Flatline Rockers is a psychobilly band that hails from Pori on the western coast of Finland that mixes punk rock influences into more traditional rockabilly music. The band was founded in 2000 when singer A-V Nauha and basist Arto “Ake” Råberg met in the Finnish Army and decided to join their common rockabilly and psychobilly interests into a band. After their military service A-V’s work friend Tuomas Noutio joined in to play lead guitar and a friend from car clubs Janne to play the drums. This first version practiced hard, played gigs first locally then around Finland. Usually the first set was rockabilly and the second more aggressive psychobilly, mixing into the usual cover songs their first own songs “You Know I’m Right” and “Running Wild” and the first two years went by fast.
In the years 2002-2003 the band steadily shifted further from rockabilly towards neo- and psychobilly and gigs moved towards motorcycle and car clubs. The first change in the lineup also followed when Ake’s friend from other bands Jani “Janstu” Parkkali joined to better cover the more aggressive and faster material of the band. First demos were self-recorded and best of which were also sold as CD-R’s at gigs called “Live at Newfield EP”. The band started approaching a couple labels in hopes of a full album. Around this time in 2004 also the “Live at Sea’n’Sand Run” VHS-video from a rather large gig at a car event was released and the band continued gigging around Finland.
There’s times when the neonlights and hell are calling…
The band finally scored a record deal at the start of 2005 with Empire Records’ sub-label Axis of Evil and went to Cotton Studio in Pori for 4 days and recorded 12 songs directly from the set-list without modifications or edits. Essentially a studio-live album, which was recorded and mixed by the famed Ahti Impola. Due to lack of time and finances the songs were 1-2 takes each with solo guitars and lyrics then recorded back-to-back on top of them. Things didn’t exactly go to plan as A-V caught pneumonia the next start of the third day after the backing tracks were recorded. So basicly almost all the songs retained their raw ‘demo lyrics tracks’ recorded live. There was no time to lose, so the album was recorded and mixed in the 4 days allocated and it was left to be mastered by the label, whom accidentally forgot about it and sent the master directly to the pressing with quite a few agreed changes left out.
The Album “Neonlights & Hell Calling” was released at the Jungle Records Rock’n’Roll Jamboree 2005 and soon after it was available in all major European record stores (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, etc), but also in USA, Japan, Canada and Ukraine. For some reason it was marked as a US release in many international sellers, which caused some interesting mixups in bookings.
The album’s first pressing of 400 pcs sold in a month and in the following two years it sold 2000 pcs. Nowadays the album is a bit difficult to find as Empire Records ended operations in 2008. Plans are in motion to re-release digitally and as a vinyl record.
Update to line-up, new recordings and going on a
“short” 10 year break
In 2008 after a few tours also in neighboring countries we decided to record a couple new songs that had been very successful on live gigs, so the Cotton Studio called again and recordings for “Let The Fires Burn” LP were started and 6 songs were finalized in about the same number of days and during a few gigs in between Tuomas decided to stop playing the guitar and focus on his career. Soon after A-V’s brother’s friend a heavy metal guitarist Timi Hankimaa was approached and a few days later joined the band to fill in for the agreed gigs already in the calendar.
About half of the songs were left unrecorded (which some of them were later recorded with the rock band H3llhound) and also from the recorded tracks a couple were used in psychobilly collections of the time, such as “Finnish Psychobilly Invasion” from Jupiter Stroll Records in 2009. Around the same time the band’s label stopped operations so recording sessions weren’t resumed and after some discussions in the band sauna we decided to put the band on a break to focus a bit on work and family life, which had been a bit paused during heavy touring and recording. Plan even then was to regroup some years later and keep going.
The return & plus additional member to the band!
Stars were about to align in 2017 when A-V, Janstu and Timi were gigging around in the rock band H3llHound, while Ake and Janstu were back at it with the rockabilly band Mr.Milkbox & His Minions. We tested a few rehearsals and everything was looking sweet. That is until Janstu let us know he was moving to Belgium and A-V soonafter that to United States. So the break was continued until 2020 when everyone was back in Finland.
In 2020 rehearsals were ongoing weekly and even with Covid19 closing all gig venues (and basicly the world) we carried on nonetheless, writing new music and getting back to gigging shape. First live performances opened in September 2021 and have continued ever since.
A few dozen gigs later we were back in the studio, this time in Fantom Studio located in Akun Tehdas near Tampere. Plan was to take our time and record a dozen new songs (including a couple from the last unreleased album) and while recording and doing a few gigs in between we met Jere Lähteenmäki, whom soon after joined us at the studio evening get-togethers and then at rehearsals. He officially joined the band start of 2024 and unlike many other psychobilly bands we sound exactly the same live as we do in the studio with nicely alternating double guitars and a whole lot of additional energy!
In late summer 2024 we signed with Jungle Records (www.junglerecords.fi) to release the new album and soon after also agreed to re-release the first album due to problems finding it anywhere for a reasonable price. Neonlights and Hell Calling is now released digitally on all relevant platforms (YouTube Music, Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal, etc…). There may be a limited vinyl version also upcoming of the old album in 2025.
The new album “Six Feet Down” with a dozen new and unreleased songs will be released by Jungle Records on CD, vinyl and digital platforms on 15.11.2024. CD and the digital release is available immediately, the vinyl will be ready to go in early 2025. We’re very proud and happy of the album and we hope you’ll find it as much fun as we have. Leave your notes on our social medias!
Flatline Rockers – Today
Our lineup in 2024 (from left to right):
A-V Nauha (lyrics), Janstu Parkkali (drums), Ake Råberg (double bass), Timi Hankimaa (guitar), Jere Lähteenmäki (guitar)
We’re a 5-piece psychobilly band from Pori, Finland. We’re mainly focusing on old-school psychobilly, but with a bit more aggressive twist to it – we’re doing it a bit hard and a bit louder than most. And yes – we’re willing to travel to any show you put up. We’re here to enjoy the music and enjoy life, by giving everyone a high-energy show – great for us who love wrecking, but also to those just chilling with a drink or two. Get in touch with us!
