Jari Mäenpää (born 23 December 1977) is a Finnish heavy metal

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

and songwriter. He is the founder of

Wintersun Wintersun is a Finnish heavy metal band from Helsinki originally formed as the side project of Jari Mäenpää, then-vocalist and guitarist of folk metal band Ensiferum. In 2003, Mäenpää began pulling together songs that he had been wo ...

for which he records all instruments except the drums. Before forming Wintersun, Mäenpää was best known for his role in the

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...

band Ensiferum, which he joined in 1996 after leaving his prior band named ''Immemorial''. Wintersun was initially planned as a parallel project alongside Ensiferum, but in January, 2004 he was forced to leave Ensiferum due to clashes between their touring schedule and the studio recording time he had booked for Wintersun. In 1997, Mäenpää had to put his musical career on hold to take part in Finland's compulsory military service. In an interview, Mäenpää admitted he disliked the time he spent in the military and suspects it's where he acquired

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Jari was also a member of the band

Arthemesia Arthemesia was a Finnish black metal band active between 1994 and 2010. The band derives their name from '' Artemisia absinthium'', Latin for wormwood, thought to have many spiritual qualities. Their music mainly concerns a projection of the ban ...

, and participated in Kimmo Miettinen's side project Lost Alone.

Writing style

Jari's style of guitar playing utilizes tremolo-picked melodies and phrases and the heavy use of extremely fast sweep-picking solos and breaks as heard on most of the songs. The speed of Wintersun's music is due in part to the use of blast beats and quick, spacey keyboard lines. This gives the guitar a charging, power metal feel for the most part.

Notable instruments

*Tokai Telecaster *Ibanez RGD(25½ scale)Custom *Ibanez RGD(26½ scale)Prototype *Ibanez JEM *Ibanez PGM301 *Jackson DR3 with EMG *Daemoness 'Forest' Cimmerian VI * Solar Guitars Type S (modded with EMG pickups) *Mesa Boogie Mark V *Mesa Boogie Triaxis Pre Amplifiers *Peavey 5150 *Fractal Audio Axe-FX II Jari Mäenpää no longer performs guitar live, on Facebook he released the following statement, "After thinking about it for a long time I have made the decision to drop the live guitar, which means that I will solely become 100% live vocalist."

Discography

References

External links

Wintersun official websiteEnsiferum official website
1977 births Living people Finnish heavy metal musicians Finnish heavy metal singers 21st-century Finnish singers Ensiferum members Wintersun members Arthemesia members {{Finland-musician-stub