Welcome to the official Kai Hahto website!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'll be playing with Paul Di'Anno this week in Finland. See you all there!

• Wednesday 18th Duuni, Seinäjoki
• Thursday 19th Dante's Highlight, Helsinki
• Friday 20th Hellä, Tampere
• Saturday 21th Henry's, Kuopio

Hello!
We will play in Helsinki before Tuska festival with Metallica tribute in Apollo club on 25th of June. The lineup for this show is:

• Kai Hahto - drums
• Lauri Porra (Stratovarius, Kotipelto etc.) - Bass
• Mika Tyyskä (GuitarShredShow) - Guitar
• Mikko Kosonen (Maija Vilkkumaa) - Guitar
• Mikko Herranen (ex-Velcra, Misery inc, Rust etc.) - Vocals

Also Wintersun will perform on Metalcamp festival on Friday 4th of July. This is the only show we do this summer and we are concentrating on getting the new album ready and you can read some news about that on Wintersun homepage.

More news will follow, enjoy the summer everybody!
Kai

It's been really busy starting for a year 2008. A lot of things going on at the same time, but more details later when things progress. Here are a couple of upcoming events.

I have a drumclinic at the Rumpufestari in Lahti on Saturday 19th of April. My clinic will start at 12.00 and it's held at Kasisali. Other clinicians are Mikko Kaakkurinniemi, Mamba Assefa and Jari Salminen. More info at www.rumpufestari.com

After the clinic I will head to studio Petrax as a drumtech to handle the drum tunings for Finnish band Indica. Tuomas from Nightwish is producing the new album and he asked me to help with the drumsound and I am very happy to go.

Also next week I will have two Roland clinics. The first one is on the 25th of April at the Vaasa music shop starting at 16.00 and will concentrate more on the new TD-9 electronic set. Max on the Rox is playing a show later on that day at a local bar called Talles pub in the center of Vaasa.

The second Roland clinic is being held in Oulu on the 26th of April in a bar called PSK KAUPUNNI. The day will also feature Tom Gardiner with the Amfisound guitars. Check the deatails from the website as far as starting of the clinic is concerned.

A couple of Metallica tribute shows are added in the live section. They happen in Helsinki at Bar Fridays 16 and 17th of May.

Also on the weekend of 23rd and 24th of May I play in a two night cover band including music from U2, Lenny Kravitz, Whitesnake etc...and the gigs are in the same bar Fridays in Helsinki.

More news soon...
Take care and enjoy the spring!

Cheers!
Kai

The Guitar Heroes album release show from Tavastia club in Helsinki, Finland will be broadcased live on Yle Extra tomorrow, November 6th at 10 PM. You can also watch it online in real time, just go to Yle Extra's site!

Guitar Heroes levyn julkkarikeikka Tavastialta lähetetään suorana Yle Extralta huomenna klo 22 alkaen. Keikan voi katsoa myös netissä ohjelman sivuilta!

The new Wintersun album is coming along nicely and we have high hopes that the new "child" will see the light of day before May 2008 - crazy stuff!

It's again the time of the year to do good things and start the Dimebag Beyond Forever tour in November/December. Here are the dates and venues.

• 28.11. Jyväskylä, Lutakko
• 29.11. Kuopio, Henry's Pub
• 30.11. Lahti, Nightlife
• 1.12. Kouvola, Rytmi-katti
• 5.12. Oulu, Teatria
• 6.12. Tampere, Hellä
• 7.12. Turku, Klubi
• 8.12. Helsinki, Nosturi

The Guitar Hero album release party is planned to take place in Tavastia on 6th of November and will feature most of the players from the album. I am playing drums that night even though I didn't play all the songs on the album. The show was also planned to be filmed and put out from Tv later and also it should come out from the radio. The album release date should be 7th of November.

Also the new Nightwish album "Dark Passion Play" is out now, check out the masterpiece with the new singer Anette! Great stuff! You can buy the album from www.nwshop.fi

Lastly, I have uploaded a couple of videos on Youtube.

• Rotten Sound playing Meshuggah's "War"
• Clinic version of Wintersun's "Beyond the dark sun"

Take care guys and see you on the road!
Kai

Hello people!

I just got back home from the North American tour with Swallow the Sun last week. What a trip! Total of 15 000 kilometers (over 9000 miles!) in a van during three and a half weeks. Sounds crazy? It was! But still so much fun! Thanks to all the 11 guys that shared the van, because without the good spirit we had it could've been a nightmare.

I've been in the states before, but this time I got to see much more of it because we travelled through the whole country, from coast to coast. We saw the Niagara Falls, spent a day off in Las Vegas and had a chance to visit Dimebag Darrell's grave in Dallas.

A big thanks to our driver Nick, who took us places we didn't know it was possible to go during the trip, thanks Nick! Also thanks to everyone in Swallow the Sun, Insomnium, Scar Symmetry and Katatonia - we'll meet again!

Here are a bunch of videos Anthony shot during the tour, thank you Anthony!

• Jaxx, first night of the tour
• Swallow, Hartford
• Don't Fall Asleep, NYC
• Too Cold For Tears, Poughkeepsie
• These Hours Of Despair, Poughkeepsie
• Hope, Corona
• Swallow, Corona
• Descending Winters, Corona

You can read more about the tour here: http://vf-insomnium.blogspot.com/

I'm currently in studio with Children of Bodom as a drum tech. They are recording a new album at Petrax studios (same studio Nightwish used for drums and vocals). Jaska called me and wanted me to handle the drum tuning and I'm very excited to help him. Mikko Karmila is going to be recording the album. I got to know him during the Nightwish session and it's going to be great to work with him again.

And if you thought I would get to relax for the rest of the year, you were wrong. I will be doing a lot of things during the last three months of this year. This week I'm doing a Roland V-tour with Mikko Härkin (Wingdom, ex-Sonata Arctica). The dates are as follows.

• 10.10. Oulun Soitin ja Tarvike, Oulu
• 11.10. Ykkösmusiikki, Joensuu
• 12.10. Musa Pörssi, Jyväskylä
• 13.10. Soitin Laine, Turku
• 18.10. Tampereen Musiikki, Tampere
• 19.10. DLX Deluxe Music, Helsinki

Mikko will be with me on all of the dates, except in Joensuu on October 11th, which will be just myself and my V-drums, hehe.

Also, we have put together a Metallica tribute tour which will feature myself, Mikko Herranen and a great bass player Jan Simons, to name a few. Dates for this tour are.

• 26.10. Pori
• 7.11. Mikkeli
• 9.11. Helsinki
• 10.11. Helsinki
• 11.11. Turku
• 16.11. Lahti
• 17.11. Jyväskylä

Take care and see you on the tours!
Kai

Hello everybody!

Wintersun is still on the break to finish the new album. You can read Jari's comments from the Wintersun homepage. The album is scheduled to come out in the beginning of 2008, if everything goes as planned (but as we have seen, things don't always go so smoothly). Seeing we've been on a break, I have done some drum clinics and they have been so much fun to do, as always. You can find some clips from the clinics on Youtube:
Wintersun - Sleeping stars (clip)
Myself and Jaska Raatikainen (from our clinic together)
Me playing part of my solo at the same clinic
I have a lot of footage at home from the clinics and I'll try to get some more stuff for you to check out later.

I also had the chance to be a part of the upcoming Guitar Hero album that is coming out later on this year. It features 11 Finnish guitar players: Alexi from Children of Bodom, Emppu from Nightwish, Timo Tolkki from Stratovarius etc. I am performing on three different tracks and it was a nice challenge to play the music. I'll let you know more details on this later.

Last but not least, I am going on tour with Swallow the Sun to America and Canada. Their drummer Pasi could not play this tour due to his job and the guys asked me to help them out and I'm really excited to go! I really like their music and I also know the guys very well, so I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun. Other bands on the tour are Katatonia, Scar Symmetry and another great Finnish band Insomnium.

That's all for now. I'll get back to you later! Have a great summer everybody!
Kai