Feb

17

photo credit Wired Magazine

Santeri Ojala (aka StSanders) is a multi-media artist from Finland, whose most acclaimed work juxtaposes classic rock video footage with his own recordings to create satirical and humorous parodies of the pretentious playing style of popular guitar heroes. This ‘Shred’ series of videos attracted millions of viewers on Youtube, before being banned due to claims of copyright infringement by artists offended by his work.

YOU CAN WATCH SOME OF SANTERI’S HILARIOUS WORK HERE

Santeri Olaja was born on February 20, 1975, in a small municipality in Finland. A student of both piano and guitar, he moved to the city of Tampere to attend TTVO, the School of Arts & Video. There he created large audio and video installations in such public areas as highway underpasses, while becoming adept with samplers and sequencers, studying music creation while recording demos and doing commercial work.

One day watching a Steve Vai video without sound, he was inspired to pick up his Ibanez guitar and play along, trying to match Vai’s fingering in the video while playing as poorly and comicly as possible. The process intrigued him, so he took the video and began overdubbing, using his considerable skill to create a plausible sound track of amateur riffing and tuneless runs in amusing counterpoint to Vai’s seriousness. ‘Steve Vai Shreds’ was posted to Youtube under the name ‘StSanders’, and received a warm reaction, including good humor from Vai himself: ‘If I actually played like that, perhaps I could finally be on MTV and in Rolling Stone and have a real career,” he said through his label Epic Records.

This sudden notoriety spurred Olaja to continue experimenting in the same vein, and he followed up with more ambitious reworkings of classic rock videos, substituting pointless arpeggios, arhythmic chording, tuneless riffs, limp applause and lame rock references while also reworking vocals and other instrumentation. He created videos spoofing Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Paco DeLucia, Metallica, Gary Moore, Santana, and an ambitious reworking of Yngwie Malmsteen with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. His attention to detail, deft musicianship and spot-on timing fooled many observers - even some professional musicians - into thinking the videos were real, adding to his growing publicity. On the Jimmy Kimmel show, he played his guitar synched to a Guns’N'Roses video, with guitarist Slash in attendance; the obviously-unamused superstar interrupted Olaja’s performance before it was finished. The technical veracity of his playing gave him wide recognition by guitarists and guitar fans, leading to interviews and analysis of his work in such leading gearhead publications as Guitar Player.

Unfortunately not all of Olaja subjects were willing to let their work be parodied - after recieving over 7 million hits, Youtube pulled Ojala’s videos in early 2008, citing copyright infringement claims. Wired magazine and a few other internet sites have posted the videos in stories about the Youtube ban; it remains to be seen if they will persist on the internet. Olaja has expressed his disappointment publicly, but remains optimistic that new outlets and opportunities for his creativity will emerge from his recent notoriety.


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