Markus (Van Dammes)
SPB: Do you listen to any Christmas or holiday music?
Markus: Christmas time particularly is very important to us because Santa Claus comes from our home country Finland. Then we usually listen only to Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) by Ramones, except sometimes, when we listen to Weezer's Christmas EP or Joulusydän by Timo T.A. Mikkonen and Mervi Hiltunen which is Finnish version of Wham's Last Christmas.
One of our Christmas traditions is to organise a Christmas night party & concert in the only good bar of Lahti, a small town where we were born, about 100 kilometres north from the capital Helsinki. We have organised this party now for 15 years especially for people, like ourselves, who don't live in that town anymore, but who go to see their families there at Christmas. Surprise surprise, this year the bash is cancelled thanks to COVID-19.
Also, the holidays continuing after Christmas are very meaningful to us because the Four Hills tournament of ski jumping takes place around the New Year. We're hardcore fans of japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai so we even have a song dedicated to him.
Moreover, leap day every fourth year means a lot to us even though it's not a public holiday. You would think that our song ''Every Fourth Year'' talks about that but it doesn't. Finally, Midsummer is in the hearts of all northern Europeans such as us Finns. Our latest single ''Tax Free World'' describes the preparation for this celebration.
