It’s not often that I get to hang out with a nü metal boy band from Finland, but that’s exactly what we did on the ground in Austin for SXSW 2024. We spoke with Joel Hokka and Niko Moilanen of Blind Channel, as part of our SXSW Artist Spotlight series. “The Backstreet Boys of the metal scene” made their first appearance at SXSW this year, “to kind of have a little warm up and rehearsal for the European run,” according to Joel.
Now streaming like crazy and headlining a spring tour in Europe, they’ll be back in the States to support P.O.D. on their summer tour. Blind Channel are getting dialed in following their success with the single “Dark Side” at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021. They’ve got a new album, Exit Emotions, and have built a ton of momentum with their dynamic live show and their high-compression singles.
We caught Blind Channel’s set at Speakeasy in Austin after a gut-wrenching screening of director Dan Reed’s documentary film The Truth vs. Alex Jones, and they were exactly the release I needed. These guys owned the room with a show tailor-made for arenas that simply overcame this venerable Congress Ave club. If you think boy-band metal could be your thing, catch these guys on the way up.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
360°Sound: Blind Channel has been described as nü metal, but you guys refer to yourselves as ‘violent pop.’
Niko: Yeah, it kind of started as a joke. We started the band back in 2013. At that time, we felt like the nü metal wave had just passed – it wasn’t trendy at all. But we loved nü metal, and we wanted to do it. When we did our first demos, we were sending them to local radio stations, and we needed a way to describe our music. We wanted something short and catchy. Nü metal felt like we were late. And alternative rock is just boring; it doesn’t really describe your music – anything could be alternative rock. So we came up with ‘violent pop,’ and the local radio station thought that it’s catchy. We’ve been using it as a brand ever since.
You guys competed in the Eurovision song contest in 2021, and you painted your middle fingers red. Was that because they wouldn’t let you flip the middle finger because of the family-oriented nature of the contest? Is [the middle finger] sort of a thing that you guys do?
Joel: That was a wild time. It’s been already three years since that happened. The time has passed so quickly that we didn’t have time to realize what happened. Yeah, they banned the middle finger. So we had to figure out something. We’re going to paint the middle fingers red, and it worked out pretty well. We’re here touring the world, and streaming hundreds of millions on Spotify. So I guess it was good that we painted them red.
Niko: They said we can’t show the middle finger, but they didn’t say we can’t make sure that people can’t unsee it. It’s been that way of doing things since the beginning. It’s very nü metal-ish to provoke people. We want to provoke people with our music and our shows. That’s why we call our music violent pop. That’s why we are referred to as ‘the Backstreet Boys of the metal scene,’ because we love to provoke people. We want to make the kind of music that you either love or you hate. There’s no middle ground.
Joel: We want to go all in – either good or bad.
So you’re like the subversive boyband?
Joel: Yeah, kind of like that. I mean, we are already almost 30 years old, but I guess Backstreet Boys at their peak, they were around 30.
Niko: So, we still have a time
Joel: (ironic air quotes) Boy band.
“Dark Side” was the song that you competed with in the Eurovision. Now, on Spotify, it’s got like 17 million spins. That’s your big hit, to date?
Niko: Yeah. A lot of things changed after “Dark Side.” We made it during the COVID times. It was a dark time in the world, and for us as a band as well. We had been making our third album for two years, we had been building this momentum for like seven years, and then everything was canceled – our tours, our shows. All the possibilities were taken away from us. We wrote a song about all that frustration, and the feeling that you just want to put your middle finger up in the air and scream.
The Eurovision idea came about around the same time, because that was the only way to take our music to the people, to the audiences. And we did that. It turned out that a lot of people in the world were feeling the same way. They wanted to show the middle finger and scream. I think that’s why we were placed sixth in the Eurovision, and “Dark Side” became a huge hit in Finland and in all Europe. It was even played on the radio in the States. “Dark Side” made many things possible for us.
It really seems to connect with a deep gut emotion. For your new record, Exit Emotions, how have you guys evolved?
Joel: With “Dark Side” we were more like this pop-rock boy band in Europe, like everyone knew from the audition. But now with Exit Emotions and the single, “Dead Zone,” we got this big tour in America with P.O.D. coming in May, and we have a huge headline tour in Europe. We’re featured on Kerrang!, Rock Sound, Metal Hammer – we are a real metal band right now. We’re not the pop rock boy band anymore. I mean, we are a boy band still, but we are a real metal band, like in the metal scene. That was the change we wanted to make from Lifestyles of the Sick and Dangerous where “Dark Side” is included. We wanted to go into the metal world, like full on. Right now the direction is right. We’re going to play the biggest metal festivals in America and also in Europe.
Niko: Exit Emotions gets us a bit closer to our influences, American bands mostly – Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Korn. With Lifestyles of the Sick and Dangerous we were a bit lost in the mainstream world, and now we’re keeping it real – or keeping it surreal, like we call it – getting back to the roots of the music we always wanted to make. It really feels cool. Like if Lifestyles of the Sick and Dangerous and “Dark Side” was a shiny new car, Exit Emotions is an American monster truck. That’s how it feels to us.
Be crushing some buses then, right on. You mentioned Linkin Park, Korn. Are there some current metal bands that you guys like to associate yourselves with?
Joel: Those nü metal legends are the main influences, but for sure Bring Me the Horizon, Nothing but Thieves, Enter Shikari, that kind of more modern bands are influencing as well. But we like to say that the early 2000s music – the pop and metal – has a lot of influence for us.
Have you done some touring in the States?
Niko: We’ve done three tours already. The first one was back in 2022. We toured with From Ashes to New – we became great friends with them; they’re an awesome band. Then we did a tour with Lacuna Coil. And then we did a tour with The HU, the Mongolian band – that was a crazy tour as well. You got to check them out; they’re doing throat singing and stuff – it’s crazy. Those guys are insane. Then in May we’re coming back to the States to tour with P.O.D. We’re gonna be here a lot. You can’t get rid of us anymore.
What do you have planned for your set at Speakeasy for SXSW?
Niko: There are many songs in the set from the Exit Emotions album, and we’ll be playing them live for the first time, so we’re super excited to see how they really work. Because Exit Emotions is our first album we have approached from a live perspective. When we made the first demos, the first riffs, we were already picturing the live shows in our mind. So now we finally get to do that. It’s gonna be awesome – anything can happen at a Blind Channel show.
What else can can we expect from a Blind Channel live show?
Niko: It’s gonna be energetic, it’s gonna be intensive. And if there are any tables or anything like that, we’re going to be jumping on top of them. We’ll usually just look around the place and like, ‘I could hang over there. I could jump over there.’ That kind of stuff. Let’s see what happens.
It sounds almost like a Cirque du Soleil metal show.
Niko: Oh, yeah. I like that.
Joel: Yeah, it’s gonna be crazy.
Learn more about Blind Channel on blindchannelofficial.com
Blind Channel will also be appearing with P.O.D. on their summer tour in 2024. Check the dates here.
