Helsinki band Vimma urges environmental action with poetic, witty lyrics and catchy tunes that splice indie-pop, folk, hip-hop, and prog-rock influences. In October, Vimma will present their energetic live show to WOMEX's international audiences. We met with the band amid their busy summer festival schedule.

Taking the stage by storm at Helsinki’s World Village Festival, the seven members of Vimma charge into “Ei noi muut” (“Not Those Others”), in between playing as the ‘house band’ during a multi-national benefit concert for peace organisations. Lead singer Eeva Rajakangas prowls the stage at Suvilahti, delivering karate kicks with a grin and nearly leaping into the crowd as fiddlers Pessi Jouste and Roope Jokinen blaze away behind her.

This punky three-minute blast of energy is the title track from their third album, a follow-up to last year’s one-off single “Kapina on kuuma” (“Rebellion is Hot”). They filmed a video for that song while briefly blocking traffic in front of the Finnish Parliament – the same site where they have performed during blockades by the climate action group Elokapina, the Finnish branch of Extinction Rebellion.

At first, the band was kind of a folk/prog-rock thing, but it’s evolved over the years – Pessi Jouste

The group has earned its own type of street cred through unapologetic participation in such civil disobedience, disregarding music-industry advice that it might not be a good career move.

The band’s career seems to be taking off anyway, despite such conventional wisdom. They’ve been nominated for an Emma (Finnish Grammy) award and appeared on World Music Charts Europe, released two albums on a German label, and played gigs in several European countries – even though Rajakangas’s lyrics are almost all in Finnish.

The only exceptions so far are English and German versions of their single “Maailmanloppu” (“Apocalypse”), from their 2023 album Tornadon silmässä (‘In the Eye of the Tornado’). In September and October, Vimma plays for international music pros during Lost in Music and the WOMEX Worldwide Music Expo showcase event, both in Tampere, where the group was born.

“We want to be a megaphone”

“We started the band about 10 years ago while I was studying violin at the Tampere Conservatoire,” says Jouste.

“At first, the band was kind of a folk/prog-rock thing, but it’s evolved over the years.”

Jouste, the son of a musicologist, also plays in folkier groups such as Ulla Pirttijärvi & Ulda, reflecting their indigenous Sámi heritage.

The band changed dramatically when Rajakangas joined, recording its first EP in 2017 and the first album with lyrics, Meri ja avaruus (‘Sea and Space’) two years later. By now, with only two other original members – Jokinen and keyboardist Aino Kallio – the group is a more energetic, electronic band cranking out one alt-pop earworm after another. Beneath that accessible sound, the band’s lyrics are as uncompromising as ever. “We want to be a megaphone for the activist community,” says Rajakangas over lunch at the Helsinki Theatre Academy, where she’s a student.

When you talk about destruction

She explains that the second single from the new album, “Pestään kädet” (‘Wash Our Hands’), is based on her discussions with an expert on corporate greenwashing – which also inspired the cover photo of the band members lathering up in green soap. That struck a sore spot with an executive who attended a recent show, she says.

“After our last gig in Oulu, somebody told us ‘I was in the front row, but I started to feel guilty because my job is basically greenwashing for a big forest products company, so I kind of hate what you’re saying, but it’s so good’. So we’re like a guilty pleasure for some people, I think,” says Rajakangas.

“It’s hard to write about these things. If you want to talk about how devastating the destruction of the planet is, it can easily sound corny. I think our songs can be pretty cringe as well, but a lot of artists who turned out to be super popular were originally seen as cringe. And somebody has to steer the ship so others can follow. And I think that’s already happening,” she says.

I think our songs can be pretty cringe as well, but a lot of artists who turned out to be super popular were originally seen as cringe – Eeva Rajakangas

So can music really help save the world, or inspire people to fight for change?

“I think our music is already having an impact, at least on a micro scale. A lot of listeners have told us that they didn’t see themselves as the kind of people who go out to the barricades but that our music has empowered them, kinda like listening to Rage Against the Machine when you’re at the gym or something. But we have to create this on a wider scale, a movement of bands. And it feels like there’s something happening right now.”

She points to Vimma’s fresh collaboration with the satirical punky band Tiisu, and an invitation from folktronica Suistamon Sähkö to direct their music video, and fellow artivists like singer Elsi Sloan, who took part in the Sound of Peace benefit gig.

Hippie folk roots

While Jouste composed most of the tunes on band’s earlier releases, the new album also features compositions by drummer Vilho Louhivuori, who also plays with Elsi Sloan, guitarist Kalle Outila, a member of the gipsy swing band Django Collective, and bassist Santeri Kettu, who’s worked with members of the metal band Korpiklaani – indicating the breadth of Vimma’s influences.

Asked about inspirations, Jouste mentions anime director Hayao Miyazaki and neo-folk pioneers Tsuumi Sound System.

I think our music is already having an impact, at least on a micro scale – Eeva Rajakangas

“And I know I speak for other band members in being inspired by the music of the anti-Vietnam War and hippie movement, like John Lennon and Bob Dylan. When I was young, I thought that all music was about these topics, and that it should be. Then I realised that most people only sing about love,” they say with a wry grin.

Rajakangas says she grew up listening to the Finnish 70s leftist group Agit-prop.

“They were a big influence. I was just listening to these songs and realised I know all the lyrics. My parents and I went to see them at reunion concerts. They also influenced the ‘90s Finnish band Ultra Bra, who were also a big part of my childhood.” That group’s main lyricist, the poet Anni Sinnemäki, went on to become Greens chair, a cabinet minister and now deputy mayor of Helsinki.

Tomorrow the world?

Jouste and Rajakangas say that the band is open to recording in other languages and touring abroad – as long as they can do so without significantly compromising their ideals such as low-carbon travel.

“We already do make compromises, but not so that we can make money. The aim is to bring these themes into the mainstream, so that means playing normal club gigs and so on,” Jouste says. “But we take trains to get there whenever possible.”

When we play to audiences that don’t understand the lyrics or our message, it’s kind of fun because they don’t have any kind of ideological barrier, it’s just music – Eeva Rajakangas

For Rajakangas, playing abroad is a good litmus test for the band’s music.

“When we play to audiences that don’t understand the lyrics or our message, it’s kind of fun because they don’t have any kind of ideological barrier, it’s just music. So we can test out how our stage show works without anybody understanding the lyrics. Like in Berlin, people had literally no idea what we were like singing about, but they were like, what a great band, what great energy. And then we can talk to them afterwards, so yeah, why not?”

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