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STRATOVARIUS INTERVIEW
Stratovarius is not a very
familiar name among the Finnish music audience, even if the album
Episode has sold over 100 000 copies in Japan only. Another
rather unfamiliar name is Jens Johansson, the band’s
keyboard player, even if he has been often ranked as the best of
the world in many polls of the world’s music magazines.
Johansson, who lives in New York, is a very busy musician and
receives offers frequently from all sides, but still he considers
Stratovarius to be a group of highly skilled musicians.
-These guys are also big stars,
maybe not in Finland, I mean, because the Finnish music market is
very much techno or something like that. But the rest of the
world - yes, this is a big band.
Jens has not been captured by
just one type of music. He has recorded all kinds of music from
global music to punk, with Ginger Baker and Hoochie Collins to
mention some. Apart from being considered as an outstanding
musician, the symphatetic Swede is also known as a very humorous
and funny person. He has also learned some Finnish...
- I could speak some Finnish for
you, but I only know the bad Finnish words, so..
- Nothing good?
- No, nothing good....well, (he
presents his version of pronouncing some finnish words).
The maestro does not have to
practice his technique as much as in the early days:
- I don’t practice the
technique so much anymore. It’s mostly to try to write
things usually when I play nowadays. It is probably for the
better anyway because if you just practice the technique, you
usually don’t get so much out of it.
The frontman of the band, Timo
Tolkki, has been nothing but very satisfied with his keyboard
player:
- He is truly an awesome player, I
must say that. He is a very nice guy too, which is very important
for the chemistry between the band members to work.
Even if the band would make a
fortune by picking up berries (referring to the quick-fingered
players here), showing off with soloing is not the main thing for
Stratovarius.
- We’ve got melodic songs,
that’s what it all comes down to, anyway. Solos are just a
small part of a song, a few percent, so they don’t really
mean that much. Technically speaking, we don’t have much
restrictions in music because we have all played our instruments
for a long time now. It is very easy and fun to write songs
because you can play anything that comes to mind. There is music
playing constantly in my mind and I can realize it just like
that. It is very important, I think.
The band is working on their
next album, which bears the name ‘Visions’ and is
scheduled to be released in the end of april all around the
world. The European and Japanese tour that the band did last year
will probably be followed by touring in South-America.
- We have plans to tour
South-America; Brazil, Chile, Argentina... it will surely be a
blast!
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