Satellite Stories hail from Oulu in Finland and have been playing together since 2008. Their jingly-jangy sound, bouncing indie tunes and dynamic stage performances have built them a strong live following in their home country.
Previously the chaps have been seen hanging around the top 10 of the prestigious Hype Machine chart as well as having a track placed onto the MTV show Jersey Shore.
We slung a few question over to them up front of their summer shows and the release of their track Family.
Tell me what’s going on in Finland right now music-wise?
There’s going to be a great summer for the fans of Finnish indie music. French Films, Big Wave Riders and of course we are releasing new music this summer. Our band will also play on three major Finnish festivals so we can also see the other bands there. I’m mostly looking forward of seeing The Vaccines at Provinssirock. We also have a HUGE release party for our new single 4th of June at Oulu.
Are there any locals bands are you currently fans of?
We like local Oulu band called Reetta. They play Finnish pop with such a craft and style that they are always good band to watch and listen.
Have you any plans to get to the UK?
We’d love to play in UK! But we still haven’t gotten a gig there. We’ll come there ASAP if we get a chance.
You have a new track out in the Spring, tell us about that.
Family is now available to listen to at our website and on the 14th of June you can buy it from your local mp3-store. I would describe Family a movie-like piece of youthful pondering. It’s about how you live in the present but you still have to think about some possibilities what the future could bring. And it is also a pop song in vein of more energetic songs of The Wombats and Vampire Weekend. We are also proud of the little Phoenix-shuffle we have going around the song.
It says in some of your press material that you are ‘currently unsigned’. Do you think a band needs to be signed or can you reach you goals without aligning yourself to a label?
A label is important because people who work on a record label have important contacts. Music industry is nowadays all about networking. I don’t say it isn’t possible to make your band popular without record label, but it helps things to happen.
I believe you also run your own blog in Finland, how does that fit into your plans?
Our music blog started on a idea that there’s so many bands we like but no-one to tell about them. Blogging is about networking and such-and-such and now I’ve even met couple of music bloggers who live in a different side of the country! The plan is quite simple, we like music and a blog is just an extension of that expression.
What bands, would you say have influenced your music most?
There’s four bands which we all like: The Wombats, Vampire Weekend, Two Door Cinema Club and Phoenix. We all have our individual influences that affect to our music. Olli-Pekka (drummer) and Esa (singer) have a huge electronic music background. Olli-Pekka has made trance over 10 years and Esa has a club in Oulu which is devoted to new electronic dance music. Jyri (bassist) knows more about rap and folk than anyone else in our band. I’m the only one in our band that likes more classic indie rock like Sonic Youth and Pavement. Olli-Pekka and me have recently also started to like chillwave!
Where do you hope to be this time next year?
We’re hoping to be at the airport, just starting our European tour.
Finally, sum up the sound of Satellite Stories in 8 words or less…
Four guys making racket, sounds like a party.
Listen to Family below:
