Teemu Mäntysaari shares his artistic journey in an interview with D’addario

One of the top guitar string manufacturers in the world, D’Addario, has posted a 2024 video interview with Teemu Mäntysaari, the guitarist for Wintersun and Megadeth. In the interview, the 38-year-old Finnish artist shares his wide range of influences, favourite equipment, and the reasons he chose D’Addario. He spoke also about joining the thrash metal outfit.

I was recruited on a short notice. It all happened kind of fast. First, it was kind of unclear if I’m gonna be needed or if I’m more kind of on standby. So I had learned the setlist, but it was not a hundred percent sure if I’m gonna be playing with the band or not. And then it was only like a week before the first tour when I got the visa in my hand and it was a hundred percent that I’m gonna be there.

Some exciting times ahead were waiting for him, like the first show ever in Mexico.

Pretty unbelievable, surreal. By that time when the first show happened, everything had been moving along so fast that I didn’t really have time to sit back and think, really, what’s going on. I just tried to concentrate on learning the catalog as well as I could.

Then he went back to his influences.

Heavy metal was what inspired me to pick up the guitar — Iron Maiden, classics, Dio. Megadeth as well. Megadeth was one of the first bands that I heard when I was getting into metal. I kind of tried to go with diverse influences. I played a little bit in a punk band. Fusion guitarists are some of my favorites, like Greg Howe and Guthrie Govan and Brett Garsed. I think I have a pretty strong blues foundation: Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales. I love that stuff. And that was kind of really fun to get into at an early stage and try to kind of pick things by ear, because a lot of that is a little bit easier stuff and when you learn your 12-bar blues, then you can jam along to bunch of stuff. In my early twenties, I got into jazz more. I was doing the mandatory military service in Finland — I was playing in the army — and it was more of a jazz background band. That kind of forced me to learn more about that world as well, which was a lot of fun. Classical music as well. A lot of movie scores, especially exotic stuff like Chinese and Japanese movie soundtracks. So I try to keep my ears and eyes open and learn from everybody. Finland has a really strong metal culture, so even smaller bands are doing really well in Finland, and even internationally and have been doing so for a long time. When I was getting into metal and growing up, Stratovarius, Children Of Bodom, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, those guys were pretty well known in the late ’90s, Stratovarius one of the pioneers already in the ’80s. So it was really interesting to grow up in a small country and see that there’s all these bands that are making it abroad as well, ’cause it was kind of encouraging in a way as well that you can make it from a small country or a small city. It’s also kind of more maybe accepted culture in Finland, almost mainstream. You hear a lot of metal in the radio all day, so that’s kind of nice.

Upcoming shows with Disturbed:

09/28 Copenhagen, DEN – Royal ARena
10/01 Dusseldorf, GER – PSD Bank Dome
10/03 Stuttgart, GER – Schleyerhalle
10/04 Zurich, SWI – Hallenstadion
10/06 Budapest, HUN – Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena
10/07 Prague, CZE – O2 Arena
10/10 Krakow, POL – Tauron Arena Krakow
10/12 Paris, FRA – Zenith
10/14 Amsterdam, NET – Ziggo Dome
10/15 Brussels, BEL – Forest National
10/17 Munich, GER – Olympiahalle
10/18 Berlin, GER – Velodrom
10/20 Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena Birmingham
10/22 Dublin, IRE – 3Arena
10/24 Manchester, UK – AO Arena
10/26 London, UK – The O2
10/28 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro