"WTF – Welcome to Finland" showcase brings Blind Channel and Lxandra to SXSW
Words by
Music Finland
Published
1.3.2024
Music Finland’s showcase event "WTF – Welcome to Finland" at South by Southwest (SXSW) introduces two exciting Finnish acts this spring: Blind Channel and Lxandra.
Music Finland’s SXSW 2024 showcase "WTF – Welcome to Finland" willtake place at Speakeasy (412 Congress Ave. D, Austin, Texas) on March 13, with two Finnish acts, modern rock/metal band Blind Channel and singer-songwriter Lxandra.
Held in Austin, Texas, South by Southwest (SXSW) is the entertainment industry’s most important professional event and showcase festival in the United States. Usually the event gathers circa 20,000 professionals from the music, film and technology industries each year.
Blind Channel spices their melodic hard rock and nu-metal with electronic pop influences, calling themselves “the Backstreet Boys of the metal scene”. The sextet originally formed in Oulu in 2014, has played hundreds of shows and toured around the world with bands like Simple Plan, The Hu, I Prevail and Hollywood Undead. After their 3rd independent album Violent Pop (Ranka Recordings, 2020), Blind Channel was signed to German metal label Century Media. Since their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 with "Dark Side", resulting in a very respectable 6th place in the finals, Blind Channel’s audience has grown massively, with the album Lifestyles Of The Sick & Dangerous (2022) as their current peak. Blind Channel’s 5th full-length Exit Emotions is slated for release on March 1st.
“We are not afraid to take cheesy, boy band-ish melodies and hooks and mix them up with the heaviest breakdowns and electro and rap beats. We want to take that boy band metal thing to the top”, explains Blind Channel singer Joel Hokka their sound for Metal Hammer magazine.
March 13th at 9 p.m., Speakeasy (412 Congress Ave. D, Austin, Texas)
Blind Channel on Spotify
Lxandra
Singer-songwriter Lxandra’s vocal sound is impressive: dramatic and slightly bluesy, which complements her music – classic pop songs with a strong emphasis on power ballads, often accompanied by a piano, strings and gentle electronic beats. Her first solo single "Flicker" was released in 2017 and has since been followed with couple dozen more, as well as two ep’s and the debut album Careful What I Dream Of (2021). In her early twenties, Lxandra moved from her home in small island of Suomenlinna, Helsinki to the hustle and bustle of Berlin, and beside her native Finland, she has found success especially in Germany. In 2018, Lxandra was one of the winners of Music Moves Europe Talent Awards.
Her latest ep Might Not Wanna Wake Up (2023), is built upon the “ruins of the past versions of Lxandra”. In 2023, Lxandra signed a publishing contract with Prescription Songs, the independent music publishing company founded by Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald. Lxandra’s songs have been featured in global films and TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and she has explained that these days she mainly writes songs with a sync focus.
