In case you've been wondering what happened to Urban Tale vocalist Kimmo Blom, here's an update! He has a new band with Annica Milán, and they're taking part in the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest competition (UMK). We asked about that and some other things too...

Your duo Annica & Kimmo seems to be a rather new project. I think The first time I heard of you was sometime last autumn.  How long have you been working together?

- Our first ever collaboration was in a musical production about Tina Turner/The Rolling Stones in Tampere.Annica played one of Tina ' s backup singers and I played Mick Jagger. We started our own band a year ago. 

You’ve done some cover gigs but you’ve now entered the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest with an original song. Are you going to move your focus to original material and do you have a lot of your own songs under your belt?

- Absolutely! Writing and recording original material has been the goal all the time.We have a bunch of songs of our own waiting on the line and we're pretty excited about our new songwriter connections as well.

Is the song ”Good Enough” representive of the direction of the project?

-We love that song/production very much but we want to be open for other angles as well. Our own material has influences from variety of sounds and styles since we love good songs from musicals to hard rock.

Kimmo, the AOR community knows you from your work with Urban Tale. Is there a possibility that we might hear new UT material in the future?

- Well...there's been some talking with Erkka ja Timo to maybe write something together some time in the future.We had a great reunion gig a year ago warming up Helix in Helsinki and that definitely left a good vibe! Time is our only enemy at this point but I really hope that we could find a slot for the next UT-chapter. 

You’ve earned yourself a reputation as one of the go-to guys when comes to musical acting here in Finland. That’s probably keeping you rather busy, along with A & K and your Queen show. How do you manage to divide your time with all these projects and daily routines?

- I worked for four years in a musical theatre in Tampere but had to quit a year ago as I took part in the UMK15 and The Voice of Finland. The scedules simply got impossible to fit together. I took a risk and thought that tv exposure would give me new opportunities and a kick to boost my career but quite honestly it didn't. So,there's some projects on the table but plenty of energy to do more in the future! I have a day job nowadays but music is still my first priority!

Annica, what kind of a musical  background do you have?

- I started taking singing lessons when I was 11. Singing has been my passion ever since! I've had my fair share of taking part in various talent shows but now I've studied music professionally for almost two years. I've done a bunch of gigs alongside my studies.

The A&K gigs – haven’t seen one yet, so I’m curious – do you sing all songs as duets or do you have solo numbers?

- Basicly we try to share the leads in every song but some numbers are more like doing harmonies for the other. We want to shake the idea of female/male-roles within the song, so that the lyrics may have a new interesting angle. 

Some short rapidfire questions for  both of you:

1.    pick one favourite track from your setlist.
- Annica: Turbo Lover by Judas Priest 
- Kimmo: Angel Don't Cry by Toto

2.    If you could get any songwriter in the world to write a song for you to sing, who would that be?
- Annica: David Foster
- Kimmo: Sting

3.    Your favourite  album of the eighties?
- Annica: Kiss "Crazy Nights "
- Kimmo: Impossible to pick one from that decade.Too many great albums. My pick for today is Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood"

4.    Your favourite album of the last 5 years?
- Annica: Iron Maiden:"The Book of Souls "
- Kimmo: Marillion:"Live at the Cadogan Hall"

One last question: if you’re chosen to represent Finland in the ESC, what kind of a show can we expect?

- Our show is far away from conventional, I can assure that. The stage presentation is linked to our video and is very much targeted to the tv audience. Something you've never seen before!

Good luck with the ESC and thanks for your time!

- Thanks for your kind support and all the Best to everyone visiting rockunited.com!

Interview by Kimmo Toivonen, photos from annicakimmorocks.com