Yes….2005. It was the tour for that album

Well… I was playing on a compilation album that was made in Finland called Guitar Heroes. I was involved in this show they put on when the album was coming out. I was listening to him warm up there. He actually played a guest solo on the album…there was lot of guitar players. He was opening up there and he sort of blew everybody away. I really noticed him and went hmmm….this is somebody we need to use!

I never really understood that the feelings were so bad…..

But I wouldn’t say that the feelings were really that bad. But it’s very easy now…much more relaxed because people can communicate easier face to face. At some point….2006/2007, there was really no face to face communication you know it was behind backs and via E-mails and such. But now with the band, we can sit together face to face.

That’s only one reason why we feel rejuvenated. There’s a new hunger and everything feels new rather than what it was. It’s a whole new situation. I think the album we did was good and now I think there’s a new solid ground to build on.

Some new sounds too I’d say.

In a way, Infinite was the last sort of normal Stratovarius album

No I didn’t even play on that one. I arrived when it came out just in time to do the tour.

It’s different. I can’t say whether it’s a lot better because Timo Tolkki was a genius writer in his prime if you ask me. It’s just different now and it opens up a lot of new possibilities in music in that way. I’m not really the one to say whether or not it’s better, we’re just making music and we hope that the people enjoy it.

Maybe at some point but that was always the deal.

We actually did a lot of festivals!

The festivals were a bit easier because of the new configuration. But we had to break in our new guitar player and we were a little nervous about the audience’s reactions as to whether they were going to hate us or like us. But when you’re in a festival, people come top see all sorts of bands and we were just a part of it. We were still a little uncertain as to whether people will accept the new Stratovarius. So this tour will be very interesting in that way. I mean we just finished playing in Japan and China and it went fantastically well. Everybody was very much into it.

It’s been like 99.99% positive….surprisingly positive for us. It’s very good because times have been very tough and it has taken a psychological toll on everybody.

No not really but I do know that this leg, the North American leg….it’s not the leg that we do for money. We do it because we wanted to do it. We never know if it will be possible to come back here. We just try to make enough just to keep the bus rolling.

I would say that if we get 300 here tonight, I would be really, really happy. If we get 50 I’m happy. You know if there’s a person up front smiling there and enjoying themselves, then I’m happy. You know we’re just spreading the word playing gigs and as I said, we have no expectations for North American shows. It’s a tough market for us and metal fans in general prefer a different type of metal than this European melodic metal.

Stratovarius, I think in the genre of power metal is one of the originators. Along with what bands like Helloween were before that. They were the ones who really started that. It’s not like Stratovarius suddenly started doing this melodic power metal cause it’s been building from that. We’re not really going back to anywhere. The style of the band is evolving all the time especially now that we have Matias bringing new stuff….everybody’s bringing new stuff to the table…me as well of course. I also think that when we did the Polaris album, for the songs, everybody’s was writing. For my songs, I had them already demoed when I brought them to the band. They all started sounding like Stratovarius when the guys started playing them. The style is rooted so deeply in the playing style of Jorg Michael and Jens Johannson and Timo Kotipelto. I even think that if you put some very different songs with these guys playing, it would still sound like Stratovarius.

I do music all the time. I’ve actually been doing score work for movies and television in Finland lately. I just finished a trilogy series just before I came here. That and solo albums. I’ve started my third solo album. I am also studio musician in Finland so I do pop sessions whatever. I played on the new Idols winners album from Finland….that’s what I do.

Yes.

But you know, I’ve been studying music since I was 5 years old. I think I was sort of born into it. It wasn’t like most who say “I wanna be in a rock ‘n roll band”. I’ve studied and so I consider myself to have the skill to be a professional musician. You need to also have versatility and its something you have to go to school for if you want to be a professional. Much in the same way you would go to school to study something like architecture. Some of the greatest musicians of all time never formally studied…..say Jimi Hendrix for example. He never did study formally but could create everything which I then later studied at school. I was looking to be an all-round musician. The fact that I’m a heavy metal bass player doesn’t mean I can’t express myself musically in many different ways.

When I was growing up, Cliff Burton was a big influence and Flea, Les Claypool and also a Finnish bass player Pekka Pakula…..very heavy influence. A progressive rock dude from the 70’s who just died earlier this year. Geddy Lee as well. A lot of bass players. I even have my jazz phase with all the records….Jaco Pastorius. I think nowadays more of my influences come from just music in general. I’m also into a lot of soundtrack and ethnic stuff at the moment.

When I’m playing rock and metal music. I’m always playing ESP basses. I just got a new custom model from Japan. I now have 2 custom made ones that I helped to design for myself. I use Ampeg for amps. You can’t go wrong with them.

I have a distortion pedal as I definitely want to have a distorted sound when I’m playing rock music. Back at home I have a bunch of stuff….old Fenders, other custom stuff. I just bought a Chinese violin when we were in China a couple of weeks back. I keep gathering instruments and sounds all the time. For playing rock and metal music, my basses are all based on the Fender design; bolt-on neck, single coil pickups.

Yes…..definitely. I saw the future as being very bright in 2007 before Tolkki left. We were happy and doing well. One thing I’ve learned is to repect the moment. You know today, I’m here in Toronto. It’s a magnificent gift as it has been taken away so many times. I think that things are looking really good. I really don’t want to look more than 2 years ahead because of the turmoil that this band has had.

I’m just very, very happy to be here and want to thank everyone for their continued support and for coming out to the shows….