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THE KORSO CONNECTION I had a bass, Tomi (currently the cover art man of Korso Records) had the drums. We wanted to start a band. After we had have few rehearsals together in the cellar of my parents house, we decided that we needed a guitarist. Ok , Soundi magazine was in those days the best (and only?) magazine to place an "guitarist needed" ad. Couple of weeks went by and some dude called, we agreed that he would come to a "test" with us. The bus stopped and out jumped a tall, slender guy, same age as we were, carrying a miserable thin bag containing a copy of an SG. It didnīt take too long after we started to play to figure out that this new guy was actually the only one who knew how to play (no offence to Tomi, the natural Talent). So we tried to follow him in endless AC/DC, Frank Marino, Blackfoot and so on "medley" and after that "signed" him for our guitarist. As a trio we played for some time, and got better and better and our guitarist with his "perfect timing", acquired by the endless hours playing along with records sure helped us a lot. Months later we talked about inviting our guitarists (goalkeeper) ice hockey team mate guitarist and his bandmate to jam with us. Ok we said and the dudes appeared as we had agreed. Both had guitars and amps with them, and we started to play some AC/DC tune, Bon Scott era of course. Guest guitarist, not the hockey player, but the other one, was amazing. Looking like young David Lee Roth, wearing black jacket with dragon and text "KOREA" on back, he slammed his guitar with the ferocity I had never seen before and only couple times after. When we had finished the playing and learned that this "KOREA" guy also sings, it did not take long to figure out that with our new friends we had a real band. Soon it became obvius, that a five piece band, even slender young dudes, is too much for one small cellar room not to mention the NOISE we created. Also as you know it is much easier to drink beer, smoke cigarettes and bring girls along when you are not playing in your parents house. We moved and started to call our band Troy, I did not have a clue were that name came from, but as you and I know now it must have come from Epe, the guy with the Dragon jacket. Then we started to get some gigs, played Thin Lizzy (even got a flanger for Waiting for an Alibi), Def Leppard (Hi īnī Dry stuff) and AC/DC covers, not to mention "Dallas 1 PM" by Saxon, our "grand" opening, band playing four piece until Epe jumped to the front of the stage as Vocals started. So we were on our way to stardom, with the sold out gigs. Not really, the gigs were sold out, but we got booted from our rehearsal place (or was it that we found a place where we could easier drink more beer, smoke more cigarettes and bring more girls along). Our new training place was a cabin, a cabin owned by the family of hockeyplaying guitarist. There we could play all night long and rehearse other Rock īn Roll activites. During one of those "sessions" our orginal guitarist got a new name: Frank. The name Frank stuck with him ever since. It was fun time, but the fun ended when Epe had to go to the army. Without the singer, there was no point to rehease much and as a coup de grace Tomi the drummer had to go into the armed service also. Troy was destroyed, not by Achilles and the Greek warriors but by the Finnish Army. Almost a year later Epe came back from the army (even in the army they had noticed that man got "the golden ear" as he was ordered to listen underwater sounds, trying to spot Russian submarines!). He got a job working for company named "Standard Pressure". From under the pressure he found a long haired young man called Pave. This dynamic duo instantly started to speak about playing metal together. Soon these "employees of the year" were busy between doing something close to nothing and building a drumriser, stagelight stands and a HUGE steelbox that would look like radiation warning sign, with 4x300watt lights inside, for their future band...Radon, you know the "evil" radioactive gas. During his "coffee break" Epe "forged" a Samurai sword. Obviosly one hostile tree in my parents garden challenged him to a duel as he attacked it... the tree won as the sword wrapped around it! Odd enough, the building the company was located is now the headquater of Musamaailma, importer of ESP guitars. So Epe and Pave started to play together. They also had the drummer, but not the bassist. Epe asked if I would join the band, Frank had also agreeded to play guitar with them. Ok, I wasnīt done with the Rock life, I joined them. Loud, mean, fast and loud was the band! Picture this: A boiler room of the Headquaters of one of the biggest banks in Finland, a wall of Marshalls and even drums coming through PA...thatīs the way to rehearse METAL. But as you already know... we got booted. We were a security risk, only 1.5 meters of steel forged concreate separating us from the vault, closest to the big money we got in our career. Having lost the place to rehearse, I left the band, so did the drummer. We did only one gig with that line up, but it was unforgetable. I even have a videotape of that gig. The gig started with Once upon a time in the West-theme by Ennio Morricone with the HUGE "evil" radioactive sign "pumping", then there was LOTS of smoke, and band started to play. The front row yelled: We canīt see anything, and not so long after, nobody couldnīt see anything as the fuses blowed...we had rented BIG enought PA system and stagelights. Ok, after the fuses had been replaced we continued to play...but when Epe screamed the fuses went south again... and again. Years later on my summer holiday I stumbled into the guitar shop which had just ceased to import Gibson, and for that reason had a sale. As I drooled, my cell phone rang. Hessu, my longtime friend called and asked if he could rent my motorcycle for a weekend, I would have lent it free, but he insisted that he would pay for it. After the call I though: "Why not spend the money Hessu had offered in advance" and since my daughters 3rd birhday was near anyway, I bought a Flying V as a present for her. Somehow my wife couldnīt fully appreciate that great present... Few weeks later I could play some of the Troy "standards" with my daughters guitar and asked if a friend, that kept his motorcycle in the same garage as I did, would buy the drums he had talked about couple times on our way to the racetrack. He did, and we started to play Thin Lizzy, AC/DC and EVEN Van Halen (DLR era of course) covers. I had bought a Marshall valvestate combo, which, to my ears sounded good. One day, J."Angry" Tikander visited me and I proudly demonstrated the "valve" sound of my amp to him. In his smooth diplomatic style he declared amp as a complete shit, and asked why donīt I get my Hiwatt Custom 100 I had lent years ago, back from Epe. I had not seen Epe (or my Hiwatt) for years, but JT had his phonenumber. When I called to Epe he told me that he had "naturally" taken my amp to a pawn shop...but I was not sold because he had paid the fees. I call you, he said, when I had got it back. Less than two weeks later I test-fired my Hiwatt. As a proud "new owner" of that atomic reactor, few months of playing covers with the drummer was great, but as you know you got to move on. We decided to give a try to create our own songs. It was surprisingly easy to create riffs that at least to us sounded good and before we knew, we had couple of dozen of them. We started to record demo versions of our "songs" and decided that if we could make them good enough, we would found our own record label and release them. Late summer 2004, JT invited me to his "Alcoholimpics" as I was again "qualified" to talk about guitars (the other essential skill for this meeting was never in doubt). Epe was there also, and we had great time, kinda of reunion. Epe had arranged a driver to drive him home and they dropped me to my home on the way. As I was leaving from the car Epe handled me a cd with "Norseman" written on it and said:"Listen that", then they left. Next day I put that cd on player, player stayed silent, I called Epe, he said it may be, that cd contains MP3s. No problem I said, my friend the drummer can convert it. Couple of days later the drummer came back with converted cd, I expected to hear some comments about speedmetal that I had seen Epe, Frank, Pete and Pave perform in early 90īs and didnīt like. "This is quite good" was the comment. I said to him: "Yeah, sure"... the rest is history. Juha Korso Records Ltd