Power Pop Across the Decades: The Bablers

The Bablers have a habit of not following the rules. For so many of the bands we profile on this here blog, that’s not so unusual, given the often punk-leaning nature of the music so many of them make.

But the Helsinki-based combo are not a punk band, neither in style nor attitude. rather, The Bablers are a wonderful power pop band, whose powerful but pleasing melodies could charm a tsunami, honest music the band aptly describes as “100% genuine organic handmade pop music.”

Hardly newcomers to the scene, they have been putting out their fine brand of power pop since 1980. The band has just released a new single, “When You Were Growing,” and work is well underway on a new album.

In so many ways, though, The Bablers run against the grain of the norm -- such as it is -- here at Garagerocktopia.

For starters, one of the questions we always like to ask -- especially those who have been around for more than a decade or two, is if they ever had any idea, back in the day, that they would still be talking about their music so many years later. Almost to a one, their answer has been “no.”

Not so for Arto Tamminen. The singer-guitarist-keyboardist (and, when needed, cellist) says that because of the band’s combination of youthful exuberance and well-crafted music, he felt confident it would stand the test of time.

“Actually yes, (I did think we’d still be talking about it),” Tamminen commented, talking by telephone to Garagrocktopia from his home in Helsinki, where despite the late hour local time, he was totally chill after enjoying Sunday evening barbecue with his family.

“During that time I was 17 years old, and when you’re 17, you think anything is possible,” Tamminen recalled. “And of course, we thought we were the greatest band in the world. I went a long time without listening to our music, but many years later, I listened to it. I have to say, I was quite amazed with the energy and the quality of the work.”

All members of the band are multi-instrumentalists who can also find their way behind the soundboard, too. The rest of The Bablers are Pekka Gröhn on bass, keyboards and vocals, Janne Haavisto on drums, percussion and vocals, and Hannu Pikkarainen guitars, drums.

The band’s first album, What’s All About, proved that, despite the continued popularity of punk, there was still plenty of appetite, both in Finland and beyond, for Beatle-esque pop.

From the get-go, The Bablers were willing to buck norms a little bit, starting with the markets in which they would find their music. Like so much of the rest of the world, the explosion of punk in the mid-’70s, as well as subsequent rumblings of new wave and rockabilly, was felt far beyond London and New York. And Finland was one of many countries embracing these waves. But unlike a lot of places, many bands in Finland cut tracks in their own language. Not so for The Bablers.

“At the time, there was new wave and punk rock,” Tamminen recalled. “Singing those in Finnish was, at the time, the thing to do, but by singing in English, we really went against the tide.”

And, truth be told, the strategy was successful, though a good part of that success would happen outside of their home country.

“We were very popular Finland on the first recording,” said Tamminen, “but the second album was done more for the international market. The release of the compilation in Finland was very low-key.”

The next chapter of The Bablers’ story does take a more familiar turn. In those early adult years, people change a lot, and along with that their tastes and their thinking on just about everything. While the band members personally got along fine, their knack for making their brand of music just kind of faded.

“We were together for about four years, then we broke up,” Tamminen remembered. “There was nothing dramatic that ever happened, it’s just that we all decided to do different things. We remained friends, and over the years we would play each other's birthday parties and picnics.”

Independently, band members found no shortage of success.

Tamminen, who is an accomplished cellist who also plays classical music. He won a Finnish Grammy Song of the Year award in 1998 for “Together Forever.” Haavisto, Gröhn, and Pikkarainen have also won for various producing and performing endeavors.

But then, the story turns again, and this time in a way both happy and familiar. While The Bablers were no longer a band, the music never completely faded away as the band found themselves with an international audience. Over time, that was too hard to ignore, and the band reformed and began making new music.

“All of us can do many different things,” said Tamminen. “We're all producers. We can play cross instruments on different tracks and there are no egos in the studio. The basic thing that keeps us going is the songs. We want to record them in the best possible way. We are suckers for a good song.”

And, judging by what the band has released thus far, they should be able to round up plenty of company. Already, they have it on pretty good knowledge that the demand is there for their brand of power pop.

“We are going for an international audience,” Tamminen reported. “I think there are a lot of people that like this handmade pop, and because of the internet, there are all these possibilities for getting the music out to those people. These days, it's easy for people in Hawaii or anywhere else to hear our new stuff.”

Tamminen also discussed his own approach to songwriting.

“The way I think about songwriting is that it's an art that I do on its own terms,” Tamminen explained, “not thinking about anything else except how I want to write that song, whether it's the life experience or the theme of the song. For each song it differs.”

Invariably, The Bablers get compared to perhaps the first -- and greatest -- power pop band of all, which is of course, the Beatles. The band’s well-crafted melodies are only the start. Tamminen’s singing is frequently invites comparisons to one member of the Beatles in particular. Oddly enough, the band wasn’t always thrilled with the comparison.

“People always tell me I sound like John Lennon,” said Tamminen, who has often made clear publicly that there has never been an attempt by The Bablers to infuse Beatle-ness into their music. In fact, while they don’t exactly dislike the Fab Four’s music, they make clear that the Beatles aren’t their very favorites, either.

“Once upon a time, I used to get annoyed by the comparison,” Tamminen admitted. Then later on, I realized it might be good that people say you sound like the biggest pop band ever.”

“Why fight it? my job is to create songs and record them the best way I can, regardless of the sound.”

There are always new features in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. We can’t make any guarantees in stone, but we’re happy to spread the word when we can about about the artists and bands that are playing the groovy kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.

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