An interview with Timo Kotipelto

One of the bands primarily responsible for the symphonic power metal revolution the scene has been enjoying since the late 90’s, STRATOVARIUS commanded respect worldwide. With albums such as ‘Episode’, ‘Visions’, and ‘Destiny’, they carved out their own particularly unique niche, setting the kind of pace most found almost impossible to follow. Then all of a sudden, things began to unravel in spectacular fashion as the band disintegrated around guitarist Timo Tolkki’s mental health problems, 2004 being a year that most would prefer to forget. Amazingly, and despite everything that went down, a fragile truce was called, and the band brought together for another album and world tour. Simply titled ‘Stratovarius’, the album is due a worldwide release through Sanctuary in early September. Vocalist TIMO KOTIPELTO talks frankly to DAVE COCKETT about what went wrong, and ultimately how the band was pieced back together again.

When I last spoke to the Stratovarius camp (or Jens Johansson at any rate) in the autumn of 2003, there was little to suggest that the wheels were about to come off big time. Then, even before the interview hit the presses (admittedly somewhat belatedly for the March/April 2004 issue), what seemed initially like minor internal squabbles rapidly degenerated into something more akin to a French farce. Rumour and counter rumour began to fly around, each more incredible than the last as this once great band became little more than a laughing stock. So what you may wonder actually happened? Timo picks up the story.

“Well … lots of things happened,” he admits. “The problem is, or at least it was back then … Tolkki had all these different ideas. It wasn’t something that we hadn’t encountered before, but suddenly I felt like he wanted to control everything, he only wanted to have his will. And of course, back then I didn’t really understand that he might be a little bit sick mentally, I was just thinking ‘What an asshole!’, ha, ha! But this time it was a little different because he was behaving quite badly … especially towards me. Then out of the blue he told me that it would perhaps be better if I did my own thing. Of course, I was already doing my second solo album (‘Coldness’) at that point. I was actually pretty far advanced because the vocals and everything were already recorded, so I dunno, maybe that’s one of the things that pissed him off as well! But the last straw for me was when I read in an interview where said he doesn’t even know who’s going to play on the next album … it was like ‘What the fuck is this?!’ So I phoned him to challenge him about it, and of course that lead to a few other things, and then suddenly I was out. And to be honest, I didn’t really care too much at that point. Naturally I was pissed off, but then at least I had something to do, I had my own album that I was working on.”

As a songwriter yourself, it must be difficult being denied the opportunity to write for the band you front? “Yeah, in a way it is,” nods Timo, “that’s quite natural, and that’s exactly the reason why I wanted to start my own solo career. I wouldn’t call it a burning need, I just wanted to compose something. I’d written some songs before I joined Stratovarius, and then of course, I wanted to create something and .. I guess, I dunno, but for sure I didn’t have any chance in Stratovarius. I composed some of the songs which were used as bonus tracks in places like Japan, it was like ‘Oh yeah, you can use these songs there as a bonus, it’s very nice .. blah, blah, blah.” And when he composed songs, he also composed all the vocal melodies, and wrote most of the lyrics as well, so of course, that’s why I started my thing, and that’s why I think I kept on doing it so far.”

And then there’s the small question of the multi-million dollar deal the band had just inked with Sanctuary. “They weren’t happy I can tell you,” shrugs Timo, “but what would you say if you were the record label? You’ve just paid some big advance to some band that doesn’t exist anymore! But then again, the thing was, at the time when we signed the deal … actually, we were signed to the company by a lady who used to work there, but she’s not there anymore .. she’s actually, what a surprise, she’s our manager nowadays, ha, ha! She sort of got fired from the label … or she left the company, I dunno which. But I think it was Jens and Jorg (Michael) who went to see the new boss of the German arm of Sanctuary last autumn. And of course this guy, he didn’t have a fucking clue, it was like ‘Who the fuck are these long haired idiots?’ and they were like, ‘Hello, we are Stratovarius. We don’t really have a band, but I we have a record deal with you.’ And this new guy, he didn’t know anything about the band, but he went and checked it out, and at that point he found out just how much the label were into the band for .. I can just imagine the reaction, ha, ha!”

“I think the whole thing started actually when he (Tolkki) got the advances,” adds Timo, “because at the time they went to him. So when he finally got his hands on the money, he had this brilliant idea that he was gonna be this big studio boss, and he bought a hell of a lot of studio equipment … the desk alone, I guess it cost something like €100,000 which is a lot of money if you buy this SSL thing which he got from Paris I guess. So this guy is like buying all this fucking high end studio stuff, and he made a contract with the studio players which was like ... the rent was enormous. And also, he took bank loans and everything, and then of course, he thought that he could control everything. When a person is manic, he has a hell of a lot of energy, and a lot of ideas buzzing round in his head. And it was around this time that we started to have these problems, partly because I didn’t like the idea that all the money would be invested in his studio. Well, at the point he said it was either his way, or the highway, so in the end he fired me. And then Jorg said that he’d had enough because he was spending all the money and everything. And of course, Tolkki thought that he might have somebody easily to replace me, but I mean .. I’m not saying that I’m special, I’m just saying that there weren’t that many male singers available at the time who could do my job. And then he thought ‘Oh fuck, maybe I have to do something different’ … he did a lot of stupid things, it was very difficult. I mean, if we had known at the time that he was mentally ill, then we could have probably avoided most of them, but we didn’t. He didn’t even know himself until he checked into this mental hospital in April. The doctor told him ‘Ah, you have manic depression, it’s quite clear’, and then he was like ‘What the fuck .. I thought I was just depressed’ … it was all very, very difficult.”

Seems incredible after what went down that the band actually managed to honour most of their festival commitments last summer. “I think we owed it to the fans,” admits Timo, “but they were definitely the worst festival shows that we ever did … especially the first one, because two of the guys in the band were completely wasted. Especially Tolkki, he drank a bottle of vodka before he went on; and Jens too. He’d just flown over from New York so he’d taken some sleeping medication, but mixed with the alcohol … it really doesn’t do you any favours. And then these guys were up on the stage, and it’s like ‘What the fuck?!’ … that was the worst thing. Of course, I tried to do my best for the fans and sing as good as I possibly could, but the conditions were not really conducive at all. And later during the summer, Tolkki was on the stage, but he wasn’t really there if you know what I mean. He was taking these antidepressants, so .. it was just weird.”

It must have come as quite a shock when you found out he’d had a mental breakdown? “Well, the thing was,” Timo explains, “at the time when Jens phoned me and said ‘Have you heard that Tolkki is in a mental hospital?’, I was laughing. I said ‘Yeah, fuck … he’s probably having a holiday in Majorca or something’, I mean, I didn’t believe anything. And then I got a text message from Jorg as well, it said ‘Have you heard that Tolkki is in a mental hospital?’ Of course, they were supposed to start to record the drums at the same time. They actually started, but during the second day Tolkki didn’t arrive at the studio at all, so then I guess he just sent Jorg an SMS which said ‘Hey, I can’t come, I’m in hospital’ … and that’s it. And I didn’t really believe even Jorg … but then I phoned Tolkki’s brother and asked what the deal was. And he said ‘Well, I went to see him yesterday, and he was in pretty bad shape, and now he’s in hospital.’ So then I thought okay, but I didn’t go to see him, I didn’t have any reason to be there. And actually, it took something like six months until we talked, somewhere in December I think. Of course, I saw him when we went on stage, but I mean … it was so weird, I didn’t even look at him when we played those festivals. So it was totally bizarre the whole thing. They certainly won’t go down as classic Stratovarius gigs!”

Given that the whole thing seemed dead in the water, it’s remarkable that you’ve managed to patch things up again. “Actually, I would say that in my opinion, Jens has saved the band,” offers Timo. “It all started basically somewhere in September, when I did three shows with the Kotipelto band in South America, and then later we did seven gigs in Finland. The guy, Jan Wirman who normally plays keyboards in my band, he was supposed to do the gigs, but he couldn’t because Children Of Bodom got themselves an American tour, so I was without a keyboard player. So I phoned Jens and he agreed to do them, and one night whilst we were having a couple of beers after the show, he said ‘Hey, why don’t you call Tolkki?’ And I said ‘No, I don’t want to talk to him’, but he just kept on. But in the end, Tolkki actually called me, in December as I said earlier, and he suggested that maybe we could have a meeting because he had a lot to talk about. So I said, ‘Okay, I can talk to you, but that’s it,’ and then he came to my place and I think that we talked for something like six hours and we had a sauna, which is like the typical thing in Finland when you have some serious stuff to talk about … then you go to sweat it out in the sauna.”

“Then we talked about things,” Timo continues, “and he really apologised. And he asked me if there would be any chance that I would be in the band again, and would I help him to do the album. So I said ‘Okay, I can think about it, but first I need to hear the songs,’ because I was worried that it would be like … I mean to be honest, I’m a big fan of the albums like ‘Visions’ and ‘Episode’, older stuff … but I’m not that big a fan of the last couple of albums. To me, they’re too progressive, and some of the vocals are too high. But then when he played me the demos with the guitars, and explained it would be more like metal, sort of less progressive and less orchestrated … that’s when I became really interested. And also, he explained that the vocals would be a little bit lower, sort of closer to the style that Dio and Dickinson are doing, so then I thought ‘Oh fuck, that could be interesting.’ So after that, we had a band meeting a few weeks later. Jens and Jorg flew to Finland, and then we decided that fuck, we have basically nothing to lose anymore because this guy has lost his mind once, so what the hell. Now of course, we all understand that he has mental problems, so we’re trying to help him, not fight against him like we did in the past without knowing it. Obviously it wasn’t easy, but at least it was worth a try. So yeah, I would say that it was Jens who actually saved the band, and that maybe, he even saved Tolkki’s life because a lot of these manic depressive people are very suicidal. I mean, Tolkki’s father killed himself, and it sort of runs in the family, you know.”

So he’s had these sorts of problems before? “Yeah, it’s been going on since the beginning to be honest,” nods Timo. “I remember after the ‘Destiny’ tour … I guess ’98 or something … he was drinking quite heavily on the tour, and then when we came back to Finland, I didn’t hear anything from him in three weeks. We were supposed to do something, and I tried to reach him by phone, but nothing. And then his wife phoned me … nowadays his ex wife, but they were still married then. She phoned me and said, ‘Have you heard anything from Timo?’ and I said ‘I haven’t heard anything, what’s going on?’ and then she said ‘You probably should be prepared, because he’s thinking about quitting the whole band’ ... and that was back in ’98.”

Since this current line up came together for the watershed ‘Episode’ album back in ’96, it’s been one long round of albums and tours – that constant stress can’t have helped the situation? “No, not really,” admits Timo. “But when we did the two ‘Elements’ albums, both of which were basically recorded together, he refused to do any touring for the second one even before it came out. Then he refused to do any interviews either, so basically it was like me and Jorg who did like a couple of days interviews in the whole of Europe … and that was before we signed the deal with Sanctuary. So even then it was like ‘Aha, the guy is already losing his interest.’ So we decided that it would be in everyone’s best interest to take a break at that point, but by then there was a lot of other stuff coming up as well. But it’s true of course, at some point you should have a break, you should at least have some holiday … I didn’t have any real holiday for years.”

A situation which is never conducive to an easy family life. “I was engaged at the time,” recalls Timo, “but that actually ended at the same time as I had problems with Tolkki, so it wasn’t the easiest of times for me either. I’m dating again now .. but this kind of life is very tough on any relationship, it makes things extremely difficult. When I look back now, if I could have chosen another profession, maybe I would, but I just love to sing. There are times when I really wish that I could be in a normal, everyday kind of situation you know, maybe have a family of my own, but this lifestyle makes it very difficult to achieve that …it’s been like this now for the last ten years.”

Whilst there’s an obvious Stratovarius undercurrent throughout the new album, some of the songs (lead cut and first single ‘Maniac Dance’ for instance) are a bit of a departure from what’s gone before. “The first two days, they were very difficult,” Timo admits. “Not the singing part, but actually trying to understand what Tolkki meant with some of the lyrics. Especially … I remember we started with ‘Maniac Dance’, and when he suggested to me that ‘Hey, let’s try a more aggressive approach on this one,’ it was like ‘Okay, this is one of his manic ideas’, you know. But now I’ve learned to handle his sickness in a new way. I don’t immediately say ‘This is good’ or ‘This is bad’, I try to think about it from his point of view - ‘Is this a good idea, or is it bad?’ But the bottom line is, I wanted to try because I trust him as a producer … he’s responsible for the music, but that’s the only thing he’s actually responsible for nowadays in the band … I would say that we’ve shifted quite a lot of power away from him. Of course, that’s got to be good for him too, because that puts less pressure on him if there are things outside his control. As I said, those first couple of days it was very difficult to understand what he actually wanted, but then, it just sort of opened my eyes and I tried to think about it from his position. I tried to get into his head .. and out of his head of course, ha, ha! I mean, it was a little bit difficult at first, but after I sang the first song then it became pretty easy. In some respect these new songs are different, but I see a lot of similarities with the stuff we did on ‘Episode’ and ‘Visions’, which are the albums I like the most.”

That said, ‘Maniac Dance’ is a bit of a risk as it could definitely give people the wrong impression of the band. “Yeah, I see where you’re coming from,” nods Timo. “When we talked to the record label people about what should be the first single, they were suggesting ‘Why don’t you have ‘United’?’ But I mean, that’s not possible, it’s just too long. And also, I think the tempo is too low, it should be a little bit faster … that’s why we chose ‘Maniac Dance’. But also, I think it’s a pretty good song. Of course it’s a little bit different, but then again, I have nothing against very fast songs or what we did in the past. The thing is, we’ve done so many fast songs and so many double kick songs, that it would have felt like we were just repeating ourselves again. But we can always go back and play those songs again when we play live. We had a poll on our homepage and we asked the fans what songs they wanted to hear, and we’re gonna pay a lot of attention to the results of that poll. Of course, at the end of the day we’re going to have the final decision, but it looks like there’s gonna be a lot of those songs that we ourselves want to play, and definitely there’s gonna be a hell of a lot of those fast songs.”

With everyone in the Stratovarius camp at least on speaking terms, I wondered what the general mood was in the band right now. “I’d say everyone is relieved,” offers Timo, “because at least now the pressure is gone. It’s like ‘What the fuck’ … of course, the last couple of years have been very difficult, it’s been very stressful for everyone. Thankfully, that stress is now substantially less than it was, but then again, if you were to ask me now how many more albums we were gonna do together, or even when the next album is coming out … the answer is, I don’t have an answer. It’s way too early to be starting to talk in those terms. If I’ve learnt anything from the past it’s that anything can happen in this band, so I’m just prepared for that. But at least the future looks much more positive than it did a year ago.”

A cynic might argue that it’s the threat of potential legal action by Sanctuary that brought the band back together. “Yeah, I can see that,” muses Timo, “but that’s not really how I look at it … especially when somebody’s spent most of the money already, ha, ha!”

Even if it were the case, it still can’t have been easy for anyone to swallow their pride and come back to the band. “Of course not,” Timo affirms. “It wasn’t easy at all, and to be honest, if it had been only Tolkki asking me to do it, and not both Jens and Jorg, then it would have been different. Well, let’s put it this way, I can’t call my solo career a big success, but I’ve been doing okay. I mean, I did this short one month European tour with Kamelot, and that was a lot of fun. I could probably do without Stratovarius, but to be honest, with my band I doubt whether I would ever get to play in all these countries, or in the bigger venues … that’s the big difference.”

Having a parallel solo career at least gives you some relief from the pressure of the band. “At the moment, that’s something I plan to continue with,” says Timo, “but as of right now, Stratovarius is the main priority. Actually, one of the other key points that made up my mind to come back was that when I spoke with Tolkki, he said that maybe it would be a good idea for him and me to compose something together for the next album … not for this one though because at that point the songs were already done. As a writer, I think that idea is very interesting, but let’s see … he might change his mind again tomorrow, ha, ha! But now it’s a very tempting idea.”

But surely, opening up the writing and thereby taking more stress off Tolkki would go a long way to furthering the band’s longevity? “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense,” Timo agrees. “Jens has been composing for years and years, and he has composed some very good songs … some of them for Stratovarius, so I would definitely like to see him doing more of the composing as well. But for me, it’s not like a must, it’s not that I have to do it for the next album because I can do it with my own thing. But then again, it would be very refreshing … and you never know, something worthwhile might come out of it, even if it was only to relive the pressure on Tolkki. And even though he would still be the producer of the band, it wouldn’t harm anyone if there were like 15 or 2O songs to chose from next time, instead of only 9 or 10.”

As has been the case for a few years now, the band have been plagued by the fact that the new album has been put onto the internet by certain unscrupulous parties, despite the release date being several months away. And then to cap it all, someone was complaining because the version they downloaded contained a virus, implying that in some way the band were responsible! “That’s just so stupid,” laughs Timo, “I don’t even know how to answer that. But the question is, quite apart from the fact that we don’t have the technical ability to do it, why would we want to do it? Anyone who deliberately releases programs like that onto the internet is totally irresponsible, and I can categorically say that it did not come from the band. But yeah, the issue of the album being put up for download … that’s’ a real problem. Then again, somebody at the record label had the bright idea of sending out the whole thing for promotional purposes. We told them that it was a bad idea, that it would be better to send fade out versions or whatever, but no, they went and sent out the whole thing anyway. I can only hope that the people who’ve downloaded it will go and buy a copy when it comes out, although I suspect some won’t. Something like that can seriously affect a band like Stratovarius because it can really inhibit sales of the album when it does come out.”

At the time of writing, touring plans are only just being finalised, but plans are to start in South America in August before moving on to the US and Canada. After that it’ll be back to Europe, which will take the band up to Christmas, with the possibility of Japan and the Far East (maybe even Australia) early in the new year. Beyond that, it’s too early to say if, or in what form the band will continue (long time bassist Jari Kainulainen announced his departure in the last few days), but at least they’re still hanging in there. Here’s hoping for a long and bright future!