Meet Julius Kääriä | Questions answered by Julius Kääriä (singer) & Kristian Samaneh (Bass) / Duvaan

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julius Kääriä and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julius, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
In its simplest form, music has always been an obvious way to express oneself, whether in melodic, rhythmic, or lyrical form. Music has always been there and will continue to be. From a young age, we have sought out different things that provoke questions, thoughts, and feelings. As musicians, together we can act as the storytellers and share emotions and experiences with others that we have enjoyed growing up and still enjoy.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The formation of our band, Duvaan, was an accident. I (Julius, lead vocalist) was planning to start my solo career in Stockholm before the band came together. My art includes literature and a wide range of music genres, as I have an endless curiosity for both depth and variety in many art forms. My background spans a deep interest in classical music, hip-hop, electronic music, pop, and numerous subgenres of rock.

Our bassist, Kristian, has a background as a choir singer, guitarist, and trap-hip-hop producer. While we are an alt-rock band, our musical roots are largely in other genres. This makes our sound quite different from what you’d expect from a classic rock band, since our starting point wasn’t rock. For example, my most listened-to artist is Frédéric Chopin, not any rock giant—haha. Our drummer, Cassu, comes from a hard rock background, and our guitarist, Teemu, has strong metal influences, which are evident and appreciated in our sound. We’re proud of this diversity.

As a band, we are still very young. We started playing just over a year ago when, partly by accident, we took part in a band competition called Emergenza. We ended up winning the Finnish finals and flew to perform at the Taubertal Festival in Germany. That, in itself, wasn’t our biggest achievement, but it was an important lesson and a reminder of how quickly we can grow together as a team with hard work—and how far we can go when we focus our minds and intentions. The journey gave us a great first taste of festival gigs and the incredible energy that radiates from the back of the crowd all the way to the stage. We definitely want more of those experiences because we want to showcase our sound, our personas and art to a larger international audience. Our music is deeply storytelling and emotional—some might say escapist. We believe that even a few minutes of distraction from the world can do good for anyone, and that’s exactly what we offer to people. This spring, we are starting to record our debut album so that people can get a better picture of our vision

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would take the most direct route with the visiting person to the Helsinki cat café. We would definitely want to meet the café’s staff, order a nice warm cup of coffee from them, and enjoy the company of the cats. From there, we would head straight to the airport and fly to Lapland to a cabin, where we would cook some seriously good food for our guest and provide the nights entertainment by playing and singing. This is it.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are definitely individuals who have shown support and helped us reach our goals. Juho Salaterä, our dear friend and producer, has assisted us as an experienced producer, sound engineer, and musician. His perspective as an outsider looking into our project, both as a band and as individuals, has been truly inspiring and helpful. Secondly, we would like to express our thanks to Johannes Ahonen, who made it possible for us to create our first music video. He filmed and produced the entire video out of his passion for our project.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsduvaan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565774348768

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Duvaan-u4i

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2yF8UwYbKFgIIpYwrNYJB6?si=uEHsmkltSAOvmP83eeGvog

Image Credits
Victor Planson