Defining themselves as "Violent Pop", the six-piece band Blind Channel from Oulu, Finland, formed in September 2013 initially with two members - Joel Hokka and Joonas Porko before expanding to the current lineup seen today. The band’s distinctive production offers the listeners unique rock, rap, nu-metal and electronic compositions, and a feisty package of kicking guitar riffs, without forgetting tenacious pop melodies. The band officially represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 held in Rotterdam in May 2021, where they placed 6th place in the grand finale with the song ”Dark Side” and currently hold the record for the most streamed song by a Finnish artist in 2021.
Their first single, “Save Me” was released in October 2013 and reached the Finnish radio waves in only one week, because of this Blind Channel were selected to Finnish radio station Ylex’s “basement band” of the week. Iltalehti, one of Finland’s biggest newspaper media’s noticed the band’s first music video and in a couple months the views have reached over 20, 000 views. The band initially established their profile actively by performing live shows all around Finland (including the southern metropolitan areas) and later released "Antipode" on March 21st 2013 - produced by Mikko Mäkitalo. The single’s B-side “Naysayers” saw daylight one week before the actual release, and the A-side “Calling Out” premiered on a local radio station Radio City one day before the release. The premiere also included an interview with the band. The second music video came out the same day.
The following Summer they played in Finnish festivals JääliCityRock, Provinssirock, Ilosaarirock, Qstock & Nummirock where they won the Wacken Metal Battle in Finland so they also played their first gig ever abroad in the world's biggest metal festival in Wacken Open Air in Germany to over 6000 people at The Wet Stage. Upon winning this competition, Finnish record label Ranka Kustannus also signed the band and they began recording their debut album Revolutions. Their debut studio album Revolutions was released on September 29th 2016. The album includes the singles "Unforgiving", "Don't", "Darker Than Black", "Deja FU” and "Enemy for Me". The band proceeded to tour throughout Finland and surrounding countries following this release. Huge pop music fans, in March 2017 they released a cover of American hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's hit single "Can't Hold Us".
They released their second studio album Blood Brothers on April 20th 2018. The album includes the singles "Alone Against All", "Sharks Love Blood", "Wolfpack" and "Out of Town". They also embarked on several tours both as headliners and supporting acts such as Amaranthe, Royal Republic, Simple Plan, Hollywood Undead, Enter Shikari and in late 2018 completed their first UK tour supporting All That Remains and Sevendust.
The band’s third studio album,Violent Pop was released on March 6th 2020. The album includes the singles "Over My Dead Body", "Timebomb (feat. Alex Mattson)", "Snake (feat. GG6 of Amaranthe)", "Died Enough for You", "Fever" and "Gun". The band had pre-booked a tour in Autumn/Winter 2020 around Sweden/Finland and festival slots as part of a touring cycle for Violent Pop which was cancelled as the Coronavirus pandemic came into affect. In May 2020 the band performed an acoustic livestream from 45 Oulu, the oldest rock bar in Oulu, Finland which included the live debuts of Violent Pop album tracks “Feel Nothing”, “Enemies With Benefits” plus a tribute cover of Linkin Park’s “Numb” in honour of the late Chester Bennington. In July 2020, they released a studio version of Anastacia’s “Left Outside Alone" and accompanying music video to critical success.
After meeting DJ and producer Aleksi/Alex Mattson several years prior after Joel approached him to potentially remix a Blind Channel track, the band soon after discovered they had a lot of similar musical tastes and began collaborating, eventually releasing “Timebomb” together which featured as a single on the band’s third studio album Violent Pop. After a live festival show in October 2020 featuring Aleksi on sample/percussion, the band officially asked Aleksi to join Blind Channel as a full-time member and they became a six-piece.
In February 2021 the band participated in the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the modern nu-metal track "Dark Side". They won the selection with 54.3% of the vote (the highest in UMK history) and in May 2021 represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in sixth place with a total of 301 points. Blind Channel received 218 of their total points from televoting, while 83 points were received from juries. The band painted their middle fingers red for their performance of "Dark Side," after being informed that they could not lift a middle finger to the audience on the Eurovision stage due to the shows family friendly nature. On 19 May 2021 the band signed to Century Media/Sony Music.
In June 2021 the band recorded a collaboration of their song “Dark Side” with fellow Finnish artist Lauri Ylonen of The Rasmus. The band has stated that a follow-up single to “Dark Side” has been mixed and will be released late Summer 2021. On July 4th 2021 the band announced that “Dark Side” is currently the most streamed Finnish song of 2021 with over 700,000 streams to date, beating out larger Finnish bands such as The Rasmus and HIM. The band have also announced a 15-date Finnish headline tour across July-August 2021.
In early 2021 the band shared that they had already began writing new material and in June 2021 shared footage from their studio showing them recording material for a currently untitled forth studio album set for release in Spring 2022.
Their first single, “Save Me” was released in October 2013 and reached the Finnish radio waves in only one week, because of this Blind Channel were selected to Finnish radio station Ylex’s “basement band” of the week. Iltalehti, one of Finland’s biggest newspaper media’s noticed the band’s first music video and in a couple months the views have reached over 20, 000 views. The band initially established their profile actively by performing live shows all around Finland (including the southern metropolitan areas) and later released "Antipode" on March 21st 2013 - produced by Mikko Mäkitalo. The single’s B-side “Naysayers” saw daylight one week before the actual release, and the A-side “Calling Out” premiered on a local radio station Radio City one day before the release. The premiere also included an interview with the band. The second music video came out the same day.
The following Summer they played in Finnish festivals JääliCityRock, Provinssirock, Ilosaarirock, Qstock & Nummirock where they won the Wacken Metal Battle in Finland so they also played their first gig ever abroad in the world's biggest metal festival in Wacken Open Air in Germany to over 6000 people at The Wet Stage. Upon winning this competition, Finnish record label Ranka Kustannus also signed the band and they began recording their debut album Revolutions. Their debut studio album Revolutions was released on September 29th 2016. The album includes the singles "Unforgiving", "Don't", "Darker Than Black", "Deja FU” and "Enemy for Me". The band proceeded to tour throughout Finland and surrounding countries following this release. Huge pop music fans, in March 2017 they released a cover of American hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's hit single "Can't Hold Us".
They released their second studio album Blood Brothers on April 20th 2018. The album includes the singles "Alone Against All", "Sharks Love Blood", "Wolfpack" and "Out of Town". They also embarked on several tours both as headliners and supporting acts such as Amaranthe, Royal Republic, Simple Plan, Hollywood Undead, Enter Shikari and in late 2018 completed their first UK tour supporting All That Remains and Sevendust.
The band’s third studio album,Violent Pop was released on March 6th 2020. The album includes the singles "Over My Dead Body", "Timebomb (feat. Alex Mattson)", "Snake (feat. GG6 of Amaranthe)", "Died Enough for You", "Fever" and "Gun". The band had pre-booked a tour in Autumn/Winter 2020 around Sweden/Finland and festival slots as part of a touring cycle for Violent Pop which was cancelled as the Coronavirus pandemic came into affect. In May 2020 the band performed an acoustic livestream from 45 Oulu, the oldest rock bar in Oulu, Finland which included the live debuts of Violent Pop album tracks “Feel Nothing”, “Enemies With Benefits” plus a tribute cover of Linkin Park’s “Numb” in honour of the late Chester Bennington. In July 2020, they released a studio version of Anastacia’s “Left Outside Alone" and accompanying music video to critical success.
After meeting DJ and producer Aleksi/Alex Mattson several years prior after Joel approached him to potentially remix a Blind Channel track, the band soon after discovered they had a lot of similar musical tastes and began collaborating, eventually releasing “Timebomb” together which featured as a single on the band’s third studio album Violent Pop. After a live festival show in October 2020 featuring Aleksi on sample/percussion, the band officially asked Aleksi to join Blind Channel as a full-time member and they became a six-piece.
In February 2021 the band participated in the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the modern nu-metal track "Dark Side". They won the selection with 54.3% of the vote (the highest in UMK history) and in May 2021 represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in sixth place with a total of 301 points. Blind Channel received 218 of their total points from televoting, while 83 points were received from juries. The band painted their middle fingers red for their performance of "Dark Side," after being informed that they could not lift a middle finger to the audience on the Eurovision stage due to the shows family friendly nature. On 19 May 2021 the band signed to Century Media/Sony Music.
In June 2021 the band recorded a collaboration of their song “Dark Side” with fellow Finnish artist Lauri Ylonen of The Rasmus. The band has stated that a follow-up single to “Dark Side” has been mixed and will be released late Summer 2021. On July 4th 2021 the band announced that “Dark Side” is currently the most streamed Finnish song of 2021 with over 700,000 streams to date, beating out larger Finnish bands such as The Rasmus and HIM. The band have also announced a 15-date Finnish headline tour across July-August 2021.
In early 2021 the band shared that they had already began writing new material and in June 2021 shared footage from their studio showing them recording material for a currently untitled forth studio album set for release in Spring 2022.