STRATOVARIUS
Interview with Jörg Michael by Daniel Hinds
(conducted April 2000)
Stratovarius are an amazing success story. First, they came on in the scene in 1989, just as their style (melodic speed metal) was on its way out of fashion. In the ensuing years, metal in general became less and less popular, but Stratovarius stuck to their guns and defied the odds, increasing their fanbase with each album. Incredibly, their songwriting got better with time, too, bringing us to their latest masterpiece, Infinite. The mix of power, speed, melody and musicianship has never sounded so good and the album debuted at #1 on the national Finnish charts. So, in a world of Korn clones (and Korn for that matter…), there is hope!
The incredibly enthusiastic drummer Jörg Michael (the lone German in the band) practically talked my ear off, giving some great insight into this standout band…
I was very impressed with the new album, Infinite. Are you happy with how it came out? It's like giving birth to something. After such a long time preparing this album, writing this album, getting down to rehearsal - this time we actually rehearsed quite a lot, for about three weeks. I injured myself in a football match just three weeks before the recording, so we had to delay everything a little bit until my leg was in order. So like in the first rehearsals, I couldn't play any double-bass drum stuff. Then we had a very nice time during the rehearsals and during the recording and at the end you can see how it came out. You don't really questions yourself like, 'Will this be an economical success?' or whatever - you just listen to the record yourself, you let it sink in. I must admit during the first days after it's finished, you have such a close relationship to it that you can't really judge it. It takes a few weeks afterward. So, now the record has been finished since the beginning of December and we all have a very, very good feeling about this album. And I'm not saying this in general about every album because I can tell you honestly that wasn't the same with the Destiny album, where we weren't quite sure if it's good or not and we got a lot of fan mail saying that they liked the Visions album much more, for example. But this time we are very happy and everything worked out like we planned it to be. We have now this flying[?] equipment, so we can record wherever we want. We went to a very nice house in the suburban area of Helsinki, Finland, directly by a lake. It had nice sound and daylight in the rehearsal room and it was really nice to live there. We had so much fun and we really enjoyed working there. The guitars, the bass and the vocals were recorded there. Of course, I myself had to go into a clinical studio again because you need quite a lot of channels to record Stratovarius drums, but everything else worked out perfectly. At the end of the day, you see the result and everybody gave their best and we're very happy about it.
That kind of answers part of this questions, but did you do anything differently this time, in terms of the writing or the way you worked in the studio? I wouldn't say so much with the song writing. As you know, Timo Tolkki writes about 90% of the stuff for Stratovarius. He is the man, the bandleader, since 1984 working on this band. Jens Johansson and I joined the band in 1995, so we just worked on the last four albums. I would say that the song writing changed a little bit in the matter that Timo Kotipelto and Jens Johansson this time were involved as well. And of course because of the long practice/rehearsal time that we had, it was possible for me to sneak a few arrangement ideas in there, so that gave a little bit of a different vibe to it. In general, Timo Tolkki always writes the songs. He has it all in his head, but then he comes out and writes the whole album in about 3 or 4 weeks.
I just saw that Infinite debuted at #1 in the Finnish album charts. Was that a surprise? I'm a German guy and Jens is Swedish and the rest of the band are Finns. They achieve a level of being #1 in their home country and for them it's like heaven. (laughs) We did achieve the same thing with Destiny and that was a big surprise. This time, we didn't have so much hope, as there was a few big Finnish bands coming out. For example, there is one called Apulanta that sells about three times as much as we do in Finland. They sing in Finnish, so it's this folk rock thing. So we didn't expect it, but then it happened again and was another surprise like it was with Destiny. I feel very happy for all the Finns in the band. For me, it would be the same as being #1 in Germany.
How is it selling outside of Finland? I can tell you the album was released worldwide on the 28th of February, so we expect the first results to come in maybe next week. Me and the band aren't really that interested to know how it goes… You can tell after a tour in a few months how it was. I don know that the advance sales of Infinite have already topped the sales of the Destiny album after one year. I know that we hit the charts in Europe, in almost every country, but it is especially surprising in countries like France where last time we invested in a tour with Angra. Angra are Brazilian rockers who are very popular in France and we toured there with them for the Destiny album as a support act and we had played there before only about twice. So this is nice because France has like 55 million people, so it is quite huge, for Europe. In south Europe, like Italy and Spain, we are already very big there, so I don't think it will be a big surprise if we hit the charts there, top 10 or top 20. What looks even more promising is that we put our tour on sale at the beginning of December in some countries and by January, our show in Paris was already sold out so we had to add another show. The Swedish show, where we've only played so far once, are also sold out. So it is going really good and we still have like up to 2 or 3 months before this tour happens in these countries.
You guys seem to always be touring or working on an album or promoting it. Have you guys had a real vacation in a while? You observe right. Since I joined the band, we did the Episode record, had a normal tour, then put out the Visions record about Episode came out. From then on, Stratovarius became a full-time job. We also try to control the whole business side of the band. We have our manager, but we definitely also work behind the curtains to keep control of the band. Sometimes, it's not so good to not have a big management, because they don't have the power to put you up with really big bands, playing support, but we're really happy with doing it our way and at least we have the control over everything and aren't filling the pockets of other people we hate anyway (laughs). So for every one of us, Stratovarius is a full-time job. Besides the playing, for example, I take a little care with the tour organization and I'm also in charge of the merchandise. Mr. Kotipelto is doing the accounting and booking. Mr. Tolkki has kind of an overview of everything and is, of course, the most creative member of the band. Everyone puts his own talent and time into the band. You have to give respect to other people because you can't do everything and we have a really good relationship between us. For me, personally, it's a big change because I was always playing so much as hired gun in other bands. It feels great to be part of a real band! (laughs)
I understand there is a special version of Infinite that includes a multimedia CD. Can you tell me a bit about that? (pause) What is a multi-media version? I don't….
Like a CD-ROM? Ohh…..I'm the right guy to ask that question… There's so many different configurations of the album coming out. You've probably heard that we moved from Modern Music to Nuclear Blast, almost worldwide. We are doing direct deals to Japan, France and parts of South America, but the rest is in the hands of Nuclear Blast. They are known for putting out certain configurations to make something special for the fans and especially at the beginning, they are a lot of limited editions. I know for example that there is a limited edition CD box with photo booklets, a sticker and additional CD-ROM, where you can watch our videos and see an interview with Mr. Tolkki by some guy in Germany. I also have to tell you that I can't open it so far! (laughs) It only works on Windows 95 and somehow they made a little bit of a mistake. It's difficult to deal with these copy protections and stuff. There is also a limited edition in France with a second CD in the first 3000 copies. There are also a lot of bonus tracks in different countries, they are requesting that. I think we have to bring out a CD with all these bonus tracks that everybody can buy on one CD at a special price, because [these different versions] give me a little taste of being a rip-off, to tell the truth. (laughs) On the other side, I have to say that when we were with Modern Music and we only brought out one CD at a time, so many fans were asking us for more material: demo versions, live versions and whatever. So we don't know what to do and this time we tried it differently, with 5 or 6 different configurations. And I don't even have them all myself! What I like is this picture disc, on vinyl. We were very happy that they made this as well and a lot of people on our home page were asking for it. We've tried to put our controlling hand on things so, for example, they don't sell all of a sudden these CD digi-packs for double the price - that I would really hate. It's understandable to make it a little more expensive if the fans are interested in having some rare material, but just to double the price and rip these fans off who have been supporting the band for so many years, it's definitely not in our interest.
Are you getting more response from the U.S. these days? Yeah… I can't tell so much about the other albums. I think they were released by Modern Music and one got released by Century Media over there. We have the feeling from observing our e-mails coming out that there are much more people from the States interested in this kind of music. Not in particular Stratovarius, but I would also list like Gamma Ray or Iced Earth, for example. I still think it's not enough interest to really put up a headlining tour over there. Our label there said, 'We really like this album, would you like to promote it?' and we were like, 'Of course!' That's what we are here for, to spread Stratovarius Finnish attitude worldwide. On top of that, there was coming from the Iced Earth camp, asking us if we would be interested in supporting them on their next U.S. tour in November or December. At the moment, our managements are negotiating that, because it is a question of economic survival (laughs) because when we tour there with Iced Earth, we don't get a fee. If we tour for one and a half months in the States, from what I've heard, that doesn't really mean anything. You can tour there for six months, you know, it's so big. Let's see what they come up with. If it makes sense to play the shows with Iced Earth, I'd really like to do it. The only time I've been in the States was about 2 years or something. I visited New York, playing in a band called Unleashed Power. I really liked it, but this is the only thing I saw from the States and people tell me there are many completely different places from New York. (laughs) For me, this is reason enough to give it another try. To play there with my band would be brilliant, but it shouldn't be complete economic overkill. Not just to say, 'Oh, we toured the States!" and then you come back and have like $120,000 minus. (laughs) There is no point to do that. I've heard that our record is selling or that the interest is quite big over there, but what does that mean? Is it like we sold 500 copies before and now we're selling 1,500? (laughs)
You guys have always handled your own production. Was there ever a time when you thought you'd like to work with someone outside of the band? (long bout of laughter) That's a very…rare question, actually! This is my personal opinion, but I think that Stratovarius has with Timo Tolkki one of the best producers in the world. Even coming out of Finland and not having big success with producing other bands before, but I think that our records sound absolutely great. All of the records I have played on with Stratovarius, I think have a very good sound and the old albums that I wasn't a part of, there is still already a high level of quality. So, we are quite happy with what we are doing and there is no idea of changing anything. We never even thought about it. This time and with Destinybecause the band has gotten more popular and there is so much to do, like promotion, we have this guy called Mikko Karmila. He is basically the engineer and this time he almost mixed the album alone. There was a little bit of overview by Timo Tolkki behind him, but there was not really time and trust that guy so much because everything he does sounds great. When you have a big producer like, let's say Bob Rock. I think he's one of the best, I really admire his work and he did great, great records. He does records like Metallica and they sell millions of copies worldwide, so you think you have to have Bob Rock to make it happen in the same way. That's bullshit because he also does records that don't sell at all, but you don't know that. Every big producer has these, what we in Germany call, corpses in the cellar. Not to put him down in any way. But if we were to try and get this Bob Rock, besides that it would explode our budget, we would end up spending so much money on a production that isn't even better in the end in my opinion. Maybe different, but not better. We know how we want to sound and I was always very happy with the sound on our records. This time, Timo Tolkki and Miko tried to push up the guitars a little and the drums are a bit more quiet, but it doesn't actually disturb me so much because it gives such a powerful feeling. We're not like 17 or 18 anymore where you go in the studio and the drummer says, 'The drums aren't loud enough,' and the guitar player says, 'The guitar is not loud enough.' At the end of the day, all the levels are at the peak of the possibility and they still think, 'Oh, my drums still aren't loud enough!' (laughs) So, it's really cool, no one has to prove anything now. When I go to the studio, I listen to the whole song and how it all comes across, not just to my drums. Of course, when it comes to like the toms sound, for me as a drummer, I'm very, very picky, but it's probably the search for the perfect toms sound that I'll never achieve. Probably when I do, I'll retire. (laughs)
The cover art for Infinite is amazing. How did you hook up with Derek Riggs? We were all very impressed of course by the work he did for Iron Maiden. We have a completely different style with our album covers than Iron Maiden, but we still thought that Derek Riggs might be very interesting for us at some point because it might be challenging for him as well. Then the Gamma Ray album came out, Powerplant, and Derek Riggs did this artwork. It had some similarities to the Iron Maiden covers, but it also went a little bit away. So we thought, oh, he can do different stuff so he might be interested in working with us as well. We called Kai Hansen and asked if he would give us the number. We got an e-mail address for Derek, sent our albums to him, told him what we wanted to do and the whole album cover concept is made by Timo Tolkki's brain. The album was supposed to be called Infinity, but then we heard that Devin Townsend already released an album with that name, so we renamed ours to Infinite, since it means the same thing anyway. The whole world, the whole atmosphere is divided into two parts - we have the spiritual world and we have the material world. Of course, the material world is like the one we are living in now, that's why we have this polluted sea and everything is a little bit more dark. The space and atmosphere, the heavens, are not so colorful or shiny, everything is a bit darker, because of the human beings who are doing a lot of harm to the world right now. With our ability to think, we can't understand why the people are not stopping this, for example killing the rain forests because it gives us the air that we breathe. It's like we are trying to kill ourselves. Maybe not in our generation, but if you look a little bit further in the future, it will be that way if we don't stop it. Then we have this infinity sign changed because normally it lies horizontally, but we put upright, like an '8', which also gives the relation of the eighth Stratovarius studio album. Then you have the dolphin jumping from the spiritual world into the material world, which suggests birth. And when you die you return to the spiritual world. We believe that life in this universe is infinite, it never stops, and our existence right now is just part of that, the part in the material world, but that doesn't mean that necessarily after that all is dead.
It's nice to see someone put so much thought and detail into the cover art. In the old days, with LPs, it seems like a lot more bands did that than now. I think a lot of bands making it very easy want to go into these old metal cliches and just shock as much as they can. Even looking at the older Stratovarius covers, you can see it is completely different. We never worked with this blood bath, cutting off heads or whatever, not at all. It's a completely different image that we have and nobody in the band is like that as well. And we get people asking, record companies especially, telling us we have to make the cover something that really shocks people. But this is our style, take it or leave it.
Stratovarius seems to have a much more optimistic outlook than most metal bands. Is that a reflection of how the band actually views the world and the future? I have to say that everyone in the band is a bit of a different character. By explaining the cover artwork to you, you can see kind of the point of view of Timo Tolkki and also most of the other people in the band have. Timo Tolkki especially is going into these esoteric things. I'm not at all into that. We are all not believing in religion - this is one thing where everybody is on the same wavelength. As far as like life after death, I have a little different point of view about it. I'm also a little bit more simple, I'm the drummer in the band (laughs). I like to enjoy the moment and am not thinking so far into the future. Nobody can prove anything to me what happens after death. But Mr. Tolkki and Mr. Johansson talk a lot about that, they have a lot of discussions. Also, Mr. Kotipelto wrote a lot of lyrics on the last albums and it has a lot to do with like Finnish mentality, living in Finland. Everything is a little bit more frustrating, depressive, dark, sad. They had a lot of problems with relationships to women, which is very easy to see with the lyrics on the Destiny album. This time, it changed a little bit. There is some of that here, but I think it is also a lot more positive. Everybody leaves a little bit of the dark side behind and puts up some visions of the future. We also want to take part, not to warn or pointing fingers, but maybe waking up some people and make them do something and live a little more by their conscience about everything. Like I told you about the rain forests, or air pollution or plastic - all that stuff. It's not that we can change it so much or that we're coming out as a new messiah or something, but this time we thought we'd just give a little bit of a different view to this whole concept. Also right now, the band has become so big, so the band has some power…not influencing people, but people have started to listen to us a little more, what we're saying and thinking. So we thought it would be good to tell the people what we think and they might just be more conscious of these issues.
Stratovarius at The Metal Archives
