Remaining Stratovarius-members announce new guitarist

[St Enigma]

Even when the band don't know yet under which moniker they will continue, in the latest Soundi -magazine Timo Kotipelto revealed the name of their chosen new guitarist: Matias Kupiainen, a 25 yrs old musician and producer from Finland.

Unknown to most, he has been making his name familiar in the metal genre in Finland by performing some show-offs at Tuska 2007-festival and at the in Tavastia, Helsinki which was also broadcasted live on TV.

Matias Kupiainen's MySpace
At the Guitar Idol competition, March 2008
Matias Kupiainen's YouTube Channel


I think I did post something about Matias before last Christmas here on PP board because he made an impression on me with his playing on TV. Now it seems somebody else was also impressed by the same performance:

Kupiainen was bassist Lauri Porra's "find." When Lauri played bass as a member of the house band at the release party for the "Guitar Heroes" album last November in Helsinki, he took notice of the then-unknown Kupiainen.
Kotipelto tells Soundi magazine that Matias is probably the best guitarist he has ever seen and a fine addition to the ranks.

What to expect from the guys then?
As we know, Tolkki wasn't the only composer in the bnad, even he did keep tight control of the band's recordings. There are at least three capable songwriters currently left in the band, each with a distictive style we have heard on several CDs before. Now add Matias and we can imagine the output along these lines:

Both Kupiainen and Kotipelto describe the new material to Soundi as more aggressive and progressive than the last albums made with Tolkki at the helm.

Now, wait until the CD release sometime next year...

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[AMBR]

This kid kicks ass! Wish I stopped to listen longer when I happened past him playing at Tuska. Looking forward to new, exciting things from the Strato guys.

 

[AngraRULES]

Good news, I look forward to hear what they can do.

I actually have a bit of hope left as far as they go. I mean, come on, the songwriting can't get any worse than Revolution Renaissance. In my opinion, the remaining Strato already won the battle against RR just by not releasing anything yet. That's what Tolkki should've done.

 

[rushzil2112]

I can't wait to hear what this guy does with the guys in Strato, I am very excited. This is a great medley of LTE, DT, Vai, this guy is such a great clean player.

 

[Palabra de Dios]

Guitar playing chops - maximum
Potential to write decent songs with Strato - unproven

I'll approve of it when I hear it, till then I'll remain skeptical that them continuing as Stratovarius is a good idea.

 

[PM1metal1]

This band will go on and I predict that they will come out with their best album to date. Let me restate that; they will come out with their most COMMERCIALLY VIABLE album to date featuring their strongest melodic work from beginning to end (which means their older fanbase will NOT be pleased). They have something to prove. They certainly have the talent. This is make it or break it for them and I believe they will make it. Strongly.

 

[St Enigma]

Here's some more news about the guys from Jens

Jens Johansson's post today, Aug 22. 2008


We have some good news. Earlier this summer, Timo K, Jens and Lauri got together with a guitar player in a forest cottage in west Finland and wrote and arranged some songs. It went extremely well, and we are very happy with the material, the direction, and the general vibe in the band.


We now have over 15 songs written and demoed already, but probably not all of these will make it to the actual album.

We are happy to confirm that our new guitar player is Matias Kupiainen. He was the only guy we even considered seriously. This interesting fellow was born May 11, 1983 and is a native of Helsinki, Finland. You can find some information and pictures on his myspace page which is here ».

Here is a video, there are more on youtube:
_http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8liQx1uzM.

Next week, Jörg and Jens will come to Finland as we have booked three weeks of rehearsals and recordings in another cottage. We will then work more intensely on the songs in a real band rehearsal type of situation. Also there is a very good sauna in this place.

We will try to blog a little bit about the progress of the recording and other things. The official band blog can be found here

In the forum you can see some information regarding the songs, some working titles etc, and some more pictures, and also discuss this.


Some of the preliminary working titles and miscellaneous other info about the songs are:

Matias 1
TK nopee
Fire in the Sky
Justice for all
Eternal Life
Emancipation
Blinded
King of Nothing
Adrenaline
Old Man
Kick in the ....
Winter Skies
Treadmill
Never meant to be
nro15T186
nro14T160
unidentified but good slow Lauri song
other weird song (nro5)

Swamped because of last minute stuff before the trip, I'll try to upload some more pix later. Or maybe I'll make a brand spanking new blog. Whee!!


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[The_Q]

I mean, come on, the songwriting can't get any worse than Revolution Renaissance.

Blows a rasberry. Thats your opinion!

 

[AngraRULES]

Blows a rasberry. Thats your opinion!

Damn right. That is my opinion. The songwriting in that disc is pretty weak, 100% generic (they bring nothing to the table) and uninspired. So far, I honestly consider that the biggest fiasco of the year.

But then again, to agree with you in what you said, that is just my opinion.

 

[AMBR]

Here's some more news about the guys from Jens

Jens Johansson's post today, Aug 22. 2008


We have some good news. Earlier this summer, Timo K, Jens and Lauri got together with a guitar player in a forest cottage in west Finland and wrote and arranged some songs. It went extremely well, and we are very happy with the material, the direction, and the general vibe in the band.


We now have over 15 songs written and demoed already, but probably not all of these will make it to the actual album.

We are happy to confirm that our new guitar player is Matias Kupiainen.

All great news and deserving of the new Strato forum emoticon.

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[Bear]

He has some skills but that rig sounds horrid...It will be interesting to see what the final final sounds like...

Bear

 

[7thSaviour]

I think that Timo T should allow them to use the Strato name. However, whatever name they choose will still be great. Best of luck to Timo K and company!

 

[Mosquito]

I think that Timo T should allow them to use the Strato name. However, whatever name they choose will still be great. Best of luck to Timo K and company!

I was under the impression that Tolkki gave up the rights to the name of Stratovarius about 2 months ago or so and let the other guys have it.

J

 

[Diamond45]

I think that Timo T should allow them to use the Strato name. However, whatever name they choose will still be great. Best of luck to Timo K and company!

Actually Timo T did give the remaining band members rights to the name Stratovarius and his share of the profits of the back catalog.

(Edit: I typed it in wrong before - thanks AMBR for the correction )

http://www.stratovarius.com/jmjjtk-acknowledgement-2008-05-29.php

Open letter to Timo Tolkki from three remaining Stratovarius members.

Dear Timo, we thank you for the waiver of your rights dated May 20, 2008 in the name Stratovarius, and the gift of your share of the income from the back catalog.

Technically and morally none of us was in the position to alone give or withhold the name Stratovarius. So, this certainly clarifies the situation, and we three thank you for that.

Good luck with your projects in the future!

Jörg Michael, Jens Johansson and Timo Kotipelto

 

[AMBR]

Actually Timo T did give the remaining band members rights to the name Stratovarius in exchange for his fair share of the profits of the back catalog.

http://www.stratovarius.com/jmjjtk-acknowledgement-2008-05-29.php

Not exactly. He gave up both, which is moot since the back catalog is controlled by the label, who they owe money. An empty gift, really.

 

[Diamond45]

Not exactly. He gave up both, which is moot since the back catalog is controlled by the label, who they owe money. An empty gift, really.

How much money do they owe? Do you mean that all the profits from all the Stratovarius albums go to the label and not the (remaining) members of the band?

That sucks. You'd hope they could start fresh without any baggage hanging overhead.

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

Well let me start out by saying I am a huge Strato fan (I actually own hard copies of all there albums), but to be honest there last couple of ablmus have been kinda lame (with the exception of some tracks). It will be interesting to hear a little change.
As for as Timo T. new project, he will always be one of the best players in the world in my mind, but his new C.D. was just missing something, it sounded very lackluster.
(maybe becuase of all the different singers)

 

[AMBR]

How much money do they owe? Do you mean that all the profits from all the Stratovarius albums go to the label and not the (remaining) members of the band?

That sucks. You'd hope they could start fresh without any baggage hanging overhead.

Figures are irrelevant and I'm not privy to the actual legalities, just what has been made public, but the label, Sanctuary=Universal, has the rights for a period of time somehow tied to the debt owed. This means those band members who produced the work do not reap anything from that work until said debt is paid. That's as simply as I can put it with my limited knowledge of the actual details. Hopefully, a "new" band will have a clean slate, but that may not be the case. I don't know. I just hope the new music is nearly as stimulating to their financial well-being as it is to the music world, thus allowing them to continue. They do, after all, have to eat and pay rent.

 

[St Enigma]

Stratovarius had very bad luck with their recording deal with Sanctuary. In the beginning (2003) it looked like a goldmine for all, but suddenly in spring 2006 when the band had their material for the second CD ready for recording, the company dived and put a halt on all new releases. That had nothing to do with Strato, but they couldn't pull out of the deal, even their lawyers tried hard for almost two years. When Sanctuary was finally taken over by Universal Music last October, Tolkki had had enough, called it quits with Strato and went on recording the songs himself with a temporary Revolution Renaissance line-up.

Tolkki waived all his personal rights concerning Stratovarius to the remaining members last June, but if the guys want to keep going on as Stratovarius, they have to settle the debts with Universal and with their own lawyers (estimated a six-digit sum alltogether) before they can gain any income from Stratovarius.
While the risk of a sudden disbanding is (usually) carried by the record label, the guys can leave Stratovarius be and have a start with a new band name if they see it more appropriate. But like Jens said, no decicions are made about it yet.


I just hope that they can release the new songs next year like intended, because I can imagine anything Jens, Koti and Lauri put together must sound awesome, especially now when they have this young fastfinger-Matias on guitar.

 

[The_Q]

They should just go on with another name. If they continue using the Stratovarius name they will be forever linked to Tolkki via the name. If they go on their own at least they will have some new found respect that they are trying something on their own without having to "latch" on to someones old coattails so to speak.