Translating the head points in these two will take some time but I will edit them here ASAP
Santtu Lehtiniemi
http://suosikki.fi/musiikki/kitaristi-v ... t-levyille
(Lehtiniemi gave the interview by phone)
-It is true that Tolkki did not play his solos on Trinity and Age of Aquarius. It says in the cd that he did but he really didn't
-I even have witnesses
-It takes a lot of time to upkeep your playing skills and I used techniques that Tolkki doesn't even know.
-I don't know what Tolkki was doing when I was recording the solos. I recorded them in Helsinki with my own equipment. I was also alone when mixing the album. I am going to ask a statement form the studio 57 owner Pasi Kauppinen about the mixing when I was spending 20 hour long days in the studio mixing the album. Tolkki seemed to spend his time online during that.
-I just wanted to help Timo in making the records and he showed no loayalty at all. For example the Saana record that he made by himself and got really crappy response. I did not want that to happen to him again.
-The whole end of the summer I have been trying to get into contact with Tolkki to work things out but he ignored me.
-Timo has no money and no friends and that makes him act desperate.
-"Lehtniniemi will continue Revolution Renaissance with Gus Monsanto"
-Tolkki promised to pay me as "hired guns" usually are getting paid
-As they were running low on money I said I would like a guitar instead. In the end he gave me a used guitar that he was later trying to get away since he had promised it as a prize of a lottery to spain (now we know where it is/ may be
).-in the beginning of the mixing we had 7 days for mixing and clean guitars, melody guitars, keys, bass of the ballad and drums were still missing from the album. The drum sound had to be redone because the Brazilian pros had failed (
)-Considering that it is a real surprise we made it and Tolkki thanks me by cutting all contact to me and leaves all expenses to be paid. It is not even my wage it is just my expenses.
- Tolkki said to me I am just as big imposter since I have let all this happen.
- Pasi kauppinen comments: The studio has been paid. It was doen by Napalm records. Tolkki made it happen. We all know he can be a nice guy but he is still just a client. Right now Tolkki has rented the smae studio for 3 weeks with another project (
).-Back to Lehtiniemi: Recording and mixing Trinity cost a few thousand € since they got some discount from the studio. Tolkki kept the rest of the money from Napalm for himself.
-He said he had no money and that everyone has to save some with expenses. He had the money but did not want to share it.
-Some childish posts have been written with my name in Stratoforum (
) but IP-adresses prove it was Tolkki himself writing these messages.-He has spoken about his mental illness in public and he has sent me threats in E-mail. In one mail he was flaunting about how he made all big medias shut up about it. And in other other messages he was saying things like "how does it feel to loose and no one believes a nobody like you"
- I am going to report this to the police. Fraud, threatening, identity theft and slander.
- It is sad how he used to make records like Episode with the same intensity.
So this is the Santtu Lehtiniemi side and it had some heavy offenses but wait for Timos reply. Even after reading all that it really made believe in TT again.
Timo Tolkki replys: I am being used
http://suosikki.fi/musiikki/timo-tolkki ... an-hyvaksi
(Tolkki made the interview in person)
interviewers comments before the actual interview:
-Tolkki has been busy and has lost tens of kilos with Atkin's diet and by going out for a walk (
)-That is because TTs new group has photo sessions next week and name and members will also be revealed then.
-The band can truly be called the super group of power metal
- The band will perform in Finnish Metal Expo.
- Tolkki comments: it will be my firts gig in three years and I am hyped for it.
Now they are moving to the subject (Lehtiniemis accusations)
-At first I got mad as I saw his interview in this magazine. I don't want to spread negative energy around me but these were such heavy accusations I could not just let it go on. At first I thought that I should not take this to the court but I am now considering it.
-Interviewer: Is there any truth behind these accusations
-Tolkki: no
-Interviewer: Why does he say something like that then?
-Tolkki: He knows what it means. It is a weapon. It gives a face to this case. He says he has witnesses. I can say that too. It is true that I have been taking lessons from him (
) He is very gifted as a guitarrist. He will get far and do well with his skills. I see a lot of my younger self in him. I was really reckless when I was his age. - If he had played the solos would I be so crazy and admit? There is much more to this than solos.
(Tolkki now gives some papers and the Trinity cd to the interviewer)
-As you see all the information has been printed just as it should be and composers and producers have been given credits for their work. I told everyone long before the recordings that this band is not going to make money as we aren't paid much at all. No one is going to get any money out of this. Not even me. No one else complained about the costs. The high quality "Solid State Logic-studios" cost 500 € a day + Flights to Brazil and food. It is not that big sums of money we are talking about in here. It's not Santtus business if the studio is paid or not. He gets paid by "Teosto" and his other Copyright agencies (?). The studio wasn't paid because of the label. I agreed With Pasi Kauppinen that the bill is paid by our label and you can send it to them. If he hasn't been paid in time it is not my fault because I wasn't the one paying it.
(Tolkki shows a copy of the recording contract to the interviewer)
-The sum they got to pay all expenses in making the record and such was under 20000€ and Tolkki says that not much was left of it afterwards. He says he worked 800 hours himself in making of Trinity.
-Cds don't sell as they used to. New Era has sold 8000 copies, Age of Aquarius just 4000. In June I could not get a contract from Japan so I decided to put the band on ice. We could have went on tour with Sonata Arctica as a warm-up but that would have cost us 50000€ and we don't have sums like that.
- I agreed with Gus Monsanto and Bruno Agra that if Trinity does not sell well we will break up. Then came all the talk about money. I am being used as a lift to publicity.
- It is called "free Lunch". I don't believe that this will hurt my reputation in the world.
-Santtu is like a mirror image of me from the days when I was in his age. I was even worse until I experienced some sort of wake-up call seven years after.
- I met Santtu in 2004 at Goldenworks studio. Our close co-operation began in 2008 with Age of Aquarius.
- I don't know why wasn't he in on New Era. With AoA his role was just a recorder but on Trinity he was producing the album. With my help he has had the chance of working in big studios and mixing and trying things out.
- "Tolkki compares himself to the producer legend Rick Rubin"
- He just drops by at the studio to comment on the songs but isn't even physically there most of the time so calling me lazy is nothing compared to that and we even agreed on that beforehand. Even the booklet says that.
-"Tolkki praises Lehtiniemi for his strong character and vision"
-Thats why we started working together. To challenge eachother. I said to him straight that I don't need someone to lick my ass.
- one of the reasons to our quarrel is that he started growing agressive towards me as a producer.
He has the drive and that lead us to a competition and that lead to quarrelling. We sent some E-mails and I said that we can't work together in the future. We both have such strong personalities. Sometimes you just have to say good bye.
-When he said that he just wanted to help that came out of a bitter persons mouth who was looking for a revenge.
-Saana is a very dear album to me even if everyone hates it.
- His comment on Saana receiving a poor response made Tolkki laugh and he says that it sold more than all three RR records combined.
-I am not afraid of negative response. I have 30 years of carreer behind me I can't get sad because of media response.
- Before this just 2 medias have contacted me and I said no comments to both so that is for shutting up the major media.
- And as for the Forum (
) there are users such as Frédéric Chopin, Leonardo da Vinci ja Johann Sebastian Bach discussing there. It is not even moderated so anyone can write anything. Still Identity theft is not even a crime in Finland (yet)- I haven't written on stratoforum in years. Not since Jens Blocked my IP from the forum. I have other things to do than just write stuff on some forum.
- And about the mental illness. I haven't drunk alcohol in 4 years and I am taking lithium for the rest of my life since that takes the rollercoaster out of my mood. It saved me. I ahven't had a single manic-depressive episode in four years.
- And as for my weigh problems they weren't caused by the cure but just because my wife makes such good food.
It's all in Imperiumi boards.
