Juska Salminen: I love my work in Rock Academy

When my editor-in-chief asked me to write an article about government support for young musicians in Scandinavian and Baltic countries I immediately remembered about Finland and its Rock Academy which helps to young rockers. To know more about the project I came to Kouvola to meet Juska Salminen. Known as ex-keyboard player of ‘Mary-Ann’, ‘New Dawn Foundation’, ‘To/Die/For’, and of course ‘HIM’, nowadays Juska works as a youth leader in Kouvola and as a coach in local Rock Academy.

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So, what is Rock Academy?

Juska: Rock Academy Finland was started in Turku in 2011. There were places for bands to play, and one day two guys, Tomi Arvas and Mark Bértenyi, decided that they can have more youngsters to play music, to work more intensively with the music, to give more chances for them to learn how it works in music business. So, they started to do it. The project got bigger and bigger. Aside Turku nowadays Rock Academy works in Jyväskylä. Rovaniemi, Raahe, Kemi, Kuopio, and Kouvola joined in 2019 for two year project. There are from two to four bands in each city. To participate in Rock Academy you have to be a band already, you have to be under 29 years old, and you have to give a commitment to stay in the project for two years. There’s no other limitations.

What do the bands do in Rock Academy?

Juska: First of all, it’s not a school of rock. We don’t create bands. We improve their skills in song writing and playing. You already have to be a band, you have instruments, and you have strong willing to play. Participating bands get studio time, and a studio coach. Also we organize gigs for them as much as we can. And then they work. In two years they will get their album on a physical copy, at least a CD. And a music video. And some promo shoots. And at least once in a month there’s a professional person, not only a musician, who comes and tells about his view to the profession. As the bands they hopefully get better, and also more secure in different kind of aspects from the whole business. But the most important aspect of Rock Academy is a youth work.

What is your role?

Juska: The basic idea for us is to be like a team. Working with young bands in Rock Academy Kouvola, I’m not a producer, or manager, I’m more like a coach. My goal is to teach them about life, to talk about life, to spend time with them.

Who pays for everything?

Juska: Rock Academy gets money from the government, from the Ministry of Education and Culture. It gives almost 100 000 euro for 2 years for each city. Quite a lot!

Why does Rock Academy work in exactly these cities?

Juska: I actually don’t know the whole process. But of course the guys from Turku need new cities. And in a city there should be a person with a spark in the eyes to do this. In Kouvola we were really eager to join the project. The whole concept goes from Turku, and then they see how other cities are making it. And the goal of the project is that we can make our basic youth work which also should be funded by the cities. Unfortunately at the moment Kouvola is facing really bad economical crisis, and we don’t have money from the city. I hope that we can get some, so we could keep on doing this. And there’s a lot of good things. We bought all the P&A system, the back line, and the jupiters for the stage of local youth club ‘Nuorten paikka’. And we pay to the studio coach who works with our guys, and who is local. And we pay to rent the studio, which is local. So, we give money to the city as well. So, the concept is nice. I love my work at the moment.

Who creates the program for the bands? You, or the guys from Turku?

Juska: It’s sort of a franchise. Rock Academy Turku is kinda quality management and control. If we make an album, they need first to check it. Turku is the one who organizes it. We have our project coordinator in Turku. Of course, we have to give reports. But the best thing is we can really make it like our own city like. And we have our own budget. 

You mentioned music business professionals who come to Kouvola to talk to the young musicians. What celebrities have already showed up?

Juska: For example, a photographer and a music video director Ville Juurikkala was here, and his story was nice; he has worked with so many famous people. We had a guitar player Tomi Koivusaari from ‘Amorphis’. And also Mikko von Hertzen from ‘Von Hertzen Brothers’. And a guitar player Douglas Blair from ‘W.A.S.P.’. Tomorrow here will be Asko Kallonen, a general manager of Warner Music Finland. In Kouvola we organize these meetings in ‘Nuorten paikka’, but not only our bands or other youngsters can attend, we invite everyone.

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What about Rock Academy coaches in the other cities? I tried to check them, but I didn’t see any familiar faces. It looks like you are the only one music star among them.

Juska: Уou call me a star *laughs*. Well, I have the past being in a famous band. Every city has a coach, of course. But they don’t have to be from a famous band.

I mean, you were involved in music business, and you know what it is.

Juska: In Kuopio Sakari Hietala from ‘Tarot’ works with the guys. In Jyväskylä the project is run by Seppo Pohjolainen, a drummer from ‘Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus’ band. But it’s not about being in the music business, it’s about a youth work. Every city has this basic idea – to give the youngsters the support. Of course, my past in ‘HIM’ helps obviously. But for example I can’t do anything in studio nowadays, so we have a professional studio coach. But yes, I share my knowledge of being… *laughs*…  a star. Ok, of being in a famous band.

Is there any other interesting government projects in Finland to support young musicians?

Juska: In each city we have a certain budget. Cities pay for a youth work. And then there’s a certain amount of money for cultural youth work. And then we aim them. But I don’t know about any other huge projects like Rock Academy.

So, what exactly happens in Rock Academy Kouvola? What are the bands here? How did you choose them?

Juska: It is the first year of Rock Academy Kouvola. Now we have two bands – ‘Rock-Criminals’, and ‘Another Hot Spring’. At the listening there were four bands playing, but only these two wanted to commit themselves for 2 years and to stay.

Erm, I’m surprised you didn’t have to choose between 20 bands.

Juska: At this moment, in 2019, to be in a band isn’t that trendy like it was in 1995-2000. When I was a teenager, every local bands were like superstars. And nowadays, at this specific time, it’s not so cool to be in a band. 20 years ago it was a huge thing to get in the studio. I was playing in ‘Mary-Ann’, and it was more than life to get in the studio to record the first album. It was so special! Nowadays you can make your own album so easily. Time changes, and we have to live at this time.

What can you say about these two bands: ‘Rock-Criminals’, and ‘Another Hot Spring’?

Juska: They both exist for some years already. About their music you better talk with them. Now it’s our goal to make them better, and we can do it in a certain scale. And they are really good guys. It’s really easy to go with them. They all are around 20 years old, and I think they are at a perfect age. They are responsible. They know for sure that they want to stay in Rock Academy for the whole period. When you are young, two years is quite a long period of time. Even these guys of the age of 20… A few of them went to study in Helsinki, one – in Turku, one is working in Hamina, one is working here, one is going to study in Lappeenranta…

At least they study and work, not just hang out on the streets.

Juska: True. But again if they would just hang around on the streets, we would rather give them an opportunity to hang at the rehearsal place. If they would be persons with the problems, and if they would have a band, it still would be nice to have them here. It is the youth work aspect to talk about life, and to help them to grow up in a family of music, in a safe environment. 
And of course the life comes first, the studies come first, and then there’s Rock Academy. For example, when we meet with those music business professionals here, they say you have to give everything for your success in the industry. And as a youth leader what can I say? Should they give everything, or should they study, or what? I think it’s in between. At some point of course you have to make a decision. But I obviously support them to study. We all know that it’s so freaking difficult to get the livinghood from music. Rock Academy won’t give any guarantees to make anyone a star. Obviously if you have Asko Kallonen here, and you make good impression to him, he knows you. But then again the music business nowadays… in some way it’s about the connections, but it’s also about money maybe a bit more. 20+ years ago Asko heard demo record of ‘Wicked Game’ by ‘HIM’, and that’s ‘HIM’ success story. Maybe they would recorded another song, and it would be another story. It is difficult. And it’s even more difficult nowadays when everyone can make their own albums with their own stuff and computers in homes with little amount of money.

Yeah, I know what you mean. In my last interviews with Finnish musicians I always discuss these weird moments of music business. A few weeks ago I spoke with Tero Vesterinen from ‘Vesterinen Yhtyeineen’. He told me they exist for 13 years, and they had played about 500 gigs before all of a sudden without any super hit on the radio they started to sell out venues like “Pakkahuone” [a concert hall in Tampere, one of the biggest in Finland – Mela]. And still I knew about them only after Ville Valo wore a hoodie with their logo, and I googled it.

Juska: Exactly. You need to be in the right place at the right time. It’s just one moment in the Universe. You need to have good music, of course. And you need to work hard. And it’s also about luck. And about talent. And about connections. And you never know when Ville Valo wears your t-shirt. It works somehow all together. You probably remember the year 2000, when ‘HIM’ became kinda first and really big. There were sooooo many bands bubbling under. But there can be only one, or two, or three. ‘HIM’… ‘The Rasmus’…

Well, ‘The 69 Eyes’ maybe. But ‘To/Die/For’ is no where. And ‘Entwine’ will “die” tomorrow… [We spoke with Juska on November 8, one day before Entwine farewell gig in Lahti – Mela]

Juska: There’s no ‘To/Die/For’ any more… [Surprisingly a few weeks later, right in the end of 2019, ‘To/Die/For’ announced the one and only gig “in original line up” in summer 2020 at John Smith Festival – Mela]

My first strong impression is overwhelming performance of ‘HIM’ at huge Provinssirock’1999. I don’t know what should happen to let’s say ‘Rock-Criminals’ to play at such a huge stadium nowadays.

Juska: And there’s no much stadium bands anymore. Who? ‘Muse’ are the last one. Ed Sheeran is something new and different. There will never be ‘The Rolling Stones’ again. I don’t know. But you just have to do it. If it’s fun, you do it.

Maybe it’s better to sing in Finnish if you want to be popular?

Juska: Is there any bands singing in Russian and being popular abroad?

I mean singing in Finnish you can be super popular in Finland. Like ‘JVG’…

Juska: Ah, yeah. Finnish singing bands and singers are very high in the charts, that’s true. Like ‘Haloo Helsinki!’. Cheek was super popular. Ellinoora, Vesala… But it’s about radio. You need a good label, and a very strong radio support. And again you never know.

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Ok, let’s come back to Rock Academy Kouvola. What is the nearest future?

Juska: Rock Academy came to Kouvola for 2 years. Goal is to keep it on going as long as we can. For next year we would like to have a young band ‘Immortal Sorrow’. The guys are very young, they are about 16 years old. I hope they will be like a little gem we can make to a diamond. They are really good guys, and good players. Still we want to give a chance for everyone who wants to apply. If there is gonna be like five bands who want to play here, we really don’t want to make a competition, and we’ll give a positive feedback.
And I like the idea coming from Jyväskylä. They have a venue, and they give bands a possibility to play at any time. We gonna start the same thing here at ‘Nuorten Paikka’ in Kouvola since January, too. We’ll give a chance for bands to play once a month on Fridays. I don’t even know if we get any bands, but I hope. And it’s not about the amount of audience. We were with ‘To/Die/For’ in a European tour, and we played for 5 people once. And once it was 400. But you need to practice to play on stage.
And playing in another cities is a unique opportunity to travel as a band, to be like a team. A few weeks ago we were in Jyväskylä with our young bands to play at that venue, and also to meet the guys from ‘The 69 Eyes’. The whole experience was awesome for the bands, and for me. I really felt like a coach of a team. That was one of the best experience so far. To spend time with the guys is priceless. 

By Melamory