So Merry Christmas or whatever you decide to celebrate!
Hyvää Joulua by axelehnstrom

Hey everybody!
Sorry I haven’t updated myself for a while. I’ve just been lazy, that’s all. Now however, I have important news! There’s going to be a concert called Earthvoice, where I’m playing on the 19th of January in Sellosali, Espoo. It’s going to be a unique charity concert for the environment! Waltari will also perform, and I can assure you that other interesting things will happen!

Buy yourself and your friends a Christmas present, or tell your mom to buy you one! You won’t be able to combine culture with charity every day so get your tickets here now! And tell your friends to come too!

If you’re not convinced about it yet, I can tell you that I’m going to focus on music in the near future so this will be THE ONLY CONCERT where you can hear me play for the next few months! So get your tickets now, or you’ll regret it later!

PS. Saara Aalto will take care of the Earthvoice show on the 20.1!

I apologize for being quiet for such a long time! I’ve just had a lot of things to do, and this blog has been so full of spam that I haven’t felt like writing. This is just a short and tired update that I’m still alive and making music! Some of you might have seen me on TV on nenäpäivä, or somewhere else. Other than that I go to school and write music and read books. I just finished South of No North by Charles Bukowski.
Oh yeah, and I’ve been in the fair trade campaign. Spot me around Helsinki and 4 other city’s in Finland!

I’ll continue as soon as I’ve gotten some sleep.

Happy Sunday!

It’s a lovely autumn weather in Kirkkonummi right now. A good day to go out in the forrest for a walk and perhaps pick mushrooms, or just enjoy the weather. Sitting in the sun and reading a book is also a good idea (btw I’m reading A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn).
I had a gig yesterday at the Slow Food festival in Fiskars. With the sun in my eyes, I played in the middle of all the people going around the market, so it felt a bit like busking. From Fiskars I came to Kirkkonummi where I had another show. I decided to stay here on the countryside for a day before I’ll go back to the city.
Another interesting thing that happened this weekend is that I met Al Gore on Friday. He was speaking at the Nordic Business Forum in Jyväskylä where I was playing. I’ve always thought that seminars with men in suits are boring but this one was really interesting!

That’s all I have to say for now.

Hey!

I’ve been sick for almost two weeks now, that’s why I haven’t been updating my life online. I had a fever for almost a week, and then I got the flu. Anyways, I managed to perform at the Elämä Lapselle concert last wednesday, and it was really nice even though I felt a little strange.

This week I’ve been resting, but I had two gigs as well. I played at the Septemberfestival in Nagu on Thursday and Friday. The point of the Septemberfestival was that they had built the worlds longest table, and it was now announced as an official Guiness world record. The table is 163,58m long, and it looked huuuuge! On Thursday there were guests invited from around the world, and on Friday it was open for other people. The audience was really great, so if you were there, thanks!
I stayed at the Strandbo hotel which had lovely receptionists (thanks!), and spent my time walking around in the small town and looking at the wonderful autumn nature in the archipelago. If you ever visit Finland, visit the archipelago!

Hey!
Last Friday we played at the brand new Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. We played some folkier versions of my songs and made them a bit more down to earth. Thanks to everyone who came to listen!

On Saturday, a friend of mine organized a thing he calls “the Amazing city race”, which basically is the same thing as the Amazing race TV-show, but it’s held in Helsinki and without the TV. We were six pairs who ran around Helsinki to find places and figure out clues. My pair was Linda Rajalin, a friend of mine who’s a stand-up comedian. The only rules in the game was that you can’t use cars or bikes, so you have to move by foot or public transport.
We went from Kulosaari to Lauttasaari, Itäkeskus and who knows where, by foot, buses, trams, trains and subways! The fun part was to figure out the different clues, so you could figure out where the next stop would be. One place we stopped at was Kaapelitehdas where one person in the team had to climb down a wall. Linda was the lucky one..

I can tell you that it was a lot of fun, and I can totally recommend organizing these kind of things among your friends, it’s so great!

Today I’m playing at 3PM in Eurooppa-sali in Voimatalo, Helsinki. I think it’s some EU thing.. It’ll be interesting.
And tomorrow we’re playing on a boat with the band!

I’ve been quite busy the last few weeks. A lot going on but not so much worth putting in a blog, or maybe I just don’t remember stuff.. Anyways, school started last week, so now I’m all back to studying music and not just playing around! A lot of nice classes coming up this year so I think I’m going to enjoy it a lot.

Last weekend I was is Oulu and played a show before Riku Niemi Orchestra & Jorma Kääriäinen. They were really good btw, and very nice people. I hope I’m going to bump into them again later! And also, night trains are GENIOUS! I’m getting a bit fed up (..and fat..) with just driving with a car or sitting in a train all day and not really being able to do much. It’s not terrible, but I just like being active all the time, and the passiveness of just sitting just doesn’t work for my body. Luckily I got to go back from Oulu with a night train.

Yesterday it was The night of the Arts in Helsinki. The purpose is that the city is filled with different kind of artistic activities, like concerts, shows, galleries and anything cool and creative! In practice, The night of the Arts equals a city filled with people that get so drunk that they can barely walk, not to mention behave themselves. It’s really interesting to watch human beings treat themselves that way. I’m not against alcohol but my favorite cocktail is alcohol mixed with common sense. And it’s cheap!
There were some quite interesting stuff going on artwise, that I managed to see. One of them was actually some friends of mine that play crazy Beatles covers on the street. They call themselves Pippurikirurgi ja Ohitusleikkausorkesteri and I joined them for some songs until, of course, some drunk people started getting violent.

Next Friday (2.9) I’m going to be playing with most of my band (Mikko, Kaisa and Erik) at the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. It’s a brand new concert house which is really cool! They have a club opening there and it’s free to come watch us and some other bands play. Our showtime is 22.30! Here’s the facebook event!

Thanks to Sakari Mäkelä for the picture!

In my last blog post I discussed a book that I had just READ, and the replies made it into some sort of book club, which was actually quite nice and inspired me to write this post! So let’s put music aside for one moment and set our minds on books. I really enjoy a good book, especially now when it’s getting a bit chilly and dark outside here in Finland, and I can sit under a blanket in my small apartment and travel with my mind instead. What I really enjoy in literature is when someone can really paint an interesting and detailed world, in other words, when someone describes things in beautiful ways. Naturally, I also enjoy good stories, which you probably guessed already if you’ve listened to my music. I’m always looking for a good book to read after I’ve finished the one I’m reading now. (And at the moment I am reading Son of Hamas which some guy sent me in the mail a while back for some reason.. Anyway, it’s an excellent book!). SO, now I’m asking you to recommend a book that you’d suggest me to read next. I’m open for different things so just name the best book you’ve got!

,Axel

So another summer weekend has gone by. This one was quite calm for my part. No concerts or duties! I’ve been playing around, trying to get my creative juices flowing. I’ve got some work done too, though nothing completed yet. I really like it when I don’t have to rush anything, I can just sit down and play what I feel like.
A lot of my time has also gone to reading books. Today I finished a really good book that I’ve been meaning to read for many years now. I recommend it to everyone who’s interested in middle eastern politics or human rights or feminism. The Bookseller Of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, is a touching story about a family that lives in Afghanistan. It’s based on true stories and is very well told! It’s not very long so you can almost read it in one weekend if you like. A very good book to read on an autumn weekend when you lie under a blanket and just want to escape to a warmer place!

Another cool thing that happened this week is that I had a small “concert” in the new Musiikkitalo in Helsinki! I was asked to perform a few pieces at a YLE Conference so they could hear how terrific the acoustics are. The opening of Musiikkitalo is going to be on the first of September and I think it’s going to be a really cool house. After my playing, I heard the Radio Symphony Orchestra play in the big concert hall, and it sounded amazing! I’m not usually into the kind of heavy classical music that they played (a piece by Sibelius), but this sounded so natural and beautiful! If you ever visit Helsinki, you should go listen to something in Musiikkitalo!

I think that’s all for now. Enjoy school or work or wherever you’ll find yourselves. Don’t let anyone take the Sundays away from you.

,Axel

Another weekend gone by, and my last “gig weekend” in a long time! I’m not doing much shows this month due to the cancellation of the Concert shows (cancelled because of weak ticket sales, sorry!). But I’ve been doing quite a lot of live playing lately, so I’m looking forward to staying home writing by myself. As some of you may have noticed I already got one song written last weekend! I wrote it on the night between Friday and Saturday, and was so happy with it that I played it live at the Alkumeri festival on Sunday!

Alkumeri was perhaps the coolest festival I went to this summer. A very interesting concept and a nice place. The festival had some sort of water theme, and the stage was located on a swimming stadium in Samppalinna, Turku. Right in front of the stage there was a swimming pool where people could go under water to listen to the music. There was also a string quartet playing with all the artists, so I’d made two string arrangement to Da da dam and Sunday Everyday. All in all, s really nice festival that I suggest you visit in the future!