Off the Record with Johanna Kurkela, Timo Kurkela, & Troy Donockley

Yuletide Special

By now you have probably guessed that I really enjoy Johanna Kurkela’s whole vibe. From Altamullan Road, Auri, and Eye of Melian to her solo career, she’s proven herself to be a magical, incredible vocalist, as well as one of the kindest people I’ve ever been so fortunate to come across. This winter, she’s been doing a Joulun Lauluja kiertue, aka Yuletide Songs Tour, throughout the churches of Finland. While I wasn’t attending the show in Vantaa, I did come into town to do a short Yuletide Special interview for Off the Record with Johanna, her brother Timo Kurkela, and her Auri bandmate, Troy Donockley (Nightwish) to find out what they love best about the holiday season! 

Check out the gig report from the Joulun Lauluja tour from Tampere (7.12) here or Kathy Criswell’s full travel blog and final show (8.12) report here!

Thanks for checking it out, and please do the usual subs and shares if you want to see more of these in the future!

Well, thank you again for doing another interview with me—I know I ask all of you guys for so many interviews, so I hope you’re not sick of me yet.

Johanna: It’s always a pleasure!

Since you guys are on the Joulun lauluja kiertue, or Christmas [Yuletide] Songs Tour for people who don’t speak Finnish, we’re doing a Christmas Special interview this time. So before we get into the Christmas questions, tell me a little bit about how this tour came together, and since you’re nearing the end, how has it gone so far?

JK: It’s been an absolute pleasure, and like we discussed before, COVID really made me miss live shows so much, and after the Altamullan Road tour, earlier this year, there was this gap between that and the next Auri adventures that we’re going to do next year, so we thought, “Wow, we haven’t done any Christmas shows in ages, so how about…” And we talked about it together and we would have wanted to do that with Mikko and Johanna [Iivanainen], but they had already booked their Christmas tour, so we started thinking, say, there’s a swell lad we know over there in the UK and we phoned him up and asked if he was willing to join us, and luckily he said yes. 

Troy: Yeah, well, how could you refuse? It’s been a really busy year for me and if Pink Floyd had asked me to join them, I would have turned them down. But for these two? I would have done it even if I’d lost both my hands in a gardening accident. [laughter]

High praise!

JK: It’s been so wonderful and yeah, four more shows left and already a bit nostalgic about it all.

TD: Yeah.

Timo: Absolutely.

JK: It’s been absolutely wonderful.

You mentioned that you’ve done Christmas tours before, but it’s been a while. How has this been different from any of the previous Christmas tours that any of you guys have done?

TD: Exclusively in churches is a big plus, a big difference for me. Especially… I’ve played in churches before, but not exclusively churches, and that’s been beautiful to do.

JK: And for me, I guess… well, the theme for the whole year and hopefully the rest of my career will be sharing musical adventures with family, you know, kindred spirits, and that’s been the biggest change for me. It’s been a treat, on this tour, to share it with these two brothers. [laughs]

Have you [Timo] done any Christmas tours before?

TK: It’s actually my first Christmas tour. Of course I do like Christmas-y gigs around Christmas, but this is really special for me, being part of this.

Incredible. Now, to get into the Christmas questions, first up, what is your favorite thing about this holiday season and what does it mean to you?

JK: Oooh, good questions. I’ve always loved Christmas and I feel like it’s not just… the crux of it is in December and the dates, but I think it’s an all-year-round thing for me, to appreciate what we have and the magic of everyday things in life, and to see beauty in kindness. Because we are one big family in this universe, aren’t we? And at Christmastime it resurfaces in a more widespread manner. I love to keep a little bit of the spirit of Christmas with me throughout the year. What about you two?

TD: Well, I 100% agree with that and I think that, despite the curmudgeonly attitude of a lot of people to Christmas… I love Christmas for that reason as well, that there’s an unstoppable unification that happens between people and people, despite their curmudgeonly “bah, humbug!” attitude propensities. It’s something that you can just feel permeates the whole of culture, and it’s a lovely thing. It’s lovely. And of course, watching Christmas films…

JK: Yes!

TD: And drinking lots of lovely wine.

JK: And gluhwein.

TD: And gluhwein! Yeah, definitely.

TK: Yeah, I think definitely slowing down, reconnecting with people, especially family and friends, and I think to just get away from the everyday life and routines, to stop and slow down, play games together.

What’s your earliest memory of Christmas?

JK: Oh, that’s a fascinating question! Do you have a memory?

TD: I have a few. What about you?

JK: Well, I remember going to our grandparents. We were lucky to have both grandparents still alive when we were kids, so we celebrated Christmas first at my father’s parents and then at my mother’s parents, so we got to celebrate Christmas twice. Which was lovely.

TD: That’s pretty good.

JK: I remember singing songs together with cousins and there was always a big table of food… and meringues the size of your fist! I mean, later on, I realized they were probably average-sized, but when you were a kid, everything felt so big and grand, so definitely Christmas meringues.

TD: Something I really miss about the ghosts of Christmas past is carol-singing. I used to love that when I was a kid but it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s been hammered out of our society now. They’re all on, sadly, their iPads. They don’t go out and sing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” anymore. So that’s a drag. But I’ve got lots of early memories. I remember once, venturing into some woods with heavy snow with three friends. We saw this fabulous little cabin and we thought, “wow, is that where one of Santa’s elves lives?” or something like that. We were about 10. As we approached it, the doors swung open and a guy ran out with an ax and chased us through the woods. I jumped over a barbed-wire fence and tore my new pants and my mother went mental. She went crazy. And my other two friends were so traumatized that they never got over it. So that’s one of my early Christmas memories. [laughter]

JK: I’m so sorry!

TD: It’s true! It’s true, it actually happened. Were you expecting something nice and wholesome? [laughter]

That’s certainly a… memorable memory!

TD: It didn’t end with gingerbread. It ended with my trousers being torn on barbed wire! [laughter]

JK: I hope you’ve made happier memories since.

TD: Oh, I have. I mean, this one now. This is a much happier memory. In the making.

TK: I think for me, one of the most distinctive memories is, again, my grandparents’ house and Santa Claus is a huge thing when you’re a kid, so I was really waiting for him next to the door, in the middle of the shoes, and it got to the point that my grandpa needed to come and actually call, with those old phones, he pretended to… well, actually I think he actually called Santa Claus-

TD: Brilliant!

TK: And then he told me that, “okay, he’s coming, only a few minutes.”

TD: That is an imaginative grandfather.

TK: I still totally remember that.

TD: Did I tell you about… I played Santa Claus at my daughter’s school.

JK: Really!?

TD: Yeah, I dressed up as Santa Claus at my daughter’s school, and I turned up there with the sack and everything, it was thirty-three kids, and my daughter was one of them, and it was the weirdest thing ever because she didn’t recognize me. She was looking at me like a stranger… well, she was looking at me as if I was Santa Claus, and it was really disturbing. I did it the year after as well, but one of her friends spotted my long nails and went, “I think Santa Claus is your dad,” and she went, “ooh,” so I didn’t do it again. But I did it once… twice. I highly recommend it.

Do you guys celebrate on the 24th or the 25th… or the 26th?

TK: I think the 24th.

JK: In Finland, yeah.

TD: 25th in the UK.

JK: I think we’ve kind of kept the tradition of celebrating Christmas many times, because these days, we do celebrate on the 24th, and then my parents usually are the next day, and then we do a Boxing Day celebration as well, so it’s something, that we’ve kept many Christmases.

Do you have Santa visit?

JK: Ohh…

TK: I can’t remember the last time.

JK: No. Back in the day when we were still kids.

Maybe Troy needs to become Santa and come to your Christmases.

TD: I could do that! I could definitely do that! Plus my beard is getting nice and white now, I just need to grow it out. Santa… for my daughter, it was a big deal. But for me as well. I remember my dad dressed as Santa once. But he fell down the stairs and his… everything came off. Yeah, and I went, “you’re just my dad,” and that was it.

JK: Oh no!

TD: Yeah, he fell down the stairs and broke some of the presents. [laughter]

JK: Oh, I’m so sorry!

TD: Yeah, I’ve had quite a traumatic childhood with Christmas. [laughter]

So what you’re saying is that this tour is like… post-traumatic stress therapy for you to make new, good memories of Christmas.

TD: Yeah, that’s it!

JK: I had no idea!

TD: Yeah, I had terrible experiences like that. In department stores in Finland, is there a grotto with Santa in it where you take the kids and they sit on his knee and he asks them… do you get that in Finland?

JK: I don’t think we have that.

TK: No.

TD: It happens in America, doesn’t it? In department stores. Yeah, it happens in the UK. It’s always happened. This is another thing, when I was a kid, completely destroyed my idea of Santa was… my dad took me to see Santa Claus and I sat on his knee and he went, “So, what would you like for Christmas, little boy?” and I went, “Well, I’d like a new bike,” and he went, “Yes,” and then he spotted my dad and he went, “How are you doing, Sid?” to my dad—my dad’s called Sid—and my dad went, “Who’s that?” and he went, “It’s Jeff,” and he pulled his beard down. [laughter / astonishment]

JK: Oh no!

TK: He said, “Yeah, it’s Jeff. I’m just doing this to make a bit of extra money for Christmas,” and he went, “It’s alright, you get to see lots of brats, but…” and then he put his beard back on and went, “So, you want a bike?” and I went, “Yeah, but not from you!” [laughs] Completely ruined!

JK: I’m so sorry. Wow!

TD: Traumatic! It explains everything about me.

JK: I never… I had no idea!

TD: Yeah… poor old me. [laughter]

This is the trouble with doing interviews with Troy: his stories are all too good. [laughter]

JK: Well, it’s the flipside of Christmas then, I guess.

TD: Yes.

Does it also snow black over there?

TK: Ash.

TD: Yeah! [laughs]

JK: Does it even… is it even a white Christmas over there?

TD: Hardly ever, hardly ever. We’ve had a couple of white Christmases.

JK: No white winters…

TD: No, hardly ever. I’m hoping for one this year though. Even if I have to paint the woods white.

Or then it’s [snowing because of] climate change and that’s no good either. [laughter] Okay, how about favorite Christmas traditions? They can be old or new, but do you have any favorite things you like to do at Christmas?

JK: I think the whole shebang. Everything about Christmas, being together, and the fact that it is a whole-year-round thing, for me at least. What about… do you have specific things? 

TD: Well, Brussel sprouts. We have Brussel sprouts on Christmas day. We do, and they’re beautiful! Brussel sprouts in marmite.

JK: They’re yum! Yes!

TD: The yeast extract. Yeah! [laughter]

JK: We made some last Christmas!

TD: I know you did!

Oh, this is why you have such miserable stories. It’s because of marmite. [laughter] Marmite has brought it out.

TD: Marmite is sublime! But not- [laughs] not if you cook it… [laughs] If you cook Brussel sprouts in marmite with butter or margarine or whatever, it’s just bliss.

JK: It is.

TD: It’s perfectly Christmas-y, isn’t it? Especially if you have it with a nice Christmas-y [gin?]. So that’s one of my favorites. What about you?

TK: It’s, like… I think the Christmas dinner and having everyone around and then a bunch of great food, that’s the best.

TD: And Christmas crackers!

TK: Yeah! We had it the first time last Christmas.

JK: Yeah, we had no idea about Christmas crackers!

TD: They had their first Christmas crackers last year.

JK: You [Troy] were kind enough to introduce us to them.

TD: You’ve got some more coming in this weekend as well.

JK: Aww, so sweet! I can’t wait! It’s too fun!

TD: You have Christmas crackers in the States, don’t you? Where are you from?

I’m from Canada. [laughs]

TD: Ahh, right… you have them in Canada?

I know of Christmas crackers, but I have not participated of them myself.

TD: You pull them and it makes a little bang.

JK: And you get a little crown that you can wear!

TD: And inside there’s little presents and there’s a little crown you can wear.

JK: And little games.

TD: Well, you can wear that crown all year ‘round as well, can’t you?

JK: Yes! That has to be my favorite new Christmas tradition!

TD: It’s a fabulous tradition. I think it was Charles Dickins who invented it.

JK: Wow! Right, brilliant!

I didn’t know that. What about the most meaningful or memorable gift you’ve ever gotten at Christmas?

JK: Ooh, I instantly thought of my mum making all of the preserved jams and… she has all kinds of things growing in the garden and she makes the best jams and sun-dried tomatoes. Just, everything. A harvest feast is what we get for Christmas from mum and it’s the best. And just… handmade, home-made things.

TD: Yeah, handmade stuff. Definitely.

And home grown. Can’t go wrong.

JK: Absolutely!

TD: Well, mine was a Fender Stratocaster copy at the age of 12. An electric guitar with an amp.

And then you didn’t, like… immediately fall down and smash it or anything? [laughter] Did you actually get to use this present?

TD: No, it took a few days before I did that. [laughter] But that was quite… epoch-making for me. 

TK: Yeah, what came to my mind… I don’t know how to call this one, like, little cars you get and then…? [gestures pushing with feet]

TD: Pedal cars?

TK: Yeah- no…

TD: Oh, without pedals? You just kinda…? [gestures]

TK: Yeah, I got it when I was a little kid and I completely destroyed the flooring of our house.

JK: You did! [laughs]

TK: Because I just went around and around and… and all the …laquer?

TD: The lacquer on the floor?

TK: Yeah, it all came off.

JK: [laughs] I remember!

TD: Have you still got it?

TK: I don’t know if they still have it anymore, but I think that was… I was… ecstatic, how do you say that?

TD&JK: Yeah.

JK: I remember that, yeah.

Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

TD: Yes, I do. You go first.

JK: I don’t actually have one. I love the variety. I love listening to… you know, on YouTube there’s all those playlists, ambient Celtic Christmas playlists that I really enjoy. There are so many good ones.

TD: Actually yeah, it’s difficult to choose one, isn’t it? There’s…

JK: Oh, you showed me the wonderful video on YouTube… Libera?

TD: Oh, “Song of the Bells”?

JK: Yeah, “Carol of the Bells”!

TD: That’s brilliant, isn’t it? That version?

JK: Oh it’s beautiful. Yes!

TD: It’s a boys’ choir and it’s just… transcendent.

JK: Yes! What about you, Timo?

TK: I think, for me… in Finland we have really, really melancholic Christmas songs, and a song called “Varpunen jouluaamuna,” it’s always been… I’ve always loved it, even though it’s super, super sad. It’s something about the lyrics and melody that hit me every time I hear it.

TD: Well, we’re doing quite a few of my favorites tonight, in concert. So there’s “Three Ships” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” I love “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and I love Bing Crosby and David Bowie’s “Little Drummer Boy.” I love that one, which I played today at the place we’re staying at, because they’d never heard it. And “O, Holy Night.” I love that one as well. Brilliant. But there’s too many.

Well, I’d be very surprised if you two [Johanna & Timo] haven’t seen the 1982 The Snowman movie, but have you seen it, Troy?

TD: I saw it the day it came out.

Incredible.

TD: Yeah, it was a big deal in England when that was released. I saw it right then. Channel 4, 1982.

I’m really ashamed to admit that in 15 years in Finland, I still have not watched it.

JK: Oh! Well you get another chance this Christmas!

I do! Maybe that will be what I do at my Christmas party for all of my foreign friends who also don’t go home for Christmas.

TD: It’s a classic. It’s just a classic.

JK: And the narrator is David Bowie, isn’t it?

TD: It is David Bowie, yeah.

I didn’t know that. I only know that’s where “Walking in the Air” comes from?

TD: In that fantastic Christmas jumper.

JK: Oh, yes!

Incredible, so I’m guessing good memories with this movie then, generally?

TD: Yeah, absolutely. I loved the book first. Because I think, before… it came out in the late ‘70s and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I loved all of Raymond Briggs’ stuff. “Fungus the Bogeyman” was fabulous, and “When the Wind Blows.”

JK: Oh, now I remember… we went to Keswick, to the Pencil Museum, where they had the pencils that they used to draw the animations.

TD: Yeah, yeah! It’s the greatest museum in the world.

JK: The Pencil Museum.

TD: The Keswick Pencil Museum. [laughter] It’s better than the British Museum.

JK: You have the biggest pencil there.

TD: The biggest pencil in the world. Actually, the biggest pencil in any world. [laughter]

JK: Yes.

TD: It’s just incredible.

JK: We’ve gone there twice.

TD: [laughs] We’ve been twice! [laughter]

JK: Even the Queen went.

TD: The Queen went, yeah, she loved it. She took a photo there. [laughter]

Amazing. All right, I think you sound check’s probably getting started soon- [music starts playing]

JK: Oh, wow! [laughter]

Good timing! So if you wanted to inject some Christmas cheer into people out there, what would you say to them?

JK: Just remember that you’re not alone, even if you don’t have a family or Christmas isn’t a big thing for you… you’re still a part of this universe family that we’re all part of. So to just take solace in that.

TK: Yeah, 100%.

TD: What she said.

Amazing. Well thank you so much for talking about Christmas with me and have an amazing show tonight. I’m not coming but I’ll see you guys on Saturday and Sunday in Tampere and Lappeenranta. So, have an amazing rest of the tour!

JK: Awesome!

TD: We’ll do our best, thank you.

READ MORE: On the Record with Auri (2018); Off the Record with Altamullan Road (2024); On the Record with Altamullan Road (2020); Off the Record with Timo Kurkela (2024); Guest Interview with Altamullan Road (2024); Live Report: Altamullan Road Kitee (2024); Live Report: Altamullan Road Hyvinkää (2024); Live Report: Altamullan Road Porvoo (2024); Travel Blog: Altamullan Road in Kitee (2024); Guest Travel Blog: Altamullan Road in the Netherlands (2024); Guest Travel Blog: Altamullan Roat pt.1 (2024);  Guest Travel Blog: Altamullan Roat pt. 2 (2024); Guest Travel Blog: Altamullan Road pt. 3 (2024); Gathering of Geeks - Trivia Showdown ft. Eye of Melian (2024); Guest Listen Back: Auri I (2024)