Finnish metal head Timo Kotipelto made a pit stop in London this week to promote his new album 'Serenity' so I headed over to his hotel for a quick chat.
R13: You have a new solo album called 'Serenity' coming out tell us about it?
Timo: Well, it's coming out (laughs). It's my third solo album and I would say it's not so much a solo album anymore but more like a band album, it's the first time there is only one guy for each instrument and it's not only me who is doing all the composing I got some help from the guitar player Tuomas Wainölä we wrote two of the songs, which are 'Sleep Well' and 'Last Defender' which is the last song of the album. He also co-produced the album with me and did a lot of arrangements, I also think that this is a band because I've been on tour with these guys before but unfortunately it still has my last name on it but it's too late to change it.
R13: How does 'Serenity' compare to 'Coldness'?
T: There's a lot of little differences, it's more optimistic, positive, but positive is too much of a positive word, so it's an optimistic album. The last one 'Coldness' was more sad, dark, it was the album I put all my frustration on and then of course, you can unfortunately hear it as well. This is more compact, it's a better album, a fantastic album!
R13: More mature?
T: Yes it is, I don't know if I'm an adult now but it's more mature.
R13: How does your solo work compare to what you did with the band?
T: The biggest difference is that I don't compose anything for Stratovarius it is the other two that do basically everything and for this musically it's not so much like power metal, whatever that is, it's more like mellow metal then heavy metal which has influences from the eighties and from Stratovarius as well. Lets put it this way, I didn't want to copy what Tolkki is doing with Stratovarius I wanted to do my own thing, that was the point on the last two albums as well, I don't know if this will be the same style as the next album but at the moment this is what Kotipelto is all about, I think so, it's difficult.
R13: Is there a certain process you go through when writing and recording?
T: In my case what I do is...I'll show it to you...I don't know if anyone else is doing this... This is what I use for composing (pulls out mobile phone) I don't have a sponsor deal but this is a mobile phone, so when I have an idea, a melody or riff in my head, I push the button here and (starts humming) and whatever, it records it. So far I didn't record anything in London today but maybe tonight after a few beers, but it can happen any where like, what I do when I hum the melody or the riff for the demo name I use the place where it happened, so for the album I had demo names like Tokyo, Sal Paulo, Berlin then there was Wacken which is a metal festival in Germany and some places in Finland. It was funny when I wrote the lyrics because I changed the title of course and then I tried to explain to the other guys that we were going to play 'Serenity' and they were asking "what's that song?" I'd tell them it's called 'Tilburg' and they'd be like "Oh I know Tilburg, it's ok I know". Sometimes if I'm at home if I play a bit of guitar, I can't really play any instrument so well but if I play guitar or keyboards I can compose that way as well. Melodies just come and go.
R13: Do you enjoy the recording process?
T: No!
R13: A lot of people say that, why don't you like it?
T: Well, lets put it this way, I like it more than the work I was doing when I was doing much, much younger I was working in what I guess you would call a hardware store, I enjoy being in the studio more but I enjoy performing live much, much more.
R13: You're artwork always seems to be quite dark, how do you come up with the concept?
T: This one is not so dark, there are happy colours, but it's not such a happy cover you're right, but there is some hope, there's some light. Look at the girl, she has inner piece but there's a storm outside, in my case it's a little bit different it's pretty calm outside but inside there is turmoil going on. But for 'Coldness' that's different, that was a dark period in my life, back then I had problems with my other band and I don't know if that effected my personal life but I split up with my girlfriend, so it was difficult to write any happy lyrics, but the cover was exactly like I wanted but the record label didn't like it, they thought it wouldn't sell and the cover was too dark they wanted me to put more colour on it, but I didn't want more colour it was just how I wanted it. This time when I came up with the name 'Serenity' I phoned the guy who did the artwork and told him I have this idea, it has to be like this beautiful girl on the cover in a storm, and it was funny because this Finnish guy was like "I know what you mean man, I see the colours." And I said "I didn't tell you any colours yet" and he was like "I have them, don't worry" then he sent me this tape back and I was like "Whoa! This is exactly what I wanted". For this album I found exactly the right combination of players, artwork guy, mixing and mastering studios, and it's not very often I'm satisfied with something. Of course I am never 100% satisfied to my own doings but I'm satisfied with what the other guys did.
R13: You also set up your own record label 'High and Loud' what made you want to do that?
T: Because I'm stupid enough to want to learn new things I thought it's interesting to know the other side of this job, not only being a singer and at the time I was searching for a master deal which means you, or in this case me, are paying all the studios and everything so it makes sense to have a company to pay all the invoices and other stuff because of taxation. Also, because I just wanted to get to know how this business works, in the past it was so easy to say that the record label fucked it up, but in my case it was a little bit difficult especially in Finland. So now I have one side of the brain saying "Hey man you're going to fuck this up, put more money on the advertisement." And the other side is saying "Are you stupid? You're going to sell so many albums so shut up." But it's funny, it's interesting but it's very stressful and takes a lot of time.
R13: Do you prefer being independent then? Have you released 'Serenity' through your own label?
T: Yeah but only in Finland, I made a deal with different labels because I don't have the time, I still want to be an artist, I want to sing. If I was have to have all the distribution deals in each country I would be sat full time behind a desk which I hate, so AFM is taking care of Europe except for Finland and France and I have a direct deal to Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan and Japan. It would be easier to hand it over to one company, but once again I'm so stupid I want to separate it to get more work, don't ask me if it will pay off in the end but at least I'll have tried it.
R13: Well, next time round I can ask you if it did pay off.
T: Please do, that's if I'm still here and not in a straight jacket somewhere. (Laughs)
R13: Have you got any other releases planned through your label?
T: I've released one album for Wingdom, but the plan is that in the Autumn there will be two more bands, one is a pure hard rock band from Finland called Ancara and I'm trying to search for an international deal for them, the other one is called Mehida which is the band of Mikko Härkin who used to play in this band and Sonata Arctica, it's like progressive metal, it is a very good album but it is difficult to work when I'm talking about my own things...although I'm talking about the bands so that's promoting them, that's work, ok that's good.
R13: You've got a European tour lined up will we be seeing any shows in England?
T: Unfortunately not at the moment. The thing was that at the end of last year got a call from a booking agency who said there'd be a chance to do a very short intense tour in Europe, basically a gig everyday with a lot of travelling, it starts in Budapest and goes through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Spain but not to UK, but I don't know why.
R13: Will you be playing any festivals over the summer?
T: At the moment there are only three but they are all in Finland, I've been talking to a friend who works as a booking agent and there might be some shows in South America because we went there a couple of years ago with my band. There's also been talk of me supporting a bigger band in Scandinavia, but that's like maybe, maybe not, but I'd do anything...well not anything but anything that leads to gigs I don't mind.
R13: When you're touring do you notice cultural differences between countries?
T: Definitely, sometimes they are huge, lets compare... I would say the most precise people are in Japan, for example you have this itinerary and it will say wake up at 10am then lobby call at 10:02 and they are there at 10:02 they're so exact. The other completely different version is Brazil, we went to the hotel we were told we were going to be picked up at 5, then at 5 nothing happened, at 7 somebody came and said "there's a short delay you will be picked up at 9" then at 9 nothing happened, then I think at 11 somebody came there, but that's normal for them, but now of course when you go back to a country you've been before you know that the mentality is different. I would say that Germany is close to Japan, Finland is similar to the UK where if your 10 minutes late then it's 10 minutes late, but in Germany that's a big problem.
R13: What about in terms of fans, are they different or are they all the same?
T: Same thing, if you play in Japan then they really pay attention to the band and what they are playing, if there's a ballad they're just listening, it's weird everything is so silent, you hear everything when the song is over then they will applaud. In South America they are totally wild, so wild sometimes it is almost dangerous, the last gig I played with Stratovarius was in Venezuela in October, we'd never been there before so we didn't know what to expect. We heard there maybe a couple of thousand people but I was expecting 500 then we went to the venue and it was open air and there was about 6500 people there, and to be honest we don't sell any CDs there, but you know how it goes people get cheaper CDs from somewhere else but the people knew all the words, they were singing so loud I'll never forget it. I was thinking that Metallica was coming into town or some bigger band but there wasn't. In Finland you get this reaction where if you play midweek the reaction is like Germany, they're ok but nothing special, but if you play on a Saturday the people are completely wasted, they're drunk as hell but it's so much better, backstage is full of friends but half of them are so drunk they cant talk anymore, but that's Finland.
R13: So it appears that you Fins like your drink, what's your favourite tipple?
T: Strong ones, beer, red wine. I like good cognacs, so many whiskeys but if they're smokey then they're good. Gin and Tonic is good, any vodka is good if it's good vodka, Finland is the land of vodka. Sometimes we Fins we drink too much.
R13: You also hosted the Finnish Headbangers Ball how did that come about?
T: To be honest it came out of the blue, the producer just phoned me and asked if I wanted to host the show, we'd done an interview before and thought that I could be the man for the job. I never saw any of those shows, they are done in Stockholm, all the production of Scandinavian MTV is done there so every two weeks I was going to Sweden to do two episodes. It was entertainment, I told him I'm not a journalist and if that's what he was looking for he'd have to ask somebody else, I don't have time to do thorough background checks on people, he told me it was easy, that I just had to turn up and talk but it wasn't like that. I got this list of what videos they showed there and if I didn't know the band personally I would check their homepage then I would try to say something, but other then that I would just talk bullshit and act like an idiot. At the end of the show I was screaming because I have this slogan "Rock The Metal" don't ask me what it means, I don't know but it sounds good, so at the end of the show I'd be like (screams) "Rock The Metal!" and if I had guest then I scream with them...a very intelligent programme, but it was fun. It's nice for the Finnish metal bands because they would come over and I would interview them, which is actually much more difficult then being interviewed, so I respect your work now I know you have to know something about the other person where as everybody knows something about themselves, you know, it's easy for me to talk about myself but at the same time it can be very boring.
R13: I was going to say you must get sick of being asked the same questions day in day out.
T: Yeah but this is nothing, two years ago I was in Germany doing phoners and it 26 interviews a day and honestly at the end of the day my answers were shorter than in the morning. One interview was cancelled and lucky me got 30 minutes off so I had time to eat a cold McDonalds.
R13: Delicious!
T: The Germans are efficient, on the other hand I feel lucky that I can do this, I know many bands that cant do any interviews so I'm lucky, but London is pretty easy and relaxed.
R13: Do you not ever get tempted to make up stupid answers? I think I would.
T: (Laughs) It depends on the question if it's just me who is answering I try to be semi professional but if there are two of us it's much more difficult to be serious especially if we have been drinking and then it's like "warrrr". We were once in Japan and Tolkki and I were drinking not the last night because we were too hung over but for eight nights and I can't remember anything about the interviews but we had to do this acoustic show every morning at 10 and we went to bed at 6am completely drunk, so we were still drunk when we were singing the acoustic show, I don't know if the promotion was good or not. But if somebody is asking questions like "Tell me about the history of the band" especially with Stratovarius to me it shows that the person didn't read the biography or don't any work, it shows that they are just here because their boss sent them. But I never underestimate the journalist not even the ones who don't know about you but if they want to do their job I have to try and make a good story, I'm not here to be arrogant or to put people down.
R13: Do you find the journalists differ in different countries, I know when I've interviewed American bands they'll talk and talk and talk in comparison to British bands.
T: Yeah, same thing. Of course the most difficult interviews are in Japan because the journalists don't speak any English, so they have this translator who knows nothing about the music, so they'll translate music terms into words that don't make any sense in the music business or if you try to make a joke my English is not so good anyway so I try and translate this great Finnish joke into my English which has led to many embarrassing moments where I end up thinking I shouldn't of said that. Then like you said Americans will talk like hell, then you have Finnish guys like us who skip the small talk and are just like "This album is good." But then later when we are completely drunk we have a lot to talk about, you just might not understand us anymore. Also, I have to tell you about an interview I did, a French phoner and I called the number and in my best English I said "Hello this is Timo Kotipelto, can I speak to Henry?" and there was this women who was like "(mumbles in a mock French accent) interview? Un moment" after five minutes I got the guy on the phone and I said the same thing and this guy is like "(more mock French mumbling)" then the lady was on the phone again speaking in her mix of French and English then I understood that she was supposed to be the translator, so I was like "Thank you, maybe we should try this another time." And put the phone down, I couldn't say anything. We are different, the world is different I like it when there are different characters, different types of people because to many of us are the same. I am a character, you are a character it's nice to meet somebody who is a little bit individual, it doesn't have to be the clothes, it could just be something a little bit weird but sometimes it is nice to meet them.
R13: I hear you're into mountain biking.
T: Not that much now, I have a bike but I've been so lazy these last few years I haven't really done that. My favourite sport at the moment is a game called Floor Ball it's a plastic ball with holes in it and plastic sticks and five players on each side and goals and goalkeepers.
R13: So kind of like hockey then?
T: Yeah, sort of but we don't use any helmets or protection. I also go to the gym when I have time but I've been doing promotion and drinking too much, but I'll go soon.
R13: What have been the highlights of your career?
T: Maybe just being able to tour all over the world. The most important thing is meeting so many people and fans and seeing the world. When you're on the road you don't have time to see everything but where ever you go you get little pieces of culture, I think that's pretty educational it sounds like a cliché but it's true.
R13: What do you have left to achieve?
T: Hmm...I was actually talking about this yesterday evening, music wise I don't know you can always dream of selling lots of albums, I can't deny that if this sold well it would be nice but then again maybe I'm a bit of a boring person because I'm pretty satisfied with what I've already achieved. The next step would be to achieve happiness and that's a bit more difficult. I don't have a family, it would be nice to have a family one day but it's not so easy when you're away for six months of a year but I think it can be done...I'm working on it.
R13: It's your mission for when you get back home.
T: Hopefully the next girlfriend is the right one, I hope so. It would be nice if I could help one of the bands on my label to be successful, to help them live from their music that would be much more rewarding for me then this album going multi-platinum in the UK.
R13: Ok, well that's all I need.
T: I think what you need is a drink!
R13: Possibly, but that can be sorted pretty quickly, it's still nice outside so I'll go and find somewhere with a beer garden.
T: I wish I could join you but I've got more interviews to do.
R13: That's a shame, thank you for your time, it was pleasure to meet you.
T: Thank you, it's been nice and it was a pleasure to meet you too.