Jari Mäenpää
Jari Mäenpää (born 23 December 1977) is a Finnish heavy metal multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is the founder of Wintersun for which he records all instruments except the drums. Before forming Wintersun, Mäenpää was best known for his role in the folk metal 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. Jari was also a member of the band Arthemesia, 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. 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."