From playing in the streets of Helsinki and Stockholm to big clubs and festivals in the UK and Japan, the fresh-sounding rock’n’roll band Us have made it this far with a fearless DIY approach.

Everybody’s Giving Up the Cabaret, the sophomore album by rock quartet Us, will see daylight on June 26^th, 2026. With a spicy mix of garage and indie rock with a punk vibe, the band does not sound exactly contemporary. Maybe this is why Us sounds exciting and fresh.

The band consists of three brothers, Teo Hirvonen, Pan Hirvonen, and Max Somerjoki, with their friend Leevi Jämsä. Vocalist-guitarist Teo Hirvonen explains that their family background has a lot to do with their sound.

“We were kids, so all music was new to us, never mind when it was recorded. For example, every day our dad played one record that was released by Love Records for us. We grew up appreciating this music and the heritage.”

For those who don’t know, Love Records was a legendary Finnish label back in 1966 – 1979. The company focused on providing artistic freedom much more than on expecting commercial success and left a vast and stylistically wild catalogue of more than 300 LP’s of folk, prog, rock, pop, punk and more.

Playing in a travelin' band

With its members immersed in this kind of musical heritage from a very young age, the music of Us makes perfect sense. But there’s more to their story than that.

Us started their career playing in the streets and clubs of their hometown, Helsinki. After making enough money to buy boat tickets, they moved to Stockholm and continued. On to Copenhagen, the Netherlands, and eventually the United Kingdom.

“We had this idea that since we are starting from scratch anyway, why not start at some place where there’s supposedly more audience for our kind of music”, Teo Hirvonen remembers.

Since we are starting from scratch anyway, why not start at some place where there’s supposedly more audience for our kind of music – Teo Hirvonen

Traveling in Europe by land, playing in the streets for money, and asking every possible club on the way for a gig is not a likely approach for any band or artist in the 2020s. But for Us it has worked out perfectly.

When Us played their first club gigs in the UK, Max Somerjoki was still underage, so the band had to hide him from the security officials. And then there was the language barrier.

“We thought we were fluent in English, but when you go to places outside London, you run into many different accents. And it dawned on us that in bigger cities such as London or Manchester, there are bands who never go play anywhere else. We have travelled all across the country playing two or sometimes three gigs per day”, Max Somerjoki explains.

Big in Japan

Everybody's Giving Up the Cabaret was produced by Charlie Russell, who has worked with Liam Gallagher among others. The album was recorded in London, where the band is kind of half-located these days, the other half being Helsinki.

“Charlie had not seen us live, and he was skeptical at first about our idea to record live as much as possible. Eventually, he understood it was the right way to go”, Teo Hirvonen says.

The unbelievable amount of legwork Us have done has paid off. In addition to playing sold-out shows in the UK, Us have also broken into the Japanese market.

“Masahiro Hidaka from a big booking agency, SMASH Japan, happened to see us live in the UK. He became our manager in Japan, and he told us we’re gonna play at Fuji Rock and then release an album through Japanese Sony. We thought he was kidding”, Teo Hirvonen laughs.

One thing is just to go to places and ask to play. I don’t recall anybody ever responding to emails very well – Max Somerjoki

When the band later received the schedule for the delivery of the album master, they had to get the album Underground Renaissance (2024) done quickly. Producer Riku Mattila helped with this project tremendously.

Now Us have played at big Japanese and British festivals and clubs, and this year they are booked to play more shows in Finland too. Do they have any good advice for others hoping to be able to do the same?

“One thing is just to go to places and ask to play. I don’t recall anybody ever responding to emails very well… And another thing is not to be too demanding with the technical specs of any given venue. We are quite flexible with what we’re able to play with, and that has proven useful”, Max Somerjoki concludes.

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