Voici le comment posté sur par Tolkki sur son site, hier :
I am writing this
in Canton, a small city in China after a week from the statement the ex-members
of
Stratovarius published. Yesterday an earthquake killed over 50 000 people
1500 kilometers from here. That actually put things into perspective for me
regarding the recent events. My mind has calmed
Down and I am able to think
more rationally about the whole sitution. I am going to take you on a small
Journey to some key events that hopefully are enough to make you understand
what kind of things have been going on. I simply cannot just be silent after
that slanderous
Attack towards me and my music that the other guys launched
some time ago. However after this, I will continue my life and leave this
behind.
My memories go
back to the year 1984 when I received that phone call to join
Stratovarius when
the guitar player/ main songwriter had been fired
, and when we started building up the band from scratch. I started
singing and composing songs that were totally different from those Ozzy-influenced
blues songs the band had been playing for 2 years. We worked hard, played every
day, made demos and finally we made our dream came true: we got a record deal
with CBS. Fright Night,
Twilight Time and Dreamspace followed each others. It
took over 8 years before any of us saw any money from the record sales.
At this point
Stratovarius had become my band, I was the ”Kapellmeister” and the band was my
symphony orchestra. Together we made some truly memorable music. At this point
I worked alone full time as a manager and a booking agent for the band. With
this enormous amount of work, the foundation was laid for the later success of
Stratovarius. I was never paid for this work and not then and not after that
have I ever considered money to be
the reason why I am a musician.
The much
-critizized firing of Tuomo Lassila and
Antti Ikonen were simply due to a non-dedication to the band’s activities. They
both were not at all into heavy metal and I don’t think they ever thought that
the band could become so successful. They didn’t like the direction the music
was heading. It was another painful decision that I as a leader of the band had
to do. And it was for the better. They could continue to do what they did best.
Today Tuomo Lassila is a respected Classical percussionist in a Symphony
Orchestra. Still I am looking at that time with a certain nostalgia, with a
certain ”innocence”. There were no big corporate deals or managers breathing
Down
my neck to ”make that hit record fast”. We played to very small audiences,
sometimes to seven people, but it didnt matter, it was fun. There was not much
money involved, but more than that, there was fun and there was creativity. And
there was friendship too.
When Timo
Kotipelto, Jens Johansson and Jörg Michael joined the band, I knew I had found
the line up, that would take us as far as you can go with this kind of music.
The only thing I was concerned was, that I was the only guy in the band that
had a spiritual approach to life and that I had been writing songs about Love,
Peace, Universal Brotherhood since I was a teenager . But I did not give it so
much thought, since I thought that I would be able to express that message
anyway
, because it is a strong one.
It culminates in the symbol of Fleur De Lys, which means and represents to me
the spirituality and all those core human values I have always been writing
about. At that time I did not understand, that like many of those who had been
walking this path, that I would face a lot of violent hatred and laughter. Now
I know better, but today that only makes my message stronger. You have to learn
to look at the evil eye to eye and laugh at it. I found that symbol 1992 and
put it on the cover of my first solo album and later on the Stratovarius logo 5
years later.
And now it follows me
to my new band
Revolution Renaissance.
When the guys
joined the band, I made it very clear what I wanna do and made contracts with
each one of them. In that contract I also determined the rules that I would
decide all the artistic factors of the band, that I own the name Stratovarius,
and that we split all the income evenly with all the members... discounting the
fact that I had been working years without any money with the previous line up,
and created the necessary contacts that now became very important to gain
success. Of course, everything from Episode onwards is written forever in Power
Metal history and I don’t have to repeat our achievements here.
It was around the
time when we left Nuclear Blast and signed a big money contract with Sanctuary
that things started to go wrong. I think this move ultimately destroyed the
band, added a corporate aspect to the music and resulted in the worst
Stratovarius album ever: the black Stratovarius ”united” album. And I am as
guilty as the others of all this. As the big money entered the picture, so also entered highly questionable
methods to market the band using whatever means possible. Due to legal reasons
it is not possible to go into details, but I just say this: whatever marketing
trick was used at that time,
everybody was part of it: the whole band, the management and the record company. And I
repeat:
the whole band including Timo
Kotipelto and Jörg Michael. And I can prove this and they know it. And one day I might just do that.
Maybe soon. Maybe in a book.
It
was all this what ultimately lead to my total nervous breakdown in Spring 2004.
The recovery has lasted to this very day, but I can say that today I am almost
fully recovered and have not drunk a
drop of alcohol in 3 years and have been on medication for 4 years to combat one of the most painful and
vicious mental illnesses: bipolar disorder. The medication works wonderfully
and I am able to work and be creative. And most of all I feel free. I am
fortunate to have that medication that many
sufferers before me
, for example
Ludwig Van Beethoven or Ernest Hemingway (who blew his brains out with a gun),
did not have. They had the same illness, as do many people who work in
”entertainment”.
The damage done to the band was
irreversible. Somebody has said that sooner or later you start to hate your
leader. Much has also been said about the band members ”saving me”, when I was
in a hospital or when I was thinking about commiting suicide. On the contrary,
I didn’t receive any acts of kindness from ”my friends”. Not one of them visited
me in the hospital although all the guys were in town. The only person that
seemed to care later was Jens with his phone calls, and you the fans, from whom
I received thousands of letters that gave me real hope and comfort. The people
who actually saved me were my wife and daughter, my mother and my
therapist.
I had the worst
depressive episode of my life that last 7 months. I could not even get out from
the bed. During this time, my ”friends” were not even in touch with me. Instead
what happened was that they were slowly working behind my back to take over
much of the bands control, especially financial, with the help from the
management. And they succeeded fairly well. It was very clever. When I
recovered enough, I found out that lots of things had been changed and that I
did not have that control over the band I had before and what I needed to be able to express my music, my
art. All this was done behind my back during this time. I faced increasing
demands to do things I didn’t want to do, and demands from Timo Kotipelto to
get his songs into Stratovarius records. The only problem was: we are so very
different and our music and message is so very different. He would never write
lyrics like ”Celestial Dream”.
His
music and lyrics doesn’t have that spiritual dimension that mine has. Not that they
have to, of course.
I was lied to directly about the promotional
activities of the Stratovarius album and Jens and Kotipelto did the full promo
tour while I was tricked and told that I would do the most important interviews
”later”. Due to this, I didn’t talk to the press for that album at all,
although I very much felt I needed to and the last time I had done interviews,
was 2003, but not because I didn’t want to.
It was organized that I could not. These things were
arranged behind my back by the band and the management. They wanted me silent
and make me look like I was not ”there” so much anymore.
During the
rehearsals and the world tour of Stratovarius record, I felt lot of aggression towards
me. I felt like I was not wanted in my own band. I designed the whole show
myself, including the projection screens and the peace message with the
Declaration of Universal Human Rights in the song ”United”. The whole spirit of
the show was so contradictory to the feeling that was in the band.
As the tour progressed I really started
to have the feeling that I am not wanted in the band anymore. I was told by
Jörg Michael face to face that ”this band is over”.
I was really confused what to do after the tour so I did
what I always do: I put my feelings to music and started writing songs. The
songs were completed quickly in August 2006 and the demos delivered to the
management in October. They in turn sent them to Sanctuary for approval and
that started the whole legal thing.
We had festival appearaneces scheduled in 2007, but at that point I really
felt that something weird was going on... a nd that everybody was in it only
for the money. Like trying to get whatevery they could as fast as they could.
Insane gig offers for one gig off in
India etc followed, which I refused to play, much to group’s anger.
The Sanctuary
lawsuit was going on because they did not want to pay what was in the contract.
I said, I don’t care about that money, let’s just leave and find
a new label, we have to get the album
out. I was pressured largely by staying away from that due to the financial
arrangements that were done behind my back while I was sick. I asked for
information about the lawsuit but I was given very vague answers. To be short:
I didn’t know what is going on. I said that we don’t need that money and that
we should just leave and find another label, but it was our management and
especially Jens that heavily resisted this option. Sanctuary would have let us
go for free from the contract. Gamma Ray left and signed with SPV and is doing
great today. But we had to go into that legal battle because of 420 000€ per
record. Sanctuary found out that Jari signed the contract but is not in the
band anymore. Bang! No money. The guys contacted Jari and asked him to sign a
paper where he stated that he is still in the band although he was playing in
Evergrey. It was just: money, money, money. And all this time, I was the only
one who was actually making music. I used almost a year in my life for
composing and recording my Classical Rock Opera ”Saana”. And the evergrowing
feeling inside of me that something is terribly wrong.
At the same time playing the festival
gigs and feeling all this hatred, I started to think about my future. I knew at
that point that I would be happier without these guys, except perhaps Jens and
Lauri. As the months went by and I was doing my solo album Saana, I felt so
much happiness doing that project that I fully realized what I should do. I was
aware of the consequences, but I wasn’t aware that I was against a big money
making machine. I have explained much of this period in my first statement.
So there was one
thing left. I had to decide if I would continue Strato without Kotipelto and
Jörg, from whom I felt most of the hatred coming. I came to the conclusion that there cannot be
Stratovarius without these guys and that it would be wrong to the fans to
replace them. So I decided to end something that I started 23 years before and
yes, I do consider that
, although
there are always those who remind me that I am not an original member. But I do
consider myself as an original member of Stratovarius as the fans know it. The
band started in 1982 and I came in 1984.
I do consider myself as the soul of Stratovarius and that it has always
been my band. But I also consider that I could not have achieved all that
success without the classic line up. It was a match made in heaven. Why it
ended the way it ended, is partly a mystery to me. But my motivation was not
”greed” as the others claim. If it would be, I would certainly have waited to have that 420 000€
plus the high fee Stratovarius receives
from the shows. Instead I decided to go on my own way and stop Stratovarius
while it still had some dignity left. I was fully aware that I would have to
pay for my share for the legal costs, but I didn’t care... although I waited as
long as I could to give time to those who wanted that money more than to create
music. And I do blame the management and the lawyer for handling the case badly
and slowly.
You have to do
your own thinking: why would I leave a succesful band who was winning the legal
case with all that money and go and start all over again with a totally new
band and relatively unknown musicians with
very little money compared to the Strato if I wasn’t completely totally unhappy
about almost everything in the band the worst being the very fake human
relationships and how I had been treated
in the last couple of years? Does this make any sense to you
? And if it does, then perhaps it has
come time to ask
: who are the ones
that actually are greedy? And who wants to exploit the name ”Stratovarius” and
who doesn’t?
For those who don’t
know, the deals me
and Strato
always make/made are so called ”master deals”. It means that the artist pays
for the studio, flights, the general costs of making the album. After paying
all the costs of the RR ”New Era” album that includes mega names and studio
rent is 460€ per day plus also the costs for making cover, pictures, what is
left is nothing compared to what I was making in Strato. The ”supreme greedy
narcistic Faust” doesn’t really fit into this scenario. But a guy who loves
music and has made it from his heart since
the age of 14 and follows his ideals no matter what, does.
That guy is me.
So now we come to
that point where I had the new album of my new band ready and still no solution
from a simple legal case. It was 2 months until the release and the case had
been going on for almost 2 years now. So that was the day when I had to make it
public. It still took about a month until the Sanctuary/Universal people heard
about the break-up. Then it was of course too late.
I wrote my statement
with a clear conscience and without hatred, telling about the reasons of the
split that had already happened half a year before. Rationally, peacefully and with
respect. I wanted the fans to know the truth. Since then I have spent much of
my time in the Strato forum and RR forum explaining the situation and trying to
be with the fans. My sincere wish was that the split would not divide the fans
and I spent a lot of time even defending the guys and writing blogs urging fans
not to take sides. I believe the fans deserved to know more than the general
chit chat. Some people say we should not talk about private things in public.
But it is absolutely impossible to understand the whole thing without going
into those details. At the end of the day it is just down to rational thinking:
why didn’t
I stay? Why did I leave?
Then the other
guys published that hate filled, bitter and cruel statement accusing me of just
about everything that has ever happened. The biggest thing that hurt was that
it was signed by Jens and Lauri, who I thought were my friends. That cut very
deep and I am still recovering from that disappointment. That really broke my
heart. And I still can’t believe it. But it is true.
After that
statement it was of course inevitable that the fans will be divided, thus the
situation was against everything that Stratovarius had ever represented and I
had written songs about. They were not divided after my first statement. I
certainly didn’t intend to start a flaming war but I was shocked about the lies
and aggressiveness. And I did write some stupid things in the forums, which I
apologize about to you the fans. But I am only
a human being with weaknesses and sometimes too much is just too
much. The pressure was just unbelievable. I was stabbed in the back by the guys
I had given all my creative energy and efforts, not to mention the money, for
12 years and I was called ”greedy supreme narcistic Faust”. The whole statement
made little sense to me,stating that band had declined since 2004 and that I
was somehow ”humiliated” by this. I think the humiliation lies on the other side
and in the ”abandonment” by my ”friends”. Also,
I don’t think the band had declined. We played extremely
succesful world tour of 100 shows around the Globe for ”Stratovarius” album.
That’s hardly a decline. The fans were there. They were hungry for a new Strato
album. Sadly they had no idea what was going on. I really don’t understand the whole
statement in any other way than cleverly putting all the blame on me and trying
to destroy my new career, while continuing under the name ”Stratovarius”. It is
a very different statement from what I did and wrote in a very different way
and tone. There is unbelievable repressed hate in that statement towards me.
Thus, much of what I had felt towards me in the last couple of years is
manifested in that letter. Later I heard from 3 credible sources close to Jens
that he actually toned the statement down and that it was even more aggressive.
The source of that aggressiveness would be Jörg Michael and Timo Kotipelto,
exactly as I have felt. Jörg Michael is also the only guy who has put up the
statement on his myspace site.
Now we come to
the final point since the others want to continue as Stratovarius. My thought
of not wanting to continue Stratovarius without Timo Kotipelto and Jörg Michael
was totally contradictory to their thought of continuing the band without me.
And since I had written 95% about the songs and lyrics and was responsible for
the whole essence and message of the band, it would be impossible to call that
band Stratovarius. It would have nothing to do with that name. This would be no
Deep Purple without Blackmore where the songs were written mainly together...
plus they had no serious message like Stratovarius does.
So there will
never be another Stratovarius. It was a unique band and the name itself doesnt
mean that it would bear the trademarks of Stratovarius. It means more to me
than money. It means the very essence of the message it has carried in my songs
for 23 years. That is a very long time. My new band cannot replace
Stratovarius. Neither can any other band. My dignity prevents me from using
that name without my ex-band members. This is the contrary regarding the other
guys and what they are inteding to do. At this writing, they are most likely
preparing all kinds of Stratovarius releases that I blocked, out of the reasons
that they did not have enough quality.
Since I consider
this a devastatingly disappointing and utterly disrespectful move, I am going
to do something people don’t probably expect from me. First of all in my life
philosophy this kind of act is evil. And I do not want to have anything to do
with evil. Although both moral and legal rights I own would easily grant me the
rights to prevent the guys using the name Stratovarius, I am going to do the
opposite. I am going to give them full perpetual rights to the name and also I
do not want to receive any money regarding record sales of the back catalogue
or possible new products in which I am involved . Ever. You will find this
letter that has been mailed to the Stratovarius management with this statement.
Simply, I don’t want to have anything to do with that name in its present form,
Jörg Michael, Timo Kotipelto and Jens Johansson ever again. The old records and
their message speak for themselves. So the guys are free to use the name. I am
doing this with a clear mind that everything that you put to the universe
returns to you. And above all, I refuse to co-operate, negotiate or have
anything to do with what I consider to be evil. And here is the very corporate
money making machine in its full force exploiting the name, like it could
really have the same meaning without me.
I hope this
letter clarifies some things from my side and I promise that this will be the
last statement from my side. From now on I will let the music talk with my new
band
Revolution Renaissance, that carries that spiritual essence of the Fleur
de Lys. That’s why it’s in the logo. And of
course we will play lots of Stratovarius songs in the shows
too.
I wish you nothing but good things,
blessings and much happiness. I thank you for a great life and I hope to see you somewhere along the road. Take
good care of yourselves and I am very sorry that it had to end this way. When
the curtain falls at the end of the day, it’s only the Music that counts. And
you will get that from me in the future too.
Love, Timo Tolkki
