Musicalypse.net was founded in 2007 under the name “Music-Photocalypse” by Jana Blomqvist and Cornelia Wickel, a couple of photographers and general music nuts who met on DeviantArt and decided to team up to make a website to share their work with the world. Cornelia came up with the original name and together they built up the archive of over 15,000 photos that has become Musicalypse. However, around 2010, life got in the way and updates slowed to a near cease. As a result, in 2012 Musicalypse was bequeathed unto Bear W., an enthusiastic music-lover who had the drive to rebuild the site instead of letting all of their hard work fade to memory. She’s slowly been opening the site’s doors to photographers and journalists in Finland and beyond to help bring Musicalypse back to life.
Our goal is to capture the special moments – the energy, emotions, and feelings of a live gig – making it possible to experience those live performances time and time again. As photographers and journalists, we want to capture the moment so that you can put down your cell phone and live in it!
THE VIDEO TEAM
Bear W.
Editor in Chief, Owner
Role: Owner, organizer, editor, content manager, concert & festival reviews, album reviews, interviews, photography
Social Media: Instagram, Facebook
Web series: BandFit, Gathering of Geeks (coming soon!)
Bear snuck out of Canada to hide in the Finnish woods when she was 22 and stayed here when she heard how good the music was. When she is not writing fantasy novels like Islands of Nightsea, gaming, admiring cats, or generally being a complete hippy, her favorite pastime has always been watching live music. She hopes that someday she’ll write something that will make your world a better place, even for a moment.
Lene L.
Senior Photographer & Journalist
Role: Photography, concert & festival reviews, interviews & features, album reviews
Social Media: ex-Twitter
Web series: (coming soon!)
A coffee addict, semi-professional procrastinator, and perfectionist by day and “that tiny woman in the photo pit,” pizza lover, and background research aficionado by night. Other than that, she’s a person who talks and does a lot (and thinks she could always do more). With Musicalypse, she has a place to let her endless curiosity towards everything creative run free with her passion for making things click, powered by media, communications, and project management studies, and caffeine-induced superpowers. In her free time she subs for Captain Obvious and tells lame jokes. (Run, Curiosity, run!)
Essi Nummi: Journalist
Role: Concert & festival reviews, interviews
Web Series: (coming soon!)
Graduating from the University of Turku majoring in media studies and now wearing her best adult disguise. Her passions include music and writing, and being able to combine these two through Musicalypse is, well, pretty awesome. Even though her best fangirl years might be over, she still gets ridiculously excited over live music – a feature you might be able to notice in her reviews.
Vincent Parkkonen:
Journalist
Role: Concert & festival reviews, interviews, album reviews
Web Series: (coming soon!)
Vincent may seem like a simmering cavern of hate but, deep down, Vincent wants to love. He just… has very high standards. Vincent is also a creative type, so when something doesn’t meet his standards, he has a rather colorful way of saying so. Please don’t take it personally. It’s not you. Vincent Hates Everything.
THE NET TEAM
Wille Karttunen:
Senior Journalist, Finnish Editor
Role: Album reviews, concert reviews, Finnish translations, Finnish editor
Social Media: Facebook & Twitter
Wille studies English Language & Literature at the University of Tampere. Music has been a big part of his life ever since he started taking piano lessons at the age of 7 – nowadays he also plays guitar and bass. Before hopping aboard the Musicalypse ship, he had a music blog for a few months. Writing about music may be like dancing about architecture, but he likes challenges!
Phantom:
???
Role: Unknown
An unpredictable entity that lives in Bear’s apartment. It would never describe itself as a writer or music aficionado, but it has provided useful and insightful thoughts on music from time to time. Since we are not plagiarists, we wanted to give it some credit.
Jana Blomqvist: Co-Founder, Senior Photographer
Marco Manzi: Senior Photographer
Janne Puronen: Senior Photographer
Laureline Tilkin (Tuonela Magazine): Photographer, Videographer
Miia Collander: Photographer
Feng Deng: Junior Photographer
Sami Hinkkanen: Junior Photographer
Charlotta Rajala: Junior Photographer
Atte Valtonen: Journalist
Kalle Uotila: Junior Journalist
Simo Kuusterä: Junior Journalist
Sander Burmeister: Junior Photographer
Oskari Mäkisarka: Training Photographer
THE OVERSEAS TEAM
Maria Sawicka:
Senior Photographer
Role: Photography
Location: Poland
Polish photog, at one point dwelling in the UK. Maria graduated from the University of Lower Silesia as a Journalism minor. She’s always loved music but claimed to lack the talent to play, so became a music photographer, ’cause “this is as close to the stage as I will ever be.” She does her utmost to choose the best snapshots for everyone to see. Along with photography, she is also an occasional writer, cartoonist, and 24/7 geek. She is powered by the dark entity called coffee and plots to take over the world every Thursday.
Aleksanda Majak: Training Photographer (Poland)
Louis Tarpin: Training Photographer & Journalist (France)
OTHER STAFF
Cornelia Wickel: Co-Founder, Guest Photographer (Sweden/Germany-based)
Eliza Rask: Ex-photographer (2015-2017)
Kirsti Leinonen: Ex-photographer (2016-2017)
Mika Ringman: Guest Photographer, band consultant
Maija Lahtinen: Guest Photographer
Björn Bumblebee: “Historian” and occasional commentator
WANT TO JOIN OUR TEAM?
Do you want to be a part of the Musicalypse team? We’re currently looking for photographers and journalists to join us, within Finland as well as in other countries and even other languages! Send us your portfolio (including sample photos and/or reviews) and we’ll consider adding your name to the list! Fluent written English is a requirement for journalists and basic communicative English is a requirement for photographers. Send us a sample report or your photo portfolio at musicalypsehq(at)gmail.com. Photographers are required to have professional equipment.
Contact Information
For general inquiries or bands who want to share their demos, email us at musicphotocalypse(at)gmail.com.
If you’d like to partner with Musicalypse for a special feature, behind-the-scenes photoshoot, studio diary, album preview, or anything else, email us at musicalypsehq(at)gmail.com.
Please be patient with us, it might take a while to respond.
