Off the Record with Merta

It’s no secret whatsoever that I fell in love with Merta last year. I first heard of them back when my late favorite band, Ember Falls, did album release shows with them for “Minä” and “Ruins” respectively. Then, when I was selling merch on tour with Arion, I became acquainted with vocalist Juhis Kauppinen and bassist Kalle Niskanen when I offered to cover the merch sales for Merta at the Tampere show where they were the warm-up act. This culminated in us recognizing one another when they had opened for a band I have long loved and followed, Machinae Supremacy, in Helsinki in October 2023. After that, I decided that I was allowed to consider falling in love with them, maybe. Since then, the band has joined Enslain’s crew, with me as their main seller, which means that I had all the excuses in the world to get better acquainted with these guys. After bonding over our mutual love of Happoradio, I realized that Juhis would be a great person to have as a guest on Off the Record, so here we are! Enjoy the interview, give their new album, “Virta,” a listen on April 5th, and come check them out on tour in April!

Watch the video version of this interview here: https://www.bearwiseman.com/off-the-record-interviews/off-the-record-with-juhis-kauppinen