Janne Tolsa

Janne Tolsa (born 7 March 1970) is a Finnish heavy metal musician. Known for his keyboard work in Tarot from the late 1980s, Tolsa also takes part in the melodic death metal band Eternal Tears of Sorrow, which he joined in 2005 for their album Before the Bleeding Sun, as well as the industrial metal band Turmion Kätilöt (under the alias RunQ). Tolsa is also known to work as a composer for television. Janne Tolsa plays keyboards in Marenne Band and is one of the composers in the band's debut album The Past Prelude.

His main keyboards are a KORG Triton Extreme and a KORG CX-3, but he also uses Ensoniq and Proteus keyboards and a Hammond B-100.

In addition, he is the owner of the Kuopio-based studio, Note On Studio. Turmion Kätilöt, Tarot and Eternal Tears of Sorrow have been partly or completely recorded many of their albums.

Janne Tolsa began to play the piano in 1977, when he was seven years old. After studying music for three years in Helsinki, his family moved to Vuolijoki, where he continued to study piano through private lessons. His first band experience was with his older brother in 1983.

A few years later, during the Follow Me Into Madness Tour, Tarot played a few shows near Tolsa's hometown. At the time, they were playing as a trio, having recently fired Mako H. from the band. Tolsa attended every show and continuously found his way backstage after shows to convince the members of the band (Marco Hietala, Zachary Hietala, and Pecu Cinnari) that he could play keys for them. He was often drunk and the band turned him away, not believing him.

Eventually, Tarot played a show with a keyboard backstage, which Tolsa used to play Rose on the Grave (Follow Me Into Madness). Impressed, the band exchanged phone numbers with Tolsa, and invited him to one of their rehearsals. On 26 June 1988, he played his first show as a member of Tarot in Kalajoki. He then joined Tarot for the writing and recording of their third studio album, To Live Forever, which was released in 1993. In addition to playing the keys for Tarot, Tolsa frequently writes and co-writes music for Tarot albums.

...
Wikipedia