When an ordinary tramper digs into the corner of the sofa in the evening to watch TV, a rocker who is nearing retirement age or has already passed it is just tuning up his instrument for a gig.
It’s buzzing in the ears, after the gig we head straight for home and in the morning we go for a cane walk or a dog run. When you get on stage, the old circus horse is like a young bull again. For example, this is how you could describe the typical work of a Finnish rock personality in his fifties.
Musicians age just like everyone else, and evening and nighttime work takes its toll on the creator. An artist who has toured clubs and concert stages for decades may not be able to get excited about the continuation of the gigs, but instead of partying, he is invited by peti.
Alatalo’s tour pace is fast. For example, in one week of gigs in February, we first have a concert on Thursday in Helsinki, go to sleep at home, and then head to Vantaa. On Saturday, the bow of the car turns towards the east again, where the Kuopio concert is already waiting.
– After the gig, you can go out to eat and maybe have a beer, but you can’t stay and drink it in nightclubs. Yes, it is necessary to sleep properly in order to be able to move forward again in the morning, Alatalo says.
Rock stars who tour the world are starting to reach the age of eighty and rap. Finland is a bit behind in this matter.
While in other parts of the world the rock genre flourished already in the sixties, the Finns came a little behind. Those Finnish musicians who started playing rock already before the 1970s are no longer actively touring or giving concerts.
Singing and touring requires a tough physique
Pietilä, who has studied the aging of rock musicians, is interested in what motivates the former youth idol who started his career as a young musician to continue his career as he approaches retirement age or has already passed it.
He believes that many performers are aware that part of the audience creates a judgmental look at the aging artist – especially in the musician’s own mind. A self-critical music professional looks at himself, as it were, through the eyes of the audience and may wonder if he already has enough kilometers behind him when thinking about retirement.
The researcher was afraid that it would be difficult to get rockers to participate in a study that clearly talks about aging. However, he noticed that age does not seem to be a taboo in musicians’ circles, as interviewees for the University of Helsinki’s research were easily found after finding contact information.
Nine artists who had a long rock career were included in the study.
– The interviewees were you with their age, and the resistance that \”I’m not getting old\” didn’t come up at all, assistant professor Ilkka Pietilä says.
The research revealed that there is no age discrimination in the Finnish rock genre. Musicians who truly perform as themselves are suitable for both the audience and fellow musicians even when they are older.
Mikko Alatalo’s career began in the early 70s. The mansero rocker who settled in Tampere from Northern Ostrobothnia plans to return to the scene of the crime this year, when Coitus Int plays a gig at Yo-talo in Tampere in the fall.
Songs made in the early days of a music career are physically more taxing than before for an older man.
– There are quite demanding songs. Yes, in one of the *Anna mulle notche* songs you can pull so high and hard that my forehead vein bulges, Alatalo says.
Along with the physical, aging sometimes also tests the musician’s psyche. Radio play may decrease and new people are constantly entering the industry with new forms of music. Making new songs also starts to become more laborious, as my own bar has risen higher and higher with previous works.
That’s when some people start to doubt themselves and their skills, Alatalo reflects.
– Many people who have been at the very top of Finland are afraid that they will disgrace themselves as parents. Yes, despite his age, he can still make high-quality songs, Alatalo says.
Rock never dies
The kalsari weeks of the Corona era wanted to get on the musician’s mind. In Mikko Alatalo’s opinion, getting to gigs is therapy for musicians of all ages. It also adds years of life when you remember to rest and exercise in addition to gigging, and not exhaust yourself completely.
Older Finnish rock musicians are also motivated to go to concerts by the fact that the younger generation also finds their way into the audience, which creates continuity for their careers.
Musicians and their age group have lived their youth under the influence of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The assumptions of younger and, for example, nursing home staff about the music taste of the elderly can be quite fixed, researcher Ilkka Pietilä reflects.
People who make rock music for work are better than others on the map of where the music tastes of the elderly are going.
From the perspective of an aging musician and gigger, Mikko Alatalo brings up the saying \”*Too young to die and too old to rock and roll*\”. The statement can also be found, slightly adapted, in the name of the ninth album of the British rock group Jethro Tulli.
In Alatalo’s opinion, the sentence is completely wrong or at least misunderstood, both from the point of view of the musician and the listener and the audience.
– No one is ever too old to rock. Yes, it’s great to pull.
*When is a musician too old to go on stage? Or is there ever? You can discuss the topic until Monday 27.2. until 11 p.m.*