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by Stratofanius » Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:14 pm
Stratovarius: Symphonies In The Snow
(Interview from Metal Hammer No.12 Vol.4 June 26th 1989)
Finland is more likely to conjure up visual images of hot 'n' sweaty saunas than hot 'n' heavy metal bands. There are exceptions, like the infamous sleaze bags Hanoi Rocks, but even these Nordic glamsters moved South as soon as they could blag the air fare. A further exception, and looking set to change the face of Finnish rock music, is the arrival of three young and talented musicians: Timo Tolkki(guitar and vocals), Tuomo Lassila (drums and backing vocals) and Jyrki Lentonen (bass) call themselves Stratovarius and have just released their debut album "Fright Night" on CBS.
The name Stratovarius is a combination of the words Stratocaster and Stradivarius: as classical music buffs amongst you might know, a Stradivarius is an extremely famous, expensive and beautiful sounding violin, named after it's Italian builder Signore Stradivari. These young Finns are into an earload of the old classical muzak themselves. Drummer Tuomo is a student at the Helsinki Conservatory Of Music and in his "spare" time he plays for the conservatories very own symphony orchestra! He told us recently: "I'm really into combining classical influences with rock music. We're not exactly a headbanging band - I listen to a lot of heavy, progressive rock music. Believe it or not, our songs are getting longer and more and more classically influenced from day to day... I'm also a big Ozzy fan and I listen to a lot of Rush and progressive rock bands like Yes and Pink Floyd as well." This blend of classical influences and prog-rock are mixed with a mega dosage of raw power and rounded off with powerful lyrics. Timo wrote the music on "Fright Night", and Tuomo and Timo conjured up the gloomy lyrics, embracing subjects like darkness and fear. "We write about ourselves and our lives." Tuomo added. "So our lyrics contain references to changing the world and the future." The three guys arranged and produced the album on their own, helped only by engineer Make Torronen. But even before recording the album, Stratovarius had frequently played to live audiences in their native Finland. Despite still in their early twenties themselves, Tuomo told us: "Our audiences at home are 'oldish' HM audiences, they're nearly always over eighteen. A lot of the younger Finnish kids are into manic thrash - it's the older crowd who like our brand of progressive rock." You have to ask yourself whether the spoilt and overfed rock audiences in the rest of the world will pay a Finnish pomp-rock band much notice, but Tuomo knows the score: "We're really aware that it's going to be difficult for us to make the break in the rest of Europe. I've never actually been to England yet, but we're not desperate to move away from Finland anyway, we really like living here." And he added: "The Finnish rock scene was quiet for the last three years, but there's loads happening at the moment. There are some really great bands and they're just going to burst on the scene soon! It's really exciting.
Do you know something I don't!? 
