It's hard to imagine Turisas music without the rich violin parts performed by Olli Vänskä. Four studio albums with their classical, folk and disco tunes (and that's not even the half of it) clearly demonstrate his outstanding skills.

                    While the band takes time composing a new album, we got a perfect chance to discuss lots of different topics. Shows with other bands, the very first rehearsal and show with Turisas, hobbies and even the storage of old stage outfits - Olli talked to HeavyMusic about all of these things before the start of Turisas show at Sotkamon Syke.

                    

                    HM: First of all, I just have to ask you about your recent gigs with Korpiklaani. What was it like?

                    

                    Olli: Oh, great! Tuomas [Rounakari, Korpiklaani fiddler]had some issues and he couldn’t play some shows, so their management asked me to do it, and I was thinking first whether I should… I kind of had a rough spring, so I was thinking like “Should I do it or not?”, but I ended up saying “yes” and I really liked it. We had ten or eleven shows and, yeah, a lot of fun. It’s very different than Turisas stuff.

                    

                    HM: And another atmosphere?

                    

                    Olli: Yeah, it’s another atmosphere and… different kind of problems.

                    

                    HM: How much time did it take you to learn your parts?

                    

                    Olli: Did I have one and a half weeks? One week or something like that?.. First, I was like “Ah, I can do it!” and then I got the set-list and I didn’t open it for many days, and then I opened it and realized “Shit! It’s like twenty eight songs”. Then I started learning. I mean, there’s lot of actually tricky parts, but also a lot of stuff that you can improvise, and all in all it was pretty ok. I have to admit I was a bit nervous because we didn’t have any rehearsal. I went half-way their tour and then I took an early flight in Dublin, and then we only had time to check out maybe one and a half songs, and then they were like “Yeah, it seems like you have it”. I also had the second one last week in Gössnitz, and that was something they asked me in June or something. That was some schedule thing, so that’s why they asked me. It was fun.

                    

                    HM: Definitely! Now let's talk a bit about the past. Can you recall your first rehearsal with Turisas?

                    

                    Olli: Yeah, actually I did the studio for the first time. I have been listening to metal music, but I have never played in a metal band, so it was different. They’re Finnish people and Hämeenlinna people, so they were kind of withdrawn, they didn’t talk much. I remember Jussi sitting there kind of like… *starts playing air guitar, putting on a guarded expression* We were recording my violin parts, and Jussi was there kind of watching under his hair and giving this small smile. So it was kind of awkward, the first time, and then they asked me to do Tuska metal festival, so it was my first show. I think that was already easier.

                    

                    HM: I was just going to ask you about your very first show with Turisas...

                    

                    Olli: Yeah, I was super-nervous there. I think everybody was because they had done some youth-house gigs and stuff like that, and suddenly there was a big show. I think everybody was pretty nervous, and I felt it was a catastrophe in many ways, but many others said like “Wow!” There was one guy who I knew and I didn’t know he had been there in the show, and he had been kind of a friend of a friend, and he told me “I’ve never told you but I’m actually a fan, I saw your first gig”.

                    

                    HM: You composed some parts for the previous album. Are you going to write anything for the next one?

                    

                    Olli: I’ve composed stuff for “The Varangian Way” and “Stand Up And Fight” and the last album, yeah, I have some credits there. So yeah, maybe. I’ve done some stuff, let’s see what sticks. I don’t have any ideas of the new album.

                    

                    HM: I have read somewhere that the band had planned on making a music video for «No good story ever starts with drinking tea». What happened with it?

                    

                    Olli: I don’t know what happened. We were filming some material, and then it just somehow never went through some… people with power. I don’t know what happened. We have the material, but I don’t know if it happens or not.

                    

                    HM: Where does the band keep the stage outfits when you're not on tour?

                    

                    Olli: I keep it in my warehouse. We had an accident when coming back from the last gig. One bag didn’t arrive where we came by plane and they delivered it to Hämeenlinna, so my stage clothes were there and the package was unopened for one month. Then they brought it to Helsinki and I was like “It smells like cellar”. It’s not always the most pleasant feeling.

                    

                    HM: And what about your old outfits? Are they still there somewhere?

                    

                    Olli: I think I have some stuff in my other warehouse, yeah.

                    

                    HM: Just for memory?

                    

                    Olli: Kind of, yeah. Who knows. I don’t know, I think some of it is kind of there, but… some parts of it just fall apart, so you can’t keep it.

                    

                    HM: Ok, and one more strange question: how do you decide who's going to the shower first? With the amounts of paint and the intensity of gigs, I imagine there must be quite a line.

                    

                    Olli: There are one or two guys who are quick enough to go first. Basically, it’s who is the quickest goes first.

                    

                    HM: So no stuff like “rock-paper-scissors”?

                    

                    Olli: Sometimes we actually had this when it was like each day… It was maybe in the States or something, so the first one went to the hot shower and everybody else had cold shower. I think we were kind of “You were there yesterday, so you’re not going first”. We just made a switch.

                    HM: I see! Can you compare your style of playing with the style of any certain guitarist?

                    

                    Olli: Yeah, I think I have some influence from Yngwie Malmsteen or something like that. I mean, it’s ridiculous, I’ve never tried to copy any of them. Yngwie Malmsteen has a ridiculous way of playing. I was listening to him when I was a kid and I think you have to have that kind of ridiculous touch there.

                    

                    HM: What's your biggest dream related to Turisas?

                    

                    Olli: *after a long pause* I don’t know if I have any concrete dreams… I think I would like to… I feel that we hadn’t made an album that I would be one hundred per cent satisfied with, and I think I would like to make one more of those. And then I would like to… I don’t know, play a big tour as a headliner. Yeah, maybe play at top 3 slots of Wacken or something like that, but it’s nothing like a concrete dream. Music wise, I don’t know, probably the album. I just want to make something I feel I’m comfortable with.

                    

                    HM: So you don’t have such a feeling about the previous albums?

                    

                    Olli: Not always, no.

                    

                    HM: I know that journalism is a hobby of yours. Can we expect any kind of studio diaries or tour diaries like you did in 2008? I've found this diary recently, and it was a fun reading.

                    

                    Olli: So… Were we writing from the studio?

                    

                    HM: No, you were writing from your tour in UK and Germany.

                    

                    Olli: Where did I post it?

                    

                    HM: It was a German web-site.

                    

                    Olli: Oh yeah, true! Yeah, maybe, if somebody asks. I know how to write, it’s not that complicated. It’s one of those things that if you decide to do it yourself, and then you realize it’s twenty days inside the tour, and you still haven’t written anything. You get very lazy on tour. Deadline always helps, so if you have someone who orders you to deliver it by Monday, then you write it by Monday, but if it’s voluntary it’s not gonna happen.

                    

                    HM: You collect mugs with the faces of different politicians. How did that collection start and how many mugs have you got already?

                    

                    Olli: I have around thirty or something like that. I just felt that a mug is an easy souvenir that you can collect and it’s something that you also use. I think I went to Poland, and there was “Solidarity” party, and then I bought the one with Putin, and then I had a Swedish royal family. It’s just stupid thing, but if I find something, then it’s nice to have.

                    

                    HM: Do you use each of them?

                    

                    Olli: Actually I use my Seinfeld mug more, that’s my favorite mug.

                    

                    HM: Ok, it was nice to talk with you! Thanks for your time and have a good show today!

                    

                    

                    Questions: Maria Meledyakhina

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