Here I’ve collected some people who at one time or another made a difference. They’ve shaped me into what and who I am and what I can. I try to keep it down to bare essentials.
Markku Illman – my 3rd and 4th grade teacher, the first grown up (besides my mother) who respected me.
Leo Andonov – my best friend through school’s upper levels (1975-1981). We played, drank and hung together most of the time.
Juhi Merinen – Local bass player who inspired me and Leo to set our sights on Kruununhaan Musiikkilukio.
Tanja Rouvinen – my girlfriend in the late 70’s who turned me to interesting music, be it Beatles, Pink Floyd, Klaus Schultze or Barclay James Harvest.
Tuomas Lyly – My oldest “surviving” friend. We’ve played together, puked together, dated the same girl (not at the same time…) and gotten older but probably not wiser together. He’s as close to a brother to me as a non relative can be.
Anssi Tikanmäki – our band teacher at Kruununhaan Musiikkilukio. Friendly, understanding. A great musician and composer.
Reijo Karvonen – our vocal coach and later our band teacher. The guy responsible for my recording side of life. Let me hung at the school’s studio and do recordings.
Nono Söderberg – my guitar teacher. He basically taught me how to play. Or at least showed me the right way.
Pauli Päiviö – my trusty sidekick from 1981 onwards. Was at Kruununhaan Musiikkilukio at the same time and became the keyboardist in Sibbe, our school band. My compositional other half during 1980’s and 1990’s. The other half of PS.
Katrina Blomqvist, later Sarhamaa. My wife, need I say more? 🙂
Hannu Leidén – the voice. I heard him singing with Sarcofagus and was shocked how good he sounded. Later we became band mates in Leroy and later still moved on to Chapter One. Always inspirational and knowledgeable. Taught me a lot about composing, about the importance of feel and producing, among other things. Made the first two PS. records sound like real records by lending them his voice.
Pertti “Pepe” Leimio – my uncle who’s only 5 years my senior. He taught me to swim, to ride a bike and most of all, to listen and appreciate Genesis and other seminal figures of rock and prog.
Matti Kervinen – My label and band mate from Presence & Samsara Records and
Kataya. A pure fan of music, always enthusing about new music, always willing to talk about Yes ;-).
Teijo Tikkanen – the closest thing to a musical genius I’ve come across. The man can play anything well, usually shockingly well. A keyboard virtuoso, a bass player and a drummer who’s very deep in the pocket and a guitarist who knows his roots. And did I mention, he decided to start singing a few years back and is now one of my favorites! With my modest talents I was at first dumbfounded and almost panicky only to find out that he does not care about skill as such and even finds some things I play quite passable. Our collaboration needs almost no words, we’ve managed to reach another plane of composing a few times. My Kataya brother, the making of Voyager will always shine brightly in my memory!
Kim Kuusi – the guy who made me a professional sound editor, engineer and mixer. During my time at Music Makers I learned how to do it and how not to do it…
Kari Chydenius – see above and then some. Kari is the engineer incarnate. The guy with golden ears. And one of the kindest persons I’ve had the pleasure to be around. On the audio side of things, he’s my mentor.
Jarmo “Carbo” Lintinen – the guy who took me in and gave me the biggest playground an aspiring musician could hope for: a music shop! And did I enjoy myself after hours? Ask again….Yes I did!
Leri Leskinen – Leri must be the nicest and friendliest guy there is. When I was hired at Music Makers, Leri took me under his wings and made me his engineer, first of many…The guy has a very high standard which is not easily met. He makes us better.
Jyrki Rahkonen – my long time collaborator, from the depths of Local Band’s rehearsal dungeon in the 80’s to the Dolby mixing room of Kalevalastudio now, we’ve traveled a long path together.
This list is not definite and will change/evolve for sure…