For almost sixty years now, adolescents of all ages have been walloping guitars, choking microphones, and screaming about anything from the shape of a woman’s bottom to the injustices of poverty and war. Rock, the music America named after sex, has spread a little since the 1950s, impregnating us with the urge to form bands, write songs, and play gigs. And here in Finland– bless her curves–we’re as full-bellied as the next nation. When the Finnish media aren’t busy doting on successfuls like Him, The Rasmus, and Nightwish, they’re looking for the next big act. Last year, advertisements for the Finnish Idols tv talent competition featured a foetus jiggling his legs, singing Let Me Entertain You down the umbilical cord.

The prospect of more and more potential doctors and engineers putting their money, energy, and ambition into becoming popular musicians seems enough to fill the bravest official with dread. But, in a recent development, the city of Oulu has been the first in the country to take a mature, proactive approach to the increasing rock musicality of her sons and daughters.

Instead of letting them trip and stumble barefoot into obscurity, Oulu city and Pohjois-Pohjanmaan Liitto granted two year’s pilot funding for a rock office. Yes, a rock office. The place, its shop-front looking like a cross between a radio station and a hip café, has been active in the city centre for an entire year already. They call it Rockpolis.

“The name’s a combination of a joke and Oulu heritage,” explains project director, Jarkko Halunen, 29. “Oulu is famous for Technopolis and Mediapolis, and it’s been our dream to create a polis just for rock.” Jukka-Pekka Aunola, his colleague, 38, joins in. “At the same time it’s the guy standing at a concert at the back of the room with his hands crossed, waiting for the band to make mistakes.” Jarkko and JP have very different professional backgrounds–JP in computer sales and Jarkko as a social worker in drugs rehabilitation–but since their days as founding members of Rotos1, they have been united in a love of music and a determination to help Oulu musicians.

And Oulu musicians need all the help they can get. Oulu rock is at several geographical disadvantages, according to Jarkko and JP. The city has no serious music agencies representing local rock bands, and a shortage of suitable venues. Worse, nobody from a band that isn’t known in the south of Finland can get gigs down south, where all the important companies and people in the music business are. And that’s before you add up the usual problems that plague young rockers anywhere. A typical beginning rock band has poor social skills, no manager, doesn’t know how to promote, and tries to bluff past those deficiencies with a flashy website and pushy phone manner.

“The good thing is, people develop over time,” says Jarkko. And Rockpolis are doing their best to jump-start the process. JP reads their mission statement off a crisp new flier: ‘the development of the Oulu-based music industry by communication network.’ The web portal, www.rockpolis.com, provides links to the websites of over two hundred Oulu bands, and lists the contact numbers of important venue promoters and companies. At 10,000 hits a month and growing, the site is already Finland’s most complete industry links resource. Recently, they launched a 24-hour internet demo-radio station playing a rotation of 52 songs by local bands. They also arrange tutoring periods for young bands, in which an experienced teacher works with a band for two months, helping them with everything from arranging to recording to live performance.

But what is Oulu rock, really? Is there such thing as an Oulu sound?  “When people talk about Oulu sound, it usually means more a sort of early nineties noise rock, like a combination of punk and metal and surreal.”  JP develops the theme: “yes, and intense rhythms. Drrr-drrr-drrr-drrr. That’s from Oulu. And if the singer can’t sing. ARRR-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr-rrr.” Nowadays the typical sound is more of a conventional metal. “We have loads and loads of metal bands. Many Oulu bands want to sound like Sentenced used to.” JP describes the typical metal song, his rendition sounding like a cold, windy day: “You get that hard doo-doo and then you low down for something on the drums and bass, and WeRRRY RIZZmerYYY. Then it goes to the chorus - “WHOOEEeer isss NEEVeer.” ”

He reaches down a cd or two from a shelf flush with demos and releases by local bands. They play a few ‘Oulu sound’ tracks, which–true to his word–are a sort of grunting rhythmic punk, then a song or two from Electric Sister of Mankind, their first tutor group. More than half of the two hundred bands listed on the website sing in English. “In Finland you have this audience that speaks Finnish and listens to English. It’s much harder to sing in Finnish because it’s easier to criticise your own language, which is what everyone understands.” Like a pair of cool, benevolent uncles, Jarkko and JP lace sharp, practical advice with a self-effacing humour. Small wonder that everyone involved with Rockpolis has reacted “really positively.” Hiili Hiilesmaa, a prominent music producer, has been singing their praises after they invited him last November to give a lecture to local bands. Apparently, “people in the south are a bit jealous.”

Let’s hope they’ll be jealous for a long time to come. Rockpolis is currently financed until the end of 2006, but Jarkko and JP plan to expand into two separate areas, one for younger bands and the other for more established acts. For the sake of our local musicians, may their wishes come true.

The Rockpolis Guide for up-and-coming Oulu rock stars:
•    Be honest and down-to-earth.
•    Make sure your songs, including the lyrics, are as good as you can make them.
•    Record your demo at one of the local studios. An hour at the town-funded non-commercial studio in Maikkula, for instance, can cost as little as ten euros.
•    Come out of your comfort space: don’t sit in your rehearsal room waiting for someone to contact you.
•    Compose a good ‘media’ letter containing a brief but interesting band bio and a few good photos of your band.
•    Send it with your cd to a promoter at a venue before you call.
•    When you do call, remember to ask the promoter have you received the cd, and do you like the music?
•    Have a website that’s attractive and easy to use, but not too flashy. Make sure that anything in the download section is your absolute best quality.
•    Use local resources! Rockpolis have contacts to local venues, services, and funders.

1*the live music association at www.rotos.org