Memories of Finland

Sisters Piroth may not be exactly from Finland, but much of the Finnish magic runs in their blood. Born to a Finnish mother and an Austrian father, they grew up in Stockholm and visiting the Alps, where they found much of their inspiration. With a family very devoted to music, it is no surprise that Nina and Johanna started to play and write songs when they were kids. Some years later, they published a couple of records on their own label Oma Gusti Records and toured in Germany and Southern Europe. Soon they will release their second full length album Safe Haven and they hope to take the ferry from Stockholm once again and present their dreamy folk pop songs in Finland.

How would you describe your music?

It’s folk pop. Some songs are very soft, with only guitar and harmonies, some are darker and more intense. We like to experiment with harmonies, our voices, small sounds and mix our band with electronic sounds sometimes. We like heavy kettledrums and glitter in the sound of a glockenspiel. Our new record “Safe Haven”, that will be released in August, there is also some punk and rock. The last record “Prima Ballerina” was softer and bossa nova/folk pop. Lyrically we are poetic, bittersweet and critical to our world. We often write about other peoples lives, like to observe and also to write about own experiences.

When did you start making music together?

We started singing in choirs when we were very young. Then we started playing the violin as soon it was possible in the public music school, then we played together in orchestras. When Johanna was maybe 7 years she wrote her first own song in Swedish and I made some harmonies. I always wrote poems and forced everybody to listen to my reading. Then I took music from other songs and rewrote the lyrics. We always spent the summers in Austria on the Alps. That was the best place for us to grow up creative. We started writing songs together and our mother taught us the first chords on the guitar.

What are your Finnish roots?

Our mother Pirjo comes from Kouvola, in Southern Finland and our relatives live in around there right now.

Does that Finnish heritage have an effect in your music?

Our Finnish family is very warm and loving but also lived hard lives. They are somehow very true as persons. The only thing there is to be yourself and to live your life. Our grandfather made violins and mandolins, our mother and her sister and brother also sang together as children. Our aunt Merja Backman is a Finnish singer and used to tour a lot. Our mother makes music too, and wrote a song for Katri Helena a while ago. I guess if you listen to our next album “Safe Haven” you can hear some Finnish traces (we’ll leave it to you to find out) and we are proud of where we come from. We guess that it has an effect on us the fact that both our parents left their homes and started a new life in Stockholm. We never had more of our family then our parents close to us and in one way I think that made both of us very independent. Also having two languages and two cultures at home had developed us as persons a lot.

Do you speak Finnish?

Yes a bit. We understand almost everything, but since we never really learned Finnish at school we don’t know any rules how to speak, so we just speak and so far people always understood us. When we were kids, our mother always talked Finnish with us when our father was away. And somehow that stayed in our brains and now we talk like children but we love the language.

Did your mother play Finnish music for you when you were younger?

Yes, how did you know? Hehe, she played herself actually, her own Finnish songs with guitar and vocals. Before going to sleep she sang and played. There are two favourite songs that we always wanted to hear Nukku Matti and Magdaleena on pikkuinen tyttö. But since our mother listened to vinyls with Katri Helena, Kaseva, Hector and so on we also listened to that. And of course, Rölli peikko!

What are your favourite Finnish music artists?

We like our aunt’s dark voice and we like the electronic music made by Introvert and Aki Latvamäki. But please let us know more about Finnish bands that are nice, we are always looking for nice music.

Do you visit Finland very often?

We try to go at least once every year to visit our relatives. I also worked in Åland/Ahvenanmaa as a project manager for a youth organization some years ago. We would like to tour in Finland soon, maybe in September or October if it works out with some nice booking agency, or if we can organize it ourselves. We are working on that right now. All help we can get is welcomed!

What are your favourite places in Finland?

We have mostly been in the South. We like Valkeala, Lappeenranta, Kausala, Helsinki. And also the archipelago of Åland and Porvoo.