On the Record with Free Carmen

I don’t go on or off the record a whole lot these days, let’s be honest. But every now and then, I get notified of a band that seems interesting enough to talk to.

On this occasion, it was Free Carmen, an alternative rock band from Finland who did something unusual: they recorded two debut concept albums, “Solstice I” and “Solstice II,” and released them on their respective solstices.

Not only did this interest me conceptually, but from their press releases, the band’s vocalist, Veeti Mäkinen, had some intriguing ideas. So, he came out to my office on January 8th, 2026, to have a chat about music and art.