Hi

My name is Joonas, I'm an amateur musician and a professional web developer from Finland. I actually like photography too, but mostly it just means I'm drooling over better cameras and lenses on the internet. On the 'net I often use the nickname Pyhtiö (or raatis) and this is the english version of my homepage. Will try to expand this in the near future.

For those of you who can understand finnish, I recommend the finnish version.

News

2010.08.09
Minor updates on gear list and about -page. If there's actually anyone reading this, here's what's up:
The Music of Erich Zann is my current band, check it out if you like or don't like prog or alternative rock!
My Youtube-channel has some new drum videos
I'm working on a new personal webpage, progress is slow.. actually I started it almost a year ago.
2009.04.19
Took some photos at a drum fair held yesterday in Lahti, they're over here.
2009.04.14
Released
2009.04.13
Started building this

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Drumming

So, I started hitting things at the beginning of this millenium when I was 16. Still haven't got rid of the habit of annoying the people around me by tapping on tables. Since then I've been driven by thirst for learning as much as I can. To me, it's not just a hobby, it's a way of life, medicine, a form of art and therapy (a way of letting out the steam).

My biggest influences/inspiration are: Jean-Paul Gaster, Benny Greb, Stanton Moore, Sami Kuoppamäki, Gavin Harrison, Vinnie Paul.. and many, many more. I get off by listening to any drummer who has a nice groove. Specially when the rest of the band do their job as well. Actually I love listening to any musician who can play with feel.

"Technique is a drummer's vocabulary. The more words you know, the more you can say. But sometimes, saying a simple thing touches people's hearts more than a lot of notes. It's very important to have technique, and also very important to choose simpler ways of expression."

- Akira Jimbo

Can't say it any better than that. Also music gives life a meaning even if all else should fail.

Gear

Drums

  • Tama Granstar 24"x16" bd (PowerStroke3 / Ambassador)
  • 16"x16" ft (Emperor / Ambassador)
  • 14"x13" ft (Emperor / Ambassador)
  • 12"x9" tt (Emperor / Ambassador)
  • Tama Artwood 14"x8" sd (Amb / Amb)
  • Pearl Sensitone Elite Brass 14"x6,5" sd (Amb / Amb)

Cymbals

  • Zildjian K 14" hihat
  • Sabian HHX 21" groove ride
  • Meinl Byzance14" extra-dry hihat
  • Meinl Byzance 19" med-thin crash
  • Meinl Byzance 18" thin crash
  • Meinl Byzance 8" & 6" splash
  • Stagg Traditional 18" china
  • Stagg Regular 10" splash / Meinl Classics 12" china splash X-hat

Recording gear

  • Rode NT-5 -pair
  • AKG D112
  • Shure SM57
  • Sennheiser e604
  • Beyerdynamic Opus 87 x3
  • M-Audio Fast Track Ultra

Other

  • Pearl & Tama hardware, mostly
  • Tama First Chair -throne
  • DW 5000 double pedal
  • Vic Firth 5a sticks
  • Beyerdynamic DT770M -headphones
  • Remo drum heads

Media

Pyhtiö's Drum Lesson #1: Bass drum in fills

Download it here. (34MB .wmv)

Some ideas on how to spice up fills with bass drum(s). Only in finglish.

Youtube's automatic video identification service somehow came to the conclusion that my Drum lesson video infringes NBC Universal's copyrights. I sent a counter-notification to the UK office because I live in Europe but the reply tells me I'd have to contact their American office and face more bureaucracy bullshit. Don't want any of that. So, please download the Drum video above in higher quality and watch on your favorite video player.

Some of my videos are still viewable on Youtube

Photos of my drums in here

About me

  • 1983: I entered this world.
  • Started drawing things such as Megaman-bosses and Lucky Luke characters in the early years. Moved on to Orcs & Goblins later on.
  • Made my first web page in elementary school. <FRAMESET> and <BLINK> were IN.
  • Had a brief period of playing Warhammer tabletop-games and painting Orc-figures. This is where the Orcs came in actually..
  • Started high school in '99 and noticed I could pick up drum beats and tap tables along with the latter day Metallica -records.
  • Started a band with my friend's younger brother, we covered The Trooper, Paranoid and more at an event at our high school and rehearsed at the brothers' dad's workplace.
  • A high school friend introduced Dream Theater to me and I couldn't resist the call of the dark side. At some point I was practising 5 hours a day, mostly Portnoy -fills and other stuff to impress other drummers.
  • Moved to Riihimäki in 2003 to study Media Technology and soon joined a band called Opain from the neighbour town of Hyvinkää.
  • Found Clutch, which led to me adding a little bit of restraint and groove to my drumming.
  • Bought a dSLR-camera, Canon 350D, in 2008 and added photography to my list of interests.
  • In 2009 founded The Music of Erich Zann with Pete from Opain and Teemu Koskinen from THE INTERNET.

About the site

Content, design and code by me, with the exception of jQuery.