Mikko Saarela

Finnish musician, songwriter and producer. One of the most impressive creative geniuses in Finnish new wave in the late 70's and throughout the 80's. Born on January 16, 1958 in Tampere, died January 11, 2019 in Helsinki. He was the bassist and main lyricist of the record breaking punk-new wave crossover act Eppu Normaali during 1976–1979 after being schoolfriend to the Syrjä brothers. He also wrote lyrics to many Finnish new wave hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Toured with Kollaa Kestää as stand in bassplayer ironically replacing briefly Mikko Nevalainen who replaced him in Eppu Normaali. Latterly Saarela became a full-time biologist after receiving his DPhil in 1985 and was a respected biologist and lecturer at the University of Helsinki in that field and once worked in a technical capacity at a fish farming facility. He died too early of cancer in 2019. Even in his later years he contributed to other acts and after Eput was in two class acts- the new wave country act, Freud Marx Engels & Jung and the innovative synthpop band Organ, both of whose work with Saarela has stood the test of time.