As we kick 2024 out the door and welcome 2025 with open arms, join us for a series of interviews with artists who’ve braved the year’s riffs, breakdowns, and questionable soundchecks. We’re diving into their triumphs, challenges, and everything that kept the music industry alive and kicking. We sat down with the Finnish progressive metal act ODDLAND to hear how they experienced 2024.
Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview. This is a short recap of what 2024 was like for you. Let’s start with the obvious, how was 2024 for you?
Hi! 2024 has turned out to be quite busy and also very good for us. We released our first single from our upcoming album and actually we are currently in the studio recording the next single which will be released early next year. We also did a music video for the first one and we’re going to do another video for the next one. The highlight of the year was naturally the 5-week European tour we did in October with
SOEN. 16 countries, 27 shows, which was the biggest tour we’ve ever done. We also made a record deal with Frontiers Records so the future looks quite bright for us at the moment.
What musical goals did you set for 2024? Did you achieve them?
Our goals were to find a bigger record label for releasing the next album, to do a tour, and also to release two singles. So we had a pretty good hit rate in the end!
Were you able to dedicate as much of 2024 to your project/band as you had hoped?
The first half of the year we just wrote new music and at the same time our management was searching for a new label and a tour for us. The second half was just recording, filming the music video, and doing preparations for the upcoming tour. I’m happy to say that we couldn’t have done more. So short answer to the question: yes.
What were some of the highlights you realized in 2024?
Well, as we already mentioned the record deal with Frontiers music and the tour with SOEN were the biggest highlights. As for a single highlight moment, I would say it was the gig we had in Istanbul during the European tour. The venue was huge, with over 2000 people attending. The Turkish fans are definitely some of the loudest we’ve ever experienced, and the reception was overall very warm. Also two days before the show, our drummer got turned back to Greece at the Turkish border because of some passport issues. We did two shows with digital drums and luckily, we got our drummer back for the biggest show of the tour. It felt like a miracle to pull this off since it was Saturday afternoon when the Turkish police took him back to the Greek border. Then from there he took a taxi to Alexandroupolis, flew to Athens, and spent the night in the Athens airport. On Sunday morning he flew to Helsinki Via Zürich, ordered a new passport from the Helsinki airport, spent the night in the hotel and the next day, he was already back in Turkey and waited for us in Istanbul. It felt and still feels unreal that we got him back to do the show in Istanbul.
Is there anything you learned during 2024?
The music industry is something I find myself still struggling to completely understand. So every time you make a new record deal, record in the studio, promote a new release, etc. you learn something new. Also, the tour itself was one huge learning experience for us. For example, this was the first time we did a bigger tour without our own sound engineer. But everything worked surprisingly well with local sound engineers. Naturally, there was a shitload of non-music related stuff we needed to sort out by ourselves during the tour such as logistics, restocking the merch, handling all the documents for non-EU countries customs etc. Also, we might be a bit more careful with our passports in the future. Though we also learned that customs can be quite a pain in the ass even if you have all the documents. The more stamps the better!
Have you (re-)discovered any new music during 2024?
Definitely! The new OPETH is growing slowly on me and gets better every time I listen to it. Also, the new releases from VOLA and LEPROUS were quite good. At the moment I have CONVERGE‘s “Blood Moon” on constant repeat in my headphones. One of the best records ever. Next, I’m going to listen to the new ORANSSI PAZUZU. It’s a band I’ve always wanted to dig deeper into, but somehow I’ve always forgotten about them. So I’m going to fix that next.
What can we expect from you in 2025?
We are currently in the studio and we’re going to release a new album next year. Before that, we will release 1-2 singles. Hopefully, we can pull off a European tour and we’ll definitely do some shows in Finland also. So see you next year!
Interview with Laureline Tilkin
