Music The whole of Finland has known Väinö Karjalainen’s name since he was a baby and now he is one of the most coveted new players in Finnish rock.

When J. Karjalainen the new album, which will be released in the spring, is nearing completion, Väinö Karjalainen asked if Jukka and Väinö would be listed as producers of the record.

J. Karjalainen replied to his son that “the job has been to keep it under control and I don’t have to mess with it”.

It would be important for any Finnish producer to make a record with an artist like J. Karjalainen. Väinö Karjalainen, 27, has already produced, recorded and mixed several Finnish artists, such as Ursus Factory and Arppa, one of the most interesting rock bands of the new generation, but J. Karjalainen’s record is the largest and most visible work of his career to date.

According to Väinö Karjalainen, becoming a father as a working couple is one part of his career as a music professional. Karelians had talked over the years that “sometimes you could do something together”.

Both parents of Väinö Karjalainen are artists. Mum Kati Bergman is a musician, singer and actor. Karjalainen says that his parents did not guide him in choosing a profession.

“My current profession is different from my parents in many ways. I work more in the background and of course I play. ”

Karelian sits in the recording room of a small studio in Vallila, Helsinki, where J. Karjalainen ‘s band was also recorded. Väinö Karjalainen runs the studio in one of the bands Pimeys, who previously played and now became a solo artist. Pekka Nisun with.

The Karelian is a young man, but in many ways a musician of the old covenant. He attended Sibelius High School, whose former students have been seen in the ranks of The Rasmus, Von Hertzen Brothers and Santa Cruz, among others.

Karjalainen did not want to study any more music. In high school, he experimented with a wide variety of music styles and released his songs on Soundcloud. Part electronic, part more acoustic, cinematic instrumental music, soul and jazz.

He did not become a songwriter or full-time player but a “musician / recorder / mixer / producer,” as he puts it in the signature of his email.

“If I had gone to study music and graduated as a musician, the drop could have been hard if it hadn’t been what I expected,” he says.

Its instead Karjalainen got to study physics at the University of Helsinki. His major is theoretical physics. It is a rather rare choice for a Finnish rock musician, but not the only one of its kind. After studying theoretical physics, Eppu Normaali also once became a musician, recorder, mixer and producer. Pantse Aside.

According to Karjalainen, studying physics has had some effect on his specialization in recording and production.

“The mirroring of highly technical things in art is really interesting,” he says.

“Someone is bringing a song that I can’t understand where it was snatched from. At times, it feels so mysterious how someone is able to develop such words and texts. When it can be captured in a slightly more concrete form, that is a truly noble goal. ”

Karjalainen says that he draws a strict line and only does what feels like his own and makes sense. He knows a lot of musicians who enjoy playing so much that they like to go to a wide variety of projects just to get to play. In the conscript service, they applied to the conscript orchestra for the same reason.

“In my opinion, the war and Musa sound like a terrible combination,” says Karjalainen.

Already Since high school, Karjalainen has played bass in the rock band Tiisu. The band was born from young musicians who got to know each other at school, and its distinctive style and singer-guitarist Henrik Illikaisen the songs and lyrics quickly gained attention.

Tiisu’s songs have distinguished themselves from domestic chart pop and rock, and in all their peculiarity they have also been considered annoying.

“I can very well understand why that band is annoying,” says Karjalainen.

“Singing from high and in a way witty lyrics. An instrumentation to be classified as light, combined with a rock context. That’s the recipe. ”

In January, Tiisu released his third album. The entire band has been marked as its producer, but Karjalainen has been named “similar producer”.

“I’m glad it has those colorful songs and sounds and a happy vibe in a package that hopefully doesn’t drive old fans away, but may interest a slightly wider audience, and it won’t be the first to have that irritating reaction.”

Tiisua and all the artists produced by Karelia are united at least by the fact that they can be classified as alternative in style. Karjalainen himself says that he wonders when they have become alternatives, because “that’s where the rock band plays and the songs have a relatively familiar harmony”.

He understands that in Arpa’s music, for example, there are many echoes of the style of older Finnish artists, unlike in modern list pop. However, he doesn’t want to make retro music that faithfully reproduces some old style. The effect of old music styles, he thinks, is often suggestive as well.

“We have felt like an example Michael Kiwanukaa and Khruangbin, from whom it is immediately heard what is old in them. But then when you compare them to the old one you think it sounds like, it’s not at all like that. ”

In addition to Tiisu, Väinö Karjalainen also plays the guitarist Pekka Laine in a band that, however, has only been able to do one gig due to corona restrictions. In the ensemble playing Laine’s instrumental compositions, the age range is wide, as the ferry group of well over fifty leaders has a 21-year-old drummer in addition to Karelia. Moses Kuloniemi, a second generation musician too.

“If someone does it, that’s the right alternative music,” Karjalainen says and grins.

Also J. Karjalainen’s upcoming album is in a sense an alternative. This time, a large number of musicians, some of J. Karjalainen’s former and current credit musicians, have been invited to accompany the songwriter, but some are involved for the first time.

“A lot of the songs on the album aren’t really band songs, but they’ve been wondering which player would be the best choice here. Maybe in some way new things have been achieved here, which Jukka has always talked about sometimes. ”

At the upcoming gigs, however, J. Karjalainen will be accompanied by a familiar line-up.

Väinö Karjalainen has heard his father’s music throughout his life and now, as an adult, he can also appreciate it from the role of a professional.

“It simply came to our notice then. There was a lot of old Seoul influence in the old production, and if you listen to the records of the 90’s Electric Sauna, then there’s really a 90’s-alt sound, a really acidic drum loop. Then we went somewhere else, bluegras and Lännen-Jukka and then rock again. Yet they have more similarities than differences. Those melodies and lyrics are so strong that they can be packaged in many ways. ”

But do you sometimes hear songs made and performed by Väinö Karjalainen?

“At some point, there will definitely be something else of my own for the Karelian, but right now I’m so happy with what I can do with others,” he says.

“I have never had such a feeling in Tiis that I could get three meters over there. I’ve been happy to be there next to the drum kit. ”