Mike Terrana
Don’t Wanna Be Normal

12.02.2015

Mike Terrana is well-known to the Russian audience because of his playing with such rock stars as Yngwie Malmsteen. Oh, I was going to say Axel Rudi Pell. Wait a moment, it’s Tarja Turunen. Or maybe Masterplan, Rage or Gamma Ray? Well, actually all of this is true and if it’s not enough for you, you are welcome to visit the Wikipedia page on Mike for several dozens of other names. Because of his diversity Mr. Terrana has become famous not as a member of some band, but more as an independent artist, and it is this capacity in which he’s going to visit Russia’s capital cities in a couple of days. The drummer doesn’t like to call these performances drum clinics, though. He claims his shows are interesting not only for his colleagues but also for all music lovers. We called him in Los Angeles in order to find out some more details about the events, due in St. Petersburg on February 13 and in Moscow on February 15. Our conversation turned out very long and maybe a bit philosophical. But if you haven’t found an answer to your question to Mike here, feel free to ask him directly during any of the shows. He promised us to answer each and every one of them.

Thank you for agreeing to talk to us! Are you ready for your upcoming Russian tour? Have you already got your visa?

Yeah, my passport is full of Russian visas, so it’s becoming very normal for me to travel to Russia. I think it’s a great place to play. I grew up during the cold war when the relations between the U.S. and Russia were very bad, we didn’t know anything about Russia. I never thought that I would have a chance to visit this country or to have Russian friends, let alone play rock’n’roll music there. I know guys of my age who used to buy rock’n’roll bootleg records and run and hide because they were not allowed to have them. That’s very strange for me but that was happening, but things have changed a lot and I travel a lot and I’ve seen how people live all over the world. I think, basically we are all the same, basically people just wanna have a good life. They wanna laugh, they wanna listen to music, to have a little bit of money, something to eat. It’s pretty simple.  

Right. But with all this situation in Russia…

You mean the financial crisis? Is that what’s going on?

Yeah, and bad relations between Russia and… well, pretty much the whole world. A lot of bands are cancelling their tours, and you are still coming. That’s great!

Well, I go to Kiev a lot and I know there are some problems down there, but… I think, the media, that’s the problem!  I don’t even think about that. I just go there to play music and every time I go there no matter what the political climate might be I’ve always been treated well and had a good time. I love playing in Russia, that’s cool. And I think it’s the new frontier, to be honest with you. I’m in Los Angeles right now and rock’n’roll is pretty much dead here. You can’t even play in a bar. I know a lot of guys who are just walking around looking for a job. Great musicians looking for work! There’s no work here. So I’m very happy and fortunate to be able to come to Russia and play at that market. I have people come and watch me playing drums and appreciate the art of what I’m doing, the art of making music. It’s still alive there. I don’t have any problems with politics.

I know you have kind of special relations with Russia, even an account on VK.com…

Yes. The thing is I started my own band called Terrana and I also do a lot of shows over there with Beauty & The Beat project, with a lot of different rock bands. And I said, “Ok, it’s a good way for me to expose my music and my projects to the Russian people. Why not?” For me social media is the only way for an artist to reach his audience. There are no more record companies. My band, Terrana, is a three-piece rock band, I financed everything and I’m basically the record company, the manager, the director of operations so to speak. And you know, the only way to reach Russian people or people in general is through these social media networks. I have four or five Facebook accounts, I have two VK accounts. Youtube, Twitter – I use all this stuff. It’s a full-time job actually. I’m busy. I’m probably working, like, ten hours a day. It’s crazy! It’s a whole interview in itself but in general I’ll just say, it all came back to the musician – the promotion, the writing, the booking of the band. And I feel that the social media networks allow us to communicate with the fans directly. I think it’s cool. I know of guys playing in bands who don’t talk to the fans. I don’t know what they think, if they are too cool or too lazy but I try to answer everyone, I talk to everyone.  I think that’s what the social media was invented for: to rebuild relations between the people.

Tell me some more about your clinics. Is there a special program or are you just answering questions from the audience?

Ok, I just wanna say, I’m not really a teacher. I mean, people are not gonna come and walk away and say, “Yeah, I saw Mike Terrana and now I can play drums”. (laughs) I’m not teaching somebody to play drums. When you play to a mass audience whether they are drummers or just people, just music lovers, they are all on different levels of understanding of the music. So you can’t really teach a group. But people wanna ask me questions. I’ll answer any of their questions about drumming, about music, about my personal life – I don’t care, it’s all good, it’s just a discussion, you know, a chance for people to come and share things with me and with each other. And hopefully if you like music, if you like drumming and classical music, you can come and watch me play and maybe walk away with a good feeling. You’ll get some entertainment, maybe you’ll be inspired to go home and practice… I really don’t like to call it a clinic, I’d like to call it a solo drum performance. It’s just a way for me to play my art form in a more concentrated manner. I like to entertain people, I like to make jokes, I like to see people laughing, I love the music that I’m playing. It’s just a show, you know. It’s not really a school, it’s not a program. I think, people go to school all day, they go to work all day and they wanna come to a show and have a good time and an entertainment.

So it’s not just for drummers, right?

No, it’s not just for drummers. It’s for anyone, for the fans of any of the bands I’m playing in, for people interested in drumming or just interested in how one specific artist – whether it is a drummer or a guitar player – creates his art. Just to get people an insight. I myself, I read a lot of autobiographies, I’m very interested in how people got to where they are and what kind of struggles they went through to get to their goals when they were younger. And I think everyone is going through struggles. Even if you’re not a drummer you might be starting your own business, you might wanna be an artist or a painter. It’s all pretty much the same, we all have to go through this kind of hierarchy of struggle. Life is a struggle. (laughs) And that’s what makes it interesting. We say in America, “Half the fun is getting there”.

But you have some educational programs, don’t you?

Yeah, I have a couple of instructional videos and I’m working on a few books right now. Those are basically geared and focused for the people who play drums or want to learn drumming, and of course it’s about techniques and improving speed, beats and grooves, it’s really complicated. And maybe it’s just too boring for someone who’s just a music lover and not interested in the details of drumming. It can be interesting for kids who play in a school band or something. To be honest with you, I didn’t take lessons to play drums. No one showed me how to play drums, I just do it. So why am I going to stand there and teach somebody, “This is how Mike Terrana does it”? I think it’s more interesting if someone gets behind the drums and just expresses themselves. Or any other instrument. I know a lot of guys who play piano or saxophone, they never took a lesson. They just play and they play beautiful! I think playing a musical instrument is an expression of what is inside your soul, and when you do that you touch other people. That’s what music is all about. Music is not a mechanical operation. You can play scales, you can play exercises, you can play fast. But are you gonna say anything? Are you gonna move anybody? Are you gonna emotionally touch someone and leave them with a good feeling? That’s the art of making music and that’s what people need to understand. And that’s what I’ll tell them at the clinic, haha. (laughs) And more.

Do you have any classical music education?

No, nothing. And I didn’t take any singing lessons. I’ve never even sung before. I just do it. I know, it sounds strange but I never took any lessons. To be honest with you I don’t really think that school is the answer for everything. Of course you need to study some things if you wanna be a surgeon or a pilot, but when it comes to something like drumming… It’s art! There are no rules in art! The people that break the rules are the ones that really push the envelope and create something new. It’s easy to be a follower, it’s hard to be someone who is a trendsetter to create something new. If you look at a guy like Eddie Van Halen, he came out, he changed the face of guitar playing because he did something new. There was no rulebook for him! You see? That’s how it works.

Yeah, I see. By the way, talking about your singing. I know you were going to record an album with covers on Frank Sinatra. How is it going?

I haven’t started working on it.  I’m in Los Angeles at the moment. When I get back to Europe after the Russian shows I will start to do the preproduction for this album. I’m gonna sing some of my favorite Sinatra songs. I love Frank Sinatra, I love swing music and I’m just doing it for fun. (laughs) I don’t know if I can do anything with it, if anyone wants this… I don’t really care, I just wanna make it. (laughs) It’s fun for me.

Great! Can we now talk about your new band?  Why did you decide to start a band, why not another solo album?

Well, I’ve made several solo albums, like some jazz and fusion records, and then I did Sinfonica (2011) which was a classical album. I might do another classical record ‘cause I enjoy playing classical music. But I started my own rock band because I thought it was time. I’m 55 years old and I played for a lot of people, always backing someone up as a sideman, and I thought, “Why don’t you do something for yourself? Do something that you like”. Basically I like the format of a three-piece band. Everyone is singing, both of the other guys are from Italy, from Milano. Fabri Kiarelli is playing guitar and doing vocals and Alberto Bollati is on bass and singing. We write all the songs together, I wrote all the lyrics for the music. It’s really kind of an old-school rock band, in the way people used to do it in the 70s. It’s a real band, you know. Some bands started off in the 70s as bands and now they are corporations. The bands like Aerosmith are more like corporations. So much money and everything, so… I decided to keep it simple, to keep it real. I wanted to create something that was easy to take on tour, three guys is a lot easier to move than five guys. I can’t wait to bring the band to Russia and to other parts of the world, South America and stuff. We just finished our first tour, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Switzerland… And we did some shows in Italy. We did 15 shows and it was good. It’s a good little band. I mean, the world doesn’t need a new rock band. There are enough rock bands, you know. (laughs) I called the band Terrana because I think a lot of people know my name. I didn’t do it for my ego, it’s not really an ego stroke. I just did it because people know my name. That’s it. It’s a straight up little band almost with a punk rock mentality. The record is out now, it’s rock’n’roll music with a positive message. I think it’s happy music and I like it. And it’s fun, we have a lot of fun together.

Are you also singing there?

I sing basically back-ups. I mean, Alberto and Fabri are really great singers, they have a lot of experience singing live with various other projects they’ve been involved with in the past years. So I let them do the singing, the real singing and I sing one or two songs alone, but I’m basically singing back-ups and harmonies with the band. Which is a lot of fun! That’s something new for me. The whole thing was a learning experience, you know. Creating music together, - it’s been a lot of time since I’ve done that, since I’ve been a part of the writing process. I was able to write lyrics, which expresses another side of me. I’ve always been interested in literature and poetry, I read a lot and I’m thinking a lot. I have a lot of things to say. I like to write lyrics about positive things, I like to twist things… I think that lyrics should mean something to everyone who reads them, they can mean something different. How you interpret the lyrics is your problem, not my problem; I know what I was trying to say, but I think it’s better when people can just kind of guess what I meant. When they are kind of cryptic.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of musicians who write lyrics about social problems, wars, that sort of things…

I hate this. I’m really not into this ugly aggressive music where the guys are, “Aghhh” (imitating growling) I can hear, like, one song and then I’m done.  All songs are the same to me. I don’t know what the hell they are saying. There are blast beats, the music is so fast, it’s all snare drum. It’s not groovy, it’s not sexy and they are singing about wars or hatred, and you know what? You don’t have to go very far to find something ugly and negative in the world today. I try to write about stuff that is happy and positive so that when you listen to the music it takes you somewhere. It should transfer you to a better place. That’s how music was in the 70s! I remember sitting down smoking a joint, drinking a beer, listening to Led Zeppelin…  I felt good! I don’t wanna feel bad when I listen to music! And I don’t wanna feel bad when I play it! So I see some of these bands that are really messing around with a lot of negative energy and their music gives me a bad feeling, and I turn it off. That’s why I listen to Frank Sinatra. His music is not necessarily romantic, but it’s storytelling. You can understanding the lyrics, the melodies are beautiful, the orchestration is beautiful, it’s well-recorded. You put that on, you can talk, you can read. It’s not obtrusive. You know, some music is just so! It’s so aggressive and obtrusive that I’ve trouble listening to it! Sorry to say that, but the way the music is made today with computers is really ugly. This is why I left Rage. I left Rage because they kept making music with the computers, fixing everything and taking away the human feel. And you know what? They’ve just stopped working together! It’s over!

Yeah, I heard about that, like, yesterday.

Actually, it was over when I left ten years ago, they just didn’t realize it. So they beat that dead horse for ten years. I want to go back with my band, I want to make organic rock’n’roll music. The Rage music, those Rage records I made, I can’t even listen to them. They computerized my drumming. It’s shit! That’s why I stopped. I told them to stop it, to leave me alone! Leave my drumming alone! Don’t put samples upon my drums! I know how to turn my drums, let me have my artistic expression! But they kept killing and masking it! To the point where I left.  

So you were not surprised to hear about their splitting up?

No. Actually, I think they should have split up when I left. Because it was over then. They really went down the wrong road, but they were too blind to see it. You know, being a musician is not easy. You have to really understand yourself, you have to understand your audience. When you lose your soul, if you’re writing music that you think people wanna hear, you’re going down the wrong road. If you’re making music for money, you’re really going down the wrong road. And they used to tell everyone that I only play drums for money. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I used to make jokes about it, you know, but they twisted around what I meant. I make music as an expression, as an art of self-expression, ok? And I’m still going. I make many different kind of music and they kept doing the same thing over and over and over again. You know the definition of madness? The definition of madness is when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That’s what they have done. That’s why it’s over for them and that’s why I’m still going on as a solo artist, as a sideman and as a band member.

I haven’t heard this definition before, but I have to agree with it.

I agree with that, too. The thing is that I tried to tell them that, but they wouldn’t listen. Because they think they are the smart ones. The singer and the guitar player are always the smartest guys in the band!  No! (laughs) This is bullshit! (laughs) Really, I’m tired of that whole heavy metal hierarchy. Heavy metal is actually probably one of the worst environments to try to stay in, because there are so many rules. They think they are so cool breaking the rules, but actually they have more rules than any other genre of music. Heavy metal has changed a lot since I was a young guy. We can talk about that forever, but I’m glad you let me express myself about Rage.

Well, the thing is I talked to them, maybe, two months ago and there were no signs of what happened.  So I was really surprised.

I’m not surprised at all. Actually I knew this was gonna happen four months before it happened. I also think the way they announced it is kind of sad. It’s like, “Ok, now we’re giving up”. They, like, officially announced that they are giving up. It’s strange. And you know what? People who give up suck anyway! I’m not gonna do that! I’m 55 years old, I’m in better shape than ever, I play drums better than ever, I have a very clear picture, a vision of what I wanna do. I’ve always had a clear picture of what I wanted to do since I was a young man. And I’ll tell you something. When it’s over, I will just disappear, ok? I’m not going to officially announce that I quit. Quit is for pussies!

And what needs to happen to make you think it’s over?

Probably there should come a day when I can’t get up and move myself the way I’m moving now. When that happens, I have to say it’s over. We’re biomechanical machines. I try to take the best care of myself as possible, physically and mentally, but sooner or later the body breaks down. I’m not sitting and putting on face cream and trying to look young, I’m just trying to eat good, I exercise, I practice, I take care of myself, I try to grow mentally and spiritually… But there will come a day eventually when maybe I can’t remember my fucking name or I can’t pick up my luggage and get out of a fucking airplane and then it’s over! And then I will go to sit somewhere at the beach and run rollerblades and watch the sun go down and remember all the things that I did. The thing about life is people think that life is about getting rich and getting famous. For me, life is about doing everything you wanted to do. That’s what I do. I do everything I want to do right now. So that when I’m sitting in a chair at the age of 80 – if I make it that far – I have my memories. And those are the only things you gonna take with you when you die, when you are transported from this planet to another dimension or wherever our energy goes. The only things you gonna take with you are your life experiences, ok? The money, the girls, all the bullshit you paid for… Someone else is gonna have it. Someone else is gonna sell it or use it. People don’t think in that broad spectrum. I’ve always thought like that, even when I was younger. I’m a kind of person that I only take what I need. I’m in America right now, I see people consuming … Not consuming, over-consuming! It’s scary! People here are so fat they can’t even walk! It’s disgusting! They are handicapped. They are eating, and eating, and eating… Why? Because they can. They are over-shopping , over-buying. I’ve got an iPad, I’ve got an iPhone, I’ve got an iMac, I’ve got a car, I’ve got a house… You know what, man? You’re just a rat in a wheel! They want you running, working and buying. And then die. (laughs) I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in living, I’m interested in creating, I’m interested in critical thinking. I haven’t watched television in 18 years! However, I’m on these social networks, so I am being manipulated and I get propaganda from Facebook and other things. It’s all there, you know. How much of this content is real? I don’t really know. But I try to read, I try to stay alone with myself and my thoughts, I try to think about things, I question things, I even question myself. I’m alone most of the time and I found that I have very good relations with myself. I’m not lonely, I’m alone. There is a big fucking difference. I think’ that’s the problem with a lot of people, here in America, the television is always on. Turn that shit off so you can think! People don’t wanna be alone to think, because then they might realize that they are not doing very well. Or they might find some inconsistencies in their personalities. Believe me, I know all of my bad points. I can tell you all my bad points and I’ve come to terms with that.

That would be interesting…

Yeah, it is interesting. I think, that’s what is making me. I actually think that’s what is making me an interesting person. I’ve talked to people from all over the world, I’m very open-minded and I understand myself. I know how I can fit into the big picture. I also found that my travelling around alone, it leaves you open to meet so many other people. If you’re always in a group, if you’re hiding in your little tribe, you’re blocked off. You might as well be at home! You’re not open for new contacts. So I find it better to be alone. I meet people, I talk to people whether I’m in a gym, or I’m in a shop or whatever. You really learn a lot and it changes you. I know I’m a strange guy. I’m not a normal person. And you know what? I don’t wanna be normal. Normal for me is becoming a card-carrying member of the walking dead. There is a lot of that going on. It’s really easy to just wake up and do your fucking toil.

Have you ever done anything you didn’t want to?

Of course. When I was younger I had a lot of jobs because we all have to survive. I always had my dream, I wanted to be a drummer. Not a rock star, a drummer, right? Maybe Mick Jagger is a rock star, I don’t know. Somebody of that caliber. So when I was younger I had a lot of jobs that I didn’t wanna do. I remember complaining to my mother, and she said, “Mike, we all have to do things we don’t wanna do”. So, I remember, when I was 19 years old I was a garbage man in New York. I used to wake up every morning at 5 o’clock and hang on in the back of a garbage truck and pick up garbage. It was a good job, actually. I made a lot of money, I learned how to work, I learned how hard it can be to wake up every morning and go to work, and how hard it is to make money. Also I bought a lot of stuff. I re-invested the money in my drumming career, I practiced hard. Actually, I worked a lot of different jobs when I was a kid and most of them I didn’t like of course. Because I wasn’t interested in that, I was interested in being a musician, a drummer. I also have a degree in electrical engineering. My education helped me to be more rounded, to learn and to grow as a person. But I really had no aptitude for engineering. I’m a drummer! I wanted to be a professional drummer since the age of 16. And now at the age of 55 I wake up in the morning and I can say, “Yes, I am Mike Terrana. I created Mike Terrana, I created myself, I created my own reality and I paid my dues”. And that’s another thing I can talk about at the clinic. Whatever you do in life, whatever you choose, you’re gonna have to pay the piper. There is a price that has to be paid for everything in life. We all have our dreams, we all must make our sacrifices in order to get to our goal. So yeah, I’ve done a lot of things I didn’t want to do. I still am, still doing it, still paying the dues. It never ends. Life is a struggle. But the thing is, life is series of solving problems and getting over hurdles but if you are doing something that you love then it becomes fun. If you go to work every day and you don’t even care about what you are doing, you spend eight hours in this prison… Well, it’s kind of waste of the time. That’s what I try to tell the young people.

Well, that’s great. But I still have some questions about your visits to Russia. You are coming here in May with Tarja and Beauty and the Beat project. Will there be the same program as two years ago, or maybe something new?

Well, there will be some new things. We’re still working on them right now ‘cause the tour is still five months away. I think next month or two we’ll start to really put that all together. I can’t say too much about the program yet, but there will be some changes, yes.

Aren’t you tired of playing in a dress coat?

No, I actually like wearing the suit. I think it looks cool. You know, when I was a kid I grew up watching drummers like Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson, they played jazz and they always wore suits. It’s not easy to play drums in a suit and these guys were great drummers, so… I have a whole new appreciation for that. I enjoy it! I think it looks cool and I think it’s a nice way to go on stage if you’re playing with an orchestra.

How did you play all this classical music? Did you memorize it or did you just read the music sheets?

Well, I do read music, but I’m not a sight reader. I’m not a classically trained musician, I didn’t go to school, I’m self-taught. What I did was I created my record Sinfonica and I basically locked myself in a studio and I wrote my own drum parts to the music. Then I recorded myself playing along with the orchestra pieces to make sure all the parts worked. And then of course I memorized it, yes. I don’t read the music from the paper. The orchestra members are reading, these people are on a whole other level, they trained for years since their childhood to sight-read music, to interpret the classics, and I didn’t really have this opportunity as a young man. I respect them and I respect the conductors and it’s really a pleasure for me to be associated with that level of musicianship and quality. It’s nice. I learned a lot from those people.

Is there a big difference between classical musician and rock musicians?

Yes, there is a very big difference. And I would say there are good points and bad points. Rockers, jazz and blues guys, we jam, we practice, and we write music together. You know, classical musicians would just read the music of the paper, they wouldn’t jam. In most cases they don’t write their own music. And when they work, they work almost like they’re on a factory. There is this lunch time, at twelve they put down their instruments and they’re out to have lunch. Rockers might jam, “Oh, I’ll take lunch two hours later. It doesn’t matter even if we eat lunch. Let’s keep going!” The orchestra really functions as a factory, and I guess it has to! Because there are maybe 80 or 90 people there! It has to be like that. You know, in a rock band you might have three, four or five guys and it’s more loose. Most rock musicians don’t read music, we don’t transcribe our parts on paper, we just play from the heart. It’s a completely different mindset. But the combination of classic and rock or maybe jazz, I think, it’s very interesting. At the end of the day it’s music.

You’re are known as the sexiest drummer, like, ever. Is Tarja’s husband jealous of her playing with you?

Yes, he is. He is very jealous of me. Everyone is jealous of me. Even my mother. Well, the only reason I’m known as the sexiest drummer in the world is because I said so, haha. (laughs) Actually, I don’t think I’m the sexiest guy, I just said it for a joke.

But if everyone says something, it finally becomes true.

Maybe. But in my case, no!

Ok, but what is true, you are one of the best drummers in the world. Have you ever thought of setting some kind of records? Like speed record, fastest drummer in the world or something?

First of all, it’s nice that someone says I’m one of the best drummers in the world. But that’s definitely not true. (laughs) I’m just happy that some people know who I am and appreciate what I do. And I’ve got a lot of friends who are drummers themselves and a lot of these guys are much better than me. I don’t have a problem with that. I have no ego, I’m never jealous. If I see someone who’s playing really great, the first thing I do is watch him or her and the second thing is go and say, “Wow, you are really great!” It’s fun, I love to watch a great drummer playing. In terms of trying to set some kind of speed record, no. Definitely not. As a matter of fact, I think this is ridiculous, I think that’s not what drumming is about, that’s not what music is about. But if someone wants to go ahead and do that, that’s cool. I’m fine with that. It’s funny, but I wouldn’t do it for myself. It’s not my thing. I just prefer to play music.

I also saw some of great drummers doing different kinds of crazy solos, like Tommy Lee of Motley Crue… What do you think about that?

Yeah, I think that’s great. Tommy Lee of Motley Crue has built a rollercoaster for his drums. I would love to ride on that. But that machine must cost over a million dollars. And it must cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to move that all over the world. So obviously I’m not on the level of Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee is a rock star for sure and he is also a great drummer. And he is also an entertainer, so I think it’s cool if you have the money to build something like that and entertain people and really make something special. Why not? I would love to do it. I’m just not financially able to do those kinds of things. I try to create nice-looking drum sets and I try to do my best to entertain people in another way, in a cheaper way. (laughs)

I also wanted to ask if you keep in touch with any of your former bandmates. You’ve already talked a lot about Rage, but what about other people? Roland Grapow, maybe?

Yeah, Roland is a friend of mine. We stay in touch from time to time. He is a great guy. A lot of times, some of the band relationships stay on. That’s kind of like when you break up with your boyfriend or you break up with your girlfriend, maybe you stay friends for a while, maybe you stay in touch for a while, but eventually you move on. That’s all.

And the last question, why do you use this nickname, “troll’?

That’s funny, you know. My last name is Terrana and people used to call me “Terrantula”. And then someone started to call me “Spider”. So my nickname was Spider for a while. And when I was in Yngwie Malmsteen’s band it went from Spider to Spike. But I always kind of had the name “Troll” because I’m not the tallest guy in the world and I had this long curly hair. Actually I played in a three-piece band that was called The Trolls. And we all looked like trolls, we had long curly hair. So we were the trolls and I think a troll is a funny little magical creature. So yes, the name “Troll” kind of stuck with me. It’s cool, it’s funny.

Thank you for your time. Do you have any last words for the fans?

Yes, I do. I would like to say thank you for the interview, I’m very happy to come to Russia and play for the Russian people in Moscow and St.Petersburg. These are both beautiful cities. And I feel very fortunate and blessed that people know me over there. I’m looking forward to see everybody. Everybody who wants to come down, please, come and we’ll have a lot of fun together.

Mike Terrana on the Internet: http://www.terrana.com

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova for arranging this interview

Ekaterina Akopova
February 4, 2015
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