Gypsyjazz opened the door for guitarist Olli Soikkel from Nurme to the world more than ten years ago. Finding an audience in new cities is an investment in the unknown, even for an experienced professional musician.
– Everyday life in the world is expensive. Traveling and living quickly eat up the budget, when gig income is still low at the beginning of looking for contacts. It is precisely at that point that financial support would be really valuable, Soikkeli reflects.
Even for a musician who has found a foothold and gained a name, looking for a new audience and gig venue is always an investment whose functionality is not guaranteed.
– Even if the gig is in London, like I did recently, it by no means directly means a full house. In advance, it is always a mystery how many people will find the place, especially in a new destination. We live with financial risk here, Soikkeli states.
Soikkeli, who hails from Nurme, quickly became one of the world’s most sought-after Gypsy jazz guitarists. The 32-year-old musician’s home has been in New York for almost ten years. Almost 90 percent of Soikkel’s work is currently in the United States.
During the Corona period, the jazz guitarist came back to Finland for a while. The pandemic caused us to rethink the division of labor between Europe and the United States.
– The goal is to perform more gigs in Europe in the future as well, and find a new audience here. I came to Nurme to greet the family this time directly from London, and after the tour in Finland we will continue to Paris, says the visiting guitarist with the quartet at his home corner.
Grant mills grind slowly
Finding your footing as a musician is rarely easy. Reaching an international career is even more challenging.
– In addition to a couple of my most important supporters, what has driven me the most in my field is my own desire to play. I’ve gone ahead of the music, practiced a lot, sought lessons from good players and done a lot of gigs, says Soikkeli.
There are plenty of different grants available to musicians. For example, the Music Finland association has been striving for the internationalization of Finnish music and musicians for ten years.
However, in Soikkel’s opinion, the support should be directed even more precisely to the internationalization phase. However, he has largely managed without grants himself.
– Over the years, I’ve occasionally made a grant application, but I don’t have enough patience to wait for them. I received the corona support quite comfortably, but otherwise I have tried to create my own network.
A colleague must be brought into the cabin
– I have learned a lot from Ari-Juka. He specializes in Gypsy jazz guitars, and since the genre has a limited number of players, his domain is the whole world. I have tried to learn the same international thinking myself, says Soikkeli.
This time, Olli Soikkeli is touring his homeland with a quartet. The gig line-ups vary, and the guitar changes according to the style of music.
– It’s not difficult to put these guitars in the hold of an airplane to be packed, you have to look a little at which company’s planes you’re traveling on. I managed quite well to get a colleague to join me in the cabin, Soikkeli says, clapping his guitar.