This is a Kotipelto interview to Valhalla Brazilian magazine. Here he talks not only about the split (which we’re tired of reading about) but more about the new cd and songs, the video, the world tour and his solo career.
The guys from Valhalla magazine allowed me translating it, a big thanks to them.
Sorry about the grammar mistakes and blablabla.
Here’s the address for the magazine, only in portuguese though.
www.valhalla.com.br
Hope you enjoy it.
Valhalla – Right after all those polemic incidents concerning TT, Jörg depart and your own depart of the band it was unlikely that Stratovarius would come back to the original line up and record a new album. How things worked out between you?
TK – Even before all those incidents we weren’t in very good terms. Timo was already behaving in a weird way since a long time. I remember the Destiny tour in 1998, he used to drink a lot and sometimes didn’t get in touch with the band for 3 or 4 weeks. His ex wife told me by that time he was already thinking of quit the band. In short, it was about old band problems which the public only got knowing after some time. And things got worst was when he kicked me out of the band. By that time I carried on with my solo career thinking he was a fucking asshole and I told him all those bad things. Then one day I met his brother and he told me Timo had been hospitalized in a Psychiatric clinic in Spain. At the beginning I thought everything was a lie, that in the end he was just enjoying some vacations. But after some time I started thinking it better, specially because his brother has always been an honest person, trustable, he would never lie to me. That’s when I realized he was really sick, he really had a mental problem. Then I looked again for his brother and he explained me more things about Timo’s situation, that he was a maniac depressive. Even though it took more 6 months till Timo called me suggesting a conversation, then I went to see him. This meeting lasted about 6 hours. If we sum all the conversations we had in the last 3 years we wouldn’t get into those 6 hours of chatting we had in this meeting. He explained me about his health state and that he finally had accepted the fact he was sick and looked for medical assistance, which he didn’t do in all that crisis time in the band, when he was already sick, although he looked for natural therapy which leaded in nothing. He apologized and asked me to come back to the band, since he had a new album ready but no band to record it.
Valhalla – So it was in this meeting with Timo in the hospital that things got solved?
TK – Not exactly, because I told him I’d only give an answer after I listened to the songs. I didn’t want to record another album in the same Elements I and II style, that kind of music didn’t interest me anymore. So I listened to the songs and fell in love with the material. It was something different, simpler and direct, something I’d already wanted to do. We went to another meeting with the whole band. Then I made it clear to everyone that I’d only come back to the band if everything would be clearer from now on and everyone should put all their energy into working, like in the old times, on the contrary I wouldn’t do that. In that meantime I went on tour with my band with Jens playing the keyboards. We took the time to talk about Timo’s health state and about the band. It was a very stressing period, I hope I don’t need to face another situation like that in my life.
Valhalla – But is Timo totally recovered now?
TK – An illness like that can’t be cured so easily and maybe he’ll have to deal with it for the rest of his life. What matters now is that we, and specially him, know about the problem and have learnt to deal with it. Actually I see the Stratovarius reunion as a way of helping him to get over it. This time he promised us that everything will be different, before I wouldn’t believe in a single word coming from him, but now the situation is different. He knows he’s sick, he asks us for our help and we can’t refuse it.
Valhalla – After all this story you’ve told me, what would you say to those people that think all this was just a publicity stunt, that all those polemic facts involving TT and the band were just faked only to promote Stratovarius even more, specially now with a new album release?
TK – Fuck off all of them! They know nothing about what Timo and we have been through, how could they want to judge us? I don’t give a shit to these people.
Valhalla – Back to the new album, how about the first pre-production work and recording after all this turbulent period and the final band reunion?
TK – Before we started working on the songs Jörg had already recorded the drums in April last year. At the beginning Timo had called Jens’ brother – Anders Johansson of Hammerfall – to record the drums, because Jörg was practically out of the band by that time. Anders had no time so Jörg himself went to Helsinki to record it. Once Timo was hospitalized, Jörg recorded the drums by his own in the studio. It was impressing how he did it. He did called Jens to ask for some help, but he didn’t know the new songs too. Only after a long time the drums were ready and we started working on the album again. Then Timo recorded the guitars and bass, then I recorded the vocals. In the first recording days it was a very unpleasant situation, because I didn’t know if I should trust in what Timo asked me to do or not, I wasn’t sure if he was talking really consciously or if all that he was asking me was just an insanity of his mind. During the recording I kept on trying to get adapted to the situation, I tried to get inside his mind in order to understand what he really wanted. Then we mixed the album in February this year and in March the album was ready. It was a very complicated process, but it’s like Jens told me once: it could be worse. Maniac depressives are suicidal. Timo set up this band 20 years ago and Stratovarius is his life. But all of a sudden he started breaking the band into little pieces, and in a figurative way this represents a suicide. Rather the band had passed through all this than Timo had tried to commit suicide. Besides, Timo’s illness is hereditary, his father killed himself when he was 14 years old.
Valhalla – After all these polemic facts, Stratovarius needs a really good album to recover its image towards fans and the press. Even though, Timo composed the songs alone when he was still sick. Which was the providential fact to make you trust in the new songs functionality even when you knew they were creations of a still sick Timo Tolkki?
TK – Indeed, Timo composed the songs when he was still really sick. It would be hard to say what he was thinking by the time he worked on this material. Even though, the songs brought something new, different from everything he did in the past. Of course I still love the old songs but we’ve been playing the same music style for so long that I believe we’ve explored everything we could talking about power metal. We needed something new, different, and that’s what made us believe in this new album material.
Valhalla – Even if you knew Tolkki composed these songs when he was still sick, the impression we’ve got is that this album was very well planned, bringing new elements but keeping the band main characteristics. It’s also a well-balanced album, there are melodic and fast songs, but at the same time it brings rhythmical and dramatic tracks. There really wasn’t a previous planning? All this detailed work came from a weak Tolkki’s mind?
TK – It may sound as a lie, but I tell you there wasn’t a planning. Timo ain’t a person with the minimum capability of planning anything, however when the subject is composing songs he has an uncommon ability. He’s capable of composing 20 songs in 5 days if it’s needed. He’s also very dynamic talking about arrangements, mixing, he has the skill for orchestrating a song or doing any experimentation, he’s exceptional. But talking about planning or anything else, you can’t trust him. In his normal sense he already hasn’t got any sense of planning, imagine with weak senses.
Valhalla – Right when you left Stratovarius, Timo Tolkki called that girl called Miss K to be the new band vocalist. Was that another insane attitude of his sick mind? By the way, were the new album songs originally written to female voices?
TK – I couldn’t tell you if he composed the songs thinking of this girl voice because I was out of the band by that time. I also don’t know if this attitude of calling a female vocalist was result of his illness. I only know that he tried to find another guy to replace me, but all the vocalists he called were already busy with another bands. It’s hard to imagine which was his real intention in calling Miss K to be the band vocalist, it’s hard to elucidate a disturbed mind. Maybe the girl has got something I don’t, but surely it wasn’t something good to the band image. Jens himself didn’t like this story of having a girl singing in the band, but he could do nothing about Tolkki’s mental state, so only time could put things back on place again.
Valhalla – Another reason that made you get out of Stratovarius was the lack of participation in the band creation process. You always wanted to be more involved while composing songs. In this new album all the songs were composed by Tolkki so it means that once more have you had to accept his impositions?
TK – Indeed, I didn’t participate that much in this album, I only wrote 2 lyrics and all the rest are Tolkki’s creations. But I only came back to the band because he promised me that from the next album on I’ll have more space to compose and to contribute with ideas. For this new album he had everything sort of ready. I hope he won’t forget what he promised, otherwise we’ll have to discuss about it once again. I invested on my solo career in order to do all that I couldn’t do in Stratovarius. My solo work is what I wanted Stratovarius to be. It was easy to me to turn my back on Timo and carry on with my project, but once we’ve decided to come back, things must be different. And I tell it not only in my name but everybody in the band demands democracy. Many of the problems we have been through are due to lack of communication. In this reunion we told Timo he could keep on producing and leading the band as long as he’d be more democratic on discussing the lyrics and other important matters, he’d have to ask for our advice more frequently. This was one of my demands, right to avoid committing the same mistake twice due to lack of communication.
Valhalla – The first album song “Maniac Dance” catches attention because it’s out of the Stratovarius usual standard, specially concerning your vocals. The interesting thing is that you chose it to be the single. Which leaded you to choose the most different album track to represent the entire work?
TK – Our intention on choosing this song as the single was to show people the new Stratovarius. Actually, the record company wanted “United” as the single, what we found a bit weird since it’s a lengthy track. So we chose “Maniac Dance” because it shows we want to do something different from now on. There’s no more reason in releasing a “Elements part III” and so on. We already had released another songs quite innovating as a single, such as “SOS” and “Hunting High and Low”, so it wouldn’t it be so different to choose “Maniac Dance” this time.
Valhalla – “Back to Madness” is also an interesting song. It brings the opera singer Petri Bäckström. Did you have any participation on this experimentation with lyrical vocals to this track?
TK – Unfortunately I didn’t participate, I only knew about Petri’s participation, who’s my friend by the way, after the album was ready. When I was recording the vocals Timo only showed the songs parts which would have my vocals. Of course I knew all the songs from the demo, but I didn’t know how would they get after the final production. Then I knew he invited Petri to record these vocals and it was strange to know about it only after I heard to the final production.
Valhalla – Why have you decided to entitle this album just as Stratovarius? Is there any relation of representing a new start to the band with this title?
TK – Exactly, the album title represents a new start for us. Stratovarius had been dead for a while and we’re coming back to life. Usually the bands entitle their first album with its own name, in our case it wasn’t like this, so we did it now because this album represents a new phase to the band. The album cover is also very simple. We always use this symbol but I had no idea of its meaning till a French friend explained me it represents a new start. So it happened to use it in the new album cover.
Valhalla – Talking about lyrics, there are a lot of references about the experience Tolkki lived due to his psychological problems. Am I right?
TK – Yes, you are. Inclusively, he wrote the lyrics for “Maniac Dance” while he was in the Psychiatric hospital. Many of the lyrics Tolkki wrote worked as an escape valve. But the lyrics I wrote, I tried to focus on the “life” theme. I think we have to live every minute to the fullest, specially when we think that sooner or later we might face problems such as the ones I faced in the last years.
Valhalla – You’ve just recorded a video clip to the track “Maniac Dance”, which was produced by Antti Jokinen, that already worked with artists like Beyoncé, Celine Dion, Korn, Nightwish. How was that experience?
TK – The video was recorded in a single day. It was about 14 hours recording, more or less. I’m satisfied. The video is all in black and white and it brings images of a girl who has insomnia problems. This video will be included in multimedia format in the single we’ll release in august.
Valhalla – Apart the Stratovarius reunion and your solo career, you’re also now to take a chance in the phonographic market with the label you created “High and Loud”. As far as I’m concerned, so far you’re working only with the Finnish prog/power band called Wingdom, which released in April its first album Reality. What about this new experience? Do you intend look for more bands or even manage your solo career?
TK – I don’t see this label as a work and I’m not investing that much, I don’t want to be a business man. The point is that the band asked me for help and I decided to give them a hand. If there are good bands needing something on my reach I’ll help them. But I can’t invest time on it. Now the Stratovarius reunion is my priority and my solo band comes as a second plan.
Valhalla – About the next your, you’ll start it in South America with gigs in Brazil by late August. Should the fans expect a special presentation due to this new Stratovarius phase?
TK – Yes, the show will kick ass! We have a forum in our official site where the fans can vote for the songs they want to hear. So people can choose the songs to our set list for the gigs there in Brazil. Besides, we have also another surprises. I’m really happy I’ll play in Brazil once again. It’s our favorite country to play. In our last gig in São Paulo we had an audience of more than 6 thousand people, I hope I can count on all those guys again. We’re seeking for new gigs, even because in our last presentations Timo was under strong anti-depressives effects, something that let him really stuck on stage. We want to do shows as the ones we did in the past.
Valhalla – To close the interview, which is the lesson you take from all those problems concerning Tolkki and Stratovarius?
TK – The biggest lesson I take is we must learn to understand and comprehend and being more tolerant with people.
So I'm glad that everyone seems happy about the album, touring again, all that good stuff they got into Stratovarius for in the first place. I wish them all the best.
