interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Stratovarius are the Spice Girls of metal: their music is silly and candy coated, and no one will admit to liking them; yet they sell a bunch of records. They're also one of my favorite bands. I don't know why; well, I do - it's because of their singer, Timo Kotipelto, and his irresistible, yelping vocals, and the bands' knack for being charming, children's metal with brilliant melodies - it's just that I don't know why this would appeal to me even though I also love bands like Anaal Nathrakh. Go figure.

Honestly speaking, Stratovarius has become one of the marquee names in today's power metal world. More and more bands sound like them (including most of the power metal bands out of Finland, it seems). And although it's not too hard to copy Stratovarius' own cookie cutter style of simple arrangements and songs, it's an altogether different matter to duplicate these songs' impact and likeability.

Episode, this group's sixth studio album, and the first with the defining lineup of Timo Tolkki (guitar), Timo Kotipelto (vocals), Jens Johansson (keyboard), Jari Kainulainen (bass), and Jörg Michael (drums), is one of the best European power metal albums ever. Since then, Stratovarius has largely been repeating that record by remaking the same three or four basic songs. Here lies Stratovarius' greatest trick, to be able to make the same record over and over again, yet make people love them and make their songs recognizable from one another. Unfortunately, the formula was getting a little thin as riff recycle was becoming more and more glaring on their last record, Infinite. Anticipating a repeat of that record, it was refreshing to see that the band had made an effort to do some different stuff on Elements Pt. I, the first of a two part series. The signature remains undeniably Stratovarius, but the recipe has gotten a strong shot in the arm.

And now it seems that Stratovarius and its European power metal compatriots aren't so uncool by American standards as they once were. More and more of these bands are coming over to play at US festivals, and the shows are selling out at high prices. Considering these developments and my blind infatuation with this group, I jumped at the chance to talk to Jens Johansson.

Maelstrom: One of the things that made me happy about getting you for an interview has to do with that Intermission CD that you put out. Everyone in the band wrote something in there, and I found what you wrote to be the most interesting and personable: the process of getting picked up by Timo Tolkki at the airport, and you record a record.

Jens Johansson: They were actually complaining a little bit about that. "Every one else's was one page, and we had to use two pages for your stuff."

Maelstrom: Since you live in NewYork, and the Finnish guys live in Finland, and the German guy lives in Germany, how much out of the year do you actually play together?

Jens Johansson: Well, it depends on what year. In the past five years, we've been together six or seven months a year.

Maelstrom: So, do you have a house in Finland?

Jens Johansson: Not really. We are on the road so much. But if you take 2002 as an example, I was in Finland for maybe three months for the new record, which was very involved. The next tour is starting on March 20th, and I'm going to go over on March 7th.

Maelstrom: Since you brought up the tour subject, I think what's really remarkable is what's happening in the United States: Euro power metal is starting to catch on. There was that Prog Power festival in Atlanta, and all these bands that had never come to the United States showed up, and it sold out.

Jens Johansson: Yeah, I know.

Maelstrom: They were bands that before were either too happy, or too "gay," or whatever, to come to the US.

Jens Johansson: It's still a difficult market. We're still sitting on the fence as to what to do about that. The Prog Power is in September of this year (2003), and the problem is [a band] would still lose a lot of money going to that thing. Even though it sold out and the tickets are 80 bucks, what remains over for the bands is very little. I think that this year it's going to be a little more complicated beyond that, as some bands may not have gotten the right immigration papers last year and gone in as tourists, and then they play a gig, in under the radar, so to speak. I don't think that's as easy any more. If a band tries to do that this year because of the September 11th stuff, they may get stopped at the border and thrown out.

Maelstrom: So how is it that you live here? Do you have citizenship or are you married to an American woman…?

Jens Johansson: I'm married to an American woman.

Maelstrom: How long have you been married?

Jens Johansson: Only for a couple of years, but I've been living here for 10 years.

Maelstrom: How were you living here before that?

Jens Johansson: I had this visa that I got as a work permit through different bands.

Maelstrom: How did you meet your wife?

Jens Johansson: She used to work at a record company.

Maelstrom: You've had some big hits. When you write a song, do you ever know that they're gonna be a big hit?

Jens Johansson: No.

Maelstrom: How does that work? Is it always like a big surprise?

Jens Johansson: Yeah, I think so. If you ask any successful band that, they say, "I had no idea. We put this one as a b-side on something." I've heard that many times. If you look up the history of a lot of The Beatles' songs, too, I think you'll find the same thing. I think you never know. You throw shit against the wall and see what sticks.

Maelstrom: One of your songs on the new record is called "Fantasia." You have a lyric in it that goes, "imagine a world with no wars and no arms; imagine a world with no religion and no god." Do you consider war and arms to be as evil as religions?

Jens Johansson: I think what [Timo Tolkki] was thinking was that there are a lot of problems with religions, like wars. I don't think he's against religions per se, I think he's against the violence that results, like people flying planes in to skyscrapers and all these idiotic acts. Sometimes, like in Northern Ireland, it's the same fucking religion and they're still fighting. I know he's not very religious, at least not in the traditional sense in terms of adhering to a certain branch or sect. In some senses, I think he's more religious than some people who proclaim themselves to be true believers of something and go to church every day. I think he has more respect for his fellow man and nature than a lot of these people.

Maelstrom: Were you near when the plane crashed?

Jens Johansson: I was here, yeah.

Maelstrom: What was your experience?

Jens Johansson: It was horrible, of course. The first plane flew over my apartment. I live in Manhattan, about six miles (nine km) away. I had just gotten back from Europe. I woke up and thought, "what the hell was that?" It was flying like, 80 meters above the apartment. "Fuck, that was loud," and I fell back asleep. Then, 30 minutes later I got a phone call, "you have to put the TV on!" That's how I found out. It was very eerie. The streets were empty and dusty people walking around, completely stunned. It smelled for weeks. It was horrible.

Maelstrom: What did it smell like?

Jens Johansson: Like…burnt plastic, or something; very hard to describe…like an old radio burning - burned electronics.

Maelstrom: Going back to "Fantasia," it seems that you've got some different things going on in the new record: different melody patterns, bass parts, different keyboard sounds. You've got some accordions going on now.

Jens Johansson: Actually, that's a real orchestra with a real accordion. For us, it was really like "whatever it takes." If we were looking for some effect, we let it cost whatever it cost and let it take whatever time it took. There were maybe 170 guys all on union scale in the orchestra. It was a very massive project to undertake.

Maelstrom: Do you think you'll play "Fantasia" live?

Jens Johansson: The only way we might do that is if we sample the stuff and trigger it while you play. All of the songs are like that. I can double the parts on a normal keyboard, but it doesn't sound as good as when a real orchestra plays it. That's the part you give up when you do something like this, you can't bring it on the road.

Maelstrom: The songs seem to be getting longer.

Jens Johansson: Yeah, longer and slower.

Maelstrom: Yeah. Is this how Stratovarius will continue to progress in the future?

Jens Johansson: I'm not sure. Well, the next record will be like this one, but after that, who knows?

Maelstrom: Actually, I'm really happy, in a sense, of what you've done because you were recycling a lot of riffs.

Jens Johansson: Yeah…There's no so much we can do in a certain tempo. It might be a different riff, but it still sounds like something else.

Maelstrom: It's sort of funny. You're one of my favorite bands and I have to tell you something. There's a song on the last record called "Phoenix." Last year, I had some horrible depression. I got through it, and this song really helped me a lot through it. So I wanted to thank you.

Jens Johansson: That's great, thanks!

Maelstrom: But, as I was saying, part of what I like about Stratovarius is that you have these three or four songs that you repeat, and I like those songs. So, as long as you repeat those songs, I'll be happy with it.

Jens Johansson: Of course, you can still listen to the old records.

Maelstrom: Yes, it's true. But, with this new record, it still sounds like Stratovarius, but you've got different things going on.

Jens Johansson: When the tempos are lower, there are more things you can do with the spaces. When the tempos are that high, you can't fill the spaces as they're so small. If you try to fit stuff in, it becomes really muddy. Rhapsody has very high tempos, and sometimes it becomes very difficult to listen to as there's so much going on. What Rhapsody is trying to do is make this Elements album, but keep the high tempos. In my opinion, that's very difficult to make work. Either you have the tempo high and you put less shit in it, or you have the tempo low with more space and expand some of the stuff. But, our core stuff will be the same. Like you said, very positive type of lyrics and also very melodic chords to every song. It's easy for the ear to listen to. There's always a clear quality to it, which I like.

Maelstrom: Is Timo Kotipelto improving as a singer? He sounds like he's getting better all the time.

Jens Johansson: I think he's still the same singer, but he's learning new tricks. I think what's different about this new record is that at the outset, we said, "no compromises whatsoever on anything."

Maelstrom: You compromised before?

Jens Johansson: Maybe subconsciously or something. I think the previous five years, we had this situation where we had sort of a bad record deal that we wanted to get out of. We put out five records in almost five years in order to escape the deal.

Maelstrom: So the deal ended when you put out Eternity?

Jens Johansson: Exactly, and Infinite was the first record on the new deal. But we needed to make that within a certain time frame, as well. But this time, we took a break. At the outset, we decided that it would take whatever time and money necessary (within reason) for every little detail. Timo K. had seen this process and he felt, "if they can take a month to do the drums, that must mean I have all the time I want as well." And literally, he did. If he felt he wasn't happy with what he did, we would have pushed the release date back a year, if needed. Maybe he felt more relaxed, which helps a lot with something as personal as singing.

Maelstrom: Jill Farthing of Nuclear Blast USA said that Timo is currently doing vocals for Elements, Pt. 2.

Jens Johansson: Yeah.

Maelstrom: So you're already working on Elements, Pt. 2?

Jens Johansson: It's already done, except for the vocals and mixing.

Maelstrom: Wow, so how many albums are there going to be?

Jens Johansson: Two. Elements. I mean, there'll be other ones after that.

Maelstrom: Does that mean it's coming out next year?

Jens Johansson: It's coming out late this year or early next year.

Maelstrom: Are you back on this frenetic pace?

Jens Johansson: Well, I consider it one huge record with 25 songs.

Maelstrom: Sounds like the new Bathory records, in terms of Nordland I, and Nordland II is probably coming out the same time Elements Pt. 2 is coming out.

Jens Johansson: Maybe, yeah. Maybe it's the same concept.

Maelstrom: (laugh) I don't think so.

Jens Johansson: Of course, it becomes a little boring. The drums will have the same feel, and a lot of the concepts will be that same, with the same orchestra. But also you save a lot of time that way. The only other option we had was t release both at the same time, like a double album.

Maelstrom: Apparently record stores don't like that so much.

Jens Johansson: No! (laugh) So I've been led to understand as well. It wasn't so much more expensive to record than one record; I would say it cost maybe one record and a half. There are some very, very nice songs on the next one. I think I might like it even better than Elements Pt. 1.

Maelstrom: You talked about triggers before. There's something I always wanted to know. There are some songs on previous albums when all the music cuts out and then you have Timo Tolkki going super fast on his guitar. In the background there's the keyboard with sort of a delay, but that matches the guitar completely.

Jens Johansson: It could be doubling. That's not so hard.

Maelstrom: The reason I'm asking is that a friend of mine seems to think that Tolkki has some sort of sample that his guitar triggers. It's really hard for people to play like that at the same time.

Jens Johansson: Well, it would be hard if we did it at the same time. The way it works is he puts the guitar first. Then, I have to listen very carefully and play to it until I get it right. It's a very laborious process. If it's really fast stuff that's in tempo, then it's possible to do that live. But if he's wanking something and I'm doing that, you can't do that live. You have to analyze and sit down and play it.

Maelstrom: How hard is that to duplicate live?

Jens Johansson: It depends. In the studio, it's easy. We used to do that type of shit in the Yngwie days. Live, sometimes it drifts more. He might get excited and play it too fast. It's not impossible.

Maelstrom: I don't know if you're sick and tired about talking about playing with Yngwie. You go back a long way, Jens!

Jens Johansson: Yeah… It was fun.

Maelstrom: Is Yngwie a common name in Sweden?

Jens Johansson: It's not very common. The average age of people named Yngwie in Sweden is like, 80 now.

Maelstrom: I like this woman that sings on the "Papillon" song. Who is that?

Jens Johansson: That's actually a boy.

Maelstrom: Ok! I like the boy, except he pronounces the name of the song wrong.

Jens Johansson: Oh, yeah. Of course, he's only nine years old. They have quite a good music education system in Finland, so you can find quite talented little kids. You pay them a lollipop. "You don't need no union scale." No, I think they get paid good. Of course, the parents have to get involved. They have very heavy child labor laws, and there's this union representative with a clock saying, "ha! This child is not allowed to work more than two hours."

Maelstrom: Why do you think that European power metal, with all of his happiness and all of its sing along choruses, is so big in Europe, but not very big in the United States?

Jens Johansson: I think that part of the problem is that it's very difficult to compete with the big companies here in the States. It seems to be that the market is more closed in the US. Especially in the early '90s, I think there was some almost orchestrated labels to have an "out with the old and in with the new" campaign. All the old stuff, like Motley Crue and stuff like that, was erased from the map. "That's poser stuff; now we're into grunge." It seemed controlled from the top. But it didn't happen like that in Europe. Things were allowed to happen the way they would. But still, I'm not quite sure why it's so impenetrable here.

Maelstrom: If you go to festivals like Metalfest and look at the roster, it's mostly death metal bands and some black metal bands.

Jens Johansson: It's very underground.

Maelstrom: Yeah, it's very shit. I don't know if you've ever been to that festival…

Jens Johansson: No.

Maelstrom: It's not very good. I don't recommend it to anybody. It sounds awful. You can't hear anything.

Jens Johansson: (does grunting impression)

Maelstrom: Yeah. It's like truck with a blastbeat.

Jens Johansson: Exactly.

Maelstrom: I have to say that Wacken 2002 was kind of disappointing. They turned the bass drums up so loud that you couldn't hear anything else. I love metal, but it's funny that I don't like the way it's presented much of the time.

Jens Johansson: Which bands played?

Maelstrom: Angra. I love that band, but I couldn't tell what was going on because it sounded like a plane was taking off all the time.

Jens Johansson: Wow.

Maelstrom: I saw you guys play live at Wacken 2000. You were great. That's when I first discovered that I liked Stratovarius.

Jens Johansson: We have a good sound guy. We have the same guy. We make sure he's happy; and if he wants more money, we pay him. If you go on the road, that's the most important thing. It's ridiculous why you would trust that to anyone. You might as well just hand the instruments over to five other guys.

Maelstrom: The time I saw you at Wacken was the time Kotipelto burned his hand. That whole Hetfield-like incident.

Jens Johansson: Oh, yeah…

Maelstrom: Man, it was the coolest show. I remember you having the best stage presence of the festival. After that I remember thinking, "I have to look into this band." I think I want to wrap up with the topic of playing keyboards in metal. I think that keyboard players are the least respected people in metal.

Jens Johansson: I think that's turning around, though.

Maelstrom: You think? 'Cause, when ever you read some review of a metal record, it's like, "they're too loud," or, "they ruin it."

Jens Johansson: I think those days are over. I think that when I started, in '83, it was a struggle. I thin that due to the heroic efforts of people like me and others - like the guy from Dream Theater, Queesryche… those Type O Negative guys - I think those stigmas are starting to erode. It went away about '95. When I started, it was horrible. I don't think it's there anymore.

Maelstrom: When you started playing piano, did you think, "I want to be in a metal band"? I imagine that most people who start laying piano don't envision going to metal.

Jens Johansson: You just start sliding into things. I used to listen to Deep Purple when I was little. They had a keyboard player…and Rainbow. After that era, around 1980, there started to be this segregation in metal: there's supposed to be guitar only, and aggressive lyrics. That's when the problems started; of course, that's when I started as well, so I had to take a lot of the shit. We toughed it out and now you have bands like Nightwish, which is run by a keyboard player. That's pretty amazing.

Maelstrom: When you look at all the bands that have so blatantly copied your sound, what do you think?

Jens Johansson: Of course, one part of you thinks it's the sincerest form of flattery. I like it because sometimes they turn it into something new. Of course, Stratovarius probably copied a lot of other bands - everyone's influenced by someone else. A couple of the bands I really like are taking parts here and there and turning it into something new. Some people may get upset, but for me it's more of a live and let live type of thing. Take Nightwish for example. They may have started taking Stratovarius as a model and trying to copy that, but they've evolved into something that's completely their own thing. I also like Sonata Arctica: they have a youthful, hopefulness that sometimes I think we are lacking.

Maelstrom: When is Stratovarius coming to the US?

Jens Johansson: Maybe in the fall. There's some talk about it. It depends how much people are downloading our songs. I'm making statistics on this. Every time you tour, you lose money, basically. It's just to promote record sales. There's a territory that we shall not name, but it starts with a "u" and ends with an "s,a," where like billions of kids in the heartland with cable modems, downloading pirate copies like crazy instead of buying records; maybe we won't burn our powder there.

band photos taken from www.stratovarius.com

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