Timo Tolkki and Timo Kotipelto, luckily you guys came to our show because the viewers have been asking us where is this band and so, what have you been up to ?

TT: We’ve been in the studio since October ‘96 and on tour somewhere there in between and... well, we’ve just been busy!

TK: To put it short, we have been working.

So no time for lazy days, then ?

TK: Nope, no time for that.

Timo, Stratovarius was founded in 1982, does it surprise you to realize that it has been 15 years ?

TT: Well, the first album came out in ‘89 and yes, it took time for the band to develop itself. It takes a long time sometimes.

In the poll of the Japanese Burrrn magazine Stratovarius is ranked as the 11th best band, Timo Kotipelto as the 35th best vocalist, congratulations !

TK: So there is still something left to improve ! ;-)

Yes, and then Timo Tolkki is the 10th best guitarist, congratulations to you, too! There has been great success for you guys in Japan and...

Interrupted by Tolkki and Kotipelto: You missed the bass player!

Sorry, wait, I’ll find him here...

TT: Actually, he didn’t make it to the list and that chicken didn’t have the guts to come here yet, he is probably at home lying on the sofa and watching us on TV! ;-)

TK: Yeah, and our album Episode was ranked as the 6th best album and that is maybe coolest thing...

Timo Tolkki, you were in Japan earlier this year, what did you do there ?

TT: Mostly I did interviews for guitar magazines, around 35 interviews or so in a week’s period. Now I will go to a promotion tour in Europe for two and a half weeks, then we’ll start training for the tour. We will tour Finland in may and then do a festival in Spain. Then again me and Kotipelto will go to Japan to do some more promoting. We will also play here some mid-summer festivals and then probably go to South-America in july.

TK: It will be our first time there, very cool, I think...

TT: And then in the autumn we will tour Europe also.

How about the new album ‘Visions’, will it be different from the previous releases ?

TK: The basic musical lines are the same, but everything has gone under development, the songs, the sounds, the band...

TT: The problem we had for years was the fact that we were not recognized by the media, of course there was our first album, which by the way still sounds horrible, don’t buy it!!! But like I said earlier it takes time for the band to get things going and now that the band has become more international with Jens and Jörg coming along it has surely had positive influence on us.