Costello Hautamäki received the perfect 60th birthday present

Veli-Pekka Hautamäki, who became known as Popeda’s guitarist, is known to the general public as Costello, but to his friends as Costo. As Costa, he also answers his phone.

We had agreed to meet next to the Fuengirola train station on the Costa del Sol, Spain. Hautamäki turned on live monitoring via Whatsapp well in advance, so that we can find each other more easily.

– Using it is really convenient, Hautamäki states after the presentation.

The musician turned 60 on September 11, but his youthfulness would be hard currency on Tinder if he hadn’t been in a relationship for more than 30 years with the same woman.

However, Popeda’s guitarist has always had an export. If in the 1980s the fans at Köyliö’s Lallintalo were 15-year-old teenagers screaming with happiness when they asked Costello for a nimmar, then on the night of the interview, after the gig at Restaurant Kuko, the fans were 60-year-old correct “grandmas”

– However, the flow among women is the same, someone is talking after the gig, when Hautamäki stops for a while to take a selfie with someone.

Hautamäki celebrated his wife’s 60th birthday Sanna and his two sons Jimin28, and Alex’s26, along with their girlfriends on a week-long trip to London.

– At the age of 50, I organized a big party when we all still had electricity left. Now that I turned 60, there was no longer the same sense of celebration, Hautamäki states.

But the trip to London wasn’t just a family vacation.

– A few friends also unexpectedly arrived at the airport, and when my wife, still in London, asked me to open the door of our Airbnb apartment, there was one more surprise guest waiting behind it.

“We played rock band”

On his birthday, Hautamäki woke up to his sons Jimi and Alex bringing him congratulatory coffees in bed.

– They also had an envelope with them, in which they found the perfect gift for a man in his sixties. The Abbey Road studio was reserved for me to use for the day, Hautamäki rejoices.

The Beatles and Pink Floyd, among others, have recorded in the same studio. The Beatles’ 11th studio album was taken on the crosswalk in front of it Abbey Road – album cover, where the band members cross the street one after the other.

– Yes, we had to take that picture too. Otherwise, it’s an unimaginably busy intersection, you can’t zoom in, says Hautamäki.

In the studio, the trio recorded six new songs. Among the boys, Jimi is the drummer and Alex is the bassist.

– We had such a rock trio. The recordings are still on my computer’s desktop, but yes, they must be published at some point as “Costi 60-vee Abbey Road session”.

Hautamäki threw the new Jummaare, they will play the first three shows of the Popedaakin tour Popeda’s saxophonist-pianist Janne Huttunen with, but he continues to the end of the round with his Rock ‘n’ Roll Boys band. In addition to Popeda, the tour also includes classic songs by other Finnish artists.

In addition to his own sons, Hautamäki’s current band includes a guitarist known from the neighborhood, a friend of the boys, Sampsa Rättäri28.

– Others are into football, but our boys wanted to play in a rock band as children. When they were small, we played play cards, went to the playground, watched Pikku kakko or Fröbel’s blocks on TV, and played with a rock band, Hautamäki recalls.

Waiting for the heureka moment

Before his sixtieth birthday, Hautamäki said goodbye to his longtime bandmate Pauli “Pate” Mustajärvi, 67, at the Popeda concert held at Ratina Stadium in Tampere on September 2, when the Ikur turbine decided to retire. However, it does not mean the end of Popeda.

In addition to Hautamäki and Mustajärvi, the rights to the band’s name belong to Popeda’s former bass player Steep with Melart.

– Popeda’s continuation is still open. It needs more funks. Pauli was such a good soloist that you can’t take anything worse. Now we have to wait for such a eureka moment, Hautamäki thought at the end of October.

– Or Popeda could have soloists who change for different types of concerts and parties, like the band Agents, Hautamäki continues to ponder.

They used to sing in Sleepy Sleepers Tiina Tiikeri and Locust. Could the singer of Popeda be a woman, for example Mira Bullet?

– Of course, the soloist can be a woman. Mira Luoti would certainly be a flamboyant enough singer, Hautamäki replies.

However, the identity of the new soloist will not have to be guessed for a long time, as Hautamäki said last week From Tampere– magazine, that he plans to reveal Popeda’s new soloist on New Year’s Day at 2:00 p.m.

Hautamäki reminds us that the band’s music is not dying.

– Popeda’s music will end up on radio and television, but people will still remember the words of the songs. At concerts, the audience sings along with Irwin too A drop does not kill – song’s chorus, Hautamäki reminds.

Irwin Goodman passed away at the age of 47 in 1991, that is 32 years ago.

Former punk

The punk Hautamäki joined Popeda in 1982 after the guitarist Ari “Jartsi” Puukka had left the band.

– They wanted a guitarist with gig experience. I was a logical choice in itself, because Sensuuri had recorded for Poco Records, and we had the same gig seller, says Hautamäki about his first band.

– Many people were surprised when I left a punk band for Popeda. I myself was a bit confused at first, but I settled in Popeda quickly because I was able to make songs right away. On the way to Alabama came out in 1984. Lately we’ve been communicating with the boys of Sensuuri in the Whatsapp group about working together, because I still have a little punk heart.

Hautamäki had time to play with Popeda’s legendary guitarist Arwo Mikkonen, who passed away in 1986.

– I saw Popeda’s very first gig at the Gorilla Club, a youth disco in Tampere, in 1977. It was that kind of garage music from Ikur (residential area in Tampere). At that time, the band was not yet in the limelight musically, but the going was smooth, says Hautamäki.

Hautamäki calculates that he made 80 percent of Popeda’s music with Mustajärvi. He has also played in Sleepy Sleepers, OZ and Hanoi Rocks.