Olli Vänskä inherited his interest in music from his family. He was introduced to the life of a professional musician early on at concerts conducted by his father, the conductor Osmo Vänskä.

Alongside music, writing has been a natural form of self-expression for Olli Vänskä. Being part of a band, he needed to write about tours and the group’s activities for different grant applications and reports. However, all he ever wrote for the musicology students’ magazine Synkooppi was a mere concert report.

During my time at the university, I wasn’t much of a model student. Having completed my previous degree, the studies in musicology were a great supplemental activity, since I spent at best 200 days a year on the road.

In an interview recorded in 2013, Olli Vänskä talks about their then soon-to-be released record, his experiences in New York, and the daily life of a musician on tour.

I am pretty bad at planning for the future but I’m a seeker by nature. I’m afraid of becoming too content with my current situation so I constantly try new things.