The fact that Jörg Michael, who is currently recovery from cancer, is back, is enthusiastic. The same goes for Stratovarius’s return to the stage with their cleverly evolved music. Jörg was able to discuss the band’s new development with us without any restraint (notably concerning some of their legal issues); he mentions the genesis, their difficulties and their fears. He also honestly admits that the band struggled through a period of doubt after the departure of Timo Tolkki, as well as with the start of the new line-up. The band, who are now stronger than ever, fought through these difficult situations and according to the drummer himself: this is a promising new beginning allowing for many more years to come.

« We want to show that we are back and there’s this kind of turmoil like the clash with Timo Tolkki from a few years back you know. And then there is another tour and again you have to cancel because of that, you know? […] The band is always bigger than any individual thing in it.  »

Radio Metal : For starters, how are you doing?

Jörg Michael (drums) : Yes and in fact I’m feeling good enough to join this tour now. The others started with another drummer who was filling in for me for a couple of shows. In general, I am also feeling quite well because the whole process went very well for me so in the end I can be very happy. As you can hear, my voice is still a little bit sore but it will go away in the next 6 months. Besides from that, I’m kind of ok and the first therapy was a big success. I have to do another one in 3-4 months time, but it’s all going as planned and I’m feeling very good about that.

But didn’t the doctors advise you not to go on stage immediately given the severity of your disease?

No that was a natural process. They didn’t say that I should stay away specifically but I mean you need to think about yourself when you’ve had surgery, and during the surgery they found out that this tumor was malignant but they decided take it anyway. I lost a lot of blood so I also had to make sure that my whole body shape and condition was good enough to join a tour.

The press release that announced your disease was extremely positive. Do you think that this state of mind, the will not to feel sorry for yourself, helped save you?

I think that mental power is very important for everything that you do in your life. I don’t think it’s about what you mentioned but rather about how you play football or how you play your drums or how you play a song to the audience. A song can never be successful when you don’t have a positive feel with which to bring it across for the people who listen to it. I think that mental power is a very important thing for everything in your life.

Do you think that mental power can “Move The Mountain”, just like this song on your new album suggest?

I think so yes (laughs). You can see what mental power can do with many things. There are certain illnesses which come 80 percent from your brain. When you think of back ache for example; you have aches in your spine and 80 percent of this comes from your brain.

Alex Landenburg was your temporary replacement. Did you get wind of his performances?

No I haven’t heard actually. But of course I was following on the internet a little bit, as some fans posted some videos on YouTube. That is basically as much as I saw, but I did not see any shows.

Did he receive any special instructions? For example, did the band ask him to stay as true as possible to your drum parts?

I don’t know but I doubt that’s what they would have told them because I think that when you take somebody in, then you should take the strongest point. I think that if somebody tried to play exactly like me than people who sense it anyway, but if you try to put your views and the things where you are best into the music, then it will kind of work. When I saw some of the videos, I thought that this is what they did because he plays a lot of things differently to the way I do.

The band wanted to cancel the tour but it was so close to the tour that we wouldn’t have been giving Helloween enough time to find a suitable substitute for us. Everything was arranged you know. I also had the chance to join in the tour whenever I felt like it and I know that I can come back. I think that it was a very wise decision to do this. We wanted to do this tour and we wanted to present the band also to a wider audience and to the Helloween audience. We want to show that we are back and there’s this kind of turmoil like the clash with Timo Tolkki from a few years back you know. And then there is another tour and again you have to cancel because of that, you know? I think that if you find a suitable substitute for me, and the band thought that Alex was good, then it is definitely a good thing for the band, and either way, the band is always bigger than any individual thing in it.

« With Polaris we were very careful, nervous and thinking “can we really follow the footsteps of the big producer and songwriter Timo Tolkki?”. So we thought about every detail very carefully. Then with Elysium, we already had done Polaris once so everything was a lot more spontaneous, confident and actually easier. I also think that it is a lot more complex. . »

It’s your second album in two years, and musically, Elysium seems to be a logical evolution of Polaris. After wavering for a few years, it seems you finally found your cruising speed. What helped you reach that turning point?

Hmm (pauses to think) I think that first of all it was a very nice thing for us that we came back with Polaris after all that the band went through. I mean this also has something to do with friendship and with what you want to do with your life you know.Then all of the sudden you have so much disappointment, but then to stand up again and try to continue and it took a long time… I like what you said at the beginning about the latest album being a kind of evolution from the last one. You know, it is basically a logical continuation of Polaris and this is exactly how I feel as well. With Polaris, we learnt a bit about how to do it without Timo Tolkki and I think that we succeeded quite well but it took us over a year to come up with this album. Now the latest album only took us 6 months and yet despite all that we put into it, I would still not say that it is better because it’s different and how can you judge music? But in general, you can see a lot of progress. Matias has now played with us for over 100 shows since Polaris and you can see that the band is a lot more united now than it was with Polaris. We are now also able to play much more complicated stuff together and it still sounds like Stratovarius. This is a very nice thing.

For example for the US tour, we were playing in front of large audiences in the East Coast, Canada or L.A. and then we also played in really small clubs with less people and it really united us and made us feel that we wanted to continue this thing together in this line-up.

Did Timo Tolkki had to leave in order for Stratovarius to be reborn?

For a long time we believed that this was not necessary and I still can say that because of the times we had I am very sad that this happened. But it was his decision and he has different plans and it’s a shame but when you have the decision in front of you then you have to live with it. I don’t think that it was able to… No, it was not the case that Timo Tolkki had to leave, but it was the only thing that was left. Now after everything, I am of course very happy about how things have turned out but this does not mean that I will regret the time with Timo Tolkki. That was a different part of my life which I still appreciate. It was just the end which was a little bit bitter but now we have to focus on this. The whole situation in order to give birth to the band again as you said, was the decision from Jens Johansson, Timo Kotipelto and I was to continue without Timo Tolkki.

There’s only a year and a half between the release of Polaris and that of Elysium. When listening to these two albums, one can’t help but notice a very strong link between them. It even sounds like they were composed at the same time. Is Elysium a kind of sequel to Polaris?

Well I see it a little bit differently to you. I think that for example when you say that it could have been written at the same time, I don’t think that Elysium could have been an album that came before Polaris. When I listen to Polaris, then I see Elysium and then I see that clearly without Polaris, Elysium would have not been possible. You can see in the song “Deep Unknown” from Polaris, you can already see the new direction, which you can see with Elysium a little bit but also a song like “Darkest Hour” which I could not see on Polaris. So I can see that with Polaris we were very careful, nervous and thinking “can we really follow the footsteps of the big producer and songwriter Timo Tolkki?”. So we thought about every detail very carefully. Then with Elysium, we already had done Polaris once so everything was a lot more spontaneous, confident and actually easier. I also think that it is a lot more complex.

“Elysium”, the title-song, is the longest you ever wrote in your career. Since this was a first for you, did you face any particular difficulties when you were composing it?

It was composed by Matias actually, then we put it all together But there is one thing that is different to all of the Stratovarius epics when you think of “Destiny” or “Elements” of “Visions”. This is just one song. It’s a very long song but the Elysium epic is basically three songs which are connected you know. That’s just what the difference is to me and that is why it is so long, but it has a whole structure with parts I, II and III. . I also think that at one point we will play this live and I’m really looking forward to doing this. This is definitely a new step (laughs). For me, I call it a new masterpiece by Stratovarius because for me it is my favourite song on the new album.

Apparently it took you almost eight months to compose this song!

Yes that’s true, in fact almost a year. It was like 8 months to compose it and then the time it took to work with it you know.

« This new era of what he has recorded, we recorded in the Stratovarius line-up, and then he took these songs and sold them in a solo album behind our backs. That would have been the new Stratovarius. »

For the past few albums, Stratovarius’s style has evolved. Do you think the media were right to reproach you for going in circles a few years ago?

You mean repeating ourselves? Well it’s a little bit difficult. I don’t think that you do it on purpose to copy yourself or to go in circles, but I also agree on the fact that after Element it was very hard for us in this line-up to achieve a new way. We tried this with the Stratovarius which I think is also a very good album but lots of fans are disappointed because it is so completely different from what we did before. But definitely after this Element albums, the epic element, I thought that it would be very difficult to know where to go from there. This is a normal development inside a band I think. I’m really unable to tell what kind of album we would have done with Timo Tolkki. I mean, this new era of what he has recorded, we recorded in the Stratovarius line-up, and then he took these songs and sold them in a solo album behind our backs. That would have been the new Stratovarius. For now of course it feels great that we found our style and it reflects the idea of Stratovarius, because one thing which could be the biggest mistake we could have done is to tell Mathias that he should be like Timo Tolkki. First of all, I don’t think that anyone can be like Timo Tolkki and also because it would take the strong points out of Matias. We wanted somebody with their own vision for Stratovarius and also that they should present it to the band. On the second album I think that Matias has written about 7 or 9 songs and 5 or 6 of them are on the album, so he is a strong input in the band now. For me, Matias is the new musical director of Stratovarius actually.

The 2005 self-titled album was very straightforward, but the band was using brand new influences. Conversely, Polaris and Elysium feature typical Stratovarius musical structures, but the melodies are less catchy. It seems you needed some time before you could finally find a way to evolve while staying true to your sound…

Yes, but isn’t that normal? If we just did it fast then it wouldn’t be good enough. We also had to think and find ourselves a bit. If you remember, I mentioned that we were also able to find ourselves through our live shows a lot more than by working on new songs. When you are working in a studio, you should not think that it’s like when the Beatles recorded their albums, all in one room and with a microphone above them. When you record an album, first of all you record the drums, and then they pilot the keyboard, the guitars and the vocals with you. In fact this is how we did it with Polaris actually. But they only record the drums and then the guitars or the bass comes in recorded on the drums. So it is only when you play on tour and on stage that you are really going to find yourself. We need that time. Just like anybody else probably.

« For me, Matias is the new musical director of Stratovarius actually. »

Does this mean that Stratovarius won’t record songs like “Manic Dance” which was more on the Stratovarius style which was heavier and more metal? Have these types of songs disappeared forever?

I wouldn’t say no. Not forever. Forever is a very long time as you may know. Things can change tomorrow but we cannot see the future. For the moment I will put it this way, I don’t see this happening. Everybody has a certain way of writing songs; Timo Kotipelto, Matias, Lauri and especially Matias who is more influential, progressive and he also never misses a melody which is why he fits so well in Stratovarius. At the moment, I can’t see any of them really coming up with songs like that. Also, besides from the fact that this “Manic Dance” song on the Stratovarius album is still Stratovarius and still I like this album a lot, it is still a little bit constructed. It’s not like when Timo Tolkki composed “Forever” or “Black Diamond” “Hunting High and Low”; for me that was like it was flowing out and he was expressing himself by really writing the music that comes out of his heart. I think that the Stratovarius album doesn’t come as much from the heart as it does from the brain. This is why I say maybe not forever, but for the moment, I can’t see it happening.

The colder atmospheres on these two albums remind me of the band’s first records, like Fourth Dimension or Dreamspace. What do you think about that?

Dreamspace I can relate to. I agree. It’s because sometimes you have a little bit like a more progressive feel which was a bit part of Dreamspace.

These albums contribute to the evolution of melodic speed metal, a genre known precisely for its difficulty to evolve. Do you still have hope for the genre?

I think that I have hope again. I said in an interview before when they asked me a similar question that I think it is more difficult nowadays for younger bands to have a similar career as we did. When we grew up and we had a record contract so of course we had to stay strong and stay hard, then at some point when your music is good and you took the time to present it to the fans, you finally get a tour and a record out etc. But today it is so difficult because first of all, all of the established bands are successful and I hardly ever see any newcomers anymore. It’s very rare. So of course it’s very difficult for these people to make music on a professional level because they need to earn a living out of some other work. To bring this whole genre a step further musically, only then will you have a chance to break in, and it is a little bit more difficult. However, it might mean that you have to do things a little differently like by using new media such as internet. I also see some of my friends who come from the States and they have a camera in their rehearsal room and the fans can observe the band right in the rehearsal room all day like a reality show and then they can download the song for free etc. It’s not what we are used to with a CD and normal media to promote it. I think that in 5 years time there will be no more CDs anymore; it will be completely different. Also, these bands that I’m talking about, they have 1000 people coming to their shows and they don’t even have a record out. As for this music coming back or being even bigger without a new innovative band to guide the genre, I don’t think so. I think that established bands like Blind Guardian, Nightwish, Helloween, Stratovarius, Edguy… they will stay until we all go on stage in a wheelchair otherwise I don’t think that it will be big. It’s only when you have a fresh and innovative band coming.

« To bring this whole genre a step further musically, only then will you have a chance to break in, and it is a little bit more difficult. However, it might mean that you have to do things a little differently like by using new media such as internet. « 

Interview conducted by phone in january, 2011.
Transcription : Izzy & Isabelle

Stratovarius’s Website : www.stratovarius.com