Bands
Here is almost my whole musical history from ancient times… quite a bunch of bands there is.
Railroad trailers (ca. 1992-1993)
This was the first real band. Antero Jetsu held a “rock’n'roll school” and after the course ended, we naturally kept on rockin. We didn’t write any own songs. Instead, we were having good time some evergreens like Johnny B. Good, Slippin’ and Slidin’, Honky-tonk woman, Knockin’ on heaven’s door etc.
We had a few gigs, some at our school, but some even outside our home village. Those were the days 
Greetings to Toni, Lare, Miika, Juhana and Tumi
Project96 (1996)
Then, when DreamTheater had stroken me, I had a possibility to join heavy metal band, that was even writing their own songs. All the other players were 4-6 years older than me and I considered them superior players. As I was only 17 then, it was a tough move for a young musician. We had a few own songs, and some covers from Black Sabbathilta, AC/DC and Uriah Heep.
Jaska, Jari, Marko, Pete; Sieg Heil!
Innocent Soul (1997-1998)
First band-trial in my new hometown, Jyväskylä. We played only own songs but didn’t get to play any gigs. One demo CD is all that left behind from this project, in addition to a flattering review in Soundi. This review was for a long time the first hit in Google when searched for “Sami Poimala”, how irritating . Luckily, today there are lot’s more to be found about me.
Dream Theater cover project (1998)
A very short-lived combination of highly talented and enthusiastic musicians who played DT-covers for a few months. Absence of a vocalist (what a surprise ) was one factor in making this to end up. We had no gigs or anything… Only a handful of energetic rehearsals
Arsi and Jussi and..whoever you were who played bass, keep on rockin’!
Decoy / Clarity (1997 – 2002, 2004)
Here we are. Finally a little bigger thing. This band was the one that had to conquer the world. And, it really was possible, if only things happened go a little differently… I guess it was the musicianship – or lack of thereof – that killed that band. Three to four years we rehearsed very actively, wrote lots of songs, made many gigs and were ready for whatever.. but, everything has to come an end.
We made a few promo-CDs and got pretty encouraging feedback. Even these days every now and then I receive email from fanatics all over the world who asks whether I still have CDs for them
It was Clarity that gave me my worst gig experience ever. We were playing in an inauguration of a juvenile cafe. We thought that would be a great party. It would have been. If only the audience was older than 13 years, and it was bigger than 10 people 
Those who were there (in addition to our numerous frisneds, who were the biggest and loudest part of the audience ) were playing Kimble and after we had played a few songs, one of the organizer came to us and said:” could you please play a little quieter so we are able to discuss there”. Oh, what a rockstar feeling!
And yet another great reminiscence, we were playing in Makkararock (Pasi, greets!), Suolahti and as usual, progressive metal was not the most popular genre of music that time. And especially when the audience was mostly having fun and drinking, not listening to artistic music…
We played the one mandatory cover-song, which was and old finnish megahit, Levoton Tuhkimo by Dingo. After playing for five seconds, the dancing stage was full of people jamming and singing along. After the song ended, people shouted “Soittakaa lisää Dingoa!” (Play more Dingo!). The song we chose was another 6-minute prog epic and the people disappeared just as fast as they came in
More information: http://clarity.samipoimala.com
Apogee / Slow Marching Band (1999, 2003 -)
Jaakko Hänninen and Jari Schroderus from Tampere have played Jethro Tull – and some other, like Yes, Genesis etc – covers and from time to time they need some keyboard parts, and I’ve played those.
More information: http://www.j-hanninen.com/smb/
Bronze Doré (2001-2003)
My first, and last so far, own creation. Together with Sarge we decided to put up a band that plays melancholic, melodic progressive rock. With the help from ex-Clarity guys we got started and finally found all necessary players.
Unfortunately, Sarge moved to another location and was not anymore interested in making music, so Bronze Doré came to the end of it’s shine. A few gigs and two demo-CDs were all that we made.
Personally I still have some ambitions.. and maybe one day I’ll record old songs again and also the unrecorded songs… Stay tuned!
More information: http://bronzedore.samipoimala.com/
Abba Boom Band (2002)
This one of the most hilarious projects I’ve ever done They had a summer festival in Muurame and we put up a big band to play one-hour set of ABBA.
The orchestra was made of two drummers, percussionist, two guitarists, two keyboardists, bassist and three singers. In addition, during a few songs, some local youngsters were there, two guitar players and a few girls singing.
Sarah Laney’s Random Machine
Another short-lived coverband… we used to call ourselves as a country-band. Well, Eagles, Sheryl Crow, Van Morrison, Jimmy Johnson stuff like that. We made a few gigs. For example in the Jyväskylä Pavilion, indoor ice-skating rink of Jämsä etc… I have to say that this band gave the best income per work hour so far
The band was made mostly of the “musician family Leino”: Jouni, Saara, Elli and Simo Laihonen was playing drums. Greetings to Maria also, keep on playing the flute!
Morian / Zeel (2002 – 2003)
Lovemetal forever! Our attempt to conquer the world. With the music that was most hot during those days. Well, if not the world, at least the radio stations and teenage girls’ hearts out there.
But. IT happened again. The so sadly famous case, that a band, that feels good and seems promising, will break because of it’s internal conflicts. Everything just cannot work out.
The band kinda split in two: the other guitarist and bassist still go on as Morian. The other guitarist, drummer, vocalist and I continued as Zeel for a moment, but it just didn’t work out.
The old Morian / Zeel site: http://www.morian.info/
Current Morian: http://www.morianband.com
Airut (2003 – )
At the moment this is my main band. Through Morian I got to know Happonen and he then asked me to join Airut too as their former keyboardist had left the band. A few weeks of hard training and first gigs were there. What a nice start
More information:http://airut.info/
Myrskylintu (2004)
You have to try eveything but… well, what it is you don’t have to try? I think whatever music you play it does good to your musical self. So I’ve found myself playing waltz, tango and stuff like that also
This was a weird band in that we played music from every genre imaginable. From waltz to pop, from rock to heavy. Quite a mix
This really was something new for a heavy metal guy: when I joined Airut, I had a few weeks time to learn, say, 10 songs and we had 2-3 rehearsals with the whole band. I thought this isn’t gonna work, we need to play more before going live.
Well, when I joined Myrskylintu, I was given one week, and 60 songs to learn, and no rehearsals at all! What made the experience even more interesting, my long-term affair had just broken… so I had pretty hard time playing all those love songs.
The artist was Vesa Ollinmäki. But after half a year, we as band thought we do not want to be just a backing orchestra, we want to be a real band. Also, we wanted leave those waltzes and tangos behind. So we formed a new group, Rockafeller, with the same players, except we took a new vocalist. But somehow, it didn’t take more than a few gigs and a couple of months that we broke again, I moved to Helsinki and so. After a short pause, they found a new keyboard player but again they had some problems… Actually I don’t do they still have the band up. Rockafeller:
More information: http://www.vesaollinmaki.fi/
Rockafeller: http://www.viihdesallap.fi/?page=rockafeller