Metal Asylum recently conducted an interview with
STRATOVARIUS keyboardist
Jens Johansson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Metal Asylum: Was it hard for the band to carry on after [former guitarist and main composer]
Timo Tolkki left?
Jens: Yeah, it was. About a year ago I was on the fence, our drummer was completely against the band carrying on as
STRATOVARIUS, [
Timo]
Kotipelto [vocals] was half and half, our bass player was sort of for it, our guitar player…well we didn't have one at the time, haha.
Metal Asylum: When
Tolkki left the band, what were the circumstances? Did he leave and say the remaining members had his blessing to continue performing
STRATOVARIUS songs but not as
STRATOVARIUS?
Jens: I think he didn't know what he wanted. I think he left
with the thought the band was over. He didn't think we would continue
on without him. He posted some statements about why he ended
STRATOVARIUS, then we posted a few statements we would at least leave open the possibility of continuing as
STRATOVARIUS because
Jörg [
Michael, drums] was against it. At the time we didn't have any songs, we had no guitar player. Then as a result,
Tolkki got so pissed off because we left the possibility open to continue as
STRATOVARIUS that he made another statement saying like, "Fuck those guys, continuing without me as
STRATOVARIUS,
they can do whatever they want without me." I think he was very
ambivalent and some days wanted to sue us to get the name back. It's a
long story really.
Metal Asylum: What is the relationship now between the remaining members of
STRATOVARIUS and
Tolkki?
Jens: Actually, it's good. Unfortunately, we had this Internet
war. I think sometime in September last year, we made an announcement
we would continue under that name
STRATOVARIUS because we started recording these songs that sounded like
STRATOVARIUS. After we announced that, he became upset again but then about five weeks ago
Tolkki
sent me a e-mail that said, "Dude, I had this really weird dream that
we were all friends. Can we talk about this?" So I said, "Sure, why
not?" So I guess he had a complete turnaround on this issue, which is
good. He said it was because he had this dream or nightmare.
Metal Asylum: With that, is there a possibility of
Tolkki returning to the band in the future?
Jens: I think first we have to give this a shot for a couple records. I think one of the reasons why he wanted to stop
STRATOVARIUS is because he got sick of playing this kind of music and he thought
STRATOVARIUS wasn't doing anything interesting anymore. I also think he had some personal problems with our singer
Timo Kotipelto and drummer
Jörg Michael. But of course, he may come up with something that is like power metal as well. Did you hear his new band
REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE? I think several songs on their first release,
"New Era", could have been
STRATOVARIUS songs, but I am not so sure about this new one,
"Age of Aquarius". I know a lot of people were saying the
REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE didn't sound like
STRATOVARIUS, but that's the whole point.
Metal Asylum: When will
STRATOVARIUS release a concert DVD?
Jens: That's another thing. The old
STRATOVARIUS records from about 1995 to 2000, were on
Noise Records and they got bought by
Sanctuary, and they got bought by
Universal. So
Universal
has rights and we would have to ask and pay them as well. But, we did
get the rights to release two DVDs with the old lineup with
Tolkki
because we do have the footage shot. It's sad, because the one shot in
Milano, Italy, from 2003 was really good but the guy who was supposed
to edit it had some kind of breakdown and didn't finish the work. The
mixes are also done and after this guy disappeared someone found the
tapes in the garbage. It's crazy, the crazy world of
STRATOVARIUS,
haha. The other show is from Sao Paulo in 2005 shot with six cameras.
It is pretty nice. We just have to somehow find the way to get the
money to finish them.
You can read the entire interview at
www.metalasylum.net.