What’s Happening, Helmi Antila?

At the previous Tampere Jazz Happening, Helmi Anttila received the Taimi Prize, an award presented to a young musician who has developed their musical expression with passion.

At the previous Tampere Jazz Happening, Helmi Anttila received the Taimi Prize, an award presented to a young musician who has developed their musical expression with passion. Over the past year, Anttila has experienced a dynamic period of artistic growth, and she now turns her focus to composing new material for her forthcoming album.

What’s happening? How are you doing?

Thanks for asking, I’m doing quite well! The summer was a bit too hot for my liking, so I’m glad we are now in an autumnal mood. But the year has been wonderfully full of gigs, especially over the summer, and I’m very grateful for that!

A year ago, you received the Taimi Award from the Finnish Jazz Federation, granted to a young musician who “passionately develops their own musical expression”. At 24, what stage of growth do you feel you’re in now?

A lot has happened over the past year. It feels like receiving the award opened doors for the start of my career. We have had lovely gigs with the band at various jazz festivals, which has been fantastic. When the album was released, the songs were played quite a bit on the radio, so we have received a fair amount of attention. Over the year, I have gained a lot of new performance experience and confidence in what I do, so things are moving in a good direction.

You studied violin at the Sibelius Academy from 2019, but this autumn you switched your major to singing and transferred to the jazz department. Why the change? Was classical music not the art form you truly felt passionate about? And what will happen to the violin now?

Actually, I applied to Metropolia university of applied sciences in 2022 to study singing in the pop-jazz programme and was accepted. So I have already been studying singing for three years. However, I retained my study rights at the Sibelius Academy, and when I decided to apply to the jazz department, the application process involved switching departments.

The main reason I applied to the jazz department was precisely because classical music wasn’t my true passion. Whenever I practised violin, I’d end up composing at the piano by accident. At home, I mostly listened to jazz music. I struggled for a long time with whether I dared to stop studying violin, but I haven’t regretted it for a single day. What I’m doing now feels so right for me! The violin has been part of the journey and always will be, but in a different way. The pressure around playing the violin has lifted, and now I can practise and play purely out of personal desire.

Last spring you released your first album, Kuvia nuoruudesta [Images of Youth], which is refreshingly distinctive and individual – at least by Finnish standards. What inspired you to create this singer-songwriter music or are all your compositions and lyrics deeply innate?

My compositions and lyrics have always been very innate. Even as a child, I’d sit at the piano and play chords I couldn’t name but that simply sounded good. I have continued on that path, though now more consciously. I compose from emotion, I pour my life and stories into music without overthinking it. For some reason, it’s taken the form it has – I’m not entirely sure why myself.

What’s going to happen? What does the future look like?

The future feels bright – I’m excited about my studies in the jazz department and about learning new things! This autumn also brings some lovely gigs that I’m really looking forward to. At the same time, I’m settling down to compose for my next album. The central theme of the next album is still a bit unclear, but it will be quite different in many ways. I’m searching for a fresh, new sound, and at the moment it feels like I have found a new expression through a more improvisation-based compositional technique. We will see what kinds of stories the album will bring!

Helmi Antila Quartet
Friday, 31 October, at 22.30
Telakka