Never meet your heroes, they say. Because they might be disappointing. Well, I know for a fact that my hero is not disappointing at all. That’s because he’s the extraordinary Kai Hahto, which I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing during Kaaos Festival last month. Here’s what we talked about!

Benedetta

Hello Kai, how are you doing today?

Kai Hahto

It was great. I came in the morning from Oulu. We played with Auri last night in the last festival of the summer. And now I’m here in the Kaaos Festival. And we played with my old band, Misantropia, for the first time in 30 years. So it was pretty exciting, actually.

Benedetta

How was rehearsing those songs again after so many years?

Kai Hahto

Actually, the guys started much earlier than me. Because some of the guys, especially the other guitar player, hasn’t touched his guitar for 30 years. He’s a writer. He makes books, and he hasn’t really played since the band broke up in 1998. But, yeah, it’s been great. To come back, like old friends get together and we start playing together. It was nice to bring back some of the stuff you kind of have probably forgot over the years. Because I’ve been playing with so many bands and toured the world with so many bands. So it was great to go back together and do this show.

Benedetta

I could tell that you were having fun and the audience was also having fun.

Kai Hahto

Yeah, of course. There were a lot of people who were actually our fans 30 years ago. I saw some familiar faces, which I saw in the last show, which we actually had here in my hometown, in Vaasa, in Club 25, which is now demolished. It doesn’t exist anymore. But that was like a legendary venue that we played a lot. Even Wintersun played there. The first show that Wintersun played was in Club 25 here in Vaasa. So it has a lot of memories. But it doesn’t exist anymore. It burned down.

Benedetta

So it is special to play in Vaasa.

Kai Hahto

Of course. It’s my hometown. I’ve been living here for 52 years. This is my home.

Benedetta

Can you share with us what is your favorite Iron Maiden show that you have seen?

Kai Hahto

Probably the one that in 1999 when Bruce came back in the band. They played with Megadeth in Helsinki at the Ice Hall. And I cried the whole show because I was so happy that he came back to the band. I wasn’t really a big fan of the previous singer. Nothing against him, but I just felt that he couldn’t really do justice for the songs that Bruce and Paul were actually doing in the past. But that was probably my favorite show.

Benedetta

You play with many different kits, depending on which bands you play with. But do you remember the first kit that you played with?

Kai Hahto

Actually, yes. I had this silver kit called Beat when I got it, I was six years old. But then I purchased another one because for me the silver was not cool enough. So I wanted all black. The brand was Starra. Just one music store they had it and I bought it. And that was the first gig I played live with my old band Black Eagles. I think I was 13, 14, something like that. It was a disco, it was not really successful. But that’s what we did. I still practice. I still love what I do. I still want to develop my skills, so it’s never ending. I hope I stay healthy and I can still do what I love to do.

Benedetta

And we love to see you on stage. Can you also share with us about which drumsticks do you choose to play with?

Kai Hahto

Yeah, I’ve been having my signature sticks actually since I joined Nightwish. It’s a brand called Balbex from Czech Republic. But I was with them already before I joined Nightwish. So I was playing also with Wintersun and Swallow the Sun. So I think since 2009 or something like that I’ve been with them. It’s quite a long time I’ve been with the same brand. If I like something I try to keep the relationship going.

Benedetta

Do you have any different kinds?

Kai Hahto

Of course, it depends on the music I do. Like with Auri I had to order some lighter sticks because the music was not heavy metal. So the mixing guy wasn’t happy when I was using my own sticks he was like, “Okay this sounds like too powerful”. I had to order lighter sticks so it suits the music better.

Benedetta

Can you share with us any female drummers that you like?

Kai Hahto

Anika Nilles, who plays with Rush nowadays. And of course we have so many good ones nowadays. Which is great. We need more female drummers in the world, that’s my opinion. For sure. The lady who used to play with Lenny Kravitz [Cindy Blackman]. Yeah, she was really nice drummer. Like Sheila E., she also plays percussion, more like Latin style. So there’s a lot of good female drummers. But Anika is one of my favorites actually. I think she’s originally from Germany, but now she plays with the Canadian band Rush. So that’s a great combo. She’s really doing great justice for the music. Really well done, I’ve seen some clips online. Because I’m a huge Rush fan as well. I love Rush, almost all of the albums. And Neil, who was the previous drummer who died, we actually had the same drum teacher in New York City. In America. Freddie Gruber. I studied with him in 2002. He’s not from New York City. He lived in LA, but he was in New York at that time. So I took some lessons. And Neil was actually his student before.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach some sort of equality between men and women in the metal world?

Kai Hahto

I hope. And also, no matter if you’re a man or a woman or whatever. It’s really important that people are enjoying what they do. And like I said, we need more females to do this. Because of course we also see a lot more females in the shows. In the 80s, you go to a heavy metal show. In the front row, there was mostly guys in their fucking battle vests, leather jackets, long hair. That’s how it was. I remember that. But now it’s changed. So it’s great. And of course we have bands like Nightwish or Epica, Within Temptation. There are so many good bands that have female vocals in them. Of course it has changed the thinking of people. You can have a female singing in a metal band. It’s not all male.

Benedetta

On a scale from 1 to 10, how technological would you say that you are?

Kai Hahto

Technological? Maybe 6. I kind of try to stay away too much from technology. Because of course you need your phone and your computer. But still I kind of like the old school vinyls and cassettes.

Benedetta

Kai, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Kai Hahto

You know, I always say what I say to everybody. Go and see the live bands. Support the music. Buy the albums. Because that’s the way that the bands can survive. Bands need to tour because the albums are not selling. For me Spotify is not the solution. It’s great to have, but it’s not really doing good for the artists unfortunately. So I still buy my albums. I still go to the store. I support the bands that I love. Because at least I’ve tried to do something for them. And they get a bigger share from what I’ve given to them. I still go and see live bands I love. I still buy the merchandise from my favorite band store.