[IMGLEFT]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/brians_barbie/strato.jpg[/IMGLEFT]By Ellie McGee
Stratovarius are making a fresh start with new guitarist Matias Kupiainen in Wolverhampton of all places, Timo Kotipelto's been meeting some proper English squirrels, and English crowds are apparently the most difficult in the world. Fantastic.
Lauri Porra; bassist.
Matias Kupiainen; guitarist and newbie.
How are you, are you looking forward to the tour?
Lauri: Yeah, first night tonight, grand opening.
And your first gig Matias…
Matias: Yeah, in this band anyway! I’ve done quite a few before, but not with this dude.
Lauri: We played like 20 seconds together [at the Guitar Heroes gig, 2007], so we have some common things. We go way back!
Matias: Yeah, 20 seconds.
How are you [Matias] feeling about the gig tonight? Is it a big thing?
Matias: Of course it’s a big thing, especially to me because I’m the new guy. There are a lot of old songs in the setlist so let’s see how it goes.
How did you get on learning them all?
Matias: By practising!
There’s quite a large back-catalogue to learn – did you learn all of it or just the ones you’ll be playing live?
Matias: Actually Kotipelto sent me in January this like 40 song setlist so I practised almost all of them, but we were rehearsing in Dortmund for ten days so we cut some setlists from around 20 songs.
This isn’t the first time you’ve played with Kotipelto – you played with him for the Russian president recently. How did that come about?
Matias: Yeah we did, it was Medvedev [President of Russia] and Tarja Halonen [President of Finland]. I’ve played with Kotipelto for a few acoustic gigs now. I got a call from Timo something like one and a half weeks before the actual gig, so we practised together something like a few hours before, but I practised alone and so did the others, and we agreed the songs by phone.
Matias
Matias, Jens [Johansson] has said that you’ve “integrated yourself into this band of weirdos with a lot of grace and humour”, is that how it’s been?
Matias: Well…that’s one way to see it! Everything’s been ok…I don’t know what else to say to that really.
Polaris comes out in the UK on Monday [18th May 2009], have there been any reviews of it yet?
Lauri: Yes, there have been some in the ‘internets’, and I think most of them have been very positive. Not that it really changes anything, but it’s nice when people like it. Most of all, I think this reception we got from the old fans warms the heart – they like the album and they take us for who we are. Normally all this stuff doesn’t really matter at all, but it’s very nice to hear that the old fans respect what we’re doing.
Was that something that was particularly important to you, getting the old fans onside?
Lauri: No, not at all. It’s not like you write music based on what somebody might like or not – we do music as best possible way we can.
What are your plans after the tour?
Lauri: I think we’ve got a couple of days R+R [rest and relaxation] in Helsinki, then we go to Russia and we do festivals in Europe every week. We’re doing a bunch of festivals in Finland, like Ruisrock and Ilosaarirock and Masters of Rock in Czech Republic, Hellfest in France, stuff like that. Some new places – we’re going to Ukraine to play.
Matias: Maybe some Poland shows also in the late summer.
Lauri: From then on we continue with the headlining world tour, we do China, Japan, then North America, South America, then little bit of break and then proper full-on European tour starting, I think, from January. Then there’s a good chance, if you will have us back, we will take a little visit…
Matias: …back to Wolverhampton!
Lauri
Are you looking forward to any particular dates on the tour?
Lauri: I’m very into this doing a little bit of tourist stuff, like now we’re in Wolverhampton so I went to see the West Park, and you know, I always try to see something. And tomorrow we’re going to play in Nottingham, and I hear there’s like the oldest pub in England in Nottingham called Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. So I want to go to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem!
Do you get a lot of time to do that on tour, or do you have to fit it in when you can?
Lauri: Yeah, you have to fit it in when you can. Of course the gig is the main thing but I at least really like to put in little things like go to one museum or see some sights or something.
Lauri, you’ve done all the video blogs so far, is that something you’ll carry on doing, to keep people updated?
Lauri: Yeah, I want to, and I think Jens is now – slowly – putting up some new web design, and there’s like new ways for us to upload all sorts of stuff, so we are least planning to be more interactive with the fans, especially like tour blogging and putting pictures up or something. But you never know, sometimes the tour gets the better of you but I’m definitely planning on continuing the video blogs I make. Actually I should’ve shot something today at the West Park, but I got still photos of Kotipelto with some squirrels.
Anything you’d like to say to your fans in the UK?
Lauri: Just…thanks for giving us a chance! And you know, buy the album blah blah blah, it’s good stuff blah blah blah… I think it’s good to start off here, because UK is not a strong country for Stratovarius and we’re going to do some pretty big festivals in the summer so it’s also for us to get comfortable with Matias on stage. Of course I know English crowds are the most difficult crowds in the world – you have this habit of bottling people and stuff. I think that now on our headlining tour people aren’t going to hopefully bottle us.
Matias: We’ll bottle them back!
Lauri: What?
Matias: We’ll throw the bottles back!
Lauri: Yes, I think the UK’s a good place to start unless we get bottled!
Official Stratovarius Website
Official Stratovarius MySpace
EARmusic Official Site
Stratovarius are making a fresh start with new guitarist Matias Kupiainen in Wolverhampton of all places, Timo Kotipelto's been meeting some proper English squirrels, and English crowds are apparently the most difficult in the world. Fantastic.
Lauri Porra; bassist.
Matias Kupiainen; guitarist and newbie.
How are you, are you looking forward to the tour?
Lauri: Yeah, first night tonight, grand opening.
And your first gig Matias…
Matias: Yeah, in this band anyway! I’ve done quite a few before, but not with this dude.
Lauri: We played like 20 seconds together [at the Guitar Heroes gig, 2007], so we have some common things. We go way back!
Matias: Yeah, 20 seconds.
How are you [Matias] feeling about the gig tonight? Is it a big thing?
Matias: Of course it’s a big thing, especially to me because I’m the new guy. There are a lot of old songs in the setlist so let’s see how it goes.
How did you get on learning them all?
Matias: By practising!
There’s quite a large back-catalogue to learn – did you learn all of it or just the ones you’ll be playing live?
Matias: Actually Kotipelto sent me in January this like 40 song setlist so I practised almost all of them, but we were rehearsing in Dortmund for ten days so we cut some setlists from around 20 songs.
This isn’t the first time you’ve played with Kotipelto – you played with him for the Russian president recently. How did that come about?
Matias: Yeah we did, it was Medvedev [President of Russia] and Tarja Halonen [President of Finland]. I’ve played with Kotipelto for a few acoustic gigs now. I got a call from Timo something like one and a half weeks before the actual gig, so we practised together something like a few hours before, but I practised alone and so did the others, and we agreed the songs by phone.
Matias
Matias, Jens [Johansson] has said that you’ve “integrated yourself into this band of weirdos with a lot of grace and humour”, is that how it’s been?
Matias: Well…that’s one way to see it! Everything’s been ok…I don’t know what else to say to that really.
Polaris comes out in the UK on Monday [18th May 2009], have there been any reviews of it yet?
Lauri: Yes, there have been some in the ‘internets’, and I think most of them have been very positive. Not that it really changes anything, but it’s nice when people like it. Most of all, I think this reception we got from the old fans warms the heart – they like the album and they take us for who we are. Normally all this stuff doesn’t really matter at all, but it’s very nice to hear that the old fans respect what we’re doing.
Was that something that was particularly important to you, getting the old fans onside?
Lauri: No, not at all. It’s not like you write music based on what somebody might like or not – we do music as best possible way we can.
What are your plans after the tour?
Lauri: I think we’ve got a couple of days R+R [rest and relaxation] in Helsinki, then we go to Russia and we do festivals in Europe every week. We’re doing a bunch of festivals in Finland, like Ruisrock and Ilosaarirock and Masters of Rock in Czech Republic, Hellfest in France, stuff like that. Some new places – we’re going to Ukraine to play.
Matias: Maybe some Poland shows also in the late summer.
Lauri: From then on we continue with the headlining world tour, we do China, Japan, then North America, South America, then little bit of break and then proper full-on European tour starting, I think, from January. Then there’s a good chance, if you will have us back, we will take a little visit…
Matias: …back to Wolverhampton!
Lauri
Are you looking forward to any particular dates on the tour?
Lauri: I’m very into this doing a little bit of tourist stuff, like now we’re in Wolverhampton so I went to see the West Park, and you know, I always try to see something. And tomorrow we’re going to play in Nottingham, and I hear there’s like the oldest pub in England in Nottingham called Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. So I want to go to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem!
Do you get a lot of time to do that on tour, or do you have to fit it in when you can?
Lauri: Yeah, you have to fit it in when you can. Of course the gig is the main thing but I at least really like to put in little things like go to one museum or see some sights or something.
Lauri, you’ve done all the video blogs so far, is that something you’ll carry on doing, to keep people updated?
Lauri: Yeah, I want to, and I think Jens is now – slowly – putting up some new web design, and there’s like new ways for us to upload all sorts of stuff, so we are least planning to be more interactive with the fans, especially like tour blogging and putting pictures up or something. But you never know, sometimes the tour gets the better of you but I’m definitely planning on continuing the video blogs I make. Actually I should’ve shot something today at the West Park, but I got still photos of Kotipelto with some squirrels.
Anything you’d like to say to your fans in the UK?
Lauri: Just…thanks for giving us a chance! And you know, buy the album blah blah blah, it’s good stuff blah blah blah… I think it’s good to start off here, because UK is not a strong country for Stratovarius and we’re going to do some pretty big festivals in the summer so it’s also for us to get comfortable with Matias on stage. Of course I know English crowds are the most difficult crowds in the world – you have this habit of bottling people and stuff. I think that now on our headlining tour people aren’t going to hopefully bottle us.
Matias: We’ll bottle them back!
Lauri: What?
Matias: We’ll throw the bottles back!
Lauri: Yes, I think the UK’s a good place to start unless we get bottled!
Official Stratovarius Website
Official Stratovarius MySpace
EARmusic Official Site
