It’s time to get to know the sound engineers; meet Oona Kapari and Tommi Vainikainen.
Kapari joined the team during the sessions at Finnvox Studios and Tommi Vainikainen has sort of been with us ever since the very beginning of the project. Vainikainen was the one who introduced me to music producer Backlund years ago.
Both of these humans are my old friends – happy to introduce them to you!
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OONA KAPARI, recording & sound engineering at Finnvox sessions
I could write about the years we studied together, or how we used to spend hours and hours going through our projects and trying to learn as much as we could.. Or how it is instant appreciation, open communication, honest feedback and laughs every time we meet..
Next level professional skills, big heart and fast wit; Oona Kapari.
Kapari was the one who did the recording during our sessions at Finnvox. Kapari is a musician and songwriter and she works as a sound engineer at a legendary recording studio Finnvox. Kapari is also making a great career as a music producer.
A lot of planning was done before the sessions but also a lot of space was left open for creativity and for the team work that would happen when we all would be in the same place together. When it was time to hit the studio I made sure that everyone had something to eat during the days (creativity comes easier when there’s a decent amount of proper food around) and experienced how the music came alive. I will share more about the sessions, a bit later, and in that video I’ll tell you more about everything that happened during the Finnvox week.
Kapari is precise, positive, fun, solid, efficient, down-to-earth and it’s a true joy to know her and to create with her. She can easily and in a very calm manner understand what is going on during a studio session; of course relating to the music technology but also relating to the communication, energy levels and all the challenges that might arise during the recording session days.
TOMMI “MASTER FADER” VAINIKAINEN, mixing
I could write about the epic rhytm music summer camps where Vainikainen worked as a music technology teacher and how he played many great albums to us young music students then years ago, or how amazing he is in his ability to respect and bond with all the various music lovers he meets.. Or how many times we have talked about songwriting and about bands and about great country music and politics, or how he is fearless in his thinking and how inspiring it is to have a great conversation with him..
Next level professional skills, big heart and fast wit; Tommi Vainikainen.
Tommi Vainikainen is a freelance sound engineer, producer and a musician and he teaches music production and sound engineering at Sibelius Academy and Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory. He has studied drums in the jazz department of Sibelius Academy and before becoming a freelancer he worked years as a producer / sound engineer at Music Makers Finland. When this album project started to happen it was clear to me that he should join the team. Vainikainen introduced me to Backlund then almost ten years ago and I knew he would get the aesthetics in this music — it made perfect sense that Vainikainen should be the one taking care of the mixing. It was a wonderful moment when I played the preproduction demos to Vainikainen; he was really excited about the songs and all the different vibes that the songs had.
One of the latest albums Vainikainen has mixed is Von Hertzen Brother’s War Is Over and he is working with various pop, folk-rock, tv projects. Check out this smooth video he made with Tuomo, Felix Zenger, Tapio Backlund, Antti Kujanpää and Eliel Viitala. Vainikainen’s skill set is beyond comprehension and it has been amazing to sit with him and dive deep into the songs. He is of course such an epic professional but besides that he is such an supportive, real person.