History

2025: Stars in the snow

Stars in the Snow. A winter song. With the band. And alone.

The band today: Janne Lehtinen, Aleksi Pahkala and Janne Nissilä. The same three who played the first gig together at Lepakko in 1997. Alexandros Karoutsos on guitar. Tommi Lehtonen on drums.

2023–2024: Somebody else’s donkey

November 2023: Billy Reeves of Theaudience released a cover of Trying to Ride a Donkey as a single. April 2024: it opened his album Steve – A Weekend in Egham 1966. The album made the Scottish albums chart (#13). And the UK newcomers chart.

2020: You can stop holding your breath now

The 25th anniversary. A new logo. A shop. The back catalogue on Bandcamp, with twenty previously unreleased tracks. And Sara’s Song. The first new song in nine years.

2012–2019: Blank pages

After 2011, a nine-year hiatus. Janne played solo as Janne Powder: Liberté in 2014. Pikku Torre and Café Mascot in 2016. Henry’s Pub in 2019. Slowly he gathered songs for a fifth album. With a set of rules. Piano. Vocals. Acoustic guitar. Drones. Sparse drums.

2007–2011: Centuries later

New songs. Demos. A long, careful recording in Porvoo and Helsinki. Centuries Later came out on 11 May 2011 on Grandpop Records. Launched at Semifinal the night before.

2006: Japaneasy

May. Super-Sonic released Consternation! Uproar! in Japan. The band travelled to Tokyo. The Finnish Export Night at Duo Music Exchange. An acoustic set broadcast live on mobile TV. Robert Palomäki replaced Heikki Tikka behind the drums.

2004: Signs point to yes

Consternation! Uproar! came out on 23 April 2004. A load of great reviews. Janne and director Onni Tappola made an animated video for Don’t Hold Your Breath. MTV rotation. #18 on MTV Nordic’s Up North chart.

2003: Strange, very strange

Four quiet years. Then suddenly a lot happening. V. Strange came out on 16 May 2003. Recorded and performed almost entirely by Janne, at home. An impressive array of rave reviews. Radio Helsinki played it until their copy turned to dust. In June, a summer-cottage studio in Porvoo with Nick Triani. The follow-up, recorded with the whole band.

2000–2002: The isolation years

A gig at Provinssi JR in 2000. Janne felt the band had reached the end of chapter one. Mummypowder went on a six-month hiatus. He played solo as “Janne from Mummypowder”. Later the line-up changed completely. Ville Alajuuma (Come Inside, Treeball) on keyboards. Heikki Tikka (The Krispies) on drums. Janne’s brother Jari Lehtinen on bass, until Aleksi Mänttäri (The Sensitives) arrived in spring 2002. Johan Turbanov (Scandinavian Music Group) on guitar from August 2002.

1999: The heavyweight champions

Nick produced the first album. The Heavyweight Champions, spring 1999. A great critical success. Moderate sales. Though not embarrassingly low for a new, English-singing act that didn’t play heavy metal. A video for Blackout-day. A second single, planned and never released. A tour, booked and cancelled after Tampere. There the band lost the crowd to an ice hockey screen.

1998: Biff! Bang! Pow!

A record deal with Straightedge Records. After only a couple of gigs. Then the first EP, I Think I’m Pregnant. Two appearances on MTV3’s Jyrki. Then a flight to the USA. The tenth gig at CBGB’s in New York. The eleventh at Maggie Mae’s during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

In Texas they bumped into Nick Triani of Supermodel. They gave him the EP. Nick was sold, to say the least. Soon after getting home to London he packed his bags and moved to Finland. (Conveniently, his girlfriend lived there too.) That summer: thirteen Finnish market squares with Panic IC.

1997: Light at the end of a tunnel

Aleksi Pahkala from The Duplo! took over guitar. The first gig: Lepakko, 31 January 1997. With Thee Ultra Bimboos, Flaming Sideburns and The Duplo. The second: with Lemonator at YO-talo in Tampere. By June, Tavastia. For many bands the highlight of a career.

1996: We were so much younger then

A few rehearsals on the outskirts of Helsinki. Still trying out names. ‘Kevin’, for one. Then a new place in Kruununhaka. The first demo attempt failed miserably on a malfunctioning four-track. Josku, the band’s Britpop division, decided he’d had enough. Mummypowder continued as a three-piece.

Summer 1996. The four-track finally worked. They recorded Headcleaner. The name Mummypowder popped up. It stuck, in a hurry to get the tape out.

Not a single gig played. Yet their first interview, in Seura magazine. The boys slagged off every band in Finland. The hardcore blues fan journalist wasn’t amused. He told them on the page to loosen up. They didn’t.

1995: It was a start

Mummypowder started at the end of 1995. A four-piece. Janne Lehtinen (guitar, vocals). Josku (guitar, vocals). Tero Karhu (bass). Janne Nissilä (drums). They’d played in bands before. Janne in Coloured Pretty. Tero in The Bee Meeting. Nothing big had come out of those. Not that this project was an immediate success either. The setlist operated rather schizophrenically on both sides of the Atlantic. Josku’s Britpop songs on one side. Janne’s American-style alt-rock on the other.