How did you get your start in the music industry?

Well, I didn't really start in the music industry. I started to play guitar and one thing led to another and here I am. So, yeah, I worked on a record label, Universal Music's sub-label, Spinefarm. For the last four or five years, I’ve produced and mixed albums, recorded them. It was kind of a coincidence. I just wanted to play guitar because I like to play guitar. There was nothing else. I was supposed to be a hockey player. I still am a little bit.

It all just kind of like, you know – we founded a band, we got some shows, we got a record deal, we got on tours and you know, one thing just led to another. But I didn't really go – I'm gonna start in the music industry. I just loved playing and I still love just playing guitar. That's it.

What is your background?

I'm a hockey player, you know, that's my background. I started to play hockey when I was six. I started to play guitar when I was 13, and I was supposed to be a professional hockey player. I played at a top national level in Finland until I was like 19-20. And then I went to the army, and then I played in the lower divisions.

After several injuries later, the guitar playing, which was my hobby, had kind of – I started to pay more interest to that and really practice and take lessons. I was over 20, so I'm a pretty late bloomer when it comes to this guitar thing.

I consider myself a hockey player who plays a bit of guitar: I make albums by producing, recording, mixing them, and playing on them. But at heart, I'm a hockey guy.

Why did you start your YouTube channel?

Back in 2019 or 2020, when COVID started, we had released our second album, No Halos In Hell with Cyhra. We had done a two month European tour with Battle Beast. We had done one week in Sweden, one week in Finland, one week in the UK on our own, and I think Norway too. And everything was supposed to continue. The tour was coming, the album was doing great – and then COVID hit, and all of a sudden my fully booked calendar for that year was wiped off.

I was like, “What am I gonna do?”. It was actually my wife who suggested that – because usually I watch hockey on YouTube, but I was watching some guitar stuff and I was like, “Man, these have quite a lot of views and some of them are not really good or they don't really know what they're talking about”.

And then my wife was just like, “Well, what are you whining about? Do it yourself then.” I was like, “Well, yeah! I'm gonna do it”. I had no idea. I’d never filmed anything, never edited. I knew music then, but you know, when I look at my first videos, I just put an iPhone on the table and filmed. I didn't have a clue how to edit or whatever. But you learn by doing. When you do something 10,000 times, you're getting decent at it.

So, you know, that's how it started.

“If it sounds good, it’s good” - what does that mean to you?

Yeah, if it sounds good, it's good. It's as simple as that. When I started the YouTube, I was actually surprised how much people cared about the amp settings and gear. Like, ‘What are my amp settings?’ Well, they are what they currently are! You know, if it sounds good, it's good. I don't care whether it's, you know, an old school tube from the 80s or a plugin of that amp. What I'm interested in is the end result. Not how I got there, not what gear I used.

Sometimes, a sound that can be horrible on its own might just be the best sound for that particular production, for that particular part. There's no wrong or right way to use gear. There are no rules. The only rule is: if it sounds good, it's good.

What is ‘the Badboy’?

The good old Badboy. The story is, back in the 90s, these amps didn't cost much. I think I paid 300 euros for Badboy. They just weren’t fashionable then, and I loved them. Boss SD-1, Marshall JCM 800? I mean, if you can't get a good sound out of that, the reason is in the restroom's mirror. I think I had like five or six, being the most at the same time, because they were so cheap. At some point, I sold all the others and just kept the Badboy and the little brother. They just were and are the best JCM800s I've ever played, and I've played hundreds of them.

When I was in Shining, we used real amps live, imagine! And cabinets, but it was always rented gear. Because you know, if we do a tour in the USA, I'm not gonna fly my amps to the USA – or Europe. So it was always rented amps. And I had an 800 usually.

There's something wrong because the master is – I have it on one, but it's as loud as my 5150. The master is at noon. Because this is on/off switch. Either there's nothing or there's an explosion, and the more you turn it, it just adds more power tube saturation. It’s a little bit the same with the preamp gain; there's more gain than on your normal 800, but it's not modded as far as I know. 

The more you turn it (and the sweet spot to me is around 2 o'clock), after that it just gets fuzzy and furry. Originally, it had EL34s, and I've read that many of the amps that were shipped to the USA back in the 80s had 6550s, and some people really liked those amps, like Zach Wild and Kerry King – I think he used KT88s, but it's pretty close.

Ten years ago or something, I just asked the amp to be modded, because something needs to be done for the 6550s to work. So I asked a tech in Finland to do that, and the low end became kind of clear. It became even more punchier than it was. So I was like, “Yeah! This is great”.

You know, I rented these amps back in the day, because they were special – they are special. I don't want to name any bands or players, but a big time band’s player – when they came to Finland, they requested a JCM 800, and then when they got mine, they were like, “Wow!”. And one particular player from a legendary band – they always just rent because it was cheaper to rent than to bring, because they knew that they would get the Badboy, for example. A couple of times, he wanted to buy this from me. Basically anyone who has played with this [the Badboy] wants to buy it.

One time they were coming to Finland, and I got a call from Backline Rental. “They're coming again, and he requested that Badboy 800”. Oh, I guess he's talking about the Marshall JCM 800. After that, it became Badboy, thanks to that particular guitar player. And it's special. I've used it for everything. I've recorded blues, country, black metal, heavy metal, modern metal, everything with it. It just amplifies my sound so well. So yeah, it's a simple amp – one channel, but it can do it all, if you command it.

How does the plugin stack up against the real amp?

Honestly, I was blown away when Bogren, you guys, sent me the demo of Ampknob BDM 800, it was just like, “This is my amp. Wow!”. There are only a couple of controls, but the volume control on it acts the same as when I turn the preamp or the Master up. It gets louder, more gainier and at some point it just gets fuzzy [blows a raspberry] like this thing. The volume knob on the plugin? Exactly like that.

And then the overdrive, it's this particular one [holds up Boss SD-1]. This is the second pedal I ever bought. The first one was a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal. This has been around the world a few times. So this is modeled with my usual settings.

The cabinets are what I have here in my studio. I have a Marshall vintage cab with Marshall vintage speakers, Marshall's V30s. It has T-75s also. Then I have a BX cabinet with 25-watt greenbacks and EVH greenbacks. And then I have an oversized Mesa with V30s. And those three cabinets – you get those from the plugin, which is great.

And the delay there is great. You can either have it mono or ping-pong – what I usually use. And then many times I blend in the reverb with the delay just to soften up the delay tails, especially if you're using a ping-pong. It can be a little bit ‘tack tack tack’, but when you blend in the reverb, it becomes smoother.

Yesterday I had mixed one Cyhra song and the rhythm guitars were with the real deal, but the other lead guitars – everything else, it's the plugin. So yeah, it stacks.

How did you get into producing for other artists?

Well, I've done albums or recordings since the mid-90s. I was always interested. I used to be a session player in Finland too, so I've done – I don't know how many studio sessions I've done, and I was always interested in what the engineers were doing. I actually still have notes from the 90s, from the sessions: what was used, what compressor, and why. But I never kind of considered – I always hired, you know, a recording or mixing engineer for my band, because I just considered myself to be a hockey player who plays guitar.

I've always heard the music in my head, how it sounds finished. Like, even from the first demos, I hear it in my head. And then at some point, I just started to do that practice, because I have the Pro Tools sessions of several albums I've done. I've asked them, “Can I have the session? I want to study it.”. So I had those Cyhra sessions and older stuff, and I just started to mix that to get the sound from my head out of the speakers. And then at some point I just realized that “Yeah, I get it. I know this.”. Because again, do something 10,000 times, you're getting decent at it.

Then I just kind of mixed and produced my own stuff. Then because of YouTube, I started to put out some of those mixing tutorials and the intro songs on my videos. People were asking, “Who produced and mixed this?” and I was like, “Me!”. Bands started to contact me like, “Hey, would you want to mix our stuff?” and I was like, “Yeah! I never really thought about it that much, but sure!”. And now I have mixed plenty of bands from all over the world and produced bands from Switzerland, mixed bands from the USA, Germany, Mexico, Finland, Sweden. I'm actually mixing two Swedish bands' albums at the moment.

You learn by doing. That's it, really.

As a full-time musician, how do you juggle YouTube on top?

Yeah, YouTube is definitely not everything that I'm up to. It's the thing I'm up to when I have time. Which, luckily, because it [YouTube] has given me so much – you know, the community, the fans and the mixing and production jobs. But yeah, that's not my main thing. So I usually have a few days a month when I have time to film something and then I just film stuff and edit it as I go along. Currently, I have played in Cyhra, which we founded back in 2016, I believe, or 17. So that's my main band. And we've been releasing singles throughout this year, 2025. And the next single is actually – when I'm filming this – it's out tomorrow. But when you see this, it's definitely out already.

And then I have my solo career. I've released three solo albums. My latest one is called Hardtones, which has kind of like an 80s and 90s influence. It has different vocalists on all the songs. I've done some shows. I will release a fourth solo album at some point when I have the time. I have already collected some songs for it.

Back in the day, I played on many, many different artists' albums. Like, I played the Banjo on Children of Bodom’s cover album – the CCR cover. I played all the acoustic guitars on Ensiferum’s Victory Songs, I think it was. Plenty of stuff. Every once in a while, I do that too, because now I can record here. Last summer, 2024, we did a sort of comeback tour with our band called Suburban Tribe. But yeah, Cyhra, my solo thing, that's what I do.

Cheers!

Visit Euge's YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/@EugeValovirta230V

And his website here: www.eugevalovirta.com