At 17, Louie Blue set off an international buzz with his debut single “Confused” in 2019. The Finnish-Italian singer-songwriter has evolved dramatically since then, moving from buttery R&B to his moody, atmospheric third album, "Blood & Bones," where he takes a firmer grip on his own sound. We met with Louie Blue, fresh off playing at the sold-out DIY x WTF Showcase, to discuss his musical progress and influences, among other topics.

When Louie Blue splashed onto the scene in 2019, many listeners’ jaws dropped and heads cocked in disbelief. Was this mature, international electropop sound, with shades of Frank Ocean and Anderson .Paak, really cooked up by a teenager from southwest Finland in his parents’ basement? Yep.

Born Alec Moborg, he grew up in Turku in a musical, multi-cultural family with three older siblings. He made annual visits to his grandfather Luigi near Rome, who inspired his ‘Louie’ moniker.

“My mom’s Italian and my dad’s half Swedish, but they decided not to confuse us with three languages, so we all spoke English. We hosted exchange students and didn’t really have any Finnish music or culture in the house,” says Moborg, now 23.

“My dad is a musician who sings and plays drums, guitar, and piano, and my three older siblings all took music classes. So I grew up surrounded by instruments, just jamming and rocking out. Drums were the first instrument that I got into. When I was around 10, I got excited about the piano and had my first traditional lessons.”

At 14, he got his first digital audio workstation (DAW) and began developing the sound that would lead to those early singles.

Hitting the Hype Machine

In early 2020, just back from six months in Mexico, Moborg attracted international attention with his electro-R&B EP Notes. The single “Hit It!” was embraced by music blogs, climbing to #3 on the US aggregator site Hype Machine.

The timing was weird for a club-oriented single, though, as Covid slammed doors shut that spring. Now, with his third album, Blood & Bones, out in autumn 2025 and its successor in progress, Moborg looks back on how his career has evolved.

“Those early songs were definitely more poppy and dance-oriented. I was so young and didn’t really know what I was doing. Sculpting that sound reflected many people’s point of view. Now it’s just three of us – we’re even going to master in-house and keep the process very private.”

"Onstage, it’s more jam-based. We tend to stretch the songs and make them more epic"

His core collaborators include Jonatan Snapir, a guitarist from Turku’s lively jazz scene who released his own debut in 2024, and keyboardist Petro Pyysalo (aka Pepe Jean Jr), son of acclaimed jazz vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo.

Especially onstage, there is a subtle jazz presence in Louie Blue’s music, along with neo-soul, funk, blues and lo-fi hip-hop.

“Onstage, it’s more jam-based. We tend to stretch the songs and make them more epic, especially the ones where Jonatan has more grandiose solos,” he says.

“I’ve never been a jazz nerd”

Moborg, who took jazz piano lessons in high school, says:

“I’ve never been a jazz nerd, but I still love the music and playing it on piano.”

He also studied theory, but says he aims for an intuitive approach.

“Petro is kind of like me: super-unorthodox, just playing by ear, while Jonatan is a virtuoso. He just blows my mind with this knowledge every day when we’re writing music and we always incorporate a lot of jazz elements. Harmony has always been kind of our language when we’re jamming together or whatever. I think it’s the number-one way of triggering emotion."

“Our biggest jazz hero is Pat Metheny, whose music we’ve always bonded over,” he adds.

Escape from the laptop

Mostly self-produced, this dreamy, downtempo Louie Blue album centres more on hazy atmosphere rather than hooks. Moborg built his own home studio to create it, aiming to get back to old-school basics.

“Before, making music was always within the laptop and the DAW, picturing the sound in my mind. But I had this huge need to learn the traditions of writing music and restrict myself from that laptop-based, sample-and-loop-heavy music. I got bored of it. So for a while, I spent everything I earned from gigs on instruments and really learning how to play the guitar.”

“Blood and Bones was more about writing songs outside of the laptop, trying to get that spark of inspiration before going deep into that editing and polishing workflow,” he explains.

“Blood and Bones was more about writing songs outside of the laptop"

“I also used cassette players and other stuff to distort the sound and make it more organic.”

That ties in with changes in his listening taste.

“I started from a very soft, clean sound – Frank Ocean and D’Angelo are some of my biggest inspirations. It was all super-smooth and buttery, but I’ve started to love more distorted music like the Deftones. That’s something I definitely want to incorporate into my music more. Growing up, it was mostly heavier, hip-hoppy grooves, and that’s also something I want to mix with jazz and smoother tones in the future.”

Beauty you can’t explain

Moborg says that his time in Italy or Mexico hasn’t influenced his sound, but his approach to it.

“I’ve been inspired by the spiritual freedom that’s more present in Mexico and Italy. Art isn’t approached from a logical perspective, which is often the case in Finland,” he says.

“The idea of finding beauty in something that you can’t explain has definitely moulded my personality and critical thinking"

“The idea of finding beauty in something that you can’t explain has definitely moulded my personality and critical thinking. My Nonno [grandfather] was an art dealer in Rome, and I learned from him that the critique of art doesn’t have to be so rational or have a certain set of rules.”

So what’s next besides summer 2026 festivals like Helsinki’s Flow and Turku’s Kesärauha?

“We’re about 15 demos deep into the next project, but I haven’t set any deadline for it. I’m just waiting for it to take form,” he says with an enigmatic smile.