Biografy

I was born on 13th of October 1975 in Helsinki Finland. I started to play the guitar at the age of 11. During that time I saw a documentary of Jimi Hendrix on television and I was hooked. It made a huge influence in me. I believe the same thing has happened to thousands and thousands of guitar players, thank you Jimi! 

At the age of 13 I started to take guitar lessons more seriously at the Pop & Jazz Music Institute in Helsinki. Later I started to study at the same place to become a guitar teacher and I gratuated in 1999. I had great teachers: Keijo Pennanen, Harri Louhensuo and Jarmo Hynninen. The 1998 fall semester I went to Graz Austria as an exchange student, where I took lessons for example from Uli Rennert and Ed Neumeister. During that time I played in an international group called Tales, led by guitarist Krystzofa Gorniak from Poland. The other members where from Greece and Kosovo. We have performed with that group in Austria and Morocco and we also have released one album.  

I formed my first own band in 1996. The group was called Free Control. We were active till 2002 and we released two albums. We continued with the same line-up to become my wife’s Johanna Iivanainen (singer/songwriter) group. We released her debut album in 2004 and the album was nominated as one of the best jazz albums in Finland. 

In 2004-2005 I joined a group called Loco Motife led by Iro Haarla and Ulf Krokforsand we released ´Penguin Beguine´ cd that won the Jazz Emma prize for the best domestic jazz album of the year. I also joined a group called Kurkirku, which released an album called ´The Mesh`, also nominated as one of the best jazz albums in Finland. 

In 2004 I formed a new group called Nordic Trinity with Juhani Aaltonen on saxophone and flute and Klaus Suonsaari on drums. We have toured in Finland many times and we have released six albums with KSJAZZ record label: Wonders Never Cease (Jazz Emma-nomination in 2006), Eternal Echoes (2008) , Plays The Music Of Edward Vesala (2010) , Live (2012), Blessings (2016) and The Art Of Sound (2018).

In 2011 I started to study composing at the Helsinki Metropolia Pop and Jazz Music Degree program with my wonderful teachers: Esa Onttonen, Mikko Hassinen and Vellu Halkosalmi. I graduated in 2017 and had a final concert at Koko Jazz Club in Helsinki with a line-up of a guitar/bass/drums trio and a string quartet. The quartet played my first piece for string quartet, which was strongly influenced by Dimitri Shostakovitch. Although I’m not a classical musician, but I’ m very interested in it. Genre limitations are not for me. I love music. That’s all.

In 2013 Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish) asked me to play on his solo album called ´The Life and Times Of Scrooge´. It was a great experience for me. Album was released in 2014 by Sony Music and it sold gold in Finland in just a few weeks. 

In 2014 I released my debut solo album called `Last Room´. I composed and arranged it to a group of ten musicians including a string quartet.

The top folk musicians in Finland pianist and composer Timo Alakotila and accordionist Maria Kalaniemi suggested in fall 2017 to me and Johanna that we should combine our duos and play together as a quartet. Soon it happened like in a fairy tail. We had just one rehearsal before our first gig and everything went so great that we decided to make a Christmas album. We have been playing Christmas concerts and also other concerts and it’s always a privilege to play with these fantastic musicians.

In 2019 I managed to do something that I wanted to do for many years: I recorded a solo guitar album. The record is called ‘A River Runs Through It’ and it was released in spring 2020 by my own record label Iivana Records. So it’s just me playing acoustic and electric guitars. In some of the songs I’m using a looper to make several layers. In 2023 I released another solo guitar album ‘Lullaby for Lost Souls’.

Here’s just a few names of guitarists that have made a big influence on me. The list grows longer every day: Jeff Beck, George Benson, Ritchie Blackmoore, Raoul Björkenheim, Charlie Christian, Eric Clapton, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Frisell, John Fruciante, Frank Gambale, Guthrie Govan, Grant Green, Peter Green, Eric Johnson, Wayne Krantz, Pat Metheny, Ben Monder, Wes Montgomery, Tom Morello, Esa Pulliainen, Django Reinhardt, Joe Satriani, Jarmo Saari, John Scofield, Heikki Silvennoinen, Mike Stern, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Petri Walli…

I´ve been fortunate and honored to perform and/or record with ensembles and artists such as: Joensuu City Orchestra, Jyväskylä City Orchestra, Kuopio City Orchestra, Lahti Sinfonietta, Pori Sinfonietta, UMO Jazz Orchestra,  Junnu Aaltonen, Timo Alakotila, Anders Bergkranz, Raoul Björkenheim, Senni Eskelinen, Jukka Eskola, Iro Haarla, Keith Hall, Mikko Hassinen, Kari ´Sonny` Heinilä, Ville Herrala, Susanna Hietala, Tuomas Holopainen, Johanna Iivanainen, Kari Ikonen, Mikko Innanen, Mikko Kaakkuriniemi, Maria Kalaniemi, Mika Kallio, Jarno T. Karjalainen, Kalle Katz, Edu Kettunen, Juho Kivivuori, Rasmus Korström, Uffe Krokfors, Mika Kuokkanen, Johanna Kurkela, Pentti Lasanen, Lasse Lindgren, Jaska Lukkarinen, Antti Lötjönen, Tom Nekljudov, Jukka Perko, Marian Petrescu, Mihai Petrescu, Petri Puolitaival, Severi Pyysalo, Antti Sarpila, Klaus Suonsaari, Teemu Takanen, Thomas Törnroos, Niko Votkin, Kalle Ylitalo.