Eicca Toppinen - biography

Eicca Toppinen (Eino Matti is his real first name, he was called "Eikka" by his parents to distinguish from his sister Aino) was born on August 5, 1975 in Vantaa, Finland.

Eicca Toppinen, leaded by the example of his sisters who played instruments, began studying cello at nine, and after a while drums as a hobby, entered Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, where he met Paavo, Max, Antero and Perttu. In 1993 he created Apocalyptica with these fellows (Perttu will leave the band before the first album to concentrate on his studies, and will rejoin in 1999). He also played in various orchestras, such as "Radio Symphony Orchestra" and "Avanti". He also was a member, and the manager of the Cello sextet of Sibelius Academy.

Eicca could have been a trumpet player too, but it was a choice of fortune he became cellist. He was with his sister when she went to play violin to Tikkurila. Eicca got in to music school on the 3rd trial. His dad bought candies for him. That's very special for Eicca and he was willing to play some instrument too. Eicca was visiting the school at least 6 days a week. And his parents told "in case You are not training You stop the school". He had also a hobby - pony horses.

For fun Eicca Toppinen arranged some of his favorite metal songs, but they were remarked and signed by a small label. Step by step Apocalytica left the field of covering song as Eicca wrote his own thing. (followed later by Perttu, and then the others)

During recording in the studio Eicca partly performed drums, percussion, bass, was responsible for the arrangements and choice of repertoire. He also spend a great amount of time in doing administrative tasks for the band's carrier. Eicca Toppinen is fairly known as the leader of the band, and a complete workaholic.

In terms of musical tastes, Eicca likes almost all areas of music (except rap and techno). Eicca likes Metal, preferably Thrash and not symphonic (Sepultura, Metallica, Rammstein), Rock (Tool, Dolly, Bjork) and of course classical music (Shostakovich, Bach, Sibelius, Debussy).

He's a nature lover (he built his own wood house with friends), he likes to spend time outside to relax, and he appreciates Russian literature (Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment being his favorite book).