Finland: Interview – Isku Collective Creates Revolutionary Culture
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an interview published in Punalippu on July 27th.
The article was originally published in February in issue 2 of our paper magazine.
The cultural collective Isku was founded in late 2025. It has released two rap pieces, Punainen Aurinko and Kagaar. We interviewed the collective’s members “AK Viljanen” and “Dj Speccctre”.
AK Viljanen is a poet who writes lyrics in the collective. AK Viljanen says that they have been writing poems since childhood and has recently decided to start writing more political, revolutionary texts.
“My favorite poet is Vladimir Mayakovsky, and a fairly large part of my texts are directly inspired by the methods that Mayakovsky presents regarding the process of producing poems,” Viljanen says.
DJ Speccctre handles everything else required for the cultural collective to release the pieces, from logistics and recording to beat production and has been into music since childhood, and has particularly enjoyed with rhythmic music.
“This project has been inspired at least by drumless rap, the sound of the streets. We want the voice of the people to be heard here, and that has to be reflected in those beats. We’ve been looking for a slightly crackling, slightly contradictory sound, but at the same time it has to have a kick, good beats are a must,” says Speccctre, concluding that the soundscape of the songs has been carefully thought out.
AK Viljanen echoes this and emphasizes that the collective wants to produce music that serves the people, as opposed to commercial pop music. He says that they have sought inspiration from revolutionary rap around the world. Viljanen mentions, for example, Marcel Cartier, Bandera Roja and Immortal Technique.
“I’m looking for a really hard style, but also emotionality, good descriptions, good figurative language, that kind of liveliness,” Viljanen says.
Viljanen refers to Chairman Mao’s criteria that revolutionary art should not only be correct in political content, but also of high quality in form. He states that while the political message must be good, the music must also be enjoyable as art.
As we are living in imperialism, the culture is the culture of the ruling class, that also corrupts the minds of the working class, especially through popular culture, because that is what is available to the masses. So how is revolutionary rap different from other rap?
“When we look at what rap often represents today in Finland or around the world, it is often the kind of extreme capitalistic, and therefore reactionary, values, there’s a lot of chauvinism and worship of money. In that sense, we want to do something different,” Speccctre states.
“In the revolution, there must also be revolutionary culture,” AK Viljanen says.
Speccctre emphasizes that there is of course a lot of rap in Finland that highlights injustices. However, he thinks that music should also encourage revolutionary struggle as the solution for these injustices.
Viljanen and Speccctre believe that rap can politicize particularly young people. They tell, that for example, Avain gave them an important impetus to contest the prevailing system, despite his limitations.
“What is capitalism, why is it so shitty, and what can I do about it?” Viljanen describes his thought process. Ultimately, this process led Viljanen to Marxism.
Speccctre also emphasizes that music has been shown to evoke the strongest emotional reactions in people. Simply listening to music can begin to shape a person’s thoughts, making it a powerful weapon for revolution.
The collective’s plans are not to limit themselves to only to rap, but to become a collective of progressive and revolutionary artists. Speccctre emphasizes that they are open to collaborations with other artists and generally welcome all forms of revolutionary and progressive art.
The collective is currently looking to release an EP. Speccctre says that once the collective has released enough music, they plan to also organize gigs.
“The best gig is one that includes a few other gigs. Especially then it would be nice to find other revolutionary, progressive and forward-looking artists with whom we could organize a gig together. Then there would be a real countercultural spirit, and not just the fact that we are going through these problems of capitalism,” Speccctre says.
The collective’s debut single “Red Sun” deals with Finnish imperialism. AK Viljanen states that the song was made before Finland’s Independence Day to address the connection between Finnish imperialism and fascists. The song reveals how the Finnish state is built on the legacy of the whites of the Civil War, and connects to this Finnish fascism and the social problems.
Finnish imperialism lives from the exploitation of oppressed nations. For this reason, it is also important for the collective to support the struggle of oppressed nations against imperialism.
“The piece Kagaar was intended to expose the atrocities committed by the fascist Hindutva State of India, to expose Operation Kagaar, and to support the People’s War in India,” the poet says.
In India, a massacre is being committed against communists and the popular masses, and for this reason, the voice of artists opposing this “Operation Kagaar” is also important, just like the progressive and revolutionary artists have exposed the genocide committed against the Palestinian people.
Next, AK Viljanen and Speccctre are working on a piece that seeks to expose imperialism, and especially Yankee imperialism, in a situation where it has unleashed and is preparing aggression against oppressed nations in both Latin America and the Middle East. In this situation, the collective also wants to contribute to supporting the unification of the world’s anti-imperialist forces and the process for the establishment of the Anti-Imperialist League.
Finally, Specctre states:
“To all of you who feel artistic and are revolutionary, progressive, anti-imperialist: make art, put it out there, promote your message. It helps the world anti-imperialist and communist movement. Contact us if you want, let’s promote it together.”
Isku collective on Soundcloud:
