BLIND CHANNEL describe their music as "violent pop", we get to know them better through our friently chat with vocalists Niko Moilanen and Joel Hokka, discussing anything and everything about the band.
Their new album "EXIT EMOTIONS" is set to be released on March 1st, 2024 via Century Media Records.
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RockOverdose: Hello, good evening! Today I’m having together with me Joel Hokka and Nico Vilhelm, who are both vocalists of Blind Channel. My name is Angelos, I represent rockoverdose.gr and I’ll be the host of today’s interview. I welcome you to our site!
J.H: Cool, thanks a lot!
RockOverdose: So the past few years have been extremely busy for you band, Blind Channel: a well-received performance in 2021’s Eurovision song contest, earning sixth place, a major label signing with Century Media and a studio album that peaked at #1 in Finland’s music charts. How do you feel about this step-up in the band’s progress?
N.V: A lot of things have been happening for the last couple of years. We’ve been busy lately with touring for the last couple of years. Of course, we’re grateful and it’s cool to see things moving forward, but at the same time we’re super focused, we want to keep our focus on the music and on the shows, so we really haven’t stopped to think about all the great things that have been happening. Maybe one day when we’re old we’ll think back and remember all those things, but right now we’re super focused on what is happening right now.
RockOverdose: That’s good to hear. So, you label your unique style of post hardcore/metalcore as “violent pop”. What does this statement signify? Is this just another way of describing your music or is there something more to it?
J.H: It’s more like a brand than a genre. If you had to describe our music to someone who doesn’t know about Blind Channel and hasn’t heard of our music, this is the easiest way to brand the whole thing. Despite all the slogans, this is still heavy/pop metal music with influences from rap, hip-hop and electronic elements.
RockOverdose: So, it’s basically more like the nu metal genre of the 2000s brought into 2024, right?
J.H: Exactly, yes.
RockOverdose: One of the key factors in your band’s success has been your consistency. Your lineup has remained consistent ever since your conception in 2013, with your sole addition being in 2020 with your new DJ/percussionist. Is this tight bond between bandmates the main reason behind your success all these years?
N.V: I think our friendship is definitely one of the reasons that make us special and the fact that we were teenagers when we started the band and the lineup has remained steady for years. This has been one of our strengths; that we know each other. It can be a double-edged sword most of the time when we know each other so well but I personally see this as a good thing. It started with just five teenagers sharing a dream and now we’re still heading towards that same dream. Alex, our DJ/percussionist guy joined in 2020 as a guy who shared our passion, and he is truly the missing link in our band and I think this is awesome. We have a great group and at the end of the day it is a group of friends and I think this is the most important thing of all.
RockOverdose: It’s good when bands forge this kind of friendship because this translates to better music for them and better music for the fans. So, you come from Finland, a country with a rich legacy in all sorts of metal. Recently, Finnish bands like Beast In Black and Lost Society have adopted the same approach in your music style, adding radio-friendly pop elements to their songs, resulting in significant commercial breaks. Is Blind Channel hoping to emulate this commercial success or do you have different expectations?
J.H: That’s a hard one. I think we’ve just been doing the thing that we’ve always been doing, we don’t think about radios or TV, we only create music that is original and we have a vision for and we just hope to conquer the world with our original own product. So, if someone is influenced by our work, that’s super dope and we really appreciate that.
RockOverdose: That’s very humble of you. A quick word about your performance in the Eurovision song contest. Your song “Dark Side” was also present in your latest record if I’m not mistaken. What led the band finally deciding to enter the Eurovision song contest?
N.V: A worldwide disease, it was called COVID (laughs). Corona virus happened and all the momentum we have been building for the past 7 years at that point was frozen, all of our tours were cancelled and all of the things we have been hyped over and have been waiting for so long got taken away from us, so we needed to find an alternative way. We felt like our product could really work; The songs, the music was there, and we have just made “Dark Side”, the song we felt like it would be a huge breakthrough for us if we could just get it to the people, but since we couldn’t tour or pretty much anything else, then our guitarist Joonas came up with the plan to take part in this big competition. First we were like “Hell no”, but after some time we started thinking maybe this isn’t such a bad idea, and it wasn’t. It was super fun, a great experience, and it felt like a shortcut to all that is happening now with the tours in Europe and the US and now we have a big record deal in our hands and stuff like started happening. So, yeah it was fun.
RockOverdose: That was a creative way of taking something negative like COVID and turning into something positive for you. A few words about your new album now, coming out this year in early March. It’s titled “EXIT EMOTIONS”. What makes this album so special and what should we expect from it?
J.H: It’s the best album we’ve ever done, we made it from the live perspective; we thought that we should create songs that work perfectly on a lot of sets. It’s heavier than the previous albums. We created it on different countries, like LA and London and Berlin to write the songs with different people. It’s the most complete and most international album we’ve ever done and we’re super proud of the final product that will be in our hands soon.
RockOverdose: We’re excited to see where this album is going to take the band. I personally heard it once through the promotional material your label sent, and I have to say that it’s pretty good. I’m also going to issue a review for the record, so be sure to tune in to rockoverdose.gr so that you can check it out when it's out!
J.H: Thank you so much, that’s so cool!
RockOverdose: One final question before we end this interview; What are the band’s next steps? Are you going on a promotional tour for the new record, are there different plans in your agenda? Perhaps a second Eurovision participation?
N.V: I think one time in Eurovision was enough. It was super fun and it was a taughtful experience, we learned a lot but nowadays we’re concentrated more on being a traditional rock band like releasing albums and doing tours and that’s what we’re going to do with this one as well. Right now we’re heading to the United States once again to do a few showcased shows to celebrate the release of the album and hopefully we’ll find some new people to work with. After that, we come back to Europe and we’re doing our biggest headline tour to date, it’s called “EXIT EMOTIONS tour”, we hope everybody gets their tickets and comes to see the shows. After that, maybe we’ll go back to the US to play some festivals, then we’re going to do some festivals in Finland and then who knows what the fall brings. It’s going to be a very busy year, we’re going to do lots of shows and we hope we start going to new places, places we haven’t been before. We really hope to go to Japan this year, but we’ll see how it happens. Things have been happening a ton, but it's mostly touring, we’re going to be touring a lot.
RockOverdose: That’s great to hear. Any plans on a European tour maybe that includes Greece in it as well?
J.H: Sure, that would be awesome, we haven’t been to Greece before. We played a European tour for the whole March and April but unfortunately we haven’t included Greece in it, that’s a plan for the future.
RockOverdose: I’ve personally have seen quite a few Finnish bands over the past years, I think six in number, it would be great if you were band number seven a few years from now.
J.H: Hopefully so, yeah.
RockOverdose: I have no more questions for you. Maybe you could send a personalized message to Greek people, as well as the Blind Channel Greek fan club -which is a thing, as I came to find out from my research.
N.V: Of course. Thank you so much for your support and thank you for your patience. We promise to come and tour your beautiful country as soon as possible.
RockOverdose: Perfect! So that will conclude today’s interview, it was nice talking to you, and I hope this interview will be the spark for your next breakthrough and potential live appearances in Greece. The writing staff at rockoverdose.gr wishes you the best of luck in your upcoming release and we hope to hear from you again.
J.H + N.V: Thank you very much for having us, have a good afternoon!
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