Fredi or Matti Siitonen (Finland 1967 and 1976 and composer of 1979) has returned to the Finnish music scene with his first album of new material in 12 years. The Finnish radio stations chose it as the Album of the month and it has already charted at number 8 in radio airplay lists. Soittaja (Player) is a sentimental and tender diary of a grown up man remembering his 45 years in the business.
Fredi, 65, has been earning his living as a musician, singer and writer the past 40 years. He says: "I ended up as a musician 45 years ago. The title track is homage to all those musicians who keep playing. It is not an easy life".
Recently Fredi spoke about the depression he has been suffering for years, times when nothing seemed to matter. "I have seen so many musicians over the years getting burn out. You just travel and play all the time, make the others have a good time and forget about your own life. It’s a very stressful and lonely life."
But Fredi is doing great again now. This autumn he will star in Cats (the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical) in Lahti and the new album seems to be destined to be a success after rather disappointing sales of his comeback cover album Muuttuvat laulut (Changing songs) two years ago.
The album Soittaja includes five new Fredi compositions and he has written the lyrics for four of them. It also includes two classics Muukalaiset yössä and Luonnonlapsi. The critics say Fredi’s high tenor voice is in top conditions and he sings like when he was 25. The rest of the album’s team includes top Finnish musicians and writers like Esa Nieminen, Vexi Salmi, Sinikka Svärd and Jukka Vuolle.
