50 years old | Musician Ninni Poijärvi has gained a reputation as a ram’s head – “If anything is sacred to me, it’s music”

In Stockholm in a record store Ninni Poijärvi got a thought that became an obsession. He jumped by Joni Mitchell box of four CDs The Asylum Albums 1972–1975. The album package looked so beautiful with its painted cover that even if I didn’t rush to buy it, it inspired me.

Poijärvi walked out into the street and confessed to himself that after seeing that box, making just one record would seem modest.

So Poijärvi made a decision: in honor of the 50th anniversary, he would release four new music albums at once.

Now a couple of years have passed, and Poijärvi is celebrating his birthday with publications whose covers he has painted himself, except for one. The music heard on the four discs showcases his versatility. The fact that Poijärvi has wanted to make many kinds of music at the same time has been both a blessing and a curse for him.

If Poijärvi would have gotten a kick every time a professional in the music industry has suggested that he focus on one style of music and purposefully build an artist brand, the pockets of his leather jacket would be full of small change.

Poijärvi has not agreed to limit his expression or actions. He says with a laugh that because of that he has even been referred to as a difficult and cold person.

“But if someone is sacred to me, it’s music,” he says.

“I want to be absolutely honest with the music I make. Finding myself through making my own music is a lifelong project for me.”

Aimless However, Poijärvi’s music career has not been a mess. He says all the time that he had the feeling that something was going on.

The theme of the new album is freedom. The four-disc package includes one composed of own songs Contoursconsisting of favorite songs in English Wild is the Windcontaining orchestral music for string orchestra and harp Old-growth forest and the late author Leena Laulajainen to the story and the painter Anna-Liisa Hakkarainen a musical fairy tale based on an illustration Goldberry and the secrets of the forest.

Freedom and honesty – and, as Poijärvi himself now says, “madness of grandeur” – has its price: getting the four albums ready for release was a huge undertaking.

“Now they are ready and I’m starting to recover. But it was such hard work that I don’t know if I would have taken it on if I had known beforehand. I’ve been a demanding company to my close circle, and I notice that the local memory doesn’t work as well as it does when it’s less loaded.”

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“I have been a demanding company to my close circle.”

POJJARVI is therefore a good example of an artist who does what he has to. It would have been more economically productive and less taxing on health to focus on one record.

The appreciation of culture and art has deteriorated, at least in public debate and political decision-making. In Poijärvi’s opinion, the recent speeches and decisions are just a continuation of what freelance musicians had to go through when the corona restrictions stopped work for an indefinite period four years ago.

“Jobs for freelance musicians had generally started to decrease even before the corona, and the corona then divided the musicians into two camps. With monthly salary orchestra musicians, the income continued, but for us, running out of work led to unemployment and wondering if we are valued at all anymore.”

So it was understandable that Poijärvi made an artistically ambitious decision – he wanted to be able to appreciate what he did, at least himself.

However, Poijärvi has not been without the appreciation of his colleagues. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, whose musical curiosity that started since childhood also led him far in his studies at the Sibelius Academy.

OLYMPIANS while watching recently, Poijärvi realized his own position. He doesn’t consider himself a specialist in any instrument, but he is a kind of all-rounder.

“I think I have a job in this universe, to make my own music. And that doesn’t mean I make difficult and interdisciplinary music,” he says.

“When I realized that my songs will not be played on radio channels other than in some special programs, it was also liberating in its own way. There was no longer even a need to subconsciously strive to make songs that would get on the radio.”

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“Trust yourself and your own views. They are right.”