So, you read the short introduction and my professional bio? Good! Now, I’m afraid, it’s time to discuss my childhood and early years. Oh, those glorious years…

I was born in Jyväskylä, Finland in 1971. As a child, I was interested in drawing and painting. Then, one day in 1983, after listening to “I Surrender” and “Can’t Let You Go” by Rainbow on my sister’s cassette player, everything changed forever.

All three sisters of mine played the piano (two of them, Jaana and Heini created a career in classical music, whereas my third sister, Silja, went to work on other things). I wanted to start playing drums to play louder than them — and by the time I turned 13 and my parents bought me my first drumset, I certainly did. I knew I was going to play music for a living for the rest of my life. Isn’t it wonderful how simple things seem when you’re young?

First Love

First Jyväskylä Period

I had difficulties choosing my profession from a predefined list of occupations. Before music came into the picture, I had several options — such as paleontologist (dinosaurs!) or architect — but none of them were as cool as being a musician and playing in a band. Therefore, I planned making a living out of my first love: music.

In 1984, my class mate invited me to join a drum class after school, mainly because I looked like a drummer :-). The class was supervised by the drummer Jaakko Lehtonen, a good teacher who always encouraged me to practise.

Two years later, I continued studying drums at a local music school, with the great Raimo Väyrynen. After completing my college work and the military service (playing in an army band), I moved to Helsinki in 1991 to get to know other musicians. At that time, I had my first doubts whether I could make it as a musician or pedagogue, but nevertheless I wanted to try.

The Helsinki Years

As a backup plan, I started studying Computer Science at the University of Helsinki in 1991 (when Linus Torvalds was a student there and released the initial version of Linux). It took me four months to realise I wasn’t interested in it and that I wanted to see how far I could go with music. So I left the university. This short period of time was my first exposure to the world of information technology, which to me seemed boring at that time. At least once in your lifetime you have to pursue your dreams, I thought (I still do).

So I continued studying music, first at the Oulunkylä Pop & Jazz Conservatory (with teachers such as Kauko Saari, Esko Rosnell, Jartsa Karvonen, Leevi Leppänen, and Aarne Himberg), and then, starting from 1994, at the Sibelius Academy Jazz Music Department. There, I had the pleasure to meet some great musicians, composers and pedagogues, such as Marko Timonen, Sonny Heinilä, Kirmo Lintinen, Jarmo Savolainen, Jukkis Uotila, Raoul Björkenheim, and Anders Jormin (great bass player and pedagogue from Sweden).

During my years at the Sibelius Academy, I played gigs while I was studying drums, piano, jazz harmony, pedagogy, and composition with my fellow students, such as Kari Ikonen, Mika Kallio, Esa Onttonen, Mikko Innanen, Esa Pietilä, Pessi Levanto, Jarmo Saari, Mikko Paavola, Samuli Mikkonen, Teppo Mäkynen, and Tuure Koski. (Apologies if I forgot someone — let me know ;-).) Check out these guys!

Personal highlights from this period include big band performances — led by legendary Slide Hampton and Bengt-Arne Wallin — in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway in 1995, (with Klas Nilsson, Jeanette Lindström, and Magnus Lindgren among others), and concerts in Helsinki in 1996 with guest teachers, such as guitarist Ben Monder and singer Michele Weir.

The Göteborg Years

The academic year 1997–98 I spent at the School of Music and Music Education, Göteborg University in Sweden as an exchange student. I played a lot and made good friends. I’m eternally grateful to these wonderful people for welcoming me and making me feel good both as a human being and as musician: Joakim Rolandson, Anders Jormin, Yasuhito Mori, Gunnar Lindgren, Göran Kroon, Christer Abrahamsson, Håkan Gustafsson, Johan Borgström, Marcos Ubeda, Martin Perk, Peter Bengtsson, Peter Burman, Tomas Jonsson, Rikard Werge, Samuel Olsson, Matti Ollikainen, Sebastian Hankers, Terje Sundby, Thommy Larsson, and Tom Frode Tveita. (Apologies if I forgot someone.)

In 1998, after returning from Sweden, I felt it was time for some serious decisions. It was music (once again) that paved the way: I had played around with Encore, Finale and other notation and audio editing software since mid 1990’s. I figured computer world had evolved enough during these years ;-).

Second Jyväskylä Period/”The French Period”

I moved back to my hometown to study at the University of Jyväskylä. The focus areas of teaching were related to fields such as digital media, human-computer interaction and usability, software production, and the development and management of organisations’ information management and system achitectures. During this period, I spent some time in the UK and then in France, at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III, where I wrote my master’s thesis entitled “Spatial Sound in a User Interface as a Method to Deliver Hidden Information and to Relieve Visual Burden”. In June 2002, I graduated with a degree of Master of Economic Sciences (M.Sc.Econ.), majoring in Information Systems Science.

During all these years living in five countries, I’ve discovered new areas of interest, such as typography, philosophy, visual arts, and architecture. Now, if there was a so-called “first life”, there has to be a “second life” too. Right?