STRATOVARIUS keyboardist Jens Johansson is featured in a new interview with Robert Gray as part of a series at Ultimate-Guitar.com entitled Hit The Lights. An excerpt appears below:

Ultimate-Guitar.com: How would you describe Stratovarius' time recording songs for Polaris?

Jens Johansson: "To me, that's one of the better ways to record. Me and Jörg slept in the same house, which was a small house. It had a big living room type of thing, so there weren't any distractions really. If you record in a normal studio in the city, and you always feel like going down to the bar and so on. We had a fridge with beer, but it's not quite the same thing. Nothing pulls you away from the process. To be able to roll out of bed, and then begin recording without being distracted by other things is quite nice. The house had everything, such as a kitchen and a shower. It was a very beautiful place right in the middle of the forest."

Ultimate-Guitar.com: In May 2008, Stratovarius issued a statement which refuted what Timo Tolkki had said in a previous statement. In that statement, Stratovarius said that Timo Tolkki was motivated by greed. Do you still stand by statement?

Jens Johansson: "Yes, I do. When we posted that statement, I think he was very upset. He has somewhat come to terms with that too, I feel. No matter how you twist and turn it, if you're a group of people and make a pact somehow, and one guy grabs all the money that's on the table and then just runs, then you have to say it's greed (laughs). Unfortunately, greed is a very strong word, but what he did was selfish. It was certainly the mildest statement we could've posted at the time, as everyone was very, very upset. We lost roughly €250, 000, and that is very costly. Everyone was really pissed off at the time, though you just have to count it as water under the bridge, and try to move on."

Read the whole interview at this location.