Timo Tolkki , former Stratovarius , made a lengthy statement on social media after selling only five tickets for a masterclass scheduled for this Thursday, the 22nd. The musician spoke about the difficulties of supporting himself financially, especially during the pandemic, and mentioned the end of Andre Matos .
The event was available worldwide, but fell far short of the minimum target of 50 students needed to cover costs, with only five sales. Without the possibility of live performances, the guitarist said that royalties from the catalog with the Finnish band are low. "In these 25 years [of my career], I've enriched many companies, but not myself," he explained.
In November 2020, Tolkki launched a crowdfunding campaign for Infinite Visions . "Let's see what happens with Union Magnetica when it's released on November 11th. If it follows the trend I see, then I should just give up and do something else," he wrote.
“This profession has given me so much, and I won’t become like, for example, my great friend Andre Matos, who spent his last years playing covers of Iron Maiden, Queen , etc., in small clubs in Brazil,” he lamented. “I told him many times that a genius like him should be a millionaire if the world were fair. I think in recent years he became increasingly depressed, and part of him didn’t want to be here anymore.”
Tolkki met Andre during a joint tour between Angra and Stratovarius, while promoting the album Fireworks (1998). In 2010, they both founded the supergroup Symfonia and released the album In Paradisum .
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