--------------------------------Биография Паулы
Music has always been number one. As a child, I wouldn't stop singing. I took mum's cassettes (Berit, Jörgen Petersen, Taxi by Night compilation of Finnish hits) and played them until they wore down. I invited mum's guests to listen to my performances, I made up my own songs and envied my big brother his opportunity to play the piano and the violin. I had my first performance at the age of four in some assembly hall in Kärsämäki, I sang a song called "Sininen uni" (Blue Dream) to the accompaniment of my nanny. In comprehensive school I thought I'll be an actress, a singer, a cleaning lady and an architect when I grow up - all this simultaneously. I admired my aunts, who owned architect bureaux with their husbands. I also thought I would have four children before I turn 30.

Playing the violin as a child introduced me to classical and folk music. In addition to the common orchestra work and classical studies, my enthusiastic teacher formed the first band I was in. I had tried forming one myself in the sixth grade, but the other girls didn't bother to learn to play after all. I travelled with the folk band Rätvänä for years, even abroad. We had adults on board of course, and in the end half of the band had come of age anyway. The band was dissolved into smaller line-ups, which became the first of my own: Rillapiät (an acapella group), which even got into a studio and recorded one of my and Maija-Liisa's own songs; a cover band in the music academy; Ex-Mato (a girl trio) which included street music and great songs (Teresa and Krisse, I love you) and Trio Kesäyö, which went all the way to Sweden and on a music academy recording (which sounded terrible). The trio's soloist, Maija, sings in a band called Miami. Ex-Mato won a local contest about self-employment, and the city paid us 1500FIM for playing for tourists stopping by at the marketplace. One summer we went to Pori Jazz to see Björk perform at Kirjurinluoto. We had front seats, and the security guys didn't confiscate the cameras from us!

In high school, I thought for some years I would become a violin teacher. I had started classical singing earlier during comprehensive school, and along with the theatre, singing became a top priority. Four years at The Graduates' Theatre of Kuopio demanded a lot of attention and energy, but they certainly paid off a lot more. I got to compose music to plays and I participated in other productions, such as Kuopio City Theatre's and Vestäjät's joint production Doctor Finckelman and Theatre Group Ravistus's Chekhov project, an educational video, a short film...

I could do a lot more in high school than nowadays: in addition to the theatre, violin classes and high school, there was the cathedral chamber choir, guitar, piano, classical and pop/jazz singing classes, a band, different musicals at school and at the conservatory, and I had to work as well. During the studies at polytechnic I played my own songs in a group called Paula & Raikkaat Pojat (Fresh Boys) and did trashy gigs and sung here and there. I visited Seikkailu-Kuopio's speakeasy regularly at weekends as a soloist for Kuopio's jazz old-timers. These times taught me everything I know about bepop and swing, but I still don't know that much. I still torture the cat and sing with Mikko Torvinen's orchestra now and then. Both Raikkaat Pojat and this orchestra feature Risto Ristonen, who encouraged me to write lyrics back then. The last gig with those songs was the New Year 2002 in Tampere at I-club, where I appeared as a guest singer named Pieni Kuolema (A small death) with the orchestra. My songs and lyrics weren't too positive, but yet had a twinkle in the eye. The songs now exist only as sheet music and on a puny C-cassette, which got partially destroyed by the deck in Juho's parents' Skoda.

I guess I've had a million different jobs, I've supported myself pretty well since I was 15, with some help from my mum. Besides the music and theatre work I've been employed in bars, cafés and restaurants, even processed vegetables at a wholesale, been a summer reporter in Viitasaari and all that jazz. I can milk cows. As a kid, the high point of the week was the arrival of the local travelling library at Saaninkoski comprehensive school.

// edit: fixing some typos