BAND HISTORY
Photo: Jan Trygg
KANTØR is:
Nuutti Niemelä / Guitar and lead vocals
Santeri Rautio / Bass and backing vocals
Jerry Airikka / Guitar and backing vocals
Valtteri Rautio / Drums
Sebastian Kavón / Keyboards
Unholy Preach (Demo EP) 2022:
In the Spring of 2021 Valtteri was on a skateboarding trip in Naantali. While he was there he had met Jaakko “Majuri” Mussaari. Valtteri had talked about his band with a friend and Jaakko had heard the conversation and approached Valtteri about music and being in a band and he had offered to record a demo for KANTØR at his home studio in Masku. The band quickly took the offer. In May 2021, the band drove to Jaakko’s house to record the first demo ‘Unholy Preach’. The song is the first full original song KANTØR has written. It contains more thrashy riffs from the band’s early days, and also melodic parts that were added later to make to choruses sound bigger and add catchiness and melancholy to the song in general. When the first demo had been recorded, mixed, and mastered, it was released as single demo. KANTØR and Jaakko had agreed to continue working together and record more demos. The band started calling Jaakko by the name “Majuri”, which was born from discussing Jaakko’s work in the Finnish Defence Forces. The next demo ‘Sinner’s Verse’, is the second demo the band recorded and released as a single demo. The song was born from the synth melody in the intro, and was built into a straight forward, melodic, and dark song. It has often been played live to this day as the more “classic KANTØR” song in the set. After ‘Sinner’s Verse’, the band continued to record three more songs to merge with two singles into an EP. The song ‘Ethic of Time’ is a more odd song in the bands catalog. It has a more punk feel with a simple melodic riff, a fast tempo, and a catchy chorus. Due to the oddness of the song it has become the least favourite song for the band, because it did not feel like it fit the darker atmosphere that the band was looking for. The last songs were recorded in late 2021, and the band chose ‘My Devotions’ and ‘Empty Honour’ as the songs to complete the EP. ‘My Devotions’ being a more groovy and slow song on the EP while ‘Empty Honour’ is a more melodic and epic closing song with keyboards as the main component. The full demo EP with all five songs was released in April 2022.
A Burning Cross (Single) 2023:
In early 2022 KANTØR played a show featured in an event called ‘Turku Band Festival’. The event was organized for various local bands in the area to play in several venues around Turku for four days. One of those venues was Vimma. KANTØR was booked for a three band line-up in Vimma and the show went very well, with many people showing up to see the local bands put on a show. One of those people was Tony Ewart. Tony is the founding member of a melodic death metal band called ‘BloodRedNails’ and one of his bandmates Ian Perring is a talented individual in music production and technology. Tony was impressed by KANTØR’s performance and soon after he asked Ian to produce a single for the band. Ian approached Santeri later that year and offered to record, mix, and master the next single. ‘A Burning Cross’ was chosen for recording as Santeri felt it had the most potential at the time when the band did not have many new songs written yet. It was the first song that Santeri had written by himself at home, and recorded a demo for the rest of the band to listen to and express their thoughts. Before entering Ian’s studio in December 2022, the song had not been rehearsed much, so a few of the components in the song were changed in the studio. And also the vocals were thought out in the recording process, and were not properly fitted yet before the recording. Also Valtteri recorded the drums with a fever, and he pulled through with the help of painkillers, and hydration. When Valtteri informed the others about his fever, the others were already in the studio and were discussing that if Valtteri couldn’t make it there, then Santeri would play the drum parts, or delay the sessions. But Valtteri insisted that he would get the job done, and so he did. In the end ‘A Burning Cross’ turned out as an energetic, melodic, and powerful song, that has become like an anthem for the band and it resembles a Burning passion to come together and power through. The songs meaning is being against the cults that devides the people and hunger for control over what people are and what they do. Its less of a dark theme than what the band normally looks for but the fans of KANTØR have received the song well and sing along to it live. The cover art was thrown around alot and it took a while until the band settled on the final idea and so the single ‘A Burning Cross’ was released in April 2023.
Leave All Behind (Single) 2024:
In January of 2023, an annual event called ‘Turku Bandstand’ took place. The event started as a competition for young bands in the Varsinais-Suomi area to play their music in front of a crowd and professionals in the music industry. The winners would be selected into Turku Rock Academy’s band program. The program is a way for young bands to learn valuable skills and knowledge in music production, live music, and working in the music industry. The bands that show the most potential will have chances to record and release music with help of professional producers and free of cost. Turku Rock Academy also organizes live shows in various venues and festivals, where these young bands get to play with a solid backline, and technicians to help run the show. Turku bandstand was originally a competition, but it was changed into a more relaxed feedback session, and the bands that have the most potential will be selected into the program. And the bands that do not get selected still get feedback about what they could do better, and what direction to take. In Turku Bandstand 2023 came about, KANTØR was one of the young bands looking to show their music to the professionals. They played three songs and got feedback. All went well, as producer Mark Bertenyi from Turku Rock Academy, and Mikko Von Hertzen of ‘Von Hertzen Brothers’ were impressed by the bands energetic performance and saw potential in KANTØR’s music. The band was officially selected into the program, and would start their relationship with Turku Rock Academy. In early 2023, Mark Bertenyi asked KANTØR to come rehearse their newest songs and discuss which one would be the next single. The band played two of their newest songs “Leave All Behind” and “Light”. Both songs were written by bassist Santeri and the band saw them as their best at the time. “Leave All Behind” was chosen for its catchiness, simple structure, and good melodies. Tony Ewart was also interested in participating in the pre-production of the song and would help Mark come up with ideas and new ways to make the song reach its full potential and push the band to try new methods in songwriting. One of the biggest steps KANTØR took with this song was clean vocals and vocal harmonies. It was a big step for the band because clean vocals were not yet present in any songs until this point, and they were unsure of this new approach to their music. But when Ian Perring recorded a pre-production demo for the band, they felt confident with the new diversity in the vocals, and it brought a new level of catchiness, melancholy, and harmony to the song. From this point forward clean vocals have become a crucial part of the band’s songwriting. The production process for the song was slow, as KANTØR officially entered the studio to record 'Leave All Behind’ in April 2024, a whole year after choosing the song for production. The good part about the slow production process was that the band had improved alot in that time, and played live shows that further welded together their playing, overall tightness, and stage presence. Ian Perring multiple times commented on how tight, and skilled the band has become in such a short time. ‘Leave All Behind’ was released in June of 2024. The single showcases KANTØR’s improvements and new found abilities to make more dark, catchy, and heavy music that would leave people wanting more. ‘Leave All Behind’ talks about a preacher with a desire to use manipulating methods to make his followers love him and the religion which brings the “cure for all”. The preacher struggles with controlling his desires and he is aware that it is not right, but also he feels that he has to have make everyone a part of his religion and that he deserves love.
How the band started
In the dystopian year of 2020 ‘KANTØR’ was formed as a melodic death metal band with influences from gothic and industrial music. The band has gained notice mostly in their city of origin Turku, Finland, and a small, but passionate and supportive fanbase around them. Here you can learn more about the band and how their music and career has evolved over the years so far.
In autumn 2019, bassist and second vocalist Santeri Rautio met guitarist and lead vocalist Nuutti Niemelä in their school’s voluntary music class when they were both 15 years old. They connected through their taste in metal music, and soon after Santeri asked Nuutti to join up into a band as a guitarist.
Santeri originally had started an indie rock band with two classmates and they rehearsed in Turku Rock Academy’s spaces. This did not last long as one of them decided to pursue other hobbies instead. At the time guitarist Santeri, and (original drummer) Jesse Heinonen quickly found and became friends with Nuutti and asked him to join the band. After Nuutti’s arrival the band was once again a trio with Nuutti as the guitarist and lead vocalist, Santeri switching to bass, and Jesse as the drummer. The trio could not find interest in playing indie rock, so they turned up the distortion, switched to a lower tuning and started to jam as a metal band. One of the first things they played together was Rammstein’s ‘Links 2 3 4’ which has been a long lasting cover in KANTØR’s setlist through the years. The trio did not yet have an official name, but soon Santeri came up with the name “Distinct”.
The trio jammed together for a couple months, until the pandemic in early 2020 had reached Finland, and lockdowns and restrictions had been put in place. This left the trio without a rehearsal space for a little while so Santeri and Nuutti jammed at eachother’s homes from time to time. overtime with the lack of proper band practices Jesse Heinonen left the band. When the pandemic’s grip had loosened around late spring, the now duo, Santeri and Nuutti went back to practice at Turku Rock Academy. For the time being Santeri filled in as the drummer so the two could write their own music and jam covers. The duo was also thinking of a potential drummer to join them. This was not an easy process because the two did not know anybody in the area yet at the time who could play drums.
After some time of looking for potential bandmates, Santeri had also shown band practice footage to his older brother Valtteri Rautio. At some point Santeri asked if Valtteri could be their drummer, as Valtteri had shown interest, and had some kind of experience from playing drums in school. He was also into heavy music like his brother Santeri and they decided he would start practicing drums again and join the band. With this new trio in place, they decided to change their name to ‘KANTØR’. The band at the time was experimenting with sounds, and at first they played some form of thrash metal until they tried synth sounds, and came up the idea of church organs. What originally started as a joke soon became a serious part of KANTØR’s sound.
KANTØR had also found a new rehearsal place in summer 2020. The second location allowed the band to practice more often and so they did. After experimenting with sounds the band decided that they would look for a keyboardist. Such musicians were not common at all in the area, so Santeri found himself in a discussion with Sebastian Kavón. The two had been long time friends since they were both just 6 years old. Sebastian was not yet a musician at all, but Santeri knew that Sebastian had shown interest in synthwave music, and keyboards. Sebastian was asked if he wanted be the keyboardist for KANTØR. At first he was a little hesitant, but it didn’t take long until he started learning the instrument and was ready to rehearse with band for the first time around September of 2020.
Along with the new line-up featuring keyboardist Sebastian, The band’s music had started to become more melodic, and the sound was evolving into the direction of melodic death metal. They realised that they needed a second guitarist. They didn’t have to reach far to find the right person. Jerry Airikka was a childhood friend of drummer Valtteri Rautio. Jerry had played guitar in his old band ‘Ripping Revolution’, and at the time when KANTØR was searching for their fifth member, he was available. Valtteri had told Jerry about KANTØR and he was interested in giving the band feedback and advice from his experience being in a band. But quickly after some discussing, Jerry arrived for his first rehearsal with KANTØR in October 2020. He had shown his skill in guitar playing and screaming vocals, and the band thought he could be the fifth member, and so the pieces were in place and the line-up was complete.
