| music | lyrics | shows | pics | contact |
finland arc 
This is an archive of my time in Joensuu, Finland. The country of metal!
rehearsing 
I definitely wanted to play at least once there. The first step towards that goal was to find a rehearsal space. I found one in about two weeks, and it was in... The public library.
Yes, they have an actual studio on the second floor of the main library. In the middle of a huge collection of metal and punk records. That's Finland for you...
The studio was really good, it had a little amp, a piano, one guitar, one bass, two or three different mics.. I couldn't turn the volume up to eleven, but it worked perfectly for rehearsing. It could be booked for slots of 2 hours.
My flat was about 6 km from the city center, so I biked there every day. It turns out that carrying the guitar on the bike with a backpack was perfectly fine. A bit dangerous, maybe, but cheaper than the bus.
I feel like I kept making progress regarding the live performance and vocals. I managed to get a raspier voice while not hurting myself, thanks to using more of my diaphragm. It's pretty useful, I could keep pushing after 2 hours of singing without my throat hurting.
Once I had found a rehearsal space, it was time to look for gigs. I started looking for places to play at, using help from ChatGPT. While it isn't exhaustive, I find it to be a good starting point for researching a scene.
The main metal concert organizer in Joensuu is the Susiraja Metal Club. I sent a mail (translated in finnish for more credibility) and was offered to meet the main organizer. She is extremely friendly and kind, quite the opposite of what I've heard about finnish people. It's always great to see that there are organizations allowing the local scene to exist and grow, even letting small bands play for the first time.
Marks UG & Rock Club would have also been a suitable place to play. Unfortunately, the manager was talking about a concert in February, and I would have been gone by then.
the one concert 
Halloween gig!! This was organized by Susiraja Metal Club. The name of the venue is actually french, and means "The Bar", either like a metal bar or the helm of a boat.
I arrived a bit early for soundcheck. It felt SO WEIRD to be in a room with actual finnish metal bands.. Like, how did I even get here??
I basically asked the entire university if they'd like to come. I'm super grateful for everyone who came, even those who did not like rock in the first place.
Sound check went really fast, I did two or three songs to warm up. The sound engineer was great. I wish I thanked him more after the show, but he was still working when I left and I did not want to disturb him.
Luckily, the entire set (except the first song) was recorded by Mr Laukanen. Having a video of the gig is not only nice for communication and promotion, it is also extremely valuable for improvement. I can analyze my movements, pick up improvised moments that could make it into a recording..
The other bands were great. Loviatar and Sonic Seduction. I borrowed Loviatar's guitarist's guitar strap.
The wall of death for Sardened still did not work..
Sleeping Prophets/rehearsing 2 
At the end of September, I met a finnish girl who told me about a band room in one of the university buildings. I contacted the teacher who was in charge, and managed to obtain a rehearsal spot on mondays from 4 to 5:30 PM. And let me tell you.. This was SUCH a good band room.
It had drums, a guitar, an acoustic guitar, a bass, amps, a keyboard, two speakers, a mixing console... And above all, it was much bigger than the library studio.
Using what I learned in Norway, I spent some time practicing moving around and putting on a show. Trying to be more of an entertainer than of a guy playing his songs alone in his room. The goal is to play technically well and move around a lot, but I find that there is a tradeoff between playing well and jumping around. I feel like I am getting a little better at this with time, though.
Of course, I wasn't the only one rehearsing there. After my second rehearsal, three finnish guys walked in. We started asking each other about our projects, and they mentioned they were looking for a vocalist. I said that I would love to try out, and they offered to try now.
Their project was called Sleeping Prophets. It was a bass, guitar and drums power trio. They mostly played progressive metal, even though they often ended up playing funk by accident. One song was approaching completion, and it was the first one they played to me. I listened and analyzed quickly, then created vocals for it on the spot.
Therefore, my sessions from 4 to 5:30 PM quickly extended to 7 PM. During their time slot, we would either practice this one song or jam. We recorded about 80% of what we played, and we had great moments of basically making an entire song on the spot.
Soon, I figured that no one else was coming after 7 PM. So after we were done rehearsing, I would stay a bit longer in the band room, up to 3 more hours. I thought that I wouldn't bother anyone since no one was going to use it anyway. Well, I thought wrong...
This kind of felt like heaven until I received a mail from the teacher saying that I triggered an alarm by exiting the band room after 21 PM. He didn't seem to be happy about it... I apologized and explained that since I had a gig coming up, I wanted to practice more. And... He was quite happy about that, actually. He decided to allow me to use the band room before 4 PM (when no one would be there) from MONDAY TO FRIDAY, EVERY WEEK. This was an absolute game changer... I am forever grateful to him.
The drummer played in another band called Ulterror. I love his drumming style and he's an absolute beast, so I heavily advise you to check them out. I'm sad I couldn't attend their gig when they played at La Barre.
It was fun to only do vocals. At some point, I felt like I was running in circles, always singing in the same style. This gave me room to experiment, and helped me push it further to explore new melodies. I feel like this is something I hadn't done enough before.
Another insane opportunity was to play the drums more regularly. I was lucky enough to be able to practice every day for about a month and a half. This time, I worked with a metronome. GETTING FEEL FOR SONGS AND IDEAS; Sometimes, a song can start with the drums.
recording stuff 
I tried different, newer ways of writing songs there. Just sitting with a guitar on a clean amp and a mic with some reverb, jamming and singing while recording everything.
I also tried putting a microphone next to the drums, and in front of the guitar cabinet. Nothing very professional, but fun little experiments.
This was also a good opportunity to step away from the 8 songs and listen to them again, carefully picking out what sounded wrong in the takes and in the mix.
Though, I kept arranging some older demos and they actually ended up being songs. I could also rehearse the new finished ones to bring them into the set.
did some demos more thoughts 
One rainy morning (or late afternoon), I had the thought that this was a grunge country. The rain almost every day, the cold, the early night and absence of sun, the forests and the overall vibe gave me this impression. I wish I wrote more songs while I was there. Well, I did not finish many songs, but I started some.
I find that if a structure is ready at the end of the first session, then it has more chances of turning into a song. It's always tough because too many riffs and ideas can quickly turn into a riff salad, or something that is unarrangeable if you want to keep the song under 4 minutes.
I still don't feel like I allow myself to get lost in the flow enough. To come home, sit at the desk, take the guitar and just make something. Whether it's good or bad. I believe that even if it's bad, it is still progress. The "bad" thing can loop in my head the next day, and it will become something else. Something that might end up being a good song. You never really know where it could lead. Writing a song is exploring a universe of infinite possibilities, and stumbling (...) Often, I did not because I thought it was already too late to start anything, that if I really get into the flow then I'll be there for three hours.. Or that I should prioritize something else, like hanging out with friends, because I can write songs whenever I want, but in a few months these people will be gone.
At the same time, it can't really be forced. Going to class one morning, I started having ideas for a song. I couldn't record anything on the bike or in class, so I just took notes and bits of lyrics. And I do NOT have perfect pitch, so I did my best at trying to write melodies down. Unfortunately, by the time I was free to go home and make something, that flow was gone. Reading my notes again felt like trying to understand someone else. The vision was still there, kind of, but it was much more blurry.
I like this feeling of ditching studying for songwriting instead. I used to do that a lot back in high school. Just getting home, taking the guitar and playing around, recording something, having fun creating. And the songs were emotionally charged because I did not really think about anything. Having a "project" makes it more important. Before AKJ, I had a few instrumentals that I thought could work well together in an album. Then, it wasn't "making songs for fun" anymore, it was "can this song be in the album?". I feel like this subconsciously influences writing a lot.
I tend to see this as three phases of being influenced by something. Either "having a project, playing live, making an album...". Taking playing live as an example: 1. Just making songs. 2. I realized that some songs were not quite fitted for live shows. So I started making "simpler", "rougher" songs, with less solos and harmonically rich parts with 5 overlaid tracks. 3. Integrate this into the thinking, without being constrained or held back by it. Now, some songs are considered as "album-only" (never going to be played live) and some are thought not "live first", but still take it into account. It's quite fun to make a crazy guitar part then have to learn how to sing while playing it.
Patch culture in Finland is quite a thing. At each event, students can win patches with custom designs and stitch them onto overalls. You can really see everyone wearing them. There are different overalls colors, for example pink for international students, blue for psychology..
So I figured that if I was going to make custom patches, I'd better order them here. They turned out great, and WAY bigger than I expected.
We went to one girl's art exhibition. It was her first real one, and she had been working hard to reach her goal. And she was aiming for bigger spaces in the future. I "interviewed" her for fun, but it actually turned out to be super interesting.
I asked: "How do you manage to balance studying, going out with friends, being the president of a student organization AND painting?". She answered that, sometimes, you have to make sacrifices.
Instead of going out, she would sometimes decline and stay up until the early hours simply to work on a painting. Not all the time of course, but she would make space. During this semester, I feel like I did the absolute opposite of that. I do not regret it, but I admit that I would have liked more time alone, in a head space that can allow creation.
I also figured that I did not have any happy song. Or rather, a song that comes from a positive emotion. Don't Tell Me is quite a joyful song, but it stemmed from a feeling of "hey.. shut up", which is rather negative. I wish to experiment more with happier songs. Perhaps I should start from the lyrics. This is also something I rarely do. Songs are usually instrumental at first, then lyrics are written to match syllables that I tried improvising. I would tend to prioritize sounds over lyrical content, even though I try to have both in a song. I tend to choose some words over others for their rhytmical impact. For example, "sanCtify my Place of Burial" has percussive sounds on the C, P and S.
Songwriting can be compared to doodling. The "syndrom of the blank page" can hit when you want to create a big song. You don't think about a masterpiece when you doodle, you just play around, have fun, explore ideas.. And sometimes, a few hours later, you have a masterpiece. It's useful to have a direction, a topic, a vibe, lyrics to give a direction to the song. The idea is just to not get overwhelmed or pressured by "oh, I HAVE to make a GOOD song". Don't even call it "songwriting". The word itself is scary and sounds like you're never going to do well enough to be able to call it that..
Trains in Finland are quite good, but oh man how hard is this city to reach. It could take up to 4 hours to reach Helsinki.
Looking back, maybe a gig in Helsinki could have been doable. I started sending mails there in the beginning of November for spots in December. Of course I can land a gig in the biggest city as literally no one.. Completely delusional.
The key is to have some nerve. The worse you can get is no. It's always worth it to try your luck, who knows what might happen.
Speaking of Helsinki, their main library is absolutely insane. They have multiple recording studios, band rooms, rehearsal rooms, LITERAL GUITARS (pics of them and the place if possible).. I swear, if AKJ was based in Helsinki then it'd already be playing in stadiums!!
