He quickly noticed that he really enjoyed himself behind the drums. At the music school he learned the basics of musical theory and quickly developed the basic skills to keep his set together. In junior high school he got to play in our school band, led by their music teacher Plamen Dimov. They played a kind of Funk-Jazz-Rock mix and mainly had classic cover songs in their set. He might have had some kind of a teenage crisis or something, but on the eighth grade he quit the music school and school band, since he felt he didn't want to play drums anymore. But if you're really into something, it takes more than a teenage whimsy to keep you away forever...
A year or so later a friend of him who needed a drummer asked Jukka to join his band. After thinking about it for a short while, he decided to go for it. So there he was, joining his first "garage band", well on his path to depravity.He can't remember if they ever really came up with a name for the band. Their musical direction was really not for him, but it was a great opportunity to get to play in a band and record a demo for the first time. Jukka's musical taste was veering strongly towards Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music, his favorite bands being Stratovarius, Dream Theater, Helloween, Metallica and Paradise Lost among others. Soon after we quit their first try-out group, they formed their first band with Emppu and some other local guys. They called this masterpiece "Nidhro't" and basically played guitar-orientated Rock with Finnish lyrics, but you could easily hear their metallic influences. Those were great times for them! They got their first own rehearsal place and they really enjoyed the band haven. Parallel with Nidhro't they started their first "real" Metal band called "Ambrosia" which played instrumental, melodic Metal.
At some point Emppu told him about a project Tuomas was starting, and he went to listen to their demo recordings. It sounded very interesting, as the combination of Tarja singing in a high, operatic voice and an acoustic, close-to-nature kind of backing music created something he was not able to categorize. A short while after the demo was recorded, Emppu and Tuomas came to Jukka's place and he heard that he would have the drummer's seat in a band called "Nightwish". They listened to Tuomas' first keyboard demo and set the day for their first rehearsals. He was thrilled!
In 2003 he joined Sethian, a band that also released an album called Into the Silence through Spinefarm. Even though they never officially quit the band, it seems that their debut will remain the only release. A few years ago they formed a therapy band called "Bitch Driven", which was great fun to fool around with. Maybe some of these bands will once again become active, or maybe they'll come up with some new one(s), but at least for now, he has it all in Nightwish.
His aim in Nightwish is to continue being honest to himself, to everybody around him and to the music. In the constantly changing world of music, it's too easy to lose your focus and forget where you're coming from and why you started to play music in the first place. But if you manage to keep your head and do not let secondary things lead you astray, there are beautiful things to be created and wild, exciting adventures waiting for you. In the end, if we take out all the somewhat boring aspects of life — such as money, position, responsibilities and limitations - our life is pretty much what we make it to be.
Jukka is not just Nightwish's drummer, he also runs Nightwish’s company Scene Nation and EMP Finland!
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