There are some songs that are indissolubly linked to personal stories, but also to shape our future… us!
In the following story, I could not intervene much, as this particular musician gives us the whole story from beginning to end, just as it happened.
As we always say, there are some songs that have the magical property of shaping the future, and especially the future of the creator himself.
The song “Wings” by Jimbo’s Garage is on the album “Jimbo’s Garage” and will be released by Inverse Records is what we call a “good song”.
Personally, all the songs I listened to belong to those that, as I said to Jimbo Mäkeläinen himself, “I had years to listen to some good Hard/Heavy”.
Without further ado, let’s see what Jimbo told us!
The beginning is half of everything…
“The story begins how I was born to me. It’s a weird story, really! When I was a kid, I was kicked out of all the bands I was been involved in.
They all played some sort of Punk Rock, and I liked to listen to Hard Rock and Fusion-jazz (!). So, when they told me to put my other bass drum away, or otherwise I may leave.
“You play very well, but for two bass drums: absolutely NO!”
I told them everybody” nice to see you guys, goodbye”. So, I learned to play both hard rock and fusion-jazz, and I went through many great bands.
I was wondering, I never wanted to join a particular band, but I was always asked to join.
Of course, that was something that made me feel good because I always wanted to be better as a musician.
So, I joined some Hard Rock bands like Ironcross, Battagia, House of Mirrors, Wildkard (UK), and Lordi.
A lot of good times and fine memories. During the years I have composed quite a lot.
All these years I have composed a lot. I play drums and keyboards, but also guitar, bass, etc.
This helped me to understand the whole context of how a band or an orchestra works.
Especially playing the piano and keyboards has given me a great understanding of how harmony works in a band.
Creating the album…
I decided to make an album of my own. I put the word on, and many markable musicians wanted to get in.
Finland is quite a small country anyway, many talented musicians know each other, and many of them knew my name.
So, it was sad to tell to many of them, “thank you, but no”. I decided to make this album with, not only one but with 3 top vocalists.
Taage Laiho, Maija Liittokivi and Peter James Goodman. “Wellcome in Taage, Maya and Peter!”
I played all the keyboards and drums by myself. For the bass player, I hired my credit man Jari Riitala.
We have been playing fusion-jazz together for many years, and his touch on bass is unique.
I asked him to play all the songs for this album with fretless bass, and he told me ”Yes sir”.
So, then the axeman. Many talented musicians wanted to get in. Hard thinking. Who was the best man for these songs and my composing style?
I was thinking of many choices, and time after time I was at the same point. Each and every time the circle closed to Kari Riihimäki.
He is very talented, but also a very versatile guitar player and musician. I asked him to get in, and he said” Yes sir”.
“Jimbo’s GARAGE “was armed and ready, in my head.
I really wanted to put out into music all the voices I heard inside in my head. Those voices wanted to go out more and more strongly.
One of these voices was screaming, in essence, the song “Wings”.
The story of Wings…
“Wings” come out of a keyboard riff.
I have always liked the music of Van Halen, Toto, Ozzy, etc. bands with a nice skill: they can make a good co-operation between keyboards and guitar.
At song” Wings” I had a good opportunity to make that work. It sounded good, but I had a lot of thinking about how to get all that complex work together in the best way.
We spent long days and nights in a studio with my sound engineer Timo Haanpää.
Not the easiest thing in this song was the strapless bass. But that was my clear choice, fretless bass of course.
In the end, this was a good choice and I was able to see it afterward. It makes this song sound a little weird and it works perfectly with my shuffle drum beat.
The lyrics…
The lyrics are a bit different story.
I wrote the original text my way, it talks about a real event that happened in my life many years ago.
I remember, the girl of my life, (or so I thought), left me and I was wandering the streets in the cold rain with my hands in my pockets.
However, Taage wanted to make quite a change in the lyrics, and the result is some different lyrics. (“Shit happens.”)
For me anyway, absolutely the most valuable thing is the music itself. I’m very happy with this song, and I’m proud I had a chance to record it with these guys.
And of course, a big point is also Maya’s vocals. She is an incredible vocalist. Vocal’s solo was something special we made in this song.
My original plan was to play a keyboard solo in the middle of the song, but Maya’s singing was my final decision.
It makes this song sound unique, with all those nice elements in the song. A song to my taste, really!
The message of Jimbo…
The album “Jimbo’s GARAGE” is a full package of pure hard rock, made with a strong attitude.
It has many dimensions and different styles of songs, but “Jimbo’s GARAGE” is a very impressive entity. Listen to it, and I’m sure you’ll agree.
Again, I can hear some sounds in my head, and they want to get out to music. Well, I know what will be the next step. That means GARAGE ll.”
***
As mentioned above, some songs (albums), are a harbinger of a future full of success! In this case, it has to do with my favorite Hard/Heavy scene!