Why not kick off your week with some Finnish pop music with a twist! We got to speak to Sofi from feelswithcaps about their current album and what they have been up to!

For those who may not not you know tells us who you are?

We are feelswithcaps, I guess you could describe us as an alternative pop band. We are from Helsinki, Finland and there’s three of us: Sofi (singer/songwriter), Mikael (keyboards) and Aleksi (drummer/producer).  

How would you best describe your sound?

We’ve come up with a phrase to describe it, ‘dancing through melancholy landscapes’. Also in one review our sound was described as ‘perfect pop to sad-dance to in your bedroom’, which I liked. These descriptions fit our debut album really well, but who knows – the next one might be a bit different!

Talk to us about your most recent track and video to ‘Bethnal Green’?

Bethnal Green is the closure song of the album. I started writing it – surprise – in Bethnal Green, sitting on a park bench, contemplating on a relationship that was affecting me strongly back then. When we all started working on the song together, we were trying out different things and never really got it right, it was taking so long that we started calling this song Ball of Grief. But at the end we decided to record acoustic piano for it and I think that’s when it all clicked, I think it’s a kind of soft song that ends the Absence journey in a satisfying way? We filmed the video in isolation, we all filmed material at home and sent it to Sofi Häkkinen, who compiled the video. I think isolation goes well with the mood of this song and I really love the video! 

You released your debut album Absence in May – what was your inspiration going into making the album?

Aleksi joined the band late 2016, and we started figuring out what we would sound like together. I lived abroad for a year in 2017-2018 so it was quite slow in the beginning. But we were working on music, released a couple of singles… Then I guess when we felt like we had a direction it was natural to make an album of what we had discovered. Lyric-wise, Absence is like the diaries of my (late) twenties put into one album, it’s an era. 

What is a next for feelwithcaps as the world gets back to normal – if we can call it normal!

Before this isolation era started, we were pretty excited about working on our live show and getting to play live, so I hope that’ll happen some time in the future! Other than that, we’ve kept doing what we do, writing more music. And we’ve been working on this ‘Quarantine Series’, consisting of acoustic versions of three new songs and three of our album songs. 

What are one some of your favourite places to visit and escape to in Finland?

Well, for me my number one place is my family’s cabin, where all three of us went to start working on the album. I’m here now actually, writing this. I always feel like I’m in the right place when I’m here, and like the nonsense of the outside world can’t reach me. I live in Helsinki, within walking distance of the sea, and the seashore is one of my favourite places, too. I like to go swimming in the morning with my friends. In a few months, I’m excited about a trip I’m planning with my friend – we’re going to drive all the way North and cross over to Norway, I’ve never been that far North before and I believe it’s going to be so beautiful. My number one goal for that trip is to see whales. 

What have you been watching, listening to, reading recently – have you any recommendations (just not Tiger King?!)

Haha I haven’t even watched Tiger King! I was going to, but then I thought seeing those captured cats would make me sad so I decided to start watching Modern Family again. 

I’m reading Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney at the moment, my friend lent it to me, and it’s so good – I’m nearly finished. Podcasts, I only recently started getting into the whole podcast thing, I know, I’m so slow. But I’ve been listening to Song Exploder and also Switched On Pop, which are interesting. Also the Wired podcast is interesting. And I was interviewed for a cool podcast called No Regrets, I think the episode is coming out soon. I was so nervous, because I’d never been interviewed for a podcast before and also because I had spent so much time alone at home, having a real conversation was a challenge haha! But we ended up talking about language and language barriers a lot.

Finally, what is your tip of the day?

Here’s my lifestyle tip: go swim in cold water as soon as you wake up! (If you can’t, a cold shower will do as well). This is also an unbeatable hungover cure.

Here’s my music tip: listen to ‘Kevätuhri’, a new album by a gorgeous Finnish band called Ruusut. 

Get following the band on their main webpage www.feelswithcaps.com

Interview by: Alex Minnis

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