SARURU – Exclusive Interview
SARURU is a Finnish music project by vocalist and kantele player Salla-Marja Hätinen, founded in 2021. The band plays an energetic blend of pop and metal with elements of Japanese pop culture.
SARURU is a Finnish duo founded by Salla-Marja Hätinen and Marianne Heikkinen, playing music in the style of bunny metal. This genre combines pop melodies with heavy guitar riffs, elements of metal, electronics, and hyperpop. Their sound is influenced by Japanese kawaii culture, as well as the use of the kantele (a Finnish folk instrument), which is run through distortion effects, creating a contrast between traditional and modern sound. Together with renowned producer Jaani Peuhu, the duo released their debut single and are ready to conquer the Finnish music scene. SARURU's lyrics touch on themes of equality, strength, and personal freedom. The band aims to be a voice for those who have been silenced and a role model for the younger generation.
Last Friday you released your first single! What are your feelings about this?
Marianne: Emotional, we both have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. We have been working for so long it’s also very relieving to finally get ’GIRLS’ out.
Salla: Also exciting, since this is only the beginning!
What prompted you to create the band? Did everything work out as you originally planned, or did the idea of the band change over time?
Salla: I must admit that the pandemic played a part, since when all the projects I was working with stopped, I had plenty of time to think about what I really want to do, and create something new. SARURU started as a therapy project for me, I simply just wanted to create something fun that would maybe cheer people up a bit during the depressive times we were living in back then. I just combined things I enjoyed or had something to say about: pop melodies, kawaii culture, metal music, bunnies, small horror elements. Having a girlband had been kind of a dream for me since I was like 12, so it felt pretty natural to throw that in too. At first I thought SARURU would be my artist name, and that the other musicians would only be for live shows. But now we are a duo, making everything together. I didn’t really aspire for this to be anything else than a fun therapy side project, the idea is still the same, I want this to be fun for everyone involved. But I guess in the end nothing worked as I had originally planned, since at the moment we are doing this as a full-time job, with a label and an agency. I love it though!!
Marianne: I remember when I reached Salla first time, I think she was searching female drummers on her profile and once I saw it, I wrote her that ”If you are still searching for a female drummer, here you have one!”. And well, we’ve been together since that moment. At first I was supposed to be a hired gun , live drummer but when time passed, I became part of the band, and now we are duo. So there’s been lot’s of different phases during these past two years.
What does SARURU mean? Why did the band get this name?
Salla: SARURU is my old nickname, which I invented. It’s kinda Japan-inspired, since Japanese doesn’t have letter L, I used the syllable ’ru’ instead. And it just sounded more cute with two ru’s! In the beginning I also always wrote it with katakana (a Japanese alphabet).
Marianne: Emotional, we both have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. We have been working for so long it’s also very relieving to finally get ’GIRLS’ out.
Salla: Also exciting, since this is only the beginning!
What prompted you to create the band? Did everything work out as you originally planned, or did the idea of the band change over time?
Salla: I must admit that the pandemic played a part, since when all the projects I was working with stopped, I had plenty of time to think about what I really want to do, and create something new. SARURU started as a therapy project for me, I simply just wanted to create something fun that would maybe cheer people up a bit during the depressive times we were living in back then. I just combined things I enjoyed or had something to say about: pop melodies, kawaii culture, metal music, bunnies, small horror elements. Having a girlband had been kind of a dream for me since I was like 12, so it felt pretty natural to throw that in too. At first I thought SARURU would be my artist name, and that the other musicians would only be for live shows. But now we are a duo, making everything together. I didn’t really aspire for this to be anything else than a fun therapy side project, the idea is still the same, I want this to be fun for everyone involved. But I guess in the end nothing worked as I had originally planned, since at the moment we are doing this as a full-time job, with a label and an agency. I love it though!!
Marianne: I remember when I reached Salla first time, I think she was searching female drummers on her profile and once I saw it, I wrote her that ”If you are still searching for a female drummer, here you have one!”. And well, we’ve been together since that moment. At first I was supposed to be a hired gun , live drummer but when time passed, I became part of the band, and now we are duo. So there’s been lot’s of different phases during these past two years.
What does SARURU mean? Why did the band get this name?
Salla: SARURU is my old nickname, which I invented. It’s kinda Japan-inspired, since Japanese doesn’t have letter L, I used the syllable ’ru’ instead. And it just sounded more cute with two ru’s! In the beginning I also always wrote it with katakana (a Japanese alphabet).
Let us get to know you both better. Tell us about yourself!
Marianne: I’m a professional musician, my main instrument is drums but I also play guitar, bass, keys, percussion and sing. I’ve started my musical journey when I was 9 years old, and have been on that road since! I’m studying music and performing arts at Metropolia in Helsinki and should get my bachelors degree next spring if everything goes as planned! :) On my free time, I enjoy playing video games, reading, binge watching different series from Netflix (mostly fantasy based), exercising and wandering in the woods!
Salla: I have been studying music for a long time as well, mainly konserttikantele and pop singing, but also for example classical and metal singing, music theory, piano, and composing. My latest projects before SARURU include everything from a Finnish poprock band Mafia Honey (singing, kantele, songwriter) to singing Japanese kids songs. Since I can remember, making music and performing have been my 2 favourite things in the world, and I think I was around 4 when I decided that I will become a singer. It’s kinda challenging for me to focus on anything that isn’t music or somehow related to it, but I do try to do other things too, lol. Like knitting, that’s cool.
How would you describe your ideology? What is your driving force?
Marianne: I say this again, equality. I want to stand for those people, who might not get a chance to stand for themselves, speak about the problems because they are afraid. I’m a woman. I know what it’s like to be called sick and weird, to be bullied for what you are, what it’s like to be the one who people look down to. We must protect each other. Every human being is valuable. Your gender or sexuality shouldn’t be a problem or weakness to anybody.
Salla: I want every kid, adult and elderly person out there to know that they are worthy and can do whatever they put their mind into, regardless of their gender, sexuality, size, beliefs, etc. But my soft spot is obviously girls. I didn’t have any strong female role models in the music industry as I was growing up, and most of the musicians are still men. I wish every little girl would have strong women around them, who they can look up to. Women, who can show them, that girls can do anything.
Tell us about your debut single. How long was the work on «Girls»? What difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome it?
Salla: The first demo of ’Girls’ was made in like couple of hours. When I write songs, the frames; melody and lyrics, usually come to me pretty quickly. Everything after that takes time though.
Marianne: I think the song itself has come a long road to this point. We’ve had the demo of the song ready for like more than a year and one day Salla was just asking me that ”what could we do together to make this song better?”, and that’s when the process to this outcome started. I started by opening the project in my Logic and took a fast look on it. I really liked original lyrics and melody there, so we kept them but ended up exploding everything else from the background, and I reharmonised the verse. I remember trying out these ’James Bond’ kind of chords and feeling for the verse, and showed them to Salla. I really wasn’t sure if she’s gonna like that cliché but she was totally down for it and we started to explore it more together. And that’s how it started to come together!
Salla: Yeah I loved the chords going down and wanted to have even more Bond-vibes, so we also put the chromatic ”Bond chord transport” -thing there! I don’t know if there were any difficulties, mostly it was just Jaani telling us to focus on certain things to make them better, and us 3 throwing in all the crazy/fun/cool ideas we could figure out.
Marianne: I’m a professional musician, my main instrument is drums but I also play guitar, bass, keys, percussion and sing. I’ve started my musical journey when I was 9 years old, and have been on that road since! I’m studying music and performing arts at Metropolia in Helsinki and should get my bachelors degree next spring if everything goes as planned! :) On my free time, I enjoy playing video games, reading, binge watching different series from Netflix (mostly fantasy based), exercising and wandering in the woods!
Salla: I have been studying music for a long time as well, mainly konserttikantele and pop singing, but also for example classical and metal singing, music theory, piano, and composing. My latest projects before SARURU include everything from a Finnish poprock band Mafia Honey (singing, kantele, songwriter) to singing Japanese kids songs. Since I can remember, making music and performing have been my 2 favourite things in the world, and I think I was around 4 when I decided that I will become a singer. It’s kinda challenging for me to focus on anything that isn’t music or somehow related to it, but I do try to do other things too, lol. Like knitting, that’s cool.
How would you describe your ideology? What is your driving force?
Marianne: I say this again, equality. I want to stand for those people, who might not get a chance to stand for themselves, speak about the problems because they are afraid. I’m a woman. I know what it’s like to be called sick and weird, to be bullied for what you are, what it’s like to be the one who people look down to. We must protect each other. Every human being is valuable. Your gender or sexuality shouldn’t be a problem or weakness to anybody.
Salla: I want every kid, adult and elderly person out there to know that they are worthy and can do whatever they put their mind into, regardless of their gender, sexuality, size, beliefs, etc. But my soft spot is obviously girls. I didn’t have any strong female role models in the music industry as I was growing up, and most of the musicians are still men. I wish every little girl would have strong women around them, who they can look up to. Women, who can show them, that girls can do anything.
Tell us about your debut single. How long was the work on «Girls»? What difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome it?
Salla: The first demo of ’Girls’ was made in like couple of hours. When I write songs, the frames; melody and lyrics, usually come to me pretty quickly. Everything after that takes time though.
Marianne: I think the song itself has come a long road to this point. We’ve had the demo of the song ready for like more than a year and one day Salla was just asking me that ”what could we do together to make this song better?”, and that’s when the process to this outcome started. I started by opening the project in my Logic and took a fast look on it. I really liked original lyrics and melody there, so we kept them but ended up exploding everything else from the background, and I reharmonised the verse. I remember trying out these ’James Bond’ kind of chords and feeling for the verse, and showed them to Salla. I really wasn’t sure if she’s gonna like that cliché but she was totally down for it and we started to explore it more together. And that’s how it started to come together!
Salla: Yeah I loved the chords going down and wanted to have even more Bond-vibes, so we also put the chromatic ”Bond chord transport” -thing there! I don’t know if there were any difficulties, mostly it was just Jaani telling us to focus on certain things to make them better, and us 3 throwing in all the crazy/fun/cool ideas we could figure out.
You work with famous producer Jaani Peuhu. How did you find each other? What is it like working with him?
Salla: I think Jaani had heard of us and sent me a message, asking something about my kantele. I went over to his profile and thought immediately that he should be our producer. Somehow he just seemed like the right person from the start, even though we had never met and back then I didn’t know all the super cool projects he had been working with previously.
Marianne: Working with Jaani is the best thing ever. When we work together, there are no rules, it’s just this amazing space of creating and throwing in the craziest ideas. It’s like we all three complete each other. I’ve never had this kind of creative flow with others. It’s crazy, and I’m very lucky to be in this position right now, and can’t wait what we will achieve together in the future!
Salla: Couldn’t agree more. I’ve never had this fun working with anyone, but I also trust Jaani a lot.
How would you describe your musical style if you couldn't use established musical terms?
Salla: Marshmallows and baseball bats. Both are pink and have bunny ears obviously.
Salla: I think Jaani had heard of us and sent me a message, asking something about my kantele. I went over to his profile and thought immediately that he should be our producer. Somehow he just seemed like the right person from the start, even though we had never met and back then I didn’t know all the super cool projects he had been working with previously.
Marianne: Working with Jaani is the best thing ever. When we work together, there are no rules, it’s just this amazing space of creating and throwing in the craziest ideas. It’s like we all three complete each other. I’ve never had this kind of creative flow with others. It’s crazy, and I’m very lucky to be in this position right now, and can’t wait what we will achieve together in the future!
Salla: Couldn’t agree more. I’ve never had this fun working with anyone, but I also trust Jaani a lot.
How would you describe your musical style if you couldn't use established musical terms?
Salla: Marshmallows and baseball bats. Both are pink and have bunny ears obviously.
What are your plans at the moment? What are you going to do first?
Marianne: Write more music and hopefully also release some more soon. It would also be lovely to do more gigs!
Salla: Yes!! I also really just want us to go to our practice room and spend couple of days there writing new songs. We haven’t had time to do that for a while.
When are you planning a new release? Will you make a music video for «Girls»?
Marianne: We have thought a music video yes, but not for Girls I think. Maybe for the next release? And hopefully it will be soon!
Salla: We will be releasing more songs soon! And I have so many insane music video ideas, but we still have to confirm with our label which song we will do the video to.
Have you already thought about a full-length album? What could it be in your opinion?
Marianne: Yeah, we have, and I think it’s happening somewhere near in the future…I definitely want to make one.
Salla: I actually already planned like 4 concept albums for SARURU before we even got this record deal lol. :D We will do an album but it will take some time!
You have already performed on stage. How did everything go?
Marianne: It went better than I expected!! It was so much fun to perform as a duo, and I didn’t find it weird at all. Actually it felt pretty natural, like it was meant to be! I had lots of stressful thoughts before Pakkahuone, I was afraid that people will be disappointed when it’s just the two of us on the stage but that wasn’t the case at all! People seemed to enjoy and we enjoyed too. A lot.
Salla: I love performing with Marianne. I’ve never felt so confident and in harmony when performing with other people, so to me the decision to continue as a duo felt very relieving really. I know I can trust Marianne 120% when on stage (everywhere else too), but especially when doing such a vulnerable thing as performing, it makes a big difference to the energy on the stage.
Which famous musicians are your reference point? Who do you dream of sharing the stage with?
Marianne: For sharing the stage, I must say Muse. It would be a dream come true to perform with that kind of established band. But reference points, I must say this question is pretty hard for me because I look so many people around me and admire the stuff they are doing and have done. I mostly draw my inspiration and excitement from them. From the people who are not big rock stars or idols. The people around me are real, here and now. And life is happening now.
Salla: I really also admire the people I’m working with currently: Marianne and Jaani. Really makes me want to be better and work harder seeing and hearing everything they do. From famous musicians I admire strong female characters in general, from Kyaru Pamyu Pamyu to Robyn and Tarja Turunen.
What can we expect from SARURU in the future?
Marianne: More music and crazy shit!! And more gigs and surprise tools we will use later ;)
Salla: A bunny revolution
Share the basic rules that guide you in life.
Marianne: Love. Love is everything.
Salla: Yes, and towards everyone: including myself and the people who have wronged me.
Marianne: Write more music and hopefully also release some more soon. It would also be lovely to do more gigs!
Salla: Yes!! I also really just want us to go to our practice room and spend couple of days there writing new songs. We haven’t had time to do that for a while.
When are you planning a new release? Will you make a music video for «Girls»?
Marianne: We have thought a music video yes, but not for Girls I think. Maybe for the next release? And hopefully it will be soon!
Salla: We will be releasing more songs soon! And I have so many insane music video ideas, but we still have to confirm with our label which song we will do the video to.
Have you already thought about a full-length album? What could it be in your opinion?
Marianne: Yeah, we have, and I think it’s happening somewhere near in the future…I definitely want to make one.
Salla: I actually already planned like 4 concept albums for SARURU before we even got this record deal lol. :D We will do an album but it will take some time!
You have already performed on stage. How did everything go?
Marianne: It went better than I expected!! It was so much fun to perform as a duo, and I didn’t find it weird at all. Actually it felt pretty natural, like it was meant to be! I had lots of stressful thoughts before Pakkahuone, I was afraid that people will be disappointed when it’s just the two of us on the stage but that wasn’t the case at all! People seemed to enjoy and we enjoyed too. A lot.
Salla: I love performing with Marianne. I’ve never felt so confident and in harmony when performing with other people, so to me the decision to continue as a duo felt very relieving really. I know I can trust Marianne 120% when on stage (everywhere else too), but especially when doing such a vulnerable thing as performing, it makes a big difference to the energy on the stage.
Which famous musicians are your reference point? Who do you dream of sharing the stage with?
Marianne: For sharing the stage, I must say Muse. It would be a dream come true to perform with that kind of established band. But reference points, I must say this question is pretty hard for me because I look so many people around me and admire the stuff they are doing and have done. I mostly draw my inspiration and excitement from them. From the people who are not big rock stars or idols. The people around me are real, here and now. And life is happening now.
Salla: I really also admire the people I’m working with currently: Marianne and Jaani. Really makes me want to be better and work harder seeing and hearing everything they do. From famous musicians I admire strong female characters in general, from Kyaru Pamyu Pamyu to Robyn and Tarja Turunen.
What can we expect from SARURU in the future?
Marianne: More music and crazy shit!! And more gigs and surprise tools we will use later ;)
Salla: A bunny revolution
Share the basic rules that guide you in life.
Marianne: Love. Love is everything.
Salla: Yes, and towards everyone: including myself and the people who have wronged me.
April 19, 2023
- Tuuli TalvinenFounder & Editor-in-ChiefInterviewer