Born in 1979, Mikkos first memories with drums dates back to the year -90 when his older brother got his hands on a concert video by Saxon. They didn't know at that time how famous that group was, but it truly made an impact on both of them. In awe they watched that monstrous drumkit and the drummer who almost had to spin around to be able to reach all that stuff! Shortly after that, his brother got the best present he could ever imagine; his own drumkit! Mikko was naturally a bit jealous, but fortunately he was given the chance to participate in the banging. "We watched and learned and shared our ideas, and the poor drums never looked the same again...", Mikko remembers.

Now the real playing began and as time went by it came clear to him that maybe this could actually take him further if he only got the patience to practise on and on, while at the same time constantly trying to pull new ideas out of his skull! "It was hard to be your own teacher, but at the same sooo rewarding.I was hooked forever", Mikko recalls.

A few years later came the day when he finally got into some real heavy metal drumming. That day he purchased his first double bass drum pedal and walked straight home, attached it to its proper place and inserted Stratovarius' Episode into the cd-player. The song was either Speed of Light or Father Time, but his calves didn't know the difference cause they were burning! It was the late -99 when Mikko joined a band called Wisard, and with these promising musicians he had his first experiences of how to work in a studio. After some demos, line-up changes, gigs and a name change to Craydawn he woke up realising he had entangled himself into OLYMPOS MONS...