From childhood punk bands and gaming soundtracks to dreams of Download Festival, Saint Aurora reflect on the journey that brought them here…

Words by Cheryl Mann | August 19, 2026

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After hitting millions of streams and soundtracking Cyberpunk 2077, Finnish rising band Saint Aurora opens up about fighting imposter syndrome, their upcoming tour with Lost Society and Hokka, and the physical media apocalypse.

They blend punk, theatre, and emo like no one else – now Saint Aurora are taking that unique formula on tour with Lost Society and Hokka to stake their claim as the future of alternative rock.

Discovering you alongside bands like The Requiem highlights just how chaotic and brilliant your mix of emo, goth, punk, and theatre is. Who are your biggest musical heroes, and what elements of their style helped to create this unique sound?

“Yeah, that’s a big question for us because we all come from many different genres. Yeah, and I think like that’s one of the strengths of creating art, kind of this wacky, kind of crazy style that has everything mushed up in it, there’s so much like different genres combining with what everybody loves and mostly for me it’s like theatrical emo stuff, so that’s always what brings out some of the kind of more crazy and wacky stuff because I just like it. I also like Yungblud. I have really liked artists for my whole life like Slipknot and Sevenfold but to our band it’s mostly My Chemical Romance and then Sevenfold and I don’t know, Pierce the Veil. It is very funny because when we started the band we had this vision of making an emo band and and I was a big punk and hardcore guy at a very young age, like that was what I listened to when I was an emo kid and I was like okay this is kind of punk, this is kind of hardcore, this is really cool. Nile is the most theatrical man I’ve ever met and that’s also one of our strengths in a way.”

Congratulations on the incredible milestone of clearing two million streams on “Going to Heaven”! On top of that, your inclusion on the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty soundtrack is massive—even younger generations of gamers are completely blown away by it. How critical was landing a spot on that high-profile soundtrack for the band’s trajectory, what kind of tangible growth or doors did it open for you, and would you advise emerging artists to actively target video game sync placements?

“It was the biggest deal for us because we are basically all just gamers. If you search gaming platforms, It’s always just like in the top 20 or top 10 of like most selling games and it still has a lot of players and then because like we got a lot of our like music Influences when we were children, we were playing games like GTA or, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Guitar Hero and those are video game soundtracks that kind of moulded our musical influence and what we are today. So that’s like to be in a complete cycle of doing that, getting all that from video games and then giving someone else that even if somebody doesn’t know the band or doesn’t know the song, they hear it.”

Since I’m an old-school gamer who prefers a simple, classic zombie shoot-’em-up over modern, multi-button games, let’s have some fun with a hypothetical scenario. If the world went into a full zombie apocalypse, which track from the St Aurora discography would you choose as the ultimate background anthem for slaying the undead, or would you choose a song from another band?

“That’s a cool question, for our song, I think Going to Heaven like you can’t beat that. I think that’s one of the action songs. Oh, dude I’d say Eyeless from Slipknot. That’s a good one. Let me think, let me think. Oh, uh Slayer Hate Worldwide, starts with the word I stab you right between the eyes. I think that would be awesome.”

Slayer would easily be my top pick for that soundtrack as well. This whole scenario is also a crucial reminder for music fans: buy physical media. When the apocalypse hits, streaming platforms will go down, so everyone needs to start hoarding CDs, MP3 players, and Walkmans right now if they want to survive with a good soundtrack.

“All right, well funny you should mention like two days ago I found my old mp3. It’s like I have no idea what’s in there.”

What advice would you give to emerging artists who are trapped in that initial phase of imposter syndrome and self-doubt? How do you handle those creative insecurities collectively as a band—whether it’s second-guessing a specific song part or validating each other’s ideas—and what practical steps can young musicians take to transition from doubt into a place of self-belief?

‘What are you trying to say, what do you want to do and don’t be afraid to mess up. Don’t be afraid to fail, you are going to fail and that is just a part of it, we have been in millions of bands that have failed, that have been absolutely terrible. You just have to be terrible at first or you’re a protege and still it might not go your way. But don’t be afraid to fail, don’t be afraid to be cringe. I think it started from millennials like me, people are so afraid of being cringe. Making a fool out of themselves and it just grows stronger. Each generation I feel. Because people kind of like don’t want to do something so big. Because if it’s lame then people will kind of judge them for it. So you should kind of like try to pursue the thing that is true to you. Even though it feels stupid to make it such a big deal. Or do stupid content for social media because I have to do these things. It’s probably just like you’re going to be a fool a lot of times. I guarantee you’re going to be a fool, but you’ve got to learn to laugh at yourself. And

you’ve got to learn to laugh with your collective. You have a band, you are all fools. Be fools together. Be the lame kids because if somebody is picking on one kid it’s horrible. But if somebody is picking on five kids they’ve got their own defence system.”

If you could take St Aurora to any decade to perform, would you go back in time, if so which decade or would you take a risk and go forward in time?

‘The 90s would be pretty cool I think, the 2000s would be too. We would be with everybody else. That would be cool. We would be the groundbreakers in the 90s. Doing that before the 2000s. That would be cool. We could be the ancestors of evil music I think we would have been killed. Yeah, that’s true before My Chemical Romance. I think for me personally the best two years of music albums, I think for myself would be in 2007 and 2008. That section would be the one that I would time travel to. I would go to the UK in ‘77. That would be good. The bands would have been excellent. Seeing The Clash and The Sex Pistols and all that.”

You guys are certainly no strangers to the stage—your live energy is absolutely electric, and I think you would completely tear it up on a massive platform like Download Festival. Looking globally, do you have an ultimate, bucket-list dream festival that you are absolutely dying to play?

“I’m not saying this just because of you, but Download would be the dream. We’ve been always talking about that particular festival because of Slipknot. We grew up on that.”

Speaking of performing, this is one of my absolute favourite questions to ask: do you remember the very first time you ever performed in front of an audience? It doesn’t even have to be with St Aurora—you could have been five years old. Did it go smoothly, or was it a complete disaster? More importantly, did it scare you or hook you for life?

“Yes I think I was 12, I had just started this school playing a recorder. This was an actual thing for me At 11, I discovered punk rock at that time. I was pretty young I think Green Day had just released American Idiot which was huge for me and my friends. So we started a punk rock band. We nominated ourselves to this magazine and we went to television with these people who were juggling and making Rubik’s Cube like a talent show. Then there was a punk band heavily inspired by Green Day And we were in television just doing that which was insane. I remember because I always loved drums and my mom and dad were like okay, drums, cool. They knew nothing about any of this and they were there in the audience. And I remember my mom going, you know what, he can play the drums I think he might be onto something. I remember that to this day. We did not win. It was a Rubik’s Cube. We won one of the consolation prizes. I think it was a PS3. Yeah, it was cool I think for me I was about 15 maybe. At this time I also was a drummer In a punk rock band

and we were heavily influenced by Green Day and we were playing an American Idiot cover song. We actually played an American Idiot cover song in Finnish. We kind of translated the lyrics in a rather funny way. It was in a small town and one of the judges was the singer from a Finnish metal band. I think we played a couple of songs. I think I played so fast I didn’t realise because I didn’t know that when you play live you’re gonna get the adrenaline. And you’re gonna pick up the pace and that’s not an easy song to play that fast. But a great way to start is If you’re a punk band, it’s fun. It’s a great way to start. I started playing a rock band or a guitar hero with the drums. And just learned the rhythms.”

We are going to wrap things up but before we do, what else do you have in store for 2026? I know you have a massive upcoming tour alongside Lost Society and Hokka, starting in September, which is going to be absolutely insane, but are there any other secrets, releases, or projects coming up this year that you can tease for us?

“We’d like to focus on the new stuff to make the first album. We’re absolutely thrilled to join Lost Society and Hokka on their tour around Finland. We’ve already played a handful of shows with Lost Society a while back, and are grateful to consider the legends our friends! We hope to see a bunch of new faces along the way and we promise to deliver each and every night! We might be able to get something new out for the tour.”

Just finally, looking back at everything you’ve achieved, what are you most proud of in your journey so far?

“Most proud of Going to Heaven being in the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack. That’s obviously the biggest thing. Playing the game before buying it at release. And also the fact I’m pretty proud of us in a band for that reason, that we are close friends. We are best friends for each other and we are really close. We’re close to each other, It’s not like we work for it. We enjoy each other’s company and we love talking to each other. We all go crazy about video games and share our enthusiasm. I laugh at the enthusiasm that we do not share. For example, I love Warhammer, these boys are making fun of me for painting miniatures.”