Suzi Sabotage interview: ‘I want to keep wandering into new stylistic territories’
Suzi Sabotage discusses her single “Sacrifice,” self-production, Finnish roots and Goths For Palestine in a Side-Line interview.
Photo: Suzi Sabotage
Suzi Sabotage has always worked through contrasts. Her music can be stark and danceable, confrontational and vulnerable, rooted in contemporary electronics while reaching toward Finnish language, folklore and traditional instrumentation. Her new single “Sacrifice” sharpens those tensions further, examining what happens when trauma is redirected toward people who did not cause it and when pain begins reproducing itself through someone else.
In this conversation with Side-Line, Suzi speaks about the psychology behind “Sacrifice,” perfectionism and complete creative control, why Finnish changes the texture of her songwriting, the place of tradition in modern dark music, Goths For Palestine, international touring, and the need to keep moving beyond any fixed version of Suzi Sabotage.
Suzi Sabotage interview
Karo: “Sacrifice” is about trauma turning into sadism, specifically the way somebody who has been hurt can redirect that pain toward people who had nothing to do with the original wound. What interested you in that secondary movement of violence rather than the initial trauma itself? Is the song ultimately about pain, responsibility, or the moment when suffering stops being an explanation and becomes a choice?
Suzi: I’ve often explored the subject of first-hand trauma in the past, namely from the perspective of a survivor (e.g. “I Am The Storm”). This time around I wanted to write about trauma’s potential byproducts. Human nature is fascinating that way, how some seek to momentarily alleviate their pain by inflicting it on others. I wonder why it is that misery loves company and one would get such instant gratification from hurting somebody who did them no wrong, a phenomenon which is especially rife on social media. In this dynamic, the target often blames themselves and looks inward for signs that they deserved the abuse or simply weren’t worthy of being treated well, especially if they’re prone to suffering in silence. Ultimately, the song is about the target’s realization of the driving factors behind the actions of the abuser, something which can finally break the cycle.
Karo: The track alternates between a low, brooding vocal register and a lighter, more airy one. That contrast feels psychologically appropriate to the subject because cruelty and vulnerability are not always separate states. Were you consciously using different parts of your voice to represent different emotional positions within the same person?
Suzi: Yes, cruelty and vulnerability are certainly entwined here, like two sides of the same coin. While I often deliberately use this duality in vocal registers, this time around I actually didn’t do it consciously, at least to symbolize the states of cruelty and vulnerability. I originally envisioned the chorus to be belted as an expression of frustration, the idea of making it airy came later on. Still, it’s a beautifully poetic interpretation and now I wish it had occurred to me before – I love sound symbolism!
Karo: “Sacrifice” runs on a 130 BPM drum-machine pulse and draws on the vocabulary of 1980s electronic music, yet the lyrical subject is unusually heavy. Do you like creating that tension between a body that wants to move and a text that asks the listener to confront something uncomfortable? What can rhythm communicate about anger that words alone cannot?
Suzi: Most definitely, writing songs that contrast a danceable composition with thematically thought-provoking or even disturbing lyrics is what I love doing. For me, swimming in the deep, murky waters of human psyche is profuse with inspiration for lyrics. When the subject is complex and cannot be easily summarized in a few words (unlike it’s often with lyrics that are wholly positive or negative), when it’s charged with cognitive dissonance and conflicting emotions… that’s where it gets interesting. I do think that the tempo gives the message an assertive quality instead of just being a lyric about licking one’s wounds and indulging in victimhood. It’s more about getting that nasty feeling of being someone’s punching bag, in all its unfairness, out of your system, and then being able to move on, instead of remaining trapped in the loop of feeling sorry for yourself or worse, becoming yet another link in the chain reaction.
Karo: You wrote, mixed and mastered “Sacrifice” yourself. Complete control can be liberating, but it also removes the external person who might challenge a decision or tell you when something is finished. How has self-production changed the way you judge your own work? Are you more ruthless with yourself when there is nobody else in the room?
Suzi: I do have some trusted loved ones with whom I share my unfinished works to get an external insight, always asking them if some aspect of a given track could be improved. I’m really thankful for being able to do so, as this kind of feedback is indispensable. I’m certainly more ruthless and demanding with myself than before, painstakingly analyzing every single note and word in my songs. I’ve placed myself under much pressure to deliver tracks that stand out and I’m always wondering if something I do overly resembles something that has already been done, whether by myself or others, or if it’s just not riveting enough as a creation. That said, I do recognize how having that unhealthy habit often inhibits my creativity, making me overthink it instead of living in the moment and channeling whatever happens to ignite passion in me at the time. Lately, overthinking and perfectionism have been some of the most considerable challenges in my artistry, ones that I will have to overcome going forward.
Karo: Your solo catalogue has moved between English-language dark electronic material and Finnish-language work such as “Oodi Surulle” and “Suden synty”, including the use of the kantele. Does changing language alter the emotional distance between you and what you are writing? Is there material that becomes possible in Finnish that would feel false or diminished in English?
Suzi: Actually, English has been my dominant language for over a decade now, the one I use in the vast majority of my daily interactions. Even my inner monologue and notes to myself are in English, so I don’t find that it necessarily creates any emotional distance. Lyrics invariably “come to me” in a particular language and I wouldn’t dream of switching to another one in the process. Either way, they wouldn’t work in any other language without making considerable alterations. For instance, I wouldn’t sing a translated version of one of my Finnish songs, even in order to make it more understandable for a wider audience, because it would lose its spirit and potentially, some important devices as well, such as alliteration. After all, I began writing in Finnish again partly for stylistic reasons. When I had the idea to incorporate neofolk influences in my songs, I knew that Finnish is a perfect fit for that. I grew up with it and associate it with the imagery I use in those of my tracks that are most inspired by neofolk.
Karo: There is an interesting tension in your work between modern electronic production and elements connected to Finnish cultural tradition. When you bring an instrument such as the kantele into a contemporary dark context, how do you avoid treating tradition as aesthetic decoration? What makes an old cultural form feel alive rather than merely referenced?
Suzi: I love that you describe it as tension, as that’s precisely my intention with my music, for it to be charged with this kind of strangeness that is slightly jarring and captures the listener’s attention. I suppose that the unusual combination alone, darkwave and neofolk, makes the presence of tradition feel more genuine, or at least it’s not readily mistaken as some kind of a pantomime. These peculiar combinations are the essence of my brand of creativity. While at times I do enjoy being campy to have some lighthearted fun with my art, I usually balk at clichés and find no value in works that are unimaginatively trite. I don’t claim to be the most quintessential embodiment of Finnish traditions, but I’m ardently passionate about that aspect of my homeland, the ancient and the mystical, something that transcends eons and predates state and organized religion. When I engage in exploring these traditions, I feel a deep connection to them, in awe of the arcane realm before my mind’s eye. That is how I know that it’s not a mere ornament or reference as far as I’m concerned, but an intrinsic part of who I am and where I come from.
Karo: “Nazi Goths, Fuck Off” has clearly travelled beyond its original release, to the point that other artists covered it in 2025. When a song with such a direct political statement starts belonging to other voices as well, does its meaning change for you? Is there a point where a song stops being only your statement and becomes part of the language of a wider scene?
Suzi: The song does seem to have become an entity of its own, quite unexpectedly so. To say that I’m honored to have been covered by these living legends would be an understatement, and it makes the song even more meaningful to me. To this day, it’s still quite unbelievable, and it all happened within the span of one single year. By that time, I was already thinking that the song, originally released in 2021, has been long forgotten. The statement has always collectively belonged to other voices as well, after all I’m far from being the first antifascist in the scene. The marginalized people in our subculture, especially people of color, have been taking a stance against both overt and covert fascist ideologies in our scene since the very beginning. Both within the scene and in society at large, those ideologies pose the most immediate existential threat to the most marginalized of us, so their outspokenness about it has way more weight than mine. On my own end, I’ve always felt like I should put my privilege and platform to a good use and amplify the voices of those who came long before me, who have resiliently combated the harmful ideologies and made sure that today we have an existing subculture to begin with, whether they’ve been widely recognized for it or not. The credit for the statement belongs to them, even the credit for the fact that I hold these beliefs in the first place, as I’ve learned so much by listening to their perspectives. The statement certainly doesn’t belong to me alone, as I’m only one of the many fighting the good fight, using whatever resources at my disposal to make my personal contribution.
Karo: You also created Goths For Palestine, which has brought together a large number of artists around fundraising. Music scenes often describe themselves as communities, but solidarity becomes much more concrete when money, reputation and public positions are involved. What have those compilations taught you about the difference between a scene that shares an aesthetic and a scene that is actually capable of collective action?
Suzi: I originally migrated to the goth scene from the punk scene in the first half of the 2010s, so I bring an ample number of influences from there. Grassroots action and human rights are an integral part of the circles that I came from. While these practices in the scene have had their flaws and inconsistencies, political awareness was woven into the lyrics and oftentimes manifested in taking part in direct action against oppression through demonstrations, fundraiser gigs, and other grassroots initiatives, like boycotts. Fast forward in time to the early 2020s, when I’d been in the goth scene for a while already, I observed that Gen Z (who at the time were rather new to the goth scene given their younger age) were unabashedly vocal about the same ideologies that I hold. While I had already made some low-key initiatives within the scene, it was Gen Z who inspired me to cultivate it further. I find that the newer generations not only engage in the aesthetics of goth but are also unambiguous about their stance against inequality and genocide. And well, the compilations themselves have taught me that the potential of the goth scene to have that dimension of collective action was very real indeed. I don’t think that there exists a scene that can survive on a shared aesthetic alone, there must also be some deeper connection and ethos, one just has to understand it to harness it to a good cause. The general Zeitgeist of absolute individualism notwithstanding, in the vast majority of us there’s this profound need for engaging in collective action and solidarity.
Karo: Your history runs through post-punk with Masquerade, keyboards with Virgin In Veil, solo darkwave and synthpunk, Finnish-language neofolk-tinged material, and more recent collaborations. Do you still think of these as separate stylistic territories, or has the idea of genre become less useful to you as your own musical vocabulary has expanded? What tells you that something is recognisably “Suzi Sabotage” regardless of the instrumentation?
Suzi: That’s a good question, as there has naturally been some overlap. I’d say it’s the emphasis on modern influences that makes my solo project stand out from my previous body of work, a radical departure from drawing most of my inspiration from the classics. I’ve endeavored my current sound to be rooted in the present moment as well as looking ahead into the future. While in goth music there’s a fundamental reverence for the past and vintage soundscapes are recurrently revisited, it’s in many ways in constant evolution, much like every other genre. Personally, I’m all for it, embracing new artistic inspiration and ideas brought by, for instance, new generations of goths. I’d be quickly bored to tears if I let my sound grow stagnant by hyperfixating on bygone eras instead of exploring brand new and thrilling influences. I believe that it’s this curiosity and fluidity that defines my solo work.
Karo: You have toured in South America, the United States and across Europe, while your music also carries very specific cultural and linguistic roots. After playing to audiences in such different environments, have you noticed which parts of your work translate immediately and which depend much more strongly on cultural context? Has touring changed your understanding of what is genuinely universal in dark music and what only appears universal from inside the European scene?
Suzi: I view my international tours as kind of a cultural dialogue. While my music naturally carries elements of my own culture, I’m also there to learn about theirs. I greatly enjoy getting to know the locals and their language. Even when the audience doesn’t know or fully understand the lyrics due to a language barrier, the mood of the songs knows no such barriers and music as a universal language connects us. What’s more, the antifascist sentiment of tracks like “Nazi Goths, Fuck Off” has been readily understood and shared by audiences globally, and it’s the song that the audience members most often sing along at my shows and come to thank me for. Many have also been heartwarmingly curious about the kantele and Finnish language, even learning a few phrases by heart to say to me. I certainly didn’t expect to hear Finnish words spoken by the audience members in South America, but it’s always such a delightful surprise and means the world to me. Still, during my travels I must be above all mindful of the culture and customs of the country I’m playing in and be respectful of them. I’d never put my own culture first and demand that locals understand it or even show curiosity about it. After all, I’m a guest in their homeland and should always act with due respect. I think that with this approach we can both have a meaningful cultural interaction and an enriching, mutually enlightening experience. I’ve only played on three continents so far, four if you count my past projects, and even at that, it makes for a limited number of countries and amount of time to experience each scene, so I wouldn’t be able to assess them well enough to draw parallels or examine the differences. Each scene is special and unforgettable in its own unique way, but universal enough to be enjoyed by goths from any part of the world.
Karo: Looking ahead, are you more interested in expanding the world you have already built, or in disrupting it? What would feel more dangerous to you now: becoming too recognisable, or abandoning something that has become essential to your identity?
Suzi: I’d actually like to do both in equal measure, haha. I’m fond of what I’ve already created, and I love that it’s getting recognition, but as a natural shapeshifter, I want to keep wandering into new stylistic territories. Only time will tell how this will manifest, whether incorporating something new into what already exists or undergoing a cataclysmic transformation. It will largely depend on my mood, which is in constant fluctuation, so anything is possible, the only constant being the baseline of my values and alignment with the strange and unusual.
About Suzi Sabotage
Suzi Sabotage is the solo project of Helsinki-based Finnish singer, songwriter and producer Suzi Nyberg. Before beginning her solo work, she fronted the Helsinki post-punk band Masquerade and played keyboards in the deathrock band Virgin In Veil. Her solo catalogue began appearing in 2020, followed by the debut album “Postmodern Dystopia” in 2021; the CD edition was released through Wrocław label Bat-Cave Productions.
She signed with Berlin label Out Of Line Music in 2022. Her subsequent work has included “I Am The Storm,” Finnish-language releases including “Oodi Surulle” and “Suden synty,” “Love at First Bite,” and “She-Demon.” Her music has also incorporated the Finnish kantele alongside electronic production.
Sabotage is also the curator of the Goths For Palestine benefit compilations. The first volume appeared in November 2024 and the second in September 2025, with proceeds directed to humanitarian aid through ANERA.
Her latest single, “Sacrifice,” was released Oct. 15, 2026 through Out Of Line Music. Suzi wrote, mixed and mastered the track herself.
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Based in Wrocław, I work as a music journalist and photographer covering electro, industrial, EBM, gothic, and darkwave. My work includes features and live coverage, as well as concert, portrait, promo, and theater photography. What interests me most is the connection between artistic intention, what the work communicates, and what unfolds live on stage, all in pursuit of the bigger picture behind the music.
