Interview by Ali Williams
HOKKA are not easing their way into their new release. They are kicking the door off the hinges, draping the room in red capes and dark mythology, then having the nerve to make it all look effortless.
Speaking with HEAVY, Joel Hokka comes across as the kind of frontman who has already lived enough band life to know exactly what matters and exactly what doesn’t. There is no wide-eyed “we just got lucky” routine here. HOKKA might be new on paper, but this is not a band fumbling around in the dark hoping to strike a chord. This is the sound of seasoned musicians taking the scenic route through chaos and somehow arriving with a debut album, a label, festival slots and a clear creative identity before most bands have even agreed on a decent group photo.
The origin story is almost insultingly efficient. After Joel’s split from Blind Channel, he linked up with Pauli, formerly from The Rasmus with both men bringing years of Finnish rock pedigree and enough experience to avoid wasting time pretending the business side of music is some mystical accident. What began as informal sessions and song ideas quickly snowballed into a real band, real momentum and a debut release in MiSERIA IV. That sort of rise would be nauseating if it did not also make perfect sense. When two people with history, hunger and unfinished business get in a room together, things tend to move.
And that unfinished business matters. One of the more entertaining truths to emerge from the chat is that HOKKA’s creative engine is not powered by incense, deep breathing and trust falls. It is powered, at least in part, by revenge. Joel says it plainly, with the kind of grin you can almost hear through the transcript: revenge is a fantastic motivator. It is a wonderfully unpretentious admission, and honestly, a refreshing one. Rock music has always done some of its best work when someone is at least a little bit annoyed. HOKKA are simply organised enough to turn that irritation into riffs, spectacle and a whole new era.
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