Playlists

New Artists to Follow

Words by Music Finland

Published 26.1.2022

We’re taking a look at some of the most exciting and fresh newcomers in the Finnish music scene, who’ve already sparked interest outside Finland’s borders as well.

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Moon Shot

Moon Shot is a 21st century rock band formed by experienced musicians Ville Malja (vocals), Jussi Ylikoski (guitar), Henkka Seppälä (bass) and Mikko Hakila (drums) known from acts such as Disco Ensemble and Children of Bodom. The band's sound can be described as anthemic stadium rock taking influence especially from the guitar-led rock of late 90's and early 2000's. Moon Shot released their debut album "Confession" in fall 2021.

ILON

Singer-songwriter ILON is a new arrival on the Finnish pop scene with a strong, dark sound. She debuted during fall 2020, with a string of singles written together with Ilkka Wirtanen. ILON provides a timeless, fresh vocal impression, which is combined with her lyrics infused with stories of modern romance. On her latest single Tobacco, released in 2021 her lyrics meet with an intense disco atmosphere.

Stoned Statues

Stoned Statues is an alternative metal band formed in 2019. Their sound mixes metal and prog together with rock and pop elements and relies on catchy melodies. Lead singer Jenna Kosunen's strong vocals and lyrics along with Markus Hakala's (vocals, guitar) and Allu Tanskanen's (drums) playing create a combination of metal music with punk attitude. Stoned Statues released their debut single Demento in November 2021 on the Sakara label.

Knife Girl

Knife Girl, who previously used the artist name olli, is a young songwriter who produces tracks with an authentic, organic feeling. She released her debut EP "Metro" in summer 2021 with music relying on deep grooves and catchy top lines. The debut has been followed by another EP, "Oona", where the single "7up" has taken a step towards more pop sound.

Misha

Misha is a Helsinki based beatmaker and producer previously known as rapper under the name Haamu. His musical background lays in melodic soul-based hiphop. Misha’s debut album was released in 2018 and described to be an “anthem for Finnish serene summer evenings”. Along with catchy beats, his music features often vocals from well-established international and domestic singers.

NOOA

NOOA is an electronic indie pop band influenced by the 1970’s prog rock as well as today’s alternative music. Their music relies on ethereal and clear sounds and on singer Noora Salmi’s bright voice. The line-up is completed by Ranieri Scoccia, Petri Kytö and Mikko Patama. According to the band, the stories behind their songs tackle the basic human conditions and the relationship with present, future and the past.

Blame me!

Blame Me! is a fresh female-fronted alternative metal band from Helsinki. Their music combines anthemic choruses into huge walls of guitars and synths and has been influenced by Paramore’s music. Blame Me!’s sound has a hunch of melodic metal as well as punk pop. The band consists of singer Bini Silvennoinen, guitarist Jesse Marttila, drummer Vallu Kousa and bassist Juho Jokimies and pledges to be an energetic act on stage.

Vince Vigo

Vince Vigo is an electronic pop singer and songwriter whose music combines the elements of early 2000’s pop music and modern indie pop. The artist has her roots in Turku, Finland and she herself defines her music as intensive electronic dark pop with lyrics that build up a coherent story around the themes of heartbreak and common Finnish melancholy. Vince Vigo released her first two EP’s in 2021.

Altamullan Road

Altamullan Road is a cinematic pop band formed by two Finnish singer-songwriters Johanna Iivanainen and Johanna Kurkela. The music of Altamullan Road is an intriguing gathering of different genres and emotions, intertwined together by the unique symbiotic connection and harmony of their magical voices. Inspired largely by films, their music touches topics from simple life’s pleasures to mysteries beyond the veil of existence. Sorrow and joy hand in hand. A journey from the earth to the space.

Rules

Rules is a Helsinki-based indie synth pop duo that weaves depth into their sweet and shameless pop tunes. The lyrics are based on characters from world literature, filling gaps, offering new perspectives and bringing forth silenced voices. Iiti Yli-Harja (Pintandwefall) makes the songs based on lyrics by Sarra Keppola. Together they teamed up with Oskari Halsti (Scandinavian Music Group, Wedding Crashers) who is behind the lush production of the songs, as well as the drums of the live assembly.

Babel

Babel plays dreamy electronic, indie pop that builds a bright world where one can escape to. The duo consists of Karin Mäkiranta (also known as other half of Karina) and songwriter-producer Mikko Pykäri (known from the indie pop band Regina, as well as his solo career).

Tomi Saario

Tomi Saario grabbed a guitar at the age of five, after finding out to be “too blind to be a pilot”. Saario is a compelling storyteller and an artist with an innate knack for writing pop hooks. After a decision to move to London to pursue his music career, he played over a thousand shows in 4 years. His debut single "Just A Little" was released in early 2020 and another one “Don’t hurt yourself” shortly after.

Mari Sainio

Mari Sainio is a Finnish composer and a music producer. She makes music for theatre, film, classical music groups in addition to her own projects. Sainio’s debut album, Minus 25 combines classical music elements with cinematic melodies, electronic soundscapes and post-rock pathos.

Planet Case

Planet Case combines pop rock with EDM music and draw inspiration from the music of bands like Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, M83 and The 1975. The group's debut EP, Simple Thoughts came out in 2018.

Anna Murtola

Anna Murtola from Oulu is known to be the northernmost flamenco singer in the world. Murtola has found her own strong voice as an interpreter of this intense Spanish tradition, but also acts as a versatile musician who performs both as a solo artist and collaborates with various musicians, dancers, artists and projects over cultural and genre ranges. She has just released her debut album, Fuego por dentro.

Radux

First assembled in 2013, Radux is a high-octane rock n’ roll group with speed metal and crossover influences from Tampere, Finland. The group calls out the daily (and with some misfortune, future) doom and gloom of the world and seeks to inform the masses on at least some select injustices as aggressively as musically possible.

Lac Belot

Singer-songwriter Jarno Takkumäki makes music under the moniker Lac Belot. Whereas his debut single "D ’n’ A" is built on warm production in the vein of 1960s pop – i.e. rich and lush instrumentation consisting of string arrangements, saxophone and piano to name a few – his second single "Pale Moon Rabbit"’s psychedelic bombast brings to mind Joensuu 1685 and The Flaming Lips. Lac Belot’s debut album comes out in autumn.

111X

111X creates oppressive and desolate soundscapes, which operate on the field of dystopian electronics as Ben Frost and The Haxan Cloak. Last year he collaborated with Wolf on EP "Final Star", which was followed by his debut album, "Aches", released in April by Mexico-based label Infinite Machine.

Pole Siblings

Pole Siblings is an actual sibling duo, consisting of Finns Sofia and Johan Stolpe, currently living in Falun, Sweden, whose melancholic indie pop is reminiscent of bands like Beach House and Warpaint. Their second EP, "Sköljer bort dig" was released in spring 2018.

Jesse Markin

When he was part of The Megaphone State, Jesse Markin used to make hip hop that paid homage to the early 1990s east coast sound. With his solo project, Markin takes leaps forward both musically and thematically towards indie pop and broadens his expression from rapping to singing. His double single "Blood" / "Will Shoot" was released by VILD Music in May.

The Dark Element

Former Sonata Arctica guitarist Jani Liimatainen has teamed up with Nightwish’s ex-vocalist Anette Olzon. Their new project is titled The Dark Element, in which they combine melodic metal with symphonic elements. The band’s self-titled debut album was released by Frontiers Music.

Tomppabeats

Tomi Lahtinen aka Tomppabeats’s music was discovered quickly after he released his debut album Harbor in 2016 in Soundcloud. Born in 1997, the young producer’s J Dilla and Madlib inspired instrumental lo-fi hip-hop has garnered millions of streams in Spotify. His second album, Arcade, was released in December 2017.

Normal Life

Electronic duo Normal Life are no beginners in the indie game: Miikka Koivisto rose to fame as the vocalist in Disco Ensemble and Hisser, while Artturi Taira has made his name in the band Rubik. Normal Life picks influences from 1990’s electronic dance music, but still keep their melancholic vocal melodies in the centre.

Lxandra

Lxandra is a young Helsinki based singer and songwriter now living in Berlin. She was introduced to the world through Perttu’s EDM hit ”Waves” in 2016. In 2017 Lxandra released her two first solo singles, ”Flicker” and ”Hush Hush Baby”. Lxandra is signed to Universal Deutschland and has a publishing contract with BMG Germany.

Horte

Horte incorporates psychedelic shoegaze and heavy bass with hazy electronics. The band’s dreamy and intriguing debut album is described as ”built of the connection between concrete and surreal textures”. The eponymous album was released in spring by Svart Records.

SUAD

SUAD is a Helsinki-based artist with a soft voice and years of experience in recording and performing. Her voice has earlier been heard in Uusi Fantasia’s album "Top Ten" and in various cooperations with Jaakko Eino Kalevi, for example the track ”Deeper Shadows”. Now SUAD focuses on her solo career and her debut single ”Caves and Blood Veins” was released in June 2017.

Dallas Kalevala

Dallas Kalevala is a new band by Ville Malja (the lead man of alternative rock group Lapko) and sound artist Jussi Matikainen. The duo describe their electronic pop anthems fittingly as ”fierce subarctic pop music” and they’ve put out two singles so far, ”Moon Makes Me Happy” and ”Animal Magnetism”.

Tontario

Tontario is a young and promising producer who’s music draws inspiration from deep house and electronic indie. Soon after releasing his first songs his music caught the interest of the influential British label Anjunabeats. Tontario’s debut EP Solitude came out in May.

Pykäri

Mikko Pykäri is an Emma-award winning musician and music producer known from bands like Regina, Shine 2009 and Cup. In 2017 he started his solo career as Pykäri and his self-titled debut album was released in May by Solina Records. The album features a wide array of guests, including Yona, Mio, Pyhimys, Reino Nordin, LCMDF, Sami Suova, SOMA, Pass, Zuzu Zakaria & Biitsi.

Perttu

Pop house producer Perttu put out his first single ”Waves” last year, which became a large summer hit –after that he’s dropped two singles, with the latest one, ”Circles” released by the acclaimed Dutch label Armada Music. In addition to working on his own songs, Perttu has produced songs for promising new acts like Lxandra.

One Desire

One Desire is a hard rock group who draw influences from classic rock bands like Journey, Toto, and Def Leppard. Although the band is relatively new, the members have plenty of past experience from various bands and projects: guitarist and producer Jimmy Westerlund as a producer and songwriter (Negative, Joel Madden, Pitbull) vocalist Andre Linman as the leader in Sturm und Drang and Jonas Kuhlberg in Paul Di’Anno’s band and MyGrain.

OK:KO

Drummer and vibraphonist Okko Saastamoinen formed his quartet OK:KO in 2015 together with pianist Toomas Keski-Säntti, saxophonist-flautist Jarno Tikka and bassist Mikael Saastamoinen. OK:KO has already gained positive attention at the Young Nordic Jazz Comets showcase, and We Jazz festival awarded the band leader Okko Saastamoinen with an honorary title “We Jazz Rising Star” in 2016. OK:KO’s debut album Land E. was released in January.

Yotto

Signed to established deep house label Anjunabeats, Yotto has been making a name of himself with his emotional house music and garnered support from the likes of Pete Tong, Sasha, Laurent Garnier and many more. His latest singles ”The Owls” and ”Cooper’s Cup” have a surprising influence, tv-series Twin Peaks.

The Holy

Helsinki-based quintet The Holy rely on a massive sound (backed by two drummers!) and adrenaline-filled stage antics. Their brand of epic indie rock has been championed by bands such as The War on Drugs and Arcade Fire, but The Holy’s songs have enough potential to fill stadiums on their own one day. Check out their debut EP More Escher and Random Notes on Soliti Records.

Jaakko Aukusti

Musician and multi-instrumentalist Jaakko Aukusti performs colorful electro pop, which has been described as ”Mew on ecstasy”. His singles ”Shadow Boxer” and ”Himalaya” have been noted by the likes of Clash, The Line of Best Fit and IndieShuffle, as well as numerous blogs around Europe. Jaakko Aukusti’s debut album, produced by Artturi Taira (Rubik, Shivan Dragn), was released in early 2017.

Mikko Joensuu

In one word, singer-songwriter Mikko Joensuu's solo album trilogy Amen is impressive. The three albums – all released within 13 months – move from the slow, soothing and relaxed Americana and country-folk of Amen I to the psychedelic wall-of-sound shoegaze rock of Amen II and massive Steve Reich inspired minimalist pop of Amen III.

Lake Jons

Lake Jons describe their music combines the spirit of "dusty garages, rumbling canyons and nordic woods.” Suitable words for an indie folk band who draw inspiration from Bon Iver and Josh T. Pearson. In 2016 Lake Jons released two EP's along with a cluster of handsome music videos, and 2017 followed with two new single releases.

Solano + Profettes

Five persons, four talented vocalists, three different Finnish cities. The founding members of Solano + Profettes had their roots in italo and techno, but after Ringa Manner (The Hearing) and Minna Sihvonen joined the fold, the group’s music swirled towards airy synth pop. The quintet released their debut EP in April which is titled, well just simply, EP.

Tom & Hills

Helsinki based Tom & Hills was formed by Petri Mäkitalo and Ramon Soivio in 2013 and signed to Universal Music last year. Their singles ”Energy in Magic” and ”Another Chance” (feat. JS16) have been played by DJ’s such as Tiësto, Above & Beyond, Judge Jules and Major Lazer. The duo’s sound is a fresh combination of electro house, EDM and progressive house.

Hard Action

Hard Action deliver what their name implies: late 70’s punk tangled up in fuzzy action rock. Svart Records released the band’s debut album Sinister Vibes in June 2015. in December 2015 Hard Action made a booking deal with FKP Scorpio, and a German tour.

Mumrunner

Tampere-based Mumrunner pair their melancholic shoegaze walls with the uptempo energy of punk and some jangly dream pop guitars. In September 2015 the foursome put out their debut ep Full Blossom on Soliti records as digital and the vinyl version on German label Wolves & Vibrancy, after which they toured Europe with German shoegazers Jaguwar. Mumrunner is represented in Japan by Rimeout Recordings.

ROOXX

ROOXX is musician and producer Jori Sjöroos, lately known for producing the highly succesful Finnish band PMMP. With his own music he’s tackled a wide array of genres, ranging from atmospheric shoegaze-pop (Magenta Skycode) to electronic adventures (Fu-Tourist) and funeral doom (Thergothon). On ROOXX’s first single ”Breathe In”, Sjöroos marries crushing post-rock guitars with delicate electronic pop in a highly original way.

Dagger D

Dagger D is a 20-year-old Syrian born rapper, producer and keyboardist. He started rapping at the tender age of 12 and performing five years later. On his new single "L.M.B.", Dagger D showcases his intensive, tongue twisting flow, and beats that echo the sound of 90's and early noughties gangsta rap. Dagger D released his debut album Ten Lives through 3rd Rail Records in early 2017.

Cityman

Alpo Nummelin and Tomi Leppänen, the rhythm-driven forces behind pivotal Finnish bands Circle, K-X-P and Zebra & Snake have ditched their drums in favor of synthesizers, sequencers and vocals. The result: emotional and elegant dancefloor-focused pop music.

View

Juuso Ruohonen, aka View, has been causing quite a stir in the Finnish underground after releasing a few singles and collaborating with Noah Kin and LCMDF. His choice of genre is futuristic hip hop, in which au courant production values in vein of artists like Lapalux and A$AP Rocky meet up with emotive downtempo R’n’B.

Have You Ever Seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS?

Have You Ever Seen the Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? is a playful garage rock band from Kouvola, whose debut album Teenage Sweetheart was released last month. Following their show at Flow Festival this year, the three-piece’s music has already been noted by the likes of Forbes and Consequence of Sound.

Shiraz Lane

Despite being in their early 20s, hard rock group Shiraz Lane have accomplished a lot – the band has played at Wacken Open Air as well as in Canada and Tokyo, and they’re signees at legendary Frontiers Records, a label whose roster also includes artists like Toto, Stryper and Whitesnake.

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