The 23-year-old Goldielocks is a songwriter whose nocturnal electro ballads combine a cinematic feel with flamboyance and storytelling. The Finnish-born, Berlin-based artist has toured packed halls in Germany, Italy and Iceland. Her first EP, East to South, was released in late 2023, and now her latest single, “Mercy,” paves the way for her debut album.

Goldielocks says she has always been a performer at heart. As a child, she was consumed by a love of theatre and dance. Now, in her early twenties, her relationship with music continues the same passion – transferring style and emotion onto the stage. In particular, she emphasizes that each song and performance should have a built-in story and intensity that draws the audience in.

"Besides theatre and dance, I was inspired by artists like Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Lady Gaga and Janis Joplin, all amazing interpreters who bring their songs to life. Maybe that's why my music often needs to have a clear dramatic arc – it has to be spectacular, visual and thrilling."

Her parents weren’t musicians, but avid listeners, and her father was a sort of homespun amateur music critic with influential opinions. However, her interest in performing and writing pop music didn’t solidify until a music teacher noticed that this little girl had an exceptionally strong voice. The idea of developing that trait into her primary strength as a musician was born.

"My music often needs to have a clear dramatic arc – it has to be spectacular, visual and thrilling."

Goldielocks got to work with a demo producer at a young age. It was the first step towards becoming a professional.

"I just wanted to hear my voice professionally recorded. Singing is definitely my strongest instrument, although I also play piano and guitar by ear. My brother is the producer on my songs, and he handles the playing side better."

While developing her production and distinctive sound, Goldielocks has listened to bands like Tame Impala in recent years. Besides singing, she sees lyrics and composition as intellectual instruments, and creating distinctive, original songs as a matter of honour. Surprisingly, she quickly landed a publishing contract with a record label as a songwriter, too, after just a couple of demos.

Her lyrics are very personal, inspired by her own experiences, conversations with loved ones and their life stories.

"I want to constantly develop as a writer as well. Somewhat surprisingly, Bob Dylan – his storytelling – is a great role model for me. If I could reach one thousandth of that level, I’d have achieved my own artistic fulfilment."

Never a dull moment on stage

Goldielocks feels at home performing live, perhaps thanks to her theatrical background. On stage, she feels that she’s more than just a singer – more of a performer who uses her whole body and expression to create an experience. She also aims to shake up visual assumptions about a female artist and deliberately chose a slightly ambivalent stage name that wraps in the veil of anonymity.

"My own artistry is based on alter-ego thinking. I wanted to be a solo artist with a name that isn't gendered or my personal name, because I want to keep a distance between my personal world and who I am on stage. It is easier to switch roles and change between them. Even though it's part of me, it's kind of like my super-self, packed into one entity. It's important to me that all these things are aligned – the look, the lyrics and the stories," she says.

"In live performance, I've noticed that my expression and, for example, the fact that I don't play an instrument onstage actually makes my performance stronger. I feel free onstage, and my facial expressions, gestures and dancing support the vocals. I'm totally in that role."

Merging music and self-image

In Goldielocks' case, her strong aesthetic inclination and sensitivity to styles is clear from her record covers, outfits and appearance. She is constantly inspired by different art forms, with music and all kinds of visual art particularly intertwined. Her underlying desire is to experience and create art in which sounds and images merge into a single whole.

"I love movies and feel a certain synaesthesia between them and music. A song can evoke the same mood as a movie or painting,” says Goldielocks. “What’s the factor that binds the aesthetics and themes of a particular film together, that creates its magic? In a way, I'm an analyst who’s constantly trying to understand what makes music meaningful and how I could bring that into my own compositions."

Goldielocks says she’s preparing for her upcoming album and future collaborations by absorbing as much influence as possible from all kinds of music from all eras, including genres such as hip-hop and rap.

"For example, the 1980s are a huge source of inspiration for me. That decade offers a lot of wonderful elements that I use in my music, even though I didn't live through that time myself. It gives me the privilege of picking the best parts and applying them to the contemporary moment, making them fresh and my own.”

As to the future, her only definite plan is that the next incarnation of Goldielocks will still be recognizable, and at the same time be something completely different, full of novelty.

"I’m thinking about nuances, my own uniqueness and ideas. It's a huge amount of small details, and I hope that the end result is something new and truly me, so that my influences aren’t readily recognizable."