I found it a really interesting interview, specially because Jörg talks really sincerely and tells things about what happened that honestly I had no clue.
Although this is an authorized translation I made it on my own, so I’m sorry about the mistakes and so on...
Thanks to Uli (Dawn_is_Here) who helped me with the translation.
You can find the original interview only in Portuguese in Rock Brigade magazine # 228.
It's a bit long but it's a nice interview... I hope you enjoy it.
RB – I can’t start this interview without asking what has happened to the band during that unstable period last year. After all, nothing was explained. That’s why I want you to tell us a bit about what leaded you and TK to get out of the band, then the called Miss K joined the band and, at last, the reunion.
JM – Well, all that happened some time ago. I published 2 statements in my site that sort of explained what happened, at least through my point of view. I don’t even remember how all this mess started, but what happens is that we’ve been together for 10 years and both Timos suddenly began to lose the usual communication band members need to keep. That already could be noticed during the Elements tour, but nobody thought it could turn into something serious.
I’m sure you’ve got friends of more than 10 years and sometimes the relationship between you is great; sometimes it’s a bit worse. However, suddenly huge arguments started to happen and it was a total surprise, even to me. I’ve always thought that we could be able to seat down at a table and solve whichever problems we might have, I never thought we’d have to face a situation so out of control that could even risk the band’s future.
Nevertheless, TT began to show even more animosity towards TK until he finally decided to leave the band – or got fired, whatever you want to call it. Since then, new crazy ideas began to come up, such as Miss K joining the band, things that weren’t discussed in the band because there was no more communication between the members. It was a one man thing, in other words, TT. When it got serious like that I tried to push him telling “If things will work like that from now on, I don’t trust this band anymore”. But it only made me get fired too [laughs]. Suddenly there were 2 members out and to make things worse a lot of shit kept on happening with the band, specially related to the Finnish tabloids. You used to pick one of those sensationalists newspapers and the cover was divided in two: at one half there were news about Michael Jackson accused of abusing kids; at the other half there was TT saying that TK was a “shitty queer” [laughs]. That’s true! It really happened! After some time, TT came to Germany to visit his girlfriend’s dad and dropped by my house. He asked if I could give him a hand on the new Stratovarius album. He seemed calmer but I didn’t considered the possibility that much, ‘cause I wasn’t recovered yet from what happened. But it was the first time I thought “Humm. Who knows we can find our path once again.” He showed me some new songs and they sounded extremely heavy and very very good. But it was clear they had a totally different appeal. It was some kind of music Stratovarius had never made before. And I found it good because you can’t repeat Visions for 20 times! [laughs]. On both Elements we went beyond the epic and orchestral limits, we couldn’t go any farther. It was clear the band had to change. But, after all, I found the stuff excellent and I agreed to record the album, but still was very difficult to talk about TK with TT, that’s why I decided to concentrate only in the music. After that I went to Finland so we could start working on the recording and TT literally had a collapse and was taken to the hospital.
It’s weird to say, but I have to confess I got really happy when it happened because finally I could see the reason for all that was happening. After all, the man was sick! Before the collapse, we still weren’t sure. He stood in the hospital about 2 weeks and we only had contact with him through his brother. Sometimes he sent messages to me and to Jens through the cell phone, but that was all. Even TK, with whom I talked about the situation, got relieved with that because it made clear to everybody that TT had a mental problem. Right when I got into the band I knew that, but nothing as serious as that had happened before, it has never been directed to an specific person. Besides, I believe that’s why TT composes such good songs, because it’s through them that he expresses his feelings, it comes straight from his heart.
RB – But what’s the matter with him? Depression?
JM – Yes, TT is a maniac depressive. I knew nothing about this illness, but I had to learn about it because my band leader and one of my best friends was taken by it. It’s an illness with lots of variations, several different symptoms. Who suffers from this illness can be several people inside only one and in some cases the patient gets really close to schizophrenia. At one moment you’re totally euphoric, thinking everything in your life is perfect, everything’s right; some moments later, you get into depression because you think everything’s wrong. Some people sell their houses, spend all their money and when they realize what they did, get into collapse.
That’s more or less what happened to TT. Suddenly came to his mind the idea that he could do everything by himself. He thought: “I’ll put a female singer in the band, fuck off Kotipelto, I’m the king of the world, I’m on top, I’m the best, I can do whatever I want”. Till suddenly he realized what he was doing and literally broke down, he got so desperately that had to be taken to the hospital. So, if we try to see it carefully, all that happened it’s in the end a big tragedy. After he left the hospital we all realized we should help him, but we didn’t know exactly how we could do it. So, we thought one way of helping him would play in the summer festivals (2004), which ones we still hadn’t cancelled. To be honest, we decided we’d play in those festivals because the band funds were broken, also due to TT’s attitudes, so we needed the money [laughs].
But, above that, those gigs could mean a new start to the band. Maybe some fans, specially those who already have seen us before, may say those weren’t the best Stratovarius gigs, but personally I see that in a different way. To me those were the best gigs we ever did if you consider the physical and mental shapes we were. Besides, by that time TK began to forgive TT for all what he had done. TT was pretty disgusting with me too but it’s nothing if compared to the way he acted towards TK. In the end, I think if TT hadn’t had that collapse and hadn’t went to the hospital, where a doc explained us what was happening, TK would never agree to get back to the band.
RB – Before the split, you and TK leaving the band, there were lots of rumors concerning what was happening. One of them said TK and TT had a fist fight during a rehearsal. Is that true? I mean, there was also physical aggression apart verbal aggressions between them?
JM – (hesitating) well, luckily there weren’t knifes there [laughs]. But I guess you can imagine when people with totally different points of view start to argue, anything can happen. Specially after so many years together things aren’t as easy to be solved. But maybe what happened got exaggerated when they were published in the web, maybe things got bigger than they really were. It’s the same when you go fishing and almost caught a fish. Six weeks later you tell the story to a friend but the fish got 3 times bigger. That’s what happened with those stories, specially when they got published in the band site written by TT. I don’t think it was right he keeping on publishing all that in the site, but, holy shit, by that time he used to spend 48 hours a day in front of the computer, talking to the fans, doing whatever! It was a very very weird period. Actually, if we look to the past, other weird things had happened, but as I said before, they had never been so tough. For example, in the Destiny era he gave the album matrixes to the record company and after that no one heard of him about 6 months. He simply disappeared! The fans even noticed that because Jens, TK and me made the whole album promo, but you can look for that period magazines and you won’t find any TT interview talking about Destiny. He just vanished, no one knew where he was, none of us could talk to him. After that we knew he was doing therapy but he never told us.
RB – But what about the physical aggressions? That story of fist fight was just an invention?
JM – Well, there were some physical aggressions, specially when we have a helping hand of our little friend alcohol [laughs].
However, you know how it is, it wasn’t one of those fights that’s only over when one is laid on the ground bleeding to death, not at all. All that has ever happened were some shoves sometimes powerless sometimes harder – followed by swearing like “fuck you”, then it was over. Even though, you know how things get bigger on the internet, that’s why those shoves soon got into kicks and punches. As you can see it wasn’t like that, at least I’ve never seen such things. I’ve been into some disagreements in the most unpleasant moments, but as I said, after 10 years in this band, giving your heart, your blood and your tears, it’s natural you want to fight for it. It’s hard to see all we’ve fought threw away, moreover without an apparently reason.
RB – When these rumors concerning physical aggression and so on became public, it was already clear that you and TK were out of the band. But what about you, what was the matter? After all, you got fired too.
JM – Basically I felt the band structure wasn’t working anymore. Besides, I kept on insisting we should bring TK back. In my opinion the line up should be the same. As I told you, TT came to Germany and I thought it’d be a good idea to push him, telling that if we couldn’t keep the same line up I’d leave the band too. But he told me if I wanted to do such thing, that was ok. In other others, my idea didn’t work that much [laughs].
However, I really didn’t want to go on without the same guys. There were totally new people in the band with whom I couldn’t communicate, a lot of weird things happening and I used to think “What the hell am I doing here?”. Besides, I didn’t find fair neither right what happened to TK. You see, I don’t think people can’t break up relationships. Sometimes when you spend too much time with someone, you might wish for a break, it’s a human feeling more than understandable. Even though, the way it happened didn’t seem much right to me. I couldn’t keep on the band in such situation. In spite of what happened, I also told it in my site, I never felt totally out, I kept on touch with the guys and I never had a super fight with TT. I never told “I’ll never manage to play with this guy again”. I only saw that many things weren’t going in the way I think they should go, that’s why I didn’t want to be part of that.
RB – When you and TK left, it was announced the joining of a singer called Miss K...
JM – [laughing as hell] Yeah...
RB – I know it’s something laughable now, but by that time some promo pics were sent to the whole press, TT told wonders about her and so on. Did she really joined the band?
JM – [ironically] Look... this is a very good question [laughs].
Well, the sad truth is that she did made part of the band.
RB – Have you had any rehearsal or played together?
JM – No, not at all. I never made part of it. Actually she’s a good singer. I only knew her after all the situation was solved. We talked and I even apologized, ‘cause maybe she was the one who got used in the whole story. What people need to understand, and that’s why I’m insisting, is that TT was sick and when he took all those decisions, he was already under his illness effects. All those bizarre ideas he had were because of his illness, he was really bad. The Finnish tabloids published a pic of him which got pretty famous: he was laid down in roulette wheel table in a casino in Helsinki with a lot of dollars around him and totally covered by his puke. And with Miss K by his side [laughs]. And I thought: “But this ain’t the TT I know, it has never been the kind of publicity the Stratovarius members wanted”. But sometimes you have to deal with weird and unexpected situations in your life. Another thing I’ve learnt about maniac depressives is that they usually manifest auto destructive tendencies. And if you think carefully, what would be the most destructive thing that could happen to Stratovarius? Firing TK and putting a female vocalist in his place would be one to consider seriously [laughs].
Why the hell one would do such a shitty thing? There’s no explanation. It was like a kick in the fans ass! How could get any worse? Tell me a better way to destroy the band, because I really can’t think of anything else. But those things came from a maniac mind.
RB – Anyway, didn’t she contribute, artistically and musically talking, in any way to the band? She was threw into this situation, got fired then and her presence in the band made no difference. Or was it different?
JM – Well, she didn’t know the guys very well, she didn’t even knew where she was getting into. When it happened, to her it sounded like an unique opportunity. She thought “This band is popular in the whole wide world, went gold in Finland several times, it’ll be great to make part of it”. But she never had the time to do anything. Actually, there are some demos where she’s singing, but it’s the kind of stuff I hope people can never listen to [laughs]. That’s stuff in a very preliminary phase, TT was still checking if her voice could fit in. Anyway, you didn’t need much to realize it would never work out. You listen to her voice and it’s impossible to imagine her singing Black Diamond. Maybe in a different version it might go, but it’d have to be a so different version that wouldn’t even get close of the usual Stratovarius approach.
RB – The fans reaction towards Miss K were very negative, at least in Brazil. Inclusive a brazilian fan sent her through mail a box full of shit. Have you seen similar reaction in Europe or in another country?
JM – [laughing] I think brazilian fans may have a hotter blood. But the general opinion was sort of like that, in other words, nobody could understand what the hell was happening. The fans got extremely disappointed. It’s obvious that some more fanatical stood by TT’s side. They wrote in the internet things like “TT never took wrong decisions, so how could we judge something if we even listened to it?”. Even though, the big majority got disappointed and I’m sure the band lost lots of fans through this period. I’m not sure if it also happened in Brazil, but there was a time in Europe that Stratovarius records simply stopped selling. During some months I think we haven’t sell a single copy [laughs]. In France, for example, the stores began to send back the records to the distributors. It means all that situation reflected really negatively in the band. But the worst thing is the fans felt betrayed. And I understand that because I’m also a fan and I felt like that for my favorite bands such as Judas Priest and Mötley Crüe and even KISS. In my case, Judas is the best example. They betrayed my dreams! In my mind they were friends that played together in a band, had fun together, they were doing all that they wanted to do and made of their hobbies a profession. Then, all of a sudden Halford leaves the band and start to say that this kind of music is crap! It’s obvious you’ll feel betrayed. Although I was the biggest die hard fan of the whole world I practically quit listening to Judas Priest. That’s why I understood totally the Stratovarius fans reaction. On the other hand, I grew wiser and learnt that there’s nothing wrong in changing your mind. So, you’ve got to forgive people if they decided to develop something new in their lives. There’s nothing wrong about changing, as long as you don’t get crazy and start to hurt another people, such as what happened to Stratovarius and to TT.
RB – Do you think if TT never had a collapse and went to the hospital, where he could get proper treatment and so on, he would have keep Miss K in the band and all that weird ideas? Then, consequently, you and TK would still be out?
JM – I think if he had been forced to deal with his mental problems before, he would even have those crazy ideas, such as put a female vocalist in the band. When he finally had a collapse and came back to reality, seeing what he has done he thought “God, what did I do?”. So, if he kept on being a normal person, even if there were some problems, they could have been solved in the proper way. But his ideas were already his madness manifestation. If he was feeling good would never thought about the possibility of replacing TK with a female vocalist. She would never manage to sing Stratovarius songs, never. I don’t have a clue about what TT thought he could do with her in the band.
RB – Did she sing in another band before? What’s she doing now?
JM – Yes, she had a band sort of grunge, pop rock. As I said, she’s not a bad singer. On the contrary, she sings very well. Besides, TT is a great musician, an excellent producer, he knows what he’s doing. Well, he usually knows what he’s doing [laughs].
Anyway, I think she’ll record a solo album and he’ll help her. But it’s obvious that’s gonna be a project which have nothing to do with Stratovarius.
RB – We were talking about those festivals you’ve made with the original line up even with all the troubles inside the band. I believe you were kind of forced to do those festivals, because of contractual clauses or because the band was broken and needed money. But it was clear the band was torn apart, that’s why I believe it must’ve been very difficult to play in those days. How did you felt?
JM – As I said, I think somehow it was positive. Undoubtedly it was a very hard time, specially to TT, because he was taking a lot of medicines. As you know those anti depressives ruin you physically, that’s why it wasn’t easy for him to play in all those gigs. Considering that, we tried to make things as easier as we could to him, and that sort of united us. Somehow those festivals made us able to play together again, because probably we wouldn’t do it if we weren’t forced to. And with those festivals, we were really forced to show up as a band again. The only bad thing was that gig in Spain. It was a terrible night, but in the other gigs we really tried to play and present a good gig. Besides, the fans reaction in those gigs were another sign that the fans had forgiven us, they seemed really happy in seeing us playing together again. And that’s why I see those festivals as something positive, since then we began to get closer once again.
RB – I wanted to talk a bit about that gig in Spain. Did the crowd realize the way TT was? Did they realize he was totally drunk and ruined, that he couldn’t play?
JM – Sincerely, I think the crowd even noticed what was happening. There was a north american couple in that gig. As you know we never played in the US before, so they went to Spain to see us. But that couple send us an email later, telling that gig was the best of their entire lives [laughs].
C’mon, gimme a break, that gig was pure crap. It’s a shame they’ve never seen a real Stratovarius gig. But it’s impressing, even drunk the way he was, TT could play the guitar. Somehow he’s got this skill, that’s why the bigger problems weren’t about mistakes or that sort of thing, but the way the gig was conduced, the atmosphere. That stuff of throwing away the guitars has nothing to do with Stratovarius. And still Jens pissed on stage...
RB – Yes, that was unbelievable! When I read on the web he did it I thought it was a rumor. But after a few days, I saw a pic and there was Jens literally pissing on TT’s leg!!!
JM – Oh, you have seen the pic... [laughs]. That was the way Jens found to express his indignation about what was happening. You know, TT seemed to be stuck on the guitar stand, so Jens went there and pissed on his leg to see if he moved and left that place [laughter].
But, fuck, that happened in front of 5 thousand people! Think about it well, could you do that? Even if I tried... I think the piss wouldn’t even flow [laughs]. Actually, now we can laugh about that, but by that time it was complicated, it was a very sad thing in the band career.
RB – Have you talked about that? Because, man, that’s bizarre... the band keyboardist went there and pissed at the guitar player’s leg, that by chance is the leader and the main composer. That’s impossible to remain unspoken...
JM – Actually there’s no reason for confronting the band members. Nobody wants to talk about these things, you know how it is. It’s really embarrassing [laughs]. However, it’s even a good thing we can only feel ashamed now. It’d be terrible if we hated each other because of those things. Anyway, the other gigs were pretty cool and got even better. We played with Europe in Master of Rock at Slovakia and Czech Republic, and it was really really good. Internet isn’t totally spread in those countries and that’s why fans didn’t know much about what was happening. So they were there simply to enjoy a Stratovarius gig, what gave us the sensation of a much more, how can I say, friendly audience. So they were much more cool gigs we played, with a very good energy and by that time the band was visibly getting closer. I’ll give you an example. We traveled with 2 different dressers to those festivals. In the beginning, one of them had the TT, Jens and Jari clothes; the other one had mines and TK’s. In the end everything was messed up, you could find clothes of everybody on both dressers. It’s how I said, when we were sure that TT was sick, we couldn’t blame him for anything. It wasn’t his fault, what happened was consequences of his sick brain. From that moment on, everybody was about to forgive him.
RB – Don’t you think it’s kind of uncomfortable the constant presence of someone so unstable? After all, it the man is nuts, he can feel great now, but you don’t know what he’ll do in the next 2 minutes...
JM – You’re totally right. It’s very difficult to be so near of someone in this situation. Maybe you had already been in contact with people that have such kind of problem, so day after day you learn to recognize the signs of something’s wrong. Right now he’s fine, he’s back on his mind and doesn’t need to take so many medicines. Actually, sometimes he doesn’t take any for days. Of course he’s constantly under medical observation. Once we’re on tour we’re gonna have someone to take care of him as well. But he’s feeling fine quite all the time. One who doesn’t know him wouldn’t even tell there’s something wrong with him. It’s important to say that because I don’t want to make him looks like a completely lunatic [laughs]. Besides Stratovarius means so much to us that’s worth to do all these little sacrifices. None of us has never had so much success in another band before and we were never treated just as hired musicians, even if we knew it was TT’s band. It’s our band, we had influence about what happens on it and TT always allowed to be like that. Maybe standing by his side right now is a way of thanking him. And more than that, he’s a great friend. Now there’s something different: we know about his problem, we’re already warned, so the possibility of taking the right decisions is much bigger.
RB – Does TT recognize all this effort you’ve made, specially about TK, in order to bring the band back? Did he explained what happened, or apologized, something like that?
JM – He’s totally aware of the bad situation he caused to all of us. Besides that’s one of the reasons why he got into collapse because he realized the harm he did to all of us, specially to TK. In the beginning he apologized through the internet, which is a particular Finnish way to solve things [laughs]. He apologized a lot of times since then though. I think he’s now much more careful with the things he says. We had lots of reunions since we decided to get back to the band and he showed to be a very open minded person. He really opened his heart to us in several occasions about every kind of matter, some of them we have never talked before. That was nice because we solved a lot of situations that remained unspoken before.
RB – And who called TK back? He came to Brazil last year and even wanted to hear about TT and Stratovarius...
JM – By that time I was on tour with Saxon and had the same feeling towards TK, In other words, he’d never came back to the band. However, I believe Jens had a lot of influence in making TK change his mind, because he knew TT was really sorry about what happened. Actually, Jens was considering the possibility of go on with his solo career, but he also cares for the band. So he kept on working on TT’s mind. And I’ll say it again: it relieved all of us when we knew he went to the hospital. Because we thought “So that’s why we had to stand that asshole doing all that shit in 6 months!”. Finally we understood what was happening, but the kind of treatment TK got was pretty disgusting. So it was much more difficult for him to pass over it. But Jens did a great job on convincing him. Right from the start Jens tried to keep the band united and he worked as some kind of glue. As you know he has never been apart from TT neither from any of us. He kept on touch, asking we shouldn’t take things so seriously, telling we should be calm and patient. And his big effort was made towards TK, he convinced him telling it wasn’t TT’s fault, it was his illness. It’s like when one have cancer. How could you blame that person because of that?
RB – Did you have any doubt about coming back to the band? Or didn’t you ever hesitate? What about TK?
JM – One of those days, when TT was still in the hospital, me, Jens and TT talked something like 6 hours about everything that was happening. At a certain point I told TT “I still consider I’m your friend and I’ll be there if you need me”. Somehow it was a bit strange to see him working on the new album, because in the beginning he couldn’t work more than half an hour per day. Even though I never doubted I’d come back to the band. Concerning TK, I think it was nice he recorded another solo album, so he proved to himself he could have a solo career. That was good for his ego and also to make him sure there were another ways of keeping on with a band. When you spend too much time in a band with an unquestionable leader, which is TT’s case in Stratovarius, you lose somehow your self confidence. So it’s good to know that in your solo project you can also play in South America, Europe and so on. He recovered his self confidence and people can’t say he came back to Stratovarius only because he hadn’t another option.
RB – How was the first band meeting with all of you together again? How did it felt?
JM – Well, we’ve met but we didn’t play anything. We went to TK’s apartment, had sauna and drank vodka as hell [laughs]. Actually, we didn’t talk that much, but it was really funny to be with the same guys again. Of course we told TT we’d help him and he could call us anytime he needed. We only talked about music on the next day, about what we’d do with the band from now on. TT had already done a lot of things to this new record and he showed us the demos. We didn’t know what to expect because of all that situation, we felt we were starting again, like a small band, but between friends once again. Everything got ok once again when we finally met in January and Jens announced in our site that we were back with the classical line up. Since then things got defined. However, our first feeling was of uncertainty because we didn’t know how we would be received by the industry, the fans, this kind of things.
RB – What about the recording sections? It’s an album a bit different from the last ones, so how do you think people will react?
JM – There are some different things, but it’s still Stratovarius, it’s still TT behind it all. Even though, how we record it was totally different. When TT had a collapse I was recording the drums. It means I recorded the whole fucking album completely on my own while he was in the hospital [laughs]. Luckily I had already listened to the demos several times and everything was in my mind. Even so I had to record all my parts 3 times, so it could give as many alternatives as possible for TT to choose. The funniest thing is that I record 3 different versions to each song and still he chose the simplest ones. I think he didn’t want to have too much work [laughs]. Only to choose which drum line he should use was an enormous headache. Actually, I thought we should rewrite the whole album. However, in December 2004, when we listened to the pre-production, we saw it was exactly what Stratovarius should do in that moment. Although the music was different there was still identity. If you pick the Queensrÿche albums from Operation till Mindcrime you’ll see that it’s a totally different band, which sounds kinda grunge nowadays. Let’s pick Metallica. They started as a speed metal band with albums such as Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. Then, they recorded the Black album, which is different, but it’s still Metallica.
RB – But now they recorded St. Anger and it’s not Metallica anymore...
JM – Ok, but I’m talking about the changes till the Black Album. I think it’s the same change Stratovarius have faced. For instance, you won’t find in the new record all that double bass as it was usual, but still you’ll find a lot of characteristics of my way of playing. There’s no more extremely high screams such as the ones TK sang in the previous Stratovarius albums, but it’s still TK singing. And as a complement, although it’s a heavier album than the others it’s still there the melancholy in TT’s compositions, that particular Finnish sadness which has always been one of the Stratovarius characteristics. Anyway, I wanted to tell you a secret. It’ll be really good to know the fans opinions but this album is certainly the most difficult one I ever recorded. And I know it was also the most difficult to the other guys too, specially to TT. That’s why the fact of this album is here it’s already a big success. We’re all really proud of it!
Rock Brigade (Português): http://www.rockbrigade.com.br
Rock Brigade (Castellano): http://www.rockbrigade.com.br/espanol
Rock Brigade (English): http://www.rockbrigade.com.br/english
What a GREAT interview! It brought tears to my eyes! It gave me a newer prospective on the whole Stratovarius Mess of the past. Now that the whole story has been told&explained, we all should be able to totally move on.
