We're in the studio live with Yuka and friends. Henry, right?
Henry, yes. Henry, we got, we got that right too.
From Finland to Nashville to Richland Center Wisconsin, we are honored to have you here.
Happy to be here. Thank you for having us.
Logged a lot of miles in between, too, didn't you?
Just a couple.
But what are you right from, you know, as far as what you're inspired by things around you,
people you meet or?
I get really inspired of my life.
I've had a good life with all the twists and turns. I've never been in a, I haven't always been
in a great spot. I mean, the first song that we're going to play live today is
about that very dark place you find yourself when you're after working a long time for corporate
America and just hitting the wall. But it's a positive song in the end.
I mean, and what I love about riding with Dale Oliver and Dan Couch, I mean, they are always
kind of respecting the story. And it kind of, it feels really true to me as well. And there's always
bits and pieces of of my life there. I will probably write a lot of songs about this
radio tour that we've had. I mean, we've met so many great people and seen so many amazing places.
And I mean, there's my head is just my, my hard drive in my head is just totally full at the moment.
What's the name of the song you're going to play for us here?
The name of the song is actually, life goes on.
Life goes on.
And this is, I wrote this like a very long time ago, maybe close to 10 years ago. And it felt kind of
relevant to to play it here as well. I mean, it's this is kind of where I started my, my riding
like a professional riding. So I love putting a little bit of myself in every song.
Wonderful. Yuka live on WRCO.
Are we ready? We're always ready.
Should be better than that.
Sometimes the story of your life makes someone else's dream alive.
When it all feels heavy on your shoulders, when that question three chords and the truth.
Life goes on.
When you count your blessings, all the wrong terms, when that question full prints out the moon.
Life goes on.
Someday it's fast on snow.
First days, don't you feel like pushing by them for the race?
Just one of these days, sometimes the sooner is the same thing life is fair.
But damn it, you'll be.
Grass is always greener on the road, side of the track.
In some water and your bleachers like that, it ain't what we want, it's about to what we have.
When it all feels heavy on your shoulders, when that question three chords and the truth.
Life goes on and on.
When you count your blessings, all the wrong terms, when that question full prints out the moon.
Life goes on.
Someday it's fast on snow.
Life goes on and on.
Wonderful guys, thank you so much.
We're in the studio with Yuka and nice to have some live music in the studio with us today.
Great to have you along today and you mentioned going to Nashville to write and things like that.
Sounds like you've kind of hooked up with some good people.
I've been very fortunate with being able to work with some great producers and writers from the
industry. I find myself wondering quite often why me probably never got an answer to that question.
So you were exposed to country music a little bit, but do you have radio in Finland that plays
country music? Or where do you hear it?
We have one country radio station which is top 40 only, kind of station.
They don't want to play my song because I'm not an American artist.
Oh really? There's no finished country music on that station at all in our own language.
We have a lot of good finished country bands, but who actually perform in our own language,
but I mean they will never get to the radio because it is, I mean, and it's strange in a way
because all the rest of the surrounding countries in Scandinavia like Sweden, Denmark, Norway,
they all have a really strong country music scene. A lot of big artists are going there like
regularly and none of them ever drops by in Finland.
What amazes me too sometimes is people that maybe can't speak English, but they can sing in
English because they hear the English songs all the time.
Yeah, I mean, we started English at school since third grade, so that's probably why we
kind of survive. But I think the best way to learn, to speak the language is kind of how we
grew up, it's like just reading the lyrics from the albums that you were listening when you were
young and I mean that's probably the best kind of way for us to learn. That was a cool thing about
vinyl and now it's made a comeback too, but you often had the lyrics printed on the inside,
you know, so good stuff. You're going to sing for us an emotional song next year and you told me
when we were on break that some of these songs that you write and sing, they're kind of good therapy
for you. Is that true? That is definitely, this is one of those songs. I mean, I filter a lot of
things and I think the best way to, from the therapeutic point of view is just to write a song about
it and this one is going to be a really tough one for me because I mean it's about a friend of mine
who I lost a couple of years ago. He lost his fight for his personal demons. We knew each other
since we were like three, four-year-old, went through all the schools, all the first bands. He was
one of the most talented guitar players in Finland at the time. What we used to do, we used to
just jump into my truck driving to the woods, had a bottle of Jack Daniels with us and two glasses,
always glasses, no solo cups or anything. We just sat and talked, no phones, nothing. We did that
like once or twice a year. After his funeral, I had to do this trip just by myself. That was a pretty
rough experience. I just sat there out in the woods on a rock, had two glasses and then the whole idea
for the song came out. This is a cool ride between myself, Dale Oliver and Dan Couch. Those two
last lines of the song are a great example of that Dan Couch magic that everybody's talking about.
He came up with those two last lines that I'd probably break. The song is called Talking to Jesus
through a bottle of Jack. All right, you got joining us live on WRC O'Ready.
It all on hold, and grind a week till set and sun, and rest your balls when Saturday comes.
Sunday morning, church bell tree, channel life, inquire singing, amazing race. It's an amazing place.
I know folks will disagree, having the opans up to me, when it's me on the moon and it stars up
talking to Jesus through a bottle of Jack.
Oh
There's seeping in a campfire,
why a moment feels to you, speaks to me like a long, long trail,
and it ready's my heart for a week again. Sunday morning, church bell stringing,
channel life, inquire singing, amazing race. It's an amazing place. I know folks will disagree,
having the opans up to me, when it's me on the moon and it stars up there. Talking to Jesus through
a bottle of Jack. I know folks will disagree, having the opans up to me, when it's me on the
moon and it stars up there. Sunday morning, church bell stringing, channel life, inquire singing, amazing race.
It's an amazing place. I know folks will disagree, having the opans up to me, when it's me on the
moon and it stars up there. Talking to Jesus through a bottle of Jack. I'm talking to Jesus.
There's an extra passing case, he comes back, when I'm talking to Jesus through a bottle of Jack.
You okay in the studio with us today from WRC already. I think we should probably go over
the spelling of your name so people can find you, right? That's a good idea. J-Y-K-A. Correct.
Is that right? J-Y-K-A and pronounced Yuka and how can people get a whole of your music or find
you? Under that name, J-Y-K-A, you can find my song Crack of Cold One in all the streaming platforms,
Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora. I don't even know all of them. Then on the social media side,
you can find me under the name of Country Yuka. So Country and J-Y-K-A, that's going to be very
easy. That is easy. Just don't mind the two dots on the A. It's just, it comes from our Finnish language
and my producer and my manager thought that it looked cool, so that's why they're there.
Well, I know you've made a lot of progress in your career. Is there someone out there that's
putting out music right now that you'd love to work with like a dream opportunity if you had that
chance? I would love to work with Ashley McBride or Cody Johnson. I think those are,
I really love those, I mean, as an artist and both strong writers as well.
So yeah, well said, they're having success right now too. So yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned
Ronnie James Dio. Anybody else that you've met that you were like maybe star struck with the first
time you met them? Well, there's so many, I mean, we've been, we were in a good place with our
band in Finland. We got some like good support gigs. So we've been supporting like status quo
and bands like that. But I think Ronnie, meeting Ronnie James Dio for a young hard rock guy at the age
of 15, that was probably the highlight. And I remember we were sharing the same backstage and he
actually walks in spend time with us like hour and a half just talking, giving good advice.
And then he points out at guys you have some alcohol here like yes, we do. I'm going to take
these away because I've seen so many people go down with their carriers with too much of these.
And he walks out with all the alcohol we had. Wow, that's a great, that was a you didn't expect that
deal. No, no. And I mean, and then they saw us at the local bus station. And I mean, that was like
a highlight of my young hard rock heavy metal bass player carrier. Awesome. Well, well,
have you leave us with a song? What would you like to play here?
Sure. It's going to be a little funnier one. It's called Everybody Knows You Now. And it's a song
about somebody forgetting his or her roots where you're from the way you were brought up.
So I wrote this originally for a person that I'm probably not going to mention right here. But this is
a it's a true story about people who just lose their kind of touch where they come from. And
I mean, we're from countryside. So you will probably point that out in this song as well.
So it's called Everybody Knows You Now. Okay, Yuka and Henry, WRC.
Yeah.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Crank a little girl, make my old red fly.
Every little thing you do just proves you wrong. Every little face you make makes me want to ride you in this song.
Every single word you say proves you just don't belong. In the cover of that fashion magazine,
your heart is in this hunk of time. Next you go there. Crank a little girl, make my old red fly.
Drive it by the lake for the very first time I know you now. Like everybody knows you now.
Now.
Wine wears off from this mile when you crack a corn, staring at a bonfire, missing where you come from.
No, no, no. Oh, Joaheel's got a girl. Roll to in this song. Me, she, you, you, your heart is in this hunk of time.
Next to mine. Crank a little girl, make my old red fly. Drive it by the lake for the very first time I know you.
Now, like everybody knows you now. Crack a little girl, make my old red fly. Drive it by the lake for the very first time I know you now.
Now, like everybody knows you now. You know you now. In this conjured sight of heaven.
Small john born in flight. Singing dreamer, bent love advice. No, no, no.
Next to mine. Crack a little girl, make my old red fly. Drive it by the lake for the very last time I know you now.
Now, like everybody knows you now. Crack a little girl, make my old red fly. Drive it by the lake for the very last time I know you now.
Crack a little girl, make my old red fly. Drive it by the lake for the very last time I know you now.
I love it. Nice shot, guys. I love all you named drop Merl, too. That's where it all began.
Exactly. And you've got the working man blues tattoo on you? I have a big Merl tattoo on my shoulder and I have a working on blue.
That's awesome. Well, safe travels to you. Thank you so much and have a great day.
Yuka again, J-Y-K-A if you're looking for the music online. A great to have him along here and company here on WRC Radio for a Wednesday morning.