The Sound of Opening Doors

Helsinki’s Stockers! have only been together a few years but are set to win over international audiences.

By Sergey Chernov

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: March 20, 2013 (Issue # 1751)

Santtu Särkäs The members of Stockers! met in high school and are part of Helsinki’s growing music scene.

Stockers!, a high-energy yet melodic indie rock band from Helsinki, Finland, will make its Russian debut this week with concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Described as “modern rock which falls somewhere between Editors and White Lies” in their official biography, Stockers! was started in 2007 by a group of high school friends after they saw a concert in a Helsinki club together.

“It’s always nice when somebody compares you to these kinds of big bands, but I still think that we have our own style. But of course bands have always been compared to other bands, there’s nothing bad about it,” guitarist Anton Morelli said in a recent Skype interview with The St. Petersburg Times.

“Maybe I wouldn’t cite those bands because we didn’t listen to them very much, so it’s kind of funny. Like, Editors – we’re very often compared to them, but this band was never close to us.”

In their twenties now, the members were 17 or 18 when the band played its first concert in a garage at a local youth center in Laajasalo in southern Helsinki, the neighborhood where the band’s members grew up.

The gig featured five songs plus a cover version of “Get On” by Finnish rock legends Hurriganes.

“It took us one year to learn how to play instruments, get things right and be able to play some shows,” he said, adding that singer and guitarist Heikki Petrell is responsible for the band’s English lyrics, while the music is written by all the members, who also feature Eetu Dammert on bass and Tuomas Kaitanen on drums.

“We do it together,” he said. “Someone comes [up] with an idea, then we take it to our rehearsal space and just put it together, and everybody gives his own [to the] songwriting.”

According to Morelli, the band chose to sing in English because of its original interest in performing outside Finland. There are no Finnish-language versions of their songs.

“Maybe because we’re heading to international music fields, our future is not connected with Finland so much, and it’s kind of hard with Finnish words,” he said.

Having made its international live debut at Tallinn Music Week in Estonia in 2012 and done a small Baltic tour of Estonia and Latvia earlier this year, Stockers! have yet to break through internationally.

In October 2012, Stockers! released their first full-length album, “We Are the Numbers,” on the Helsinki-based Stupido label.

“We played at a Stupido Club party at Lepakkomies in Kallio, Helsinki, and we were invited by a friend of ours, who runs the club and saw us a week before at a different place,” Morelli said.

“Joose [Berglund, the head of Stupido Records] happened to be there and was excited about us and our songs, but it took about a year [for the band to get signed to the label] because there were a lot of different things going on.”

Recorded at Seawolf Studios in Suomenlinna, Helsinki, the 10-track CD contains both old songs written by the band three years ago and more recent ones written at the time of the recording sessions for the album – and includes a Polaroid photo of the band inside.

“There’s no specific concept for the album, it’s just a mixture,” Morelli said. “There are many different kinds of songs on the album. We think it’s cool that they’re not all the same and you can hear our different sources of inspiration.”

“All of us are listening to slightly different styles — maybe indie rock is a big influence and also all kinds of good music. Of old music, I like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground very much, and old punk bands from Great Britain, Joy Division and stuff like that. Even Dusty Springfield, she’s awesome.”

What differentiates Stockers! from many other bands is simply the sound, Morelli reckoned.

“I think we have managed to create our own, recognizable sound, which is pretty hard nowadays. I think we also have this special kind of energy. I am not talking only about what you can see on stage, you know — it’s invisible. We’ve just got this certain chemistry and when we all four hit the stage it comes together. I’m not saying that it makes a difference between us and the other bands, but it is the main reason we keep doing this, for sure,” he said.

“And we have great songs, and we just play them together very well.”

According to Morelli, Finland’s own indie scene is on the rise these days.

“French Films is the biggest indie act from Finland at the moment,” he said.

“There are also a few other very interesting bands which are operating on a bit of a lower level. I’d like especially to name the one called Neat Neat. They sound a bit like Muse but are still very unique and the singer is pretty awesome. There are also a lot of small labels that have started in the past one or two years, and they’re doing very well.”

Finland’s Stockers! – who found their name “in a dictionary or something,” according to Morelli – must not be confused with the Canadian garage punk band called The Stockers.

“They actually sent us an email a few years back where they said, “Never take away the exclamation mark!”

Stockers! will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 22 at Dada, 47 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa. M: Sennaya Ploshchad, Sadovaya. Tel. 983 7050.