast and almost immediately after releasing
Infinite, our first album for the label, we told them, “Ok, now we can
have a break!” and they weren’t extremely happy about it. They were
wondering if the fans would forget the band because we were planning to
have a break for three years. They asked if it would be possible to
release, you know, some kind of gift for the fans to show the people
that we are not splitting up, instead, we are just having a break. We
agreed that let’s do it if it is something really special. We had some
demands like it had to be very good packaging, there has to be very good
music in it, and also the price has to be close to mid-price. I believe
that worked in Finland, I don’t know what the price will be in Canada,
but the price here in Finland is much cheaper than you'd pay normally at
the store. Also, a very important thing was during the touring and
promoting for the Infinite album we talked to a lot of fans and also we
got a lot of e-mail from the fans and they were like, well they were
horrified, “Oh, you guys are gonna split up!”, “Three years? That’s
too long!” and stuff like that. So, we tried to figure out how to calm
these people down and we also agreed that this is a good thing to do,
this kind of Intermission album. I think the name says it all, you know,
a short break.
Were there any other songs that you left off of Intermission
such as other B-Sides or unreleased tracks that didn’t make the cut?
I think not. I think that’s about it, I mean, the first two songs
are completely new. Timo composed them last September or something so we
recorded the basic tracks last November and I also sang those songs at
the end of November in Finland. Then, actually, the third song “Curtains
Are Falling”, that was supposed to be on Infinite, but we were running
out of time in the studio so I couldn’t do the whole collection and
actually had the lyrics for the song. So, you could call it a leftover,
but then again, it had never been recorded before.
About the cover art, Derek Riggs, a well known artist, did the
artwork for the album cover. I was wondering, was he given free reign on
the design or did you give him ideas for what you wanted to see. I guess
the reason I ask is because I notice things in the album covers from
your past album covers (TK: That’s right..), such as you have the
Infinity symbol with the dolphins, you have the Stonehenge-looking
structure from Episode, and so on and so on, right?
Wow, man, you’ve learned your lesson! (laughs) That’s right.
There’s some clips from our past and, probably, this album ends one
chapter of Stratovarius in a way, there now will be the second part of
Stratovarius. Like hopefully, there will be eight more albums to come.
But, actually, I didn’t have much to do with the actual cover artwork.
I think it was up to Jorg Michael and Derek Riggs to decide how it
actually looks. But, I was satisfied, I mean, I was surprised too see
the cover art but I think it looks brilliant. And I agree on the fact
that Derek Riggs is the man, you know, he is a brilliant painter.
You already mentioned that the new songs that were on this, the
only one of the new songs that was previously recorded or worked on, I
guess, was “Curtains Are Falling”. The other two are the first two
and I guess “Requiem” is also a new one that was recorded just for
this Intermission package.
Yeah, the first two were, yeah.
Ok. Another thing I wanted to ask about Intermission was that I
noticed on your website there is a limited edition of this available
that you can order just from stratovarius.com.
Can you tell me what is different about this version compared to the one
you buy in the store?
Yeah, well, there’s a couple of differences like first of all, the
packaging is totally different. If you buy a normal Intermission version
from the store it’s like, it has the little tint on it. It’s a dark-blueish
color even though it's plastic. But, in this special edition, it’s
like we call it a jewel case, double the size of a normal CD, and it is
more like a book in a way when you open it. Then, there’s another
extra mini-cd and then there’s two demo songs with very funny and
stupid lyrics (laughs) on the songs. Also, it is a limited to 2000
copies worldwide and this is one of the things that we wanted to have
the possibility to release this ONLY through our webpage and it was nice
to know our record label agreed on that one. It is also kind of a reward
for the people who are checking out our home page every now and then
because, at least, even here in Finland, it is much more expensive for
us to make this special case then but when we are selling it out it is
even cheaper then a normal version at the store so we are not making any
money out of this special edition but it is only meant for our hardcore
fans who are checking out our home page every now and then. That’s
like the special gift for those people.
So you haven’t sold all 2000 yet, I guess?
I think there is a couple hundred left. We ordered two thousand and I
think, last week, it was already around a thousand so I will say we
probably will be sold out by the end of next week, anyway.
The next topic that I want to talk about is the break that you
are taking. As you mentioned, the next album, or the break, is until
2003. So for some bands, their absence is normal, some bands even take a
3-4 year break in between albums. With that in mind, do you think that
the people who are worried about your down-time are just being paranoid?
Probably, it’s that, our fans, they are used to getting a new
Stratovarius album every year. We almost did that, you know, sometimes
the break, well not the break, but the time difference between two
studio albums was maybe close to 1 and a half years. But, we always work
very hard and we try to release an album after we’ve got some new
songs and then we were touring for maybe 4 months for the Infinite
album, so we’ve been working for basically 7 years on the road and in
the studio and that’s kind’ve hard work. And like you said, I agree
that for some bands, like Metallica, they had even maybe a 4 year break
but they probably 100-times bigger band than us and are selling
much-much more. Their tours are also longer, so its more understandable.
But, if you think of the bands that are on the same level as we are, not
so big, but alright-selling bands it’s not so normal to have a break,
especially when the band is selling more albums by albums this is like
commercial suicide to have a break. But, then again, we never got into
making music or starting making music for the money and that’s the way
it should be. At the end of last year, we were very tired about the
touring. Especially me, you know, because I burned my hand at a
festival, and we had to reschedule our South American tour, which ended
up to be like Hell for us to tour because we had 21 days on that tour
and 21 flights so we could sleep much and we were kind of tired already.
But thank God, the shows were very good, you know, the fans were very
great and stuff like that. Already, even though before, we agreed to
have a break, but that was the final thing were we decided that it was
better to have a break now instead of completely burning out, you know.
So has rigorous schedule of recording and then followed by
touring ever made it feel like a job as opposed to fun?
Hmm…not since the end of last year. I have to admit a couple of the
shows last December made me very worried because I had to find the
energy to go onstage, I had never had that feeling before never, ever.
But, that only showed us that now it is time to have a break. So
actually, we were very happen to get this break. But, it was funny, you
know, after 2 months of just staying at home and doing nothing, really,
related to Stratovarius things, we really felt that, “Fuck, we have to
do some festivals!” even though we had decided to not do any shows.
But, then we slept a little bit, you know. So, then we decided “Ok,
that’s it. We will do a couple of festivals but that's it, no normal
Stratovarius shows.” We won’t do any promo tours or normal tours for
the Intermission album, only a couple of the festivals.
During your time off, I know you will be working on a solo
album. I’d like to talk a little bit about that beginning with who is
confirmed to be playing on the album with you?
Well, all the players are basically confirmed. I don’t know if you
checked out our homepage but, like 3 or 4 weeks ago there was a list of
players. But of course I can tell you the names on the phone as well.
Starting with the drummers...there’s a good friend of mine called
Mirka Rantanen, he plays drums in a band called TunnelVision, I mean,
they are not popular yet but they are Progressive Metal. The other
drummer, his name is Gas, he plays drums in his band called Him. Then,
the basslines, are, all the basslines are actually played by our guy
from Stratovarius - Jari Kainulainen. Then I got two young keyboard
players, Janne Warman from Children of Bodom, the other is Mikko Harkin
from Sonata Arctica. Then, at the moment, I got 4 guitar players. A
friend of mine called Sami Virtanen will play all the guitars on the
demo tapes and maybe 3-4 songs on the album and then theres Mike Romeo
from Symphony-X, Roland Grapow from Helloween and Arjen Lucassen from
the Ayreon project. I was singing on his album and now it's his turn to
suffer (laughs). So that's the plan. I think this is the line-up. I’m
not really searching for any additional players. I have somebody in
mind, but nothing is confirmed. But those players are great so I’m
very happy to be able to get those guys to work with me.
So how many of the songs have been written so far?
Musically, I got ready something like 13-15 but all the lyrics I have
to write and that’s going to be hard work because the album will be a
concept album so all the songs will be related somehow together and also
to the theme of the album. But, I can’t tell you the theme of the
album yet because that’s still secret, you know. (laughs)
How
would you say the music compares to Stratovarius?
Of course, you can hear some Stratovarius influences because it's my
voice. When a singer is doing a solo, it’s a very strong instrument,
and you can only change the pitch, the tone or the voice so much. So, I
can tell you exactly after mixing the album how it will be, but even
then, I’m not the right person to say what kind of music it is. But,
now it seems to me, it will be some kind of combination between let's
say Stratovarius, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, a little bit of
Queensryche and maybe even Judas Priest. So, basically, I’m going a
little bit back to my roots, to the 80s but also combining some sounds
from the 90s and even from the 2000s. It’s going to melodic, a little
bit heavier, maybe a little bit slower...let's see.
Do you have any release dates set in mind for when you would
like to have this released, and also, will it be released on Nuclear
Blast?
Actually, at the moment I am negotiating about the record deal and I’m
going to have a meeting with one record label next week. I sent a 3-song
demo to my manager and he's taking care of the dealings because I think
I don’t want to spend my time talking to the record labels on the
phone because that's not something that really interests me. I try to
concentrate on the music. But, I will start the recordings anyway with
whatever label and that will happen in July 23rd with the basic tracks
of the guitars, bass, and drums. So, during the Autumn I will record
everything and mix the album. And, probably, I would guess it will be
released by the end of January or February 2002.
Will you do any touring at all for this or have you decided
yet?
Oh, I haven’t decided yet but probably I probably won't do 2 months
on the road touring somebody who’s supporting somebody, who’s
supporting somebody, and who’s supporting somebody. (laughs) But, it
might be possible that I will do SOME shows but it all depends if the
album sells. But, if it’s a total flop, then I probably won’t do any
shows. But, I’m willing to do some festivals so let’s see.
I wanna talk a little bit about the lyrics that you write. I’ve
been a fan of Stratovarius for a number of years, but its only been
basically, I guess, in the past year or so, that I’ve actually,
really, read the lyrics and took the time to see what its all about.
Doing so has actually made me have even more respect for the band (TK:
oh wow) because listening to music, you get a feeling for the music,
obviously, but when you read the lyrics and realize there is a positive
message and it’s not the typical "doom and gloom," I don’t
know, for me, it’s something special. So can you tell me what inspires
you in your life to write these kinds of songs?
It’s nice to see that you have noticed the difference. Actually,
there was a television program yesterday on Finnish television, on that
program was my recorded interview, and then there was someone else who
was playing in a metal band in Finland who was commenting on what I said
and he said that it was on the last album that we started writing about
different things than Kings and dragons and I was like “AHHHHHHHHHH,
you fucker! You never listened to our albums!” But, I don’t know, I’m
not so much interested in those stories and things like that. Somehow
when I joined the band it was already obvious that we are writing lyrics
about our normal lives and the problems that we have and combine those
lyrics with our music because somehow it fits in our band because there
are plenty of bands who are writing about dragons and stuff like that
and it’s their job. I think that it’s better that there are some
bands that are writing about, of course some people might say we are
writing about boring subjects but, I mean, life is a very interesting
thing, so sometimes it goes alright and sometimes not so well, and
sometimes you have to express yourself with the lyrics. Of course, it is
very rewarding to us to hear someone go up to us, and we get a lot of
e-mail of people coming to us and saying that our music and lyrics
helped them through some bad times in life and that’s a very big
compliment.
I always find that if you come home from work or you are just
frustrated I always put on Stratovarius and give it 2 or 3 songs and it’s
like “Ah, everything’s ok!” (laughs)
(laughs) Oh, that’s cool, it's nice to hear!
Yeah, that definitely makes you feel more happier or uplifted
unlike some of the other stuff I listen to which is more angry I guess
(laughs). So what kind of topics do you relate to, or what kind of
topics do you not relate to?
Well, basically the songs are about normal life and what we've
seen, because we've been touring quite a lot and we see what is better
in some other countries compared to Finland or what sucks in Finland and
is better in other countries. And, basically, even though it sounds a
little bit cliché, but it’s true that all the people, we are all the
same. I guess that depends on how your parents raised you up, and
depends on what kind of environment you had when you were young. That
forms you, and your way of thinking. Also, very important, now that I
look through my window, and I see a very nice park, one of the main
subjects actually in our case is nature because I am very thankful that
we still have pure clean nature here in Finland but when we go to other
big cities like for example Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Osauka or some of those
places...even though I am very close to the center in Helsinki, this is
still 20 minutes by transit from the very center, but still, the air is
breathable, but that, you know, makes me very worried about the
situation on Earth.
I
guess the song Infinity, on your DVD (Infinite
Visions), you have the pictures of the beauty of the world with
images of nature then you have the pictures of the shipping yards and
killing fields and all the negative things that we see.
Probably, it was kind of a risk because when we played these songs
live on the last tour we had the projections so their was video filmed
Infinity and what was the other one? Mother Gaia, I guess. So, we had
two videos filmed for these two songs. In a way it was kind of a risk to
play for example Infinity in Germany because they had those pictures of
Adolf Hitler, you know, the Jews, the murders and stuff like that. We
just wanted to wake the people up, I mean, we are not saying that you
should do this and this and this, instead, we are trying to wake the
people up so that they would try to start thinking for themselves if
this is right or wrong and about what they should do with their lives!
We are not priests or anything like that, we are just trying to get a
conversation about the Earth and what is going on.
I guess that’s a big part of the message on the Infinite
album. Even the album cover, kind of reflects the two sides of our
world.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
I want to mention one other thing about the Infinite album and
that is the song “Hunting High and Low” which is perhaps one of your
most popular songs right now. Can you tell me what the song is about and
how it is reflected in the video? For example, in the video, there is a
part where the guy in the businessman looking outfit gives his cell
phone and then his car to two street bums.
Well, something about the video, when we were working with this
director, his way of working was basically I sent him the lyrics and
sent him the tape of the music and then, very often (he's not a dictator
but he's doing his job) we would go there and we were performing and he
was shooting the band maybe 15 to 20 times. Then he would say, “Ok,
next week I will shoot something else.” And you never know before what
he is going to shoot, so basically I didn’t know before I went to see
the final cut what I was supposed to see but I am very happy because it’s
a little bit of a different video compared to other metal bands where
they have these nice horses and swords and kings and DRAGONS!!!....and
we have this Nokia business guy. (Laughs) It is a very nice thing on the
video, like you said, he is probably finding himself at the end that he
is throwing away all the connections to modern society. Like you are on
a leash to your boss and you have to do everything and you are very
stressed. Sometimes here in Finland, you know, it’s that your handi-phone
is ringing every 5 minutes, especially mine, but now it's off, but
normally (laughs). Sometimes, I would like to do like this guy and throw
my handi(phone) away and be un-reachable. That’d be cool. But,
unfortunately, very often especially, when I am supposed to do some
interviews. I have to be reachable. (laughs)
Ok, on a different subject: about the metal scene in Finland.
The past couple of years, from my prospective, anyway, it seems the
scene is very happening in terms of melodic metal. With bands besides
Stratovarius like: Nightwish, Sonata Arctica and Children of Bodom have
all gained international recognition. I was wondering what your opinion
is on the scene there?
It’s very good, like you said. There’s a lot of new, young bands
coming up. I always said, even like 3 or 4 years before I knew about
these new bands and they were probably just rehearsing somewhere in
Finland in their rehearsal room and nobody knew about them, but I
already knew that the musicianship in Finland is very, very good. All
the players are rehearsing a hell of a lot, maybe not me (laughs) but
all the normal guys are rehearsing like hell. It used to be very difficult
to get the connection to get the bands to export the music from Finland,
but now the Finnish labels have some connections and the Finish bands
they have some German or foreign labels. So now things are running and
it's very nice that whenever, for example when I'm giving interviews,
especially in Europe like Germany, France, Italy, they are always
talking about the Finish metal scene. It is also true that a lot of
German metal labels are searching for....if they are searching for metal
is has to be good because they have the idea that if it comes from
Finland and the band is playing metal, it has to be good. It was
completely different 10 years ago. Nobody wanted to have a Finnish band
because they suck already, you know? But, now it is totally different
and I am very happy that we have those young bands.
Do you find that the bands that are from Finland are embraced
outside of your home country before local audiences accept them?
Hmmm...that was the case, at least with us. We were already touring a
couple of European tours and we didn’t get any media attention in
Finland before somehow they found out that “Ok, this band is selling
some albums in Japan and they’ve been touring in Japan like three
times already!” then, somehow, especially when Jorg and Jens joined
the band, we convinced the media in Finland that this band might be good
and might be ok. But, they are still like, I mean, not the journalists,
but there are still some other people who don’t believe in the band
and they don’t like our music. Which is totally different if I give
interviews to (for example) you or to some other people in other
countries. It’s totally different. I don’t know. It must be this
famous Finnish envy that happens, you know. That if someone is
successful, then you have to find something bad about him or about the
band, which is a pity, because we Finish people we envy a lot, we
probably even envy our own penises, you know? (laughs) Which is stupid.
Have there been any other new acts coming up that you think
could be the next big thing or do you even have the time to stay atop
what is happening in your local scene?
Well, you know, I’m not that interested in checking new bands out
because I don’t have the time. Especially now that I have to compose
my own material. But every now and then if some og my friends are
recommending, you know, “Let’s go see this band! They might be good.”
So I might go to some clubs. Basically, there’s only 2 good clubs here
in Helsinki where metal bands are playing...so maybe I go and check them
out. I think there is this new band you may have heard about called
Sinergy? (MR: Yes) I gave a couple of singing lessons for
Kimberly. She has really developed herself and now she is a much better
singer than she was 2 years ago. I saw the band playing live at
Travastia Club. The players in the band are excellent. Both guitar
players are very good. One is, of course, Alexi from Children of Bodom
and the other one is Roope Latvala and he's also very good. Also, the
bassist (Marco Hietala) is one of the best metal singers in Finland but
he never got anywhere with his normal band so he is just playing bass
and doing backup vocals for Sinergy.
Something I want to mention is something about your early
history. A question about your past basically. I was wondering what you
were doing before joining Stratovarius, and are there any recordings out
there that fans can track down?
Actually, I was studying vocals and music maybe four years before I
joined the band. Before that, I had my local band because I was living
400 kilometers North of Helsinki before I came here to study music. So,
we did like one self-financed single, which is very rare, of course it
sucks completely, but that’s history. And, believe it or not, the name
of the band was Filthy Asses.
Yes, I’ve Read That. (laughs)
Very nice name isn’t it? (laughs)
yeah (laughs)
I guess, if I remember, our bass player, he came up with this nice
name because he told me he got it, believe it or not, from porn
magazines. One was called "Filthy!" and the other was called
"Asses" then of course, he didn’t speak any English, so he
was like “ohhhhh this is a great name, let's pick that one!!!!” This
was of course before I joined the band. I tried to change the name of
the band for a couple of years but then I gave up. The music, I guess,
was a little bit heavier than Stratovarius. I guess if you combine
sometimes like the vocal lines were very high like King Diamond style.
But we were so young that we couldn't play so well. But, it's always
nice when I go back to my hometown and all the guys are there. It would
be nice to play together. I think the last time we played together was
maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Nothing important, so basically Stratovarius is
the only bigger band I’ve been in.
When you first hooked up with Stratovarius, can you recall what
your first jam or try out was like with them?
Yeah, I went straight to the studios because at the time the guys
were recording the Fourth Dimension album and they were searching for
singer. When Timo visited my apartment he agreed, actually he said there
when he heard my demo “Ok, you're in!” and I said “Don’t say
that yet, let’s test me out first.” We decided that I should sing a
couple songs from the Dreamspace album and then I went into the studio
and was singing a couple of songs and I saw the smile on the faces of
the other guys then we went to the club and drank a couple of beers and
they said I was in. That was basically it. Now that I think of it, I
feel, believe it or not, it was my destiny to be in this band because at
the time there was no other band in Finland that was playing this kind
of power metal or whatever kind of melodic metal and probably I was the
only singer at that time who was singing in this style. Now, of course
there is some more but back then this kind of music it wasn’t so
popular because grunge was in - this was ’94.
So, before you tried out for the band and sent them your demo or
whatever, I assume you had heard of them. So, what was your opinion of
them before you met them?
 |
FRIGHT NIGHT
|
|
Released 1989
Recorded at Finnvox Studios
Produced by: Stratovarius
Engineered by: Make Törrönen
Cover by: Patrick Woodroffe
Logo by: Susanne Nokelainen
Layout by: Basic's Team Oy
|
A friend of mine, back in my home town, he bought the first album
Fright Night because of a very nice cover, he didn’t know what the
music was like. Then, he told me “This band sounds like Helloween!”
and I went to his place. He was my neighbor at the time. I was listening
to it and I remember saying to the guy “Well, you know, the music is
good but the singer isn’t so good.” And actually this is the truth,
you know, because I approached the band 2 years later which was maybe 91
but at the time I wasn’t a very good singer. I didn’t rehearse
enough. And their old drummer phoned me because I had this advertisement
in a magazine saying that I was searching for a melodic metal band from
Helsinki because I knew that sometime I'd have to move there because all
the players were there.
Did you take formal singing lessons or did you just practice
on your own to develop your voice?
I did take some lessons. At first I was of course singing with
some local bands. I think I started to take some singing lessons in '92
I guess. In '92, and that was just a small music school in the middle of
nowhere. Then I applied for this big Rock, Pop and Jazz school in
Helsinki and I got in. Then I was there one year, then I joined
Stratovarius. Then I was one year more, then one year off, then one year
more. I didn’t actually study more except for I took singing lessons
and of course a little pit of theory. I didn’t have that much time for
anything else and I was very, very lazy. I concentrated on the touring
in Stratovarius at the time and I still do of course.
You mentioned that when you first heard the band you thought the
vocals were not quite up to scratch with the music, so have you ever
thought of going back and maybe re-doing a couple of the older songs and
re-record the vocals on them?
We did re-record one song which was “Future Shock” and that’s
from the first album. We re-recorded that one. Actually, we only
re-recorded the vocal lines and mixed it again but everything, all the
drums, the original things were there. I think that song is also some
kind of bonus, once again for Japan, on some single maybe for Episode or
the Visions album. We did that one, but nothing else.
I guess you prefer to leave the past in the past and move on I
guess?
In a way, yeah. I mean, its important to make the first album but
in my opinion the first album, it isn’t really that good...there's not
so good songs (in my opinion). The second one there’s a couple of
alright songs, but I actually like the third one. I think Timo was
singing a lot better and all the songs are composed better, and the band
is playing better. The overall sound is much better on that album. So I
think Dreamspace, that's a good album.
Well, that’s all the questions I had for you. I just wanted to
know if there was any other comments or any messages you would like for
me to pass on to my readers, or any news items that I never mentioned?
Sure, I mean, we would love to come play there as well. We’ve
been getting some offers to play in Canada as well, but so far, it hasn’t
been possible to do it because we’ve been touring in Europe and places
like that but I hope that we can come there to promote the next studio
album, so if we are lucky we will be able to see you in the year 2003
maybe in the Autumn or something. That would be great because actually,
to be honest, I have some relatives in Canada that have the same last
name as me but I’ve never seen the guys there, but that would probably
be a surprise. I don’t know if it would be a pleasant surprise or
what, seeing a guy like me come to your door and saying “Hi! I’m
your little cousin or whatever.” That would be great. But anyway, I
mean, it would be great to come there because I also know there is a lot
of Finnish hockey players there. To maybe put together some shows and
then go to see some hockey and have fun...that would be great!
I usually ask the question to a lot of bands who I interview who
are from Europe, you know, are you ever going to play here because a lot
of European bands don’t find their way over here because of restraints
of people not offering them the right kind of package or deal. It’s
not worth their while to come over here, unfortunately.
Well, I mean, the problem is the flight expenses. It’s a
helluva lot expensive to come there. Probably for one person its close
to 1000 bucks to fly over. But, of course, there is 5 members in the
band and we need 4 guys in the crew, at least, to be able to perform. We
don’t build up our drums by ourselves, not anymore. I mean, we can
still do it but it just takes too much energy and you are so tired
during the show time. But like I said, we've been getting some offers
and we've been thinking about it but probably it was because of my
accident (burned hand) or something like that that we had to cancel that
and re-book the South America tour. It's kind of a lot easier to combine
a South American tour and then to play the States and Canada as
well...all together as a whole package. That makes much more sense. I
don’t know if you have any festivals over there, but I think we would
need some bigger bands to support us. That way, there would be some
people. If we play somewhere alone, there might be 10 hardcore fans but
no one else, I don’t know.
Yeah, its hard to say because not many of those types of bands
come over to find out if there will be 10 people or 1000 people.
Yeah, exactly.
It would be nice to find out some day. (laughs)
Yeah!!
Hails To Those Who Made This
Possible
-
Hails to Craig (AKA Demon of the Fall) for
providing the transcription for this lengthy interview. Thank you
man!!!
-
Thanks to Jill and Nuclear
Blast for giving me the opportunity to talk to someone from one
of my favorite bands!!!!
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Thanks to my alarm clock for waking me up on time to
interview Timo.
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Thanks to Stratovarius for creating meaningful,
moving, inspiring, uplifting, god-like melodic power metal!! I hope
your respective solo albums are out soon so we can get back to
another masterpiece in 2003 (or sooner huh?)!!!!
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Thanks to you, the readers, for reading my
ramblings...I'll stop now.
©2001 Metal Rules!!