Accordion Player Juho Kauppinen Quits Korpiklaani

You might think that accordionist Juho Kauppinen has left Korpiklaani because he wanted to play polka or was really just overwhelmed by the amount of groupies throwing themselves at him after every show, but shockingly, that’s not the reason he quit the band at all:

“Accordion has never been my primary instrument. I also understood that performing in front of an audience is not exactly what I hugely enjoy. Strange as it sounds, what I most want from making music nowadays is playing guitar at home.”

It DOES sound strange, Juho, given that the accordion player is the coolest member of any given band. I mean, the one phrase I hear more often than “Pig Destroyer need a bass player” is “Pig Destroyer need an accordion player.” It’s hard to believe someone would abandon such a coveted position.

In all seriousness, I just wanted to post this because, really, how many times am I gonna have a chance to report on an accordion player leaving a band? It felt like a nice change of pace from guitarists, drummers, bassists, vocalists, and other musicians people actually care about leaving bands.

[via Metal Underground]