Later this month, former TOTO vocalist Bobby Kimball will play four concerts in Finland. His band has been assembled by the much-in-demand guitarist/producer/songwriter Tommy Denander. We thought that we could get some insight into the gigs from him, and asked a few questions.

You're coming over to Finland with Bobby Kimball, the legendary voice of Toto. I know Bobby's been over here a few times, but what about you, have you played in Finland before?

- Yes i've played in Finland a few times before, the first time was in 1992 with a Swedish rapper Dr Alban and i played keyboards haha.
But this will absolutely be my favorite time cause i get to come over with my very dear friend Bobby Kimball and a killer band!!!

How did you hook up with Mr. Kimball?

- We met through the very early days of internet about 18 years ago and just became really good friends right away! He is absolutely one of my very best friends in life and of course one of THE best rock singers ever!!!

Have you assembled the band for these dates, and who's in the band besides you and Bobby?

- Yes i'm the band leader for the Bobby Kimball Band together with my old and dear friend Sayit Dölen who also plays guitars.

We picked a great band with Pontus Engborg from Glenn Hughes on drums, Ken Sandin from Alien and K2 on bass and P-O Nilsson who's played with Joseph WIlliams before on keyboards...really great sounding band.

But on the dates in Finland we will bring a legendary Swedish drummer to fill in for Pontus, Mats Persson who's played with Roxette, Tomas Ledin and pretty much every star in Sweden!

With Bobby living in another country, have you been able to rehearse together?

- We've done tours before with this band so we know the songs well but we rehearse the band here first and when we meet up with Bobby we'll do a little extra rehearsing as well.

Apart from the Toto stuff, is there room in the setlist for other material? Something from the Jamison-Kimball album would be nice....

- The main focus is absolutely on the early Toto years but we have done other stuff like Crimes Of Passion from my first Radioactive that i wrote and recorded with Bobby...so we'll see!

Later this year, you're doing the "Legends" concerts with several AOR vocalists. There are now only dates in Japan and Sweden, any chance that you could bring that show to these shores?

- We are absolutely planning to play in Finland with Legends and i'm sure it'll happen pretty soon!!!
We really wanna play all over the world with this amazing project!!!
Can't wait to see you in Finland in a few weeks with Bobby first though.

Interview by Kimmo Toivonen

Photos from Kimball's website
and Tommy Denander's FB profile