We get a lot of people who are described as troubadours, mostly these are people with a home and a tour schedule but Helsinki’s Ville Kiviniemi has a better fit to the restless wandering artist mythology mixing physical moves with changing musical forms. Leaving Helsinki for London he was on the punk scene, drifted to New York for anti-folk and then having sworn never to go to Nashville ended up there for a decade following a touring van failure and a need to make money on the open-mic scene. Along the way there was an apparent attempt to break the lucrative christian rock market with an EP which ended up being…well, not really suitable for breaking the lucrative christian rock market with it’s route to salvation embracing the trinity of easy living, honky-tonk women and cold beer.
Fate has taken more than the occasional twist for The Mattoid. Having left Nashville and returned to Finland and with a new album (‘Great Lovers‘) being completed a chance encounter with a deer on the road led to a major swerve, a crash and a broken neck. Bad news. On the upside the CT scan discovered a previously undetected and sizeable aneurysm, which Finland’s medical system has now taken care of. So, good news. Life is certainly strange and ‘Beautiful‘ acknowledges that with an earnest outpouring of love for someone who is just…perfect. Not too many of those about.
Oh, for those delicate flowers amongst out readership (or…no, don’t laugh…the really younger end of our fan base) we should point out that The Mattoid is a bit sweary. If the odd “flying fuck” will offend then you know what to do.
