The Story
The first sparks of inspiration, which would eventually lead to the founding of The Northquakes, took place during the summer of 2015. Although the temperature of the most ambitious mercury was modest compared to it's Jamaican cousins in 1969, the heat of genius was burning in Kari Starck. He was overflowing with new ideas for music to the brink of madness, and the growing pressure of creativity demanded a release. The seed was planted.
It was time for something new. Finding musicians to fill the band was easy. Robbie had to look no further than his current rehearsal studio to find his Sly, and from Northern Finland he found his guitarists and keyboard player. The right singer was more difficult to come by, but the band’s patience was eventually rewarded.
The Northquakes can be best described as contemporary rhythm music with a soul twist. Influences can be heard everywhere from reggae to funk to country to Britpop, without being constrained by any one genre or style. The musicians have backgrounds in other bands, including two of the forerunners of Finnish ska, The Valkyrians and The Blaster Master, and therefore the group has a long collective history in studying the groove.
The story behind the band’s name begins in Northern Ostrobothnia. In the spring of 2016 the band had it's first recording sessions in Liminka. Just as the amplifier blasted out the first bass notes into the air, a much bigger blast took place in the Bothnian Bay. A rare phenomenon at that latitude took place: an earthquake. Thus, by a modest Richter magnitude of 4.1, The Northquakes was born, but the aftershocks will be felt for a long time to come.