RIVERYMAN
Magic World
(Musea)

 

When I was growing up my twenties and thirties, way back in the time tunnel of the 1970's and ‘80s, my musical hero was a recording artist called Pekka Pohjola, and I flew to Finland to meet the great man in 1979. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, Pekka was considered a genius by people in the know in the jazz and instrumental rock world and although sadly, Pekka tragically passed away at the end of 2008, his legacy lives on in our memory banks and in the grooves of his many fine solo albums he left behind for the living to listen to and contemplate and consider our past memories and a whole slew of what ifs that come with that. Unknown to me until recently, Pekka has also influenced and continues to influence a whole new generation of younger musicians from his native Finland—some up and coming young guitar/keyboard geniuses who weren’t even born when Pekka was recording his early solo masterpieces on Love Records in the early ‘70s. Count high on the list a young guitarist from Finland called Toni Jokinen. Toni calls himself “Tony Riveryman” and as Riveryman, Toni released his solo debut CD in 2009 on the fabled French Musea Records, with the title Magic World. Not only does Toni write instrumental music in the spirit of Pekka Pohjola’s fascinating work with guitarist Seppo Tyni (pronounced Tune-E) but Toni also sings, just like Pohjola’s old band mate in Wigwam, Jukka Gustavson. Like Gustavson was prone to do, Toni goes on a bit in the lyrics department but clearly his heart and head are in the right place as he sings his long diatribes in English about the meaning of it all, just like Jukka used to do in Wigwam. Of course, as you can read below in the mwe3.com Guitars Center Stage with him, Toni was greatly influenced by Wigwam album classics like Fairyport, which often espoused in depth lyrics that often mirrored Gustavson’s train of thought type of thinking. Backed up by his excellent drummer and musical cohort Pikkis, Toni’s guitar work is another fantastic part of the Riveryman Magic World album. His electric guitar echoes the work of Pohjola’s brilliant guitarists Seppo Tyni and T.T. Oksala, while also echoing the sound of his Swedish neighbor Roine Stolt, another Riveryman influence that comes into play on Magic World. Of course, Pohjola’s music was mainly instrumental rock with heavy jazz and neo-classical influences, and Toni includes a couple Pohjola-esque instrumentals in the album mix which helps to balance out his in-depth lyrical excursions. All in all Magic World is a great introduction to the music of Toni "Riveryman" Jokinen. I would hope for more a few more Pohjola style instrumentals on Toni's next album but his voice has a unique sound too, so maybe combining more instrumentals with shorter songs with a few more meaty hooks next time would be a suggestion but clearly, Toni's guitar playing would bring the image of a passing smile to Pekka's face, I'm sure. Although, as I recall, the last time I suggested to Pekka Pohjola that he write shorter songs back around 1980, he came back with a scary retort and told me, ‘No way, I’m planning to compose even longer songs,’ and of course, he then proceeded to record and release his 15 minute masterwork “New Impressionist” on the Urban Tango album way back in '82. Long live the great Pekka Pohjola and in doing so, also let us lend an ear to Finland’s musical future and the music of Toni “Tony Riveryman" Jokinen. www.myspace.com/riverymanband

MUSIC WEB EXPRESS 3000 presents
Toni “Tony Riveryman” Jokinen


Guitars Center Stage
Guitarists making waves in the music world,
their new recordings and gear!


Musical Background

It was late in the year 1991 when I was getting interested of guitar playing. In the year 1992, when I was 13 years old, I started to play more seriously my brother’s acoustic Landola. Later in the same year my father bought to me my first electric guitar. Now I have played guitar about 18 years. I started to play bass in the middle of the 90’s. First recording where I was singing the clean vocals was in the year 1998. First song with keyboards I played in the year 1999, but there was a time after that when I didn’t play keyboards at all. In the year 2005 I bought my first keyboards, after that I have played also keyboards.


New CD

My debut album Magic World is also a kind of gospel album too with progressive elements. Lyrics are mostly spiritual/religious stuff. I gave this album a name “Magic World” which is also the name of the second song in this CD. Magic World tells you about that, what kind of world this could be to everyone who believe in God. It is a kind of promised land/paradise that God gives to the human. Magic World is a kind of personal feeling to everyone. It is a kind of feeling where God gives to everyone of us our own world, where we can have our dreams come true. I know that the song “Magic World” is maybe too long, but it describes a kind of feeling that stands long. If God could give you a “Magic World” why would it be a feeling that is ending so soon? That’s why the song stands over 13 minutes. There is difference between the songs “Magic World” and “Escaping From The Dreams”. Both of them tell you about the dreams that you can have. The song “Magic World” tells you about good dreams you can have and the song “Escaping From The Dreams” tells you about the bad dream world and what kind of bad dreams you can have. Still all of my lyrics has a hope from God. I think you can have both kind of songs, positive and negative songs, but the main thing is still to stay positive, ‘cause that always gives you the new ideas.

Magic World was recorded at Undoredo studio in Vaasa. The first song that was recorded was the track 7, “Priest of the World”. It was recorded in the year 2006, but it was mixed later with the other songs. Other songs were recorded in the years 2007 and early 2008. All the songs were mixed about in the same time together in the year 2008. I play all the guitars, bass and keyboards of this album. I also sing all the vocals of this album. My friend Pikkis plays all the drums of this album. Pikkis have also recorded this album and we have together mixed this album Magic World.

Here is a short description about the recording sessions on Magic World. The recording did happen by using a small track space. We took a big risk in the drum recordings, because actually they will take lot of track space. The guitars and synths were recorded at first with click for the drummer to his drum recordings. After that the drums were recorded by using 16 tracks of the mixer straight to the stereo master. We were looking for quite original sounds and we didn’t use any drum tricker. Drums are sounding like they will sound also in the nature, except of course there is an echo effect. That is how all the bottom was created to all of the songs. On this bottom everything was recorded. Guitars were recorded at double, another track was recorded straight in the line and another track was recorded by using amp and the microphone. Mixing these sounds we got the guitars sounding especially in the guitar solo parts. Bass guitar and the keyboards were recorded by using di-box. The vocals were recorded on double to each vocal track, ‘cause after that the other tracks we kept “clear” and the others we compensated to quite flat and then we added the effects. That’s how we controlled the dynamics of the vocals and the effect balance in the mastering. Everything we got fitted in the 24 tracks so the controlling of the tracks in the mastering was easier. Many things we learned from that recording session, but under the circumstances the quality was quite good considering our technic. Next time we will be always little bit wiser.

We got the album broadly hearing like that, that we expected. Same thing was in the guitar sound. Many guitars of the album we also recorded without any amps, straight in the line in the 24-track recorder by using my Line6 Pod xtLive effect. In the next album we use different technic and we use my Carvin Legacy amp in the all guitar recordings. We found from my Carvin Legacy and from my new Carvin guitar better guitar sounds in the next album.

Favorite Guitars

My favorite electric guitars are Fender Stratocasters, I like also Les Paul and Ibanez guitars. I use and like also Cort guitars. Then I have this new Carvin guitar which is my favorite. I use this Carvin in my next album. In the Magic World CD I used two different Fender Stratocasters and Cort guitar. The amp I used in the Magic World was Carvin Legacy (Steve Vai model). The effect pedal I used in the Magic World was Line6 Pod xtLive. Strings I used were: Elixir-strings, Ernie Ball’s and GHS-strings.

Musical Influences


My musical influences come mostly from different progressive rock bands/groups and also from jazz/fusion/rock bands. The biggest Finnish influence of mine is Pekka Pohjola. I was 17 years old when I was studying music in Pop/Jazz Academy in Kauhajoki. In there I met Pekka and I talked with him. When I was in Kauhajoki I first time listened Pekka's music and it captured me. Since from there Pekka has always been my biggest influence in Finnish music genre. I know also that everyone who plays or listens to Finnish progressive rock should know Pekka Pohjola. Usually the people who have studied music in the Pop/Jazz Academy or in the Pop/Jazz Conservatory or in the Sibelius Academy they usually know who is Pekka Pohjola. Pekka Pohjola was also teaching in the Sibelius Academy. Pekka Pohjola’s music usually influences to the people who study music, but it can also influence to the normal people who think the deeper questions of life. I think Pekka Pohjola has been influencing almost all of the Finnish progressive rock/jazz fusion/rock bands.

The bands that have influenced in to my music are: Pekka Pohjola, Genesis, Yes, Rush, Steve Hackett, Spock’s Beard, The Flower Kings, Roine Stolt, Transatlantic, Neal Morse, John Wetton, E.L.P, King Crimson, UK, Pink Floyd, Pendragon, IQ, Asia, Dream Theater, Magellan, Arena, Marillion, Frank Zappa, Wigwam, Kingston Wall, Ageness etc,... there are many,....

My favorite guitarists are: Steve Hackett, Steve Howe, Roine Stolt, Alan Morse, Neal Morse, Nick Barrett, David Gilmour, Steve Rothery, Mike Holmes, Daryl Stuermer, Trevor Rabin, John Petrucci, Steve Lukather, Gary Moore, Neal Schon, Frank Gambale, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Pat Metheny, Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Shawn Lane, Guthrie Govan, Eric Johnson, Al Pitrelli, John Mitchell, Seppo Tyni, Markku Kanerva, Jukka Tolonen, Rekku Rechardt, Tuppu Orrenmaa, Petri Walli,... etc there are so many.

My most influential albums are:

All the Pekka Pohjola’s albums especially Visitation, Keesojen Lehto, Kätkävaaran Lohikäärme, Urban Tango, Space Waltz, Flight of The Angel, Changing Waters and Heavy Jazz – Live in Helsinki and Tokyo

All the Genesis albums, especially Nursery Crime, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound and A Trick Of The Tail

All the Steve Hackett albums, especially To Watch The Storms and Genesis Revisited

All the Flower Kings albums especially Retropolis, Flower Power, Unfold The Future and The Sum Of No Evil

All the Pendragon albums especially Masquerade Overture, Not of this World and Pure

All the IQ albums especially The Wake and Ever, Seventh House and Frequency

All the Spock’s Beard albums especially The Light, V and Snow

All the Neal Morse albums especially One, ? and Sola Scriptura

All the Roine Stolt albums especially The Flower King and Hydrophonia

All the Marillion albums especially Script For A Jester’s Tear, Fugazi, Misplaced Childhood and Clutching at Straws

All the Yes albums especially Fragile, Close To The Edge, 90125, Big Generator, Union and Talk

All the Rush albums especially 2112, Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Counterpart, Test for Echo and Snakes & Arrows

All the UK albums especially U.K.

All the Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums especially Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus, In The Hot Seat

All the King Crimson Albums especially In The Court Of The Crimson King and Red

All the Pink Floyd albums especially Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and The Division Bell

All the Dream Theater albums especially Images And Words, Live At Marquee, Awake, Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and Train Of Thought

All the Toto albums especially The Seventh One, Fahrenheit, Kingdom Of Desire, Tambu

All the Gary Moore albums especially Corridors of Power, Victims Of The Future, Run for Cover, Wild Frontier and Still Got The Blues

All the John Wetton albums especially Battle Lines

All the Phil Collins albums especially Both Sides and Dance Into The Light

All the Asia albums especially Asia and Aria

All the Fish albums especially Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors and Raingods With Zippos

All the Journey albums especially Escape, Frontiers, Raised On The Radio, Trial By Fire

All the Eric Johnson albums especially Tones, Ah Via Musicom and Venus Isle

All the Yngwie Malmsteen albums especially Rising Force

All the Transatlantic albums especially SMPTe and The Whirlwind

All the Kaipa albums especially Mind Revolutions, and Angling Feelings

All the Arena albums especially Songs From The Lions Cage, The Visitor

All the Knight Area albums especially Under A New Sign

All the Threshold albums especially Critical Mass

All the Magellan album’s especially Impending Ascension, Test Of Wills and Hundred Year Flood

All the Wigwam albums especially Hard And Horny, Tombstone Valentine and Fairyport

All the Kingston Wall albums especially Kingston Wall 1 and Tri – Logy

All the Ageness albums especially Rituals, Imageness


Some of my favorite & most influential jazz fusion & instrumental albums are: Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds Of Fire, Al Di Meola’s Elegant Gypsy and Electric Rendezvous, Frank Gambale’s Live 1989, Passages, Pat Metheny’s Secret Story, John McLaughlin’s The Promise, Greg Howe’s Introspection, Allan Holdsworth’s, Road Games, Metal Fatique, I.O.U and Sand, Chick Corea Elektric Band’s, Eye Of The Beholder and Beneath The Mask, Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare, Joe Satriani’s Not of this Earth and Surfing with the Alien, Steve Morse’s The Introduction, All Seppo Tyni’s solo albums, All Tuppu Orrenmaa’s album’s etc...

Upcoming Plans

We are recording our second album. It will take some time, cause we want to do everything more perfectly. We have recorded demos and we have done fittings to our new songs and we are fitting them all the time. I will inform then when we get everything ready to our next album. It will take some time to do all the things ready, and like I said we want to do everything better in our second album. There is gonna be quite many songs in our second album, but there are also many songs which are shorter. The songs are 4 minutes to 12 minutes long in the second album. We don’t have yet any upcoming tours or performances with the Riveryman. After we have done the second album we will see what happens. I’ll hope that we can do gigs in the future and of course gigs also in the other countries, not just in here in Finland.


Web Site


My website address is: www.myspace.com/riverymanband
My email is: tonywhitelion@gmail.com and tonyriveryman@gmail.com

 

 
   
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