Kotipelto
Last Defender

20.08.2007

The previous solo album by Finnish singer Timo Kotipelto (“Coldness”, 2004) was a very dark and melancholic affair, moreover, its release coincided with a series of widely-publicized scandals in Timo’s main band Stratovarius. It’s no wonder that during the interview we did back then, the singer was reserved and not particularly happy, to say the least. Nowadays the situation has changed for the better – Timo is back in Stratovarius, and his third solo release, titled “Serenity”, sounds much happier and generally stronger than its predecessor. Naturally we got back with Timo by phone to find out what and how the man had been doing over the past three years.

You have played in Moscow two times with Stratovarius – first in summer 2003 and then in autumn 2005. People who visited both concerts said they were very different, it looked like the band changed a lot over those two years. Would you agree with this point of view? How can you compare the two concerts?

Well, I can’t remember how it was regarding the band’s feelings, but I still remember that the crowd was very good at both of the shows. It was very good for us to play in Moscow, but I don’t remember it so well. I think last time I had some back problems, that’s why I probably didn’t move so well on the stage, but I don’t have them anymore, so… (laughs)

We did an interview with you back in 2004, shortly before the release of your previous solo album “Coldness”, and you said that you cannot imagine the circumstances under which you would work with Timo Tolkki again. So what happened? What made you rejoin Stratovarius?

Basically the thing was that we realized that he was sick, that he wasn’t mentally OK. The way he behaved was not the way that any rational human being would behave. And of course, when somebody is sick, it’s easier to forgive what he did to me and to everybody else. But if he would have been the same asshole as he was in the past, there would not have been any chance. Now when I look back at the times when we tried to put the band back together, I would say it was a sort of miracle that we were able to do this “Stratovarius” album (2005), because Timo was very depressed, I think he didn’t work at all in seven months, and that was pretty tough for him and also for everybody else. But then again, if you don’t even try to understand other people, it won’t do any good to anybody. You have to keep your eyes open and you have to try to help other people. But of course, still when I see some interviews he did back then, I don’t like them. That was not a very nice thing that he did, it was just embarrassing.

Timo Tolkki has recently said that he doesn’t like the band’s latest self-titled album very much. And what do you think about it?

It’s not my favorite album, not at all. The only good thing about the album is that we were able to do it and that we got the band together. Some of the songs are not that bad, but for me as a singer the stuff is not melodic enough. It was not that difficult to sing the album. I guess when Timo composed the songs, he was very sick, and you can hear it on the CD, it’s in a different style. To me the album is not what the band is all about. Stratovarious, as I see it, is melodic power metal, and the best Stratovarious album is still “Visions” (1998).

If you had an opportunity to change something on “Stratovarius”, what would it be?

I would change everything. (laughs) I think there are a couple of nice guitar riffs, and the sound is sort of heavier, and in a way, it was a brave decision for Timo to try to do something different. In the past some journalists were saying that we’re always repeating ourselves, but this album was so different that if they still don’t hear the difference compared to “Visions” or “Infinite” (2000), than they are deaf! At least this is a good side. But nowadays we don’t play any of the songs off that album anymore, which is sort of weird. Normally bands play live to promote their latest album, and we don’t. (laughs)

You have a pretty successful solo band now, and it must be quite difficult to combine it with Stratovarius. What will you do if Kotipelto one day becomes as successful as Stratovarius? Will you still record and perform with Timo?

To be honest, I don’t think that my band will be as big as Stratovarius, because it would be a sort of miracle. I have very good players in the band, but of course, I still appreciate Timo’s composing talents. Then again, we’ve been working for so many years with Stratovarius, and we were there at the right time, so to say. Nowadays it’s more difficult to make a new band popular, because, first of all, people are not buying so many albums anymore and downloading them from the Internet instead, and record sales are going down, which means there’s less money for record companies, less advertising, and fewer bands signed. But then again, when I started doing my solo thing, it was because I wanted to create something on my own, while in Stratovarius, as you may know, Timo Tolkki is basically composing everything, and almost all the lyrics are done by him. That’s the only reason why I started it, I didn’t even plan to have any solo career, I just wanted to do something on my own. But now my third album is out, and it’s going pretty good. We’ve been touring with my band, and we’re gonna do more festivals this summer and more touring in the autumn. I’m sure it won’t be as big as Stratovarius, but then again, who knows? We don’t have any long-term plans with Stratovarius, we are just planning to do the next album, and then we’ll see what happens after that.

Speaking about your solo records, the previous album had a very fitting title – “Coldness”. You could really feel the cold when listening to it. But the new album has much more fire in it. Would you agree with this?

Yeah! Back in the days when I composed the songs for “Coldness” and especially wrote the lyrics, I had all these problems with the band and also in my private life. Of course, that was affecting my music, you can’t make happy songs when your life basically sucks. As to “Serenity”, I don’t have any serenity in my life in that sense, but at least the relationship with other guys in Stratovarius is much better. I would also say that I’m probably calmer, and “Serenity” is a little bit more optimistic and more positive than “Coldness”, but it’s not a happy album either.

Why did you name the record “Serenity” then?

It’s a sort of irony. Sometimes I feel that life outside me is more serene than what I feel inside. Of course, it would be nice if I could find some piece of mind one day, in one way or another, but right now I feel I’m a bit restless. Speaking about the album cover, it is done vice versa – this lady depicted there has peace of mind when there’s turbulence around her. There are bad feelings going on, bad things happening to her, but she doesn’t mind, she is serene.

The record label’s press release says that “Serenity” is a band album, in which everybody was involved from the beginning. What does it mean – did you let the guys take part in the songwriting?

Yeah, this is the first time that somebody else was also composing something for my album. Tuomas Wainola, the guy who was playing guitar on the album, co-wrote two songs – “Sleep Well” and “Last Defender” – with me. It is also the first time that I have only one guy for each instrument on the album, and that’s why it feels more like it’s a band album, at least to me when I listen to it. On the first two albums there were plenty of my friends playing different instruments, they’re more like project albums in a way. This time I have a band, we have already done two European tours and we have played some gigs in South America with Lauri (Porra, bassist) and Tuomas. Of course, they have their own bands as well – Lauri is with me in Stratovarius, and Janne (Wirman, keyboardist) has Children Of Bodom and so on. Nobody expects that everybody who’s playing on the album will be able to do all the tours, but I’m really happy that they can make it to at least some of the gigs.

How did you get Tuomas Wainola involved in the album? He didn’t play on the previous Kotipelto records… And what is his background, where is he playing apart from Kotipelto?

He’s been playing different kinds of music with different Finnish bands. When he was younger, he played lots of heavy metal, but at the end he didn’t find any permanent metal bands. He’s usually playing with rock bands nowadays, and even some pop music or whatever. I don’t remember how many years ago I met him the first time, but we basically studied at the same school. Two and a half years ago I was looking for a guitar player for my touring band, and Tuomas was recommended by a couple of my friends, as well as by Lauri. I asked him if he wanted to do it, and he was very eager. I think I made the right choice, because he’s an excellent guitar player and a nice guy, and he really wants to play this kind of music. Since then we’ve been playing together – Lauri, Tuomas and me. On the first and the second European tours I had the keyboard player who’s not playing on the album, his name is Robert Engstrand, he’s living in Finland, but he’s a Swede. Also drummer Mikko Kaakkuriniemi plays sometimes live with me, but on this summer Mirka Rantanen has been playing so far.

Why didn’t you continue working with guitarist Michael Romeo of U.S. progressive metal band Symphony X?

Mike is one of the best melodic metal guitar players – or whatever guitar player you call him – in the world, but I wanted to have this band feeling, and for Mike it probably wouldn’t have been possible to fly to Finland to record the album. Then I wanted to tour with the same line-up, at least with most of the guys, and that’s the only reason. When I worked with him on the previous two albums, we were just sending files via the Internet or by post, but this time I wanted to have a band, to me it’s more important than many excellent musicians.

We were very surprised to find out that the last track on the album, “Last Defender”, is actually about the battle of Stalingrad. What made you write about the 2nd World War? Are you interested in history?

I was already interested when I was at the college, and even earlier. When I was younger, history was the best subject for me, I got higher grades in history than in music. (laughs) This song started when I was doing promotion for the last Stratovarius album with Jens (Johansson, keyboardist) in Berlin. When we walked back to the hotel, it was a dark evening – that’s the thing I can remember, though I can’t remember the name of the hotel or anything like that. At that moment a melody came to my mind (sings the main theme), and I thought, “Mmm, this sounds like an East Berlin thing.” But then I thought it would be boring to write about East Berlin or Berlin in general. Then Tuomas and I put the song together, and I thought, “Hm, this is a sort of sad theme, maybe this could be related to war, and I have never written anything about the 2nd World War before.” I can’t remember how or why I chose this battle, but to me it is presenting the lunacy of men, because in that battle Hitler and Stalin sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people. You probably know better, and I might be wrong, but as I see it, this town of Stalingrad wasn’t that important when it comes to the big picture. But Stalin wanted to defend this city, because it had his name, and Hitler wanted to conquer the city for the same reason – he was crazy, as we know. Hitler told the Germans who were defending the city, “You can’t surrender, you have to fight until the last man,” and that was so stupid! But people are still crazy, I hoped people would learn something from history, but I guess it doesn’t happen – there are wars going on around the world every day.

Don’t you think that some people will view this song as a kind of response to “Gotterdammerung” from the latest Stratovarius album?

Not really. I’m not so interested in Hitler as a character, I’m interested in history, and Timo Tolkki is probably not so into history, he’s more interested in Hitler as a character. He’s not a Nazi, he’s an anti-Nazi, of course, but we have different points of view anyway.

And what is the song “King Anti-Midas” about?

Do you know this old story about King Midas? When this king touched something, it turned into gold. And this song is about me – sometimes I feel that whatever I touch, it won’t turn into gold, but into shit. It’s a joke, of course, but sometimes I have very bad days, when it seems that nothing works. Especially when you’re recording vocals for some album, and you have a computer fuck up, or when something breaks down in the middle of the tour.

Another interesting track is “City Of Mysteries”? What is the city you’re talking about – Tokyo maybe?

I composed the song in Tokyo, but it’s not only about Tokyo. It can be about other big cities, but they have to be real big cities, like Tokyo, Osaka, or New York. The cities that have lots of neon lights, the signs that catch your attention, and a lot of traffic. It’s about a feeling that you have when you go to a big city, and even though you don’t know the city, you get some impressions, and then you remember some details, tall buildings, big bridges or anything. It could be about Moscow, but I don’t know if you have enough neon lights today. (laughs) In Finland, we don’t have any of these cities, even Helsinki is very small.

The single “Sleep Well” contains a song with Spanish lyrics (“Te Amare”, it’s the Spanish translation of “After The Rain” from “Serenity” – ed.). Why did you decide to put this on a single that has only been released in Finland?

It’s because I have my own label in Finland, and there was no guarantee that anybody else would release it anyway, and that’s exactly what happened, but probably it’s on the Internet anyway. Originally I wanted to give something special for my fans who speak Spanish, because normally it’s always the Japanese people who get bonus tracks. I thought, “It’s not fair, maybe I’ll try singing in some other language?” Of course, I don’t speak Spanish so well, but I can pronounce some words alright. A friend of mine translated the lyrics, and I ended up singing them. Mostly I did it for fun, it’s no big deal, but it’s something special. Next time I’ll sing in Russian!  

You should definitely try it one day!!! (everybody laughs) OK, and how would you describe the situation with heavy metal in Finland? How much has it changed since Lordi won Eurovision and Ari Koivunen won the “Idols” TV contest?

Well, metal had been very big in Finland already before this guy won this “Idols” thing or Lordi won the Eurovision competition. It has been very big for the past years, and nowadays it’s just huge. I would say metal is probably the most listened-to style of music in Finland at the moment, 20-25 percent of music currently in the charts is metal. But I don’t know how much this has changed in the past year or a couple of months. Of course, when this guy won “Idols”, only half of the people who voted for him or even less were into metal, but probably some younger kids chose him over the other girls. It’s also hard to say whether he will have a long career or not. I’ve met him, I think he’s pretty talented, but he’s also quite young. It’s nice that Finland is the only country where a metal singer can win this kind of competition. I would love to see this happen in the U.S., but… (laughs)

There is a very popular opinion that too much popularity is harmful for heavy music, because there will be people who will start playing it only to get money and girls. What do you think about it?

I personally didn’t start singing because I wanted to be rich or popular. To me it’s quite clear that I started to sing because I wanted to sing, and before that I was playing drums. It might be that when I’m singing, especially live, it’s just a way of fighting my shyness. In the past I was a pretty shy guy, but of course I’ve won over my shyness a bit. Of course, there are people who don’t even like this music, but who are lucky enough to achieve a position where they can get some money. But then again, I think it’s easier to make money if you’re selling stocks or something else. If there’s 1,000 people who want to make it in music, maybe 10 can make it. You are lucky if you can even live off this music, let’s put it this way. You have to be talented, be at the right time and at the right place, and meet the right persons. There are so many good musicians around everywhere, but they’ve never made it, because they just didn’t meet the right persons.

Your song “Sleep Well” is featured in a Finnish movie called “Vares 2”. We know that the song has become a hit, but how has the movie been doing? And what kind of movie is it?

The movie is about a private detective, it was the most watched movie in Finland, at least in the beginning of the year. My song made it in the movie is because I happen to know the director… (laughs)

You have met the right persons, we see!

Well, let’s put it this way – music unites people. I met this guy four years ago, and the common thing for both of us was music. Four of my actor friends had known this guy before, and they told me he’s into metal, and it could be a cool thing if I could give him a T-shirt or something. We met and became good friends, and we’ve been… (in a soft and wicked voice) of course, you don’t drink alcohol in Russia… (everybody cracks) so we’ve been drinking together and listening to metal. This is the only reason – if he wasn’t listening to metal, the song wouldn’t have been there. But he likes metal, and actually the whole soundtrack for the movie is full of Finnish metal bands.

You are now going on tour, and the old Stratovarius bass player Jari Kainulainen will join you for a couple of gigs. What is Jari doing nowadays? And why did he leave Stratovarius, after all?

He left Stratovarius three years ago, he wanted to spend more time with his new wife, I guess that was his reason. But he’s not living in Helsinki, he’s living in Tampere, I think, because I phoned him there two weeks ago. I asked him because suddenly I got this one gig coming up, and Lauri couldn’t do it, because he had promised to play with another band on the same day. I thought, “Maybe I could call Jari and ask if he would be interested.” Lucky me, he was interested to play a gig. It’s nice, because I have a very good relationship with him, and he’s still one of the best bass players in metal. It’s also good for him that the fans who haven’t seen him live will see him play with me. I’m looking forward to that gig, actually. (Soon after the interview Jari cancelled his participation in the show, and Kopitelto eventually played with another bassist. – ed.)

Does he have any musical project nowadays? What is he doing?

I don’t know. He had a band called Mess, they made some demos, but I haven’t heard anything else yet. Of course, I’ll have to ask him, I will ask him when I meet him, but it will be at the end of July, when we get together before the gig.

You have your own label in Finland called High And Loud Records. So far the only band that you have released on it, apart from Kotipelto, has been Wingdom. How did those guys get a deal with you?

That was because I knew their keyboard player Mikko Harkin (ex-Sonata Arctica) before, and he asked me if I would be interested to help them out. I said “yes”, I would help them out if they don’t get any other deal. So I released their album and tried to fix them a deal abroad. Abroad it didn’t work so well (the band was eventually signed to Germany’s Dockyard1 Records – ed.), but we sell some copies in Finland. Then Mikko left the band and got a new band, so I’ll probably have a meeting with the rest of the Wingdom guys next week, and we’ll see what they are up to. There’s gonna be another band, I will release their album in August. It’s a pure hard rock band from Finland. I’ve been receiving lots of demos, and some bands are promising, but I don’t want to have a big label, because I’m still an artist, and it’s already taking quite a lot of time to promote my own albums. I want to sing, I want to be touring, I don’t want to be too much of a record label boss. I don’t want to make it too big, because then I will have to hire extra people – promotional guys and stuff like that. And I want the bands that are signed to my label to be able to call me and talk to me about what’s going on directly, not like there would be some secretary answering them and making coffee for me. I wanna be the only person in a way.

How many demos have you received so far? Do you have time to listen to all of them?

I’ve received 100 or 200 demos and have listened to almost all of them, not the latest ones yet.

And what do you get more often – good demos or bad demos?

Of course, bad demos! (everybody laughs) They are not bad, but very often the bands are so young that they haven’t found their own style yet and are trying to imitate somebody else too much. That’s the biggest problem, not the sound. If the songs are good and the players are good, the sound doesn’t matter. But of course, it’s easier for me when I get ready masters where everything is mixed and I can hear how it will sound. There’s been a couple of very interesting bands, the second album will come out in August, and maybe there will be something at the end of the year or in January, but that’s still open.

More about labels – you have signed a European deal with AFM for the release of “Serenity”. What do you think about their work so far? And why did you decide not to go on with Century Media?

Century Media didn’t want to release the next album on the conditions we had. I was actually happy that it didn’t happen, because they are a good label, but to me, they have too many bands and not enough time to concentrate enough. AFM doesn’t have that many bands, and they are more concentrated on melodic metal. But of course, I haven’t seen any results, I’ve only been doing the interviews they are organizing for me, and I went to their office for a couple of days and met most of the people, and they are pretty nice. I think it’s going OK.  

You’ve been in the business for a long time. How often have you as an artist experienced record company pressure?

Let’s put it this way – now that I have my own label, I can appreciate the work of record labels much more. It’s a hell of a job, it’s not only that you release something, and that’s it. You have to plan everything, you have to schedule everything very tight and make sure it works, and of course, you have to take care of journalists. I appreciate record label people more, to be honest.

We’ve been talking to some musicians and reading some interviews, and Blaze Bayley, for instance, said that he’s not sure that he would start a vocal career if he had known what it takes to get where he is now. And Devin Townsend said that he wouldn’t like his child to become a musician, because this job is too stressing and not very rewarding. What is your opinion on the matter? Would you recommend young people to try to become heavy metal musicians? What do you have more in your musical career – stress and problems or fun and satisfaction?

It’s pretty easy to answer – if you love music, and that’s the only thing you want to do, then of course, go for it. But not all the people who love music can do it, and that’s something you should be prepared for. If you can’t make it, maybe just time wasn’t right. I’ve had lots of nice moments in my life because of music, but it’s also very stressing sometimes, especially for the people who take care of the band. It’s much easier if you are just a player – you play, and if you’re lucky, you get paid, but you don’t do anything else. Then, of course, you don’t get the stress. What’s also not so nice is that you cannot spend much time with your family, wife, girlfriend, kids or whatever. In a way you have to be ready that your life will be difficult. And the more popular you are, the more negative things you will get, especially nowadays with the Internet. When you only display a nickname, it’s easy to say bullshit other people.

Have you ever wanted to quit the music business? Are there any occupations that you could choose?

I don’t have any other profession, but I believe I could do something else. Anyway, I think it would be related to the music, radio or television world. Of course, sometimes you feel that it’s too much. I don’t like being in the public, I want to keep my privacy. I only do interviews because that’s the only way to let people know about your music. I hate talking about myself, to be honest, but I understand that it’s a part of the job. (laughs)

Alright, what are your future plans? What will be the next steps for Kotipelto as the band? And will you take part in the recording of Timo Tolkki’s upcoming rock opera?

I won’t be singing on that, it’s for sure. But we will be playing some festivals in Finland, and there’s a plan to play in South and Central America with Kotipelto. Then there’s gonna be more touring in Finland, and we’re gonna support a bigger band in Scandinavia. Basically the rest of the year is pretty full. There might also be some more gigs for my band at the beginning of next year, we still leave it open, and then we might start recording the next Stratovarius album. The drums are basically recorded, but nothing else. If we continue the recording, of course, I’m ready for that, but I don’t know when it comes out or when I’m gonna record my parts.

Kotipelto on the Internet: http:///www.kotipelto.com

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova (CD-Maximum) for arranging the interview.

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Victoria “Ewigkeit” Bagautdinova
June 21, 2007
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