My name is Lion de la Vega. I'm a rapper and a singer from Oulu, Finland and this is my first blog in english. Here we go.
On friday, November 14th, Vinny Olavi and his band Groupie High School released their first album "More than meets the eye". They had a great album release party at their training flat in Hiukkavaara exclusively for their closest friends. The band performed all their new songs, shot some champagne to the roof, broke one guitar and a lot of drum sticks. Are they the most dangerous rock'n'roll band in Oulu? Fuck yeah.
 |
| #Groupie High School at their album release party |
Anyways, I'm sure Vinny wants to write more about the album release party in his own blog in
http://groupiehighschool.blogspot.fi. So, I'm about to tell you a little bit concerning our new duo project: Lion de la Vega & Vincenzo Olavi - Storm Raiders.
Vinny and I, we are both big hockey fans. Vinny even played in Finnish national team when he was young. He was not a big scorer because he loved to crosscheck his opponents and sat on the penalty box a lot. He also loved to tackle hard and drop his gloves. That's what you do when you're a "police" of your team. On september we we're watching the opening match of Finnish Hockey League in Oulu. The match was Kärpät of Oulu against Tappara of Tampere. After the match we decided that we own the night and started drinking like maniacs. Beer Maniacs. Me, Vinny and his girfriend visited a lot of different bars and it was a fun night indeed. Vinny also had listened gangsta rap in his youth and he asked if I was interested in doing a duo EP with him. Fuck yeah I was. I had also listened Guns'n'Roses, Hurriganes, Hanoi Rocks and a lot of other rock bands in my youth and it sounded a great idea.
 |
| #Drinkin' booze at speakeasy |
My name in our project is Lion de la Vega, because I love Spain so much. I've even lived there, in Seville, in 2008. I also speak spanish. I loved to sit under a palm tree in Parque de Maria Luisa, drink red wine and read poetry of Pablo Neruda and Frederico Garcia Lorca. Those we're the best days of my life so far. I was very much in love with my ex-wife and we lived there together. We danced salsa under the stars, partied in Ibiza, I surfed on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, did crazy stuff in Pamplona Bull Running parties, watched La Liga together with my English friend Will, listened French rap with my french friend Nata, trained at the gym with my Italian frien Vincenzo etc. When me and my ex-wife got divorced, I became very sad. I had thought she was the love of my life. She wasn't. However, now I'm happy again and I'm 100 per cent sure that the best days of my life are still to come. Fuck, I don't even have a Ferrari yet. I've performed in many places, but not in Tokyo. Not in London. Not in Rio de Janeiro.
 |
| #Will. He's a dandy like Oscar Wilde |
 |
| #Vincenzo and Nata in the night of Seville |
 |
| #Nata and Vincenzo hanging at the roof in Triana, Seville |
 |
| #Vincenzo making business calls in Milan |
Vinnys grand father is from Italy. So Vinny is now Vincenzo Olavi in our duo project. I'm sure he loves Italy. Together we are Lion de la Vega & Vincenzo Olavi, Storm Riders or Raiders, what ever you prefer. Our songs are about surfing, hanging at the beach, lovely ladies, love in general, partying, driving fast cars, shotgun shootings, living on the edge and laughing to death. I've almost died many times in my life, but every time I've survived. So nowadays I'm pretty sure that I can't even die. I have a guardian angel. I've even met her when I was in sleep. She looked beautiful like Penelope Cruz, except that she had wings. She told me that I can't die yet, because I have so much things to do. I answered: "Okay, you keep me alive". She has. When I was seventeen, a man tried to murder me with a knife. He failed. When I was nineteen, I crashed a car without my seat belts on. The car destroyed totally, but I didn't have a single wound. That felt kind a freaky. Was that a pure luck? I don't know. If that was, I'm sad that my idol James Dean didn't have as much luck as I did. If I'm wrong and I die someday, then atleast I'm about to leave some wild songs behind me. Fuck yeah rock'n'roll.
 |
| #My band mates from Tai-Pan Circle when they were kids |
 |
| #Me when I was a kid |
 |
| #James Dean when he was a kid. He also died as a kid |
 |
| #Pray for my angel |
|
At first, when me and Vinny started to plan our album, our idea was to mix gothic love elements of the 69Eyes, mysterious moods of the Doors and rough beats of gangsta rap. Anyways, now our producer is a guy called Andy ConTio. Andy is a mysterious man from Lapland and a very talented musician. He has some plans for us in his twisted head. So I'm sure that in future we are not going to sound the 69Eyes, the Doors or Snoop Doggy Dogg. We are about to sound Lion de la Vega & Vincenzo Olavi, flyboys of the North. We are going to sound Flyboy Rock'n'Roll influenced by gangsta rap.
However, our first single "Storm Raiders" is not produced by Andy ConTio but by Larry Hollywood. Larry might be a vampire, I'm not sure. Anyways, he lives during the night and sleeps during the day. If he is not a vampire, then I'm sure he is an artist. I met him at law school in Lapland. I rap and sing, Vincenzo sings and Matt Nitro of Groupie High School is playing a guitar solo. Storm Raiders single is going to be released in early part of 2015. As soon as we have time to shoot a music video for it. We are surfers so we can't shoot the video here in Finland. We have to shoot it in Spain or in Portugal. Stay tuned.
 |
| Vincenzo Olavi & Lion de la Vega - Storm Raiders |
 |
| #Matt Nitro. I think he has seen pictures of both, Mick Mars AND Nikki Sixx |
When I was finishing my first blog in english, I got a weird message from the grave. My idol started to follow me in Instagram :D Haha, I follow you back, start releasing some pictures of you. And where are you know? Hanging with Elvis and 2Pac in Cuba or what?
