Leija Lautamaja: Finnish Folk Rock Goddess

Leija Lautamaja is a Helsinki-based artist and musician specialised in Finnish and Nordic folk music & dance. Her instruments are 2.5 row diatonic accordion, reed organ, electric guitar and voice. She has a Master’s degree in folk music from the Sibelius Academy, with her musical roots in the local traditions of Southern Ostrobothnia in Western Finland where she grew up surrounded by the living tradition of Finnish melodeon playing. Her active bands are Nordic co-operation Floating Sofa Quartet, Finnish folky girl band ENKEL, and The Moontwins - a warm-hearted rock’n’roll duo with one of Finland’s most respected guitarists PK Keränen. Currently she’s working on her singer-songwriter solo album.Join me this month as I chat with Leija about growing up with a champion punk rock guitarist father and how that's influenced her own take on composition, song writing and performance, getting to work with one of her musical heros PK Keränen in Moontwins Duo, nerding out over trad music from other Nordic countries that travels far and wide, and we even touch upon the socio-political history of Finland and how that's likely to have had an effect on the slow growth of social folk dance in Finland. Until Leija got her hands on it, that is!Leija's Links:Website | Instagram Join my PATREON for extended episodes, guest tutor Melinar tutorials & learning resource archive:www.patreon.com/melbiggsmusicFolk Unbound: The Gathering 2025 - Early Bird prices end 14th March!www.melbiggsmusic.co.uk/folkunboundVisit my website for on demand classes, courses, live dates, merch & more:www.melbiggsmusic.co.ukIntro & outro music:'Dream Big' by Mel Biggs. All rights reserved.Listen to the full track on my album 'From Darkness Comes Light':www.melbiggsmusic.bandcamp.comGet in touch: [email protected]'t forget to like/subscribe/follow:YouTube | Instagram  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.