A Freelancer musician's week

I was asked to write about a freelance musicians week. Aaaand of course I chose the most extreme week to write about! All the weeks aren’t like this of course but at least this will give you a picture of all the possible things a folk musician can do in their work life.
 
Last week included

• 8 different kinds of gigs:
  • 1 artsy harmonium performance
  • 2 kindergarden concerts
  • 1 school concert
  • 1 acoustic Floating Sofa Quartet gig for young audience in central Copenhagen
  • 1 self-amplified Floating Sofa Quartet gig for adult audience at village hall in the countryside
  • 1 festival dance gig with Floating Sofa Quartet
  • 1 intimate playing for dance with Saana Kujala / solo at Nordic Dance Helsinki
• ​three countries
• random office work here and there at home and on the go
• a bit of studying the book The Finnish Polska by Erkki Ala-Könni
• travelling
  • over 1200 kilometers in the car
  • three flights
  • two ferry trips
  • a handful of busses, trains and metros in Helsinki
• a lot of nice talks and good food with bandmates

Every gig was very special in their own way. It feels a bit weird to highlight that but worth it definitely – it's the playing that actually is my job. Even though playing concerts happens in front of people (and with your bandmates) it's somehow quite a private experience. Maybe one day I can try to write about it as well but for this post let's concentrate on selected bits and pieces that led to that actual gig situation!

Pitstop 1: Chilling at Sjællands Odde. It's so beautiful out there!

Here's the week shortly day by day so you'll get an overview. 

M o n d a y
Performance 7/7 with the Nordic harmonium project Marja-Liisa Orgelsuite in Jokkmokk, Sweden. 

T u e s d a y
Driving from Luleå (where we slept) to Rovaniemi. Flying from Rovaniemi to Helsinki. Borrowing an accordion, going straight to Nordic Dance Helsinki evening to play for dance for the whole night. It was magical though, so many people!!! Made me happy! 

W e d n e s d a y
Total exhaustion. I watched Love Actually and went to exercise. I hated every minute of the workout because I was so tired I couldn't lift my arms. Probably seemed like a teenager in the class. Sorry for the instructor! 

T h u r s d a y
Flying to Copenhagen, playing a gig in Copenhagen. After the gig we squeezed a double bass, harmonium, melodeon, fiddle, bagpipe, PA-system, mixer, three suitcases, one back bag, merchandise box, bass amplifier and four people in to a station car and drove to the next destination in Lolland, Denmark. 

F r i d a y
Very early kindergarden and school gigs. A heavy nap. Two sets in the concert in the evening. Good feeling to play and for the first time we amplified ourselves with the new PA-system. Worked fine! 

S a t u r d a y 
Driving from Lolland to Aarhus in the morning to play a dance gig at Aarhus Folk Festival. I'm very very impressed by that crowd there. All the people seemed to know the common dances by heart so no instructions were needed. Also the other band played some very local traditional dances and the dancers knew even them! So fascinating! They even danced Finnish polka (which is very different to Danish one) when we played it! 

S u n d a y
Traveling home from Aarhus via Copenhagen. Laying on the sofa.
​

Pitstop 2: Hanging out with my new car friend in Sweden. Photo: Milla Viljamaa

Quite a week right there but very nice and very good gigs. I'm very happy and honored to get to work with this kind of top class human beings. I can trust in what they do and everything always works out in the best possible way. Sometimes the jokes get totally crazy and also there's plenty of good food. 

Even though I enjoyed this week a lot, this time the tempo of my life felt a bit too fast even for myself. Before the final harmonium concert on Monday we had already been touring for a week and before that I had been to Denmark and Sweden with Floating Sofa Quartet and ENKEL. At the FSQ gig in Copenhagen on Thursday I could really feel that all the pieces of my head and soul hadn't yet traveled South from Lapland with my physical existence. But because my band mates are musical ironmen and -women, it was no problem to lean on them and let the music flow. Also I can feel all the sitting in a car in my butt but luckily now I've got time to cure it. Feels great as well!

Out and over! Until next time! Hope your weeks have been fine!