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 alternative metal act STRÅLE to hear how they experienced 2024.
Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions about 2024. Let’s start with an easy one. How has 2024 been for STRÅLE?
It’s crazy to realize that it’s been a year of high notes for us and still, we have the biggest thing ahead of us. But so far we have been working on the new album with Teemu Aalto and Jacob Hansen, we had a really cool collab with Björn Strid of SOILWORK, we released three singles that have been doing really well and we also had a sold-out gig at Semifinal, in Helsinki. 2024 has truly served us well!
2024 also includes a 17-date tour with ORPHANED LAND. How much of 2024 did you spend preparing for this tour and how are you looking forward to it?
Obviously, it’s the big highlight of the year for us, doing our first European tour, something that is way overdue since it has been postponed twice. The tour is going to be awesome, playing some of the coolest venues in Europe and finally meeting the European fans. We have been dividing our efforts between making the new album and the tour preparations, and sadly that has meant that we haven’t been able to play so much in Finland this year. But that is going to change…
You released some new music as well this year, how have the reactions been?
The new lineup with the change of vocalist has definitely opened new paths for STRÅLE, aiming for another broader audience without losing the core fans. And of course for us as an ambitious and upcoming band, it feels good to be featured on some of the best editorial Spotify playlists in Finland. We feel very encouraged and confident that the new album is going to make a nice splash in the alternative metal pond!
Have you (re-)discovered any music during this year that you’d like to share with our readers?
When we realized we would go on tour with ORPHANED LAND, that of course made us check them out a little more and they are a really special and unique band. But maybe even cooler and less well known in Finland is the Romanian band DIRTY SHIRT who also will be joining the Motocultor tour with us. They have some crazy shit going on with their folk metal and we can’t wait to experience them live!
What do you have in store for us in 2025?
First of all, we are going to release the new album and with that, we are aiming to do more gigs in Finland to be able to perform for the new fans of STRÅLE that have heard the new stuff but haven’t been able to see us live yet. But even before that, we have a special surprise for you… December 11th – in the middle of our tour, we’re going to release a killer cover version of THE WEEKND‘s “Blinding Lights.” Teemu worked very hard with us to make this one really special – so we’re sure you’re going to love it!
Interview by Laureline Tilkin
