Guitar

A floating community sauna on frozen Lake Oulu seemed as good a place as any to ask Finnish locals what they think of the European Capital of Culture bandwagon that will be rolling into their city in 2026. Two women sweltering on the top bench seemed to sweat more over my question than over the clouds of sauna steam – the result of a beefy Finn ladling water on the wood-fired coals with a grim determination to broil us all.

“Hmmm, yes, it will bring people to Oulu, which is good, but we don’t really know much about it,” said one of the women. “We know it’s happening, but we haven’t had many details.”

Outside, queueing for the pleasure of a dip in the frozen lake, the question elicited the sort of shrug rarely seen outside France. “We know it’s happening because the posters and signs are everywhere and people are talking about it, but we don’t know exactly what is happening,” said another woman, steaming in the sub-zero air.

There are many reasons to visit the Finnish city of Oulu, which sits on the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea: it hosts the Air Guitar world championships; is home to the world’s only Screaming Men’s Choir (20-40 suited, shouty men); and holds the annual Polar Bear Pitching event, where would-be business leaders pitch money-spinning ideas while standing in icy water. The presentations tend to be brief.

Oulu, Finland’s fifth most populous city, is 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It is a short drive from huskies and sled rides; it offers sea, rivers, rapids, lakes, woods, nature trails and reserves; and there is cross-country skiing as well as almost 600 miles of cycle lanes. You can see the midnight sun in summer and the northern lights in winter. It is a leading light in solar power and renewable energy – and it has saunas. Saunas on lakes and on rafts, saunas in hotels, free saunas by the roadside and in most homes. A century ago, 95% of all children were born at home, often in the sauna. Today, most parents-to-be choose a hospital but introduce their offspring to the sauna at an average age of 4.5 months.

Plus, the Oululainens have a cheery disposition, as do most Finns according to a survey that declared Finland the world’s happiest country for the eighth successive year.

These are all positives to attract visitors to this northern Nordic city that began as a settlement on Sami land in the 1600s, then became a trading site for wood tar, salmon and Nokia phones, and is now a European digital hub and a “living laboratory” (where innovations are tested in a real-world environment) for new technologies.

Sadly, few of these esoteric attractions featured on a trip organised by the city’s Oulu 2026 culture committee, which chose highbrow over the shouty men and pretend guitarists.

The city’s diverse €50m Capital of Culture programme, spread across 39 sites and four counties, is aiming to attract up to 2.5 million visitors – 20% up on an average year – with the theme “Cultural Climate Change”. Highlights include a free Frozen People electronic music festival, held on the iced-over Bothnian Bay – provided it is frozen next year. Also on the calendar is the Lumo Art & Tech festival, plus the Arctic Food Lab, celebrating local cuisine (wild fish, berries, mushrooms), and a Sami opera, Ovllá, about the Indigenous people of Sápmi – the local word for Lapland – which covers northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

“Its a unique opportunity for Oulu,” said Piia Rantala-Korhonen, chief executive officer of Oulu 2026, who estimates that for every euro spent, there will be a €5 return for the city. “Climate change is already happening and is a big concern here: the ice and snow are disappearing. Last year, we had to cancel the skiing marathon for only the second time in 100 years because there was no snow,” she said.

Out on Oulu’s unseasonably slushy streets, most locals are cheerfully enthusiastic about 2026. “It will be nice to have people come here and discover our city,” said Matti, a student at one of Oulu’s two universities. “I am looking forward to it.”

Thirty meters under the city, you can find the Kivisydän (“stone heart”), a vast state-of-the-art car park that diverts vehicles away from the centre and doubles as a walkway when it rains and an emergency bomb shelter. It is a reminder of Finland’s proximity to Russia and the increasing alarm over its aggressive neighbour since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Behind the Kivisydän’s steel doors, a vast red stone column stands like a beating heart. The car park could house the entire city, our guide told us.

But does it have a sauna? I asked.

“I don’t think so, but we’re Finns. If necessary, we can build one in a couple of days,” he said.

Were I a publicist for Oulu 2026, I would have hired Finland’s best air guitarist to accompany the screaming men with a few riffs while standing in an icy lake. Instead, after a traditional salmon soup dinner hosted by the city – followed by a sauna – we were treated to a cosy Norse tale. When 19th-century Oulu sailors became drunk and rowdy on merchant ships carrying tar to Liverpool, local legend has it that the Liverpudlian landlord would urge them to “keep peace”. This is now a popular toast.

As we raised glasses of local schnapps, I can think of many exclamations a scouse pub owner might make to an inebriated Finn. “Keep peace” is not one of them. Still, surrounded by the world’s happiest people, it seemed churlish to argue.

Then it was off to the sauna.

The trip was provided by Oulu 2026

Leon Thomas recently dyed the tips of his signature locs dark green. His new hair color — a stark contrast from the vibrant red he’d been rocking for the last four years — is the first thing that stands out about him when he strolls into the Los Angeles Times building on an unusually rainy day in October.

When asked about his hair, which peeks out from underneath a black beret-style hat, a wide grin stretches across his face.

“I had a vision,” the 32-year-old singer says, leaning in. “In [this] vision, I had more tats, a six pack and I had green dreads. And I was like, ‘You know what, let’s work on it.’” He’s been working out more consistently and he has his eyes set on a couple of tattoo artists in L.A. and Europe, but the new hair kicked everything off.

“That’s how the rest of my life has worked: I’ve seen something in my head, I’ve seen a version of myself that’s not there yet and then you work hard to get there.”

This instinct has carried Thomas throughout his 20-plus-year career in the entertainment industry, and has cleared a path for him to emerge as a leading force in modern R&B music. After years of dedicating his skill to acting, writing and producing chart-topping bangers for artists like Drake, Ariana Grande and SZA (he won his first Grammy for her record “Snooze”), for the first time Thomas is up for six Grammy nominations including album of the year and best new artist for his own work.

“I feel like this is a byproduct of me finally having a machine that works,” Thomas says about his team. He signed to EZMNY, a record label co-founded by Grammy-nominated artist Ty Dolla $ign and A&R executive Shawn Barron, in 2021. He takes an audible breath before continuing, “Not to sound cocky or anything, but I just always felt in my heart of hearts that once people could finally hear what I had to offer, it would be a different story. I’m glad that God gave me the foresight to see that.”

He has good reason to be feeling himself these days. “Mutt,” his breakout 2024 single, quietly simmered for months before it was pushed into ubiquity. The track’s metaphorical meaning — comparing his own flawed behavior in relationships to a “mutt” or a dog with good intentions — along with a sensual bassline and knocking drums eventually became a sleeper hit. It also became a favorite for Tems, SZA, Keke Palmer and Issa Rae, who shouted out the song in interviews.

“That’s how the rest of my life has worked: I’ve seen something in my head, I’ve seen a version of myself that’s not there yet and then you work hard to get there,” said Leon Thomas.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

By early this year, the song, which is the title track from his sophomore album, had cracked the Hot 100 Billboard charts, recently climbing to No. 1 on Billboard’s radio songs chart, earning double platinum status.

The success of the album and the deluxe edition that followed launched Thomas into a whirlwind of promo: radio and podcast stops, interviews galore and after-party appearances. Meanwhile, he’s still made time to make records with other artists like Wale, Disclosure, Odeal and Sasha Keable. He kicked off his “Mutts Don’t Heel” tour in October, and this year alone, he’s had more than 70 performances, including the Hollywood Bowl with Inglewood-born singer SiR, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and the BET Awards (where he won best new artist). Earlier this year, Thomas stopped by NPR’s Tiny Desk, a live set that has more than 4 million views and has since been turned into an EP. (His Tiny Desk performance also received a Grammy nod for best R&B performance.)

“It’s been nonstop like something great happening every single week,” says Barron, co-founder of EZMNY.

Long before fans were belting out the lyrics “I’m a doggggg / I’m a mutt,” Thomas was getting his first taste of what it takes to be a musician from his family. Thomas’ late grandfather, John Anthony, was an opera singer who starred in the 1976 Broadway production of “Porgy & Bess.” His mother — a singer — and his stepfather — who played guitar for B.B. King — were part of New York’s Black Rock Coalition and “didn’t believe in babysitters,” says the Brooklyn native who now resides in L.A. He has fond memories of doing his homework while his parents were performing and hopping on stage at times to hit a dance move for a packed crowd.

At just 10 years old, Thomas booked the role of Young Simba on Broadway after a family friend encouraged him to audition. He went on to star in more productions, including “Caroline, or Change” and “The Color Purple,” before booking his first film, “August Rush” (starring late actor Robin Williams), which required him to learn to play the guitar. As a result, he began writing his own songs, one of which impressed his parents so much that they booked studio time and a session bass player to help him to lay down the track. “It definitely influenced my perspective on if I could actually make professional music or not,” recalls Thomas, who plays five instruments, including drums (his first love), guitar, bass, piano and saxophone.

“Not to sound cocky or anything, but I just always felt in my heart of hearts that once people could finally hear what I had to offer, it would be a different story. I’m glad that God gave me the foresight to see that,” said Leon Thomas.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

By age 13, Thomas had signed a development deal with Nickelodeon that came with a Columbia Records recording contract. After appearing in various shows like “The Backyardigans” and “iCarly,” he snagged the role of André Harris, a high-school-age singer and multi-instrumentalist, on the tween sitcom “Victorious” alongside star-in-the-making Grande.

When the show ended in 2013, Thomas began working with one of modern music’s most decorated architects, Babyface, who introduced him to producer and songwriter Khris Riddick-Tynes. Together, Thomas and Riddick-Tynes formed the Rascals and began producing records like Rick Ross’ “Gold Roses” featuring Drake (which received a Grammy nomination), “I’d Rather Be Broke” by Toni Braxton and SZA’s “Snooze,” which won best R&B song at the Grammys in 2024.

Still, pivoting from wholesome Nickelodeon star to a grown R&B artist didn’t happen overnight. “The biggest thing for me was just taking time away from the artistry in order to really allow people to celebrate the brand that I had built, but give me room to build something else,” he says. “Space and time can be a tough thing because you’re gonna have to reintroduce yourself even though you did a lot of work in the beginning to build what you had before, but I think it’s beautiful to kind of build a brand from scratch.”

That’s one of the reasons why the cover of his reintroduction project, “Genesis,” features a distorted forest instead of his face. “I didn’t want them to connect with what I was saying, what I was talking about, the feelings [and] the sounds,” he says. With every release, he’s slowly revealed more of himself.

Onstage, Thomas channels the intensity of some of his musical heroes — James Brown, Prince, Jimi Hendrix and D’Angelo. His music may sit comfortably under the R&B umbrella, but he bends and flips genres with ease, especially rock and funk. In TikTok recaps from his current tour, he can be seen ripping on the bass and guitar, whipping his body into turns and effortlessly hitting vocal runs, which fans have attempted to imitate. With him, you never have to question if the mic is on.

“Sometimes I go see R&B artists live and it’s very chill,” he says, but “the school I come from is competitive.” He recalls stories that his stepfather has told him about performing at the Village Underground in New York when he was coming up. “They used to do something called cutting heads, so the first guy would go do his solo, then the guy who came out on the second set had to go even further. He’s playing with his teeth, he’s spinning, he’s on the floor, he’s wildin’,” Thomas says excitedly.

“So I’m in that school of thinking when I hit a stage and for this tour where I get to curate things and really put it together like I want to, there’s gotta be that energy of cutting heads,” he adds.

Just days before launching his 27-city tour, Thomas released a cinematic trailer featuring Rae — who played his neighbor and hookup buddy on “Insecure” — to introduce his latest project, “Pholks.” The seven-track release, created in collaboration with musicians Rob “Freaky Rob” Gueringer and David Phelps, a.k.a. “D. Phelps” (who also worked on “Mutt”), is an homage to the funk, rock and soul artists who’ve inspired him. Led by the singles “Just How You Are” and “My Muse,” which could trigger a “Soul Train” line at any moment, the project feels warm and nostalgic, yet anchored in forward-thinking production and playful storytelling that helps push it into the future.

In April, Ty Dolla $ign brought Thomas out to perform during his headlining set at Coachella, a moment that was a no-brainer for Ty, who recently called Thomas “the new king” of R&B.

“I just can’t even believe that I was the one to be able to do this,” Ty says about working with the singer.

“Sometimes I go see R&B artists live and it’s very chill,” Leon Thomas said, but “the school I come from is competitive.”

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

In the midst of this busy season, Thomas has been more intentional about maintaining his mental health. “I’m doing a lot of grounding meditations,” he says, noting that family and his tight circle of friends have been an essential support system. “I’ve been picking up the Bible a little bit more.”

He also finds steadiness in revisiting wisdom passed down from his late grandfather, who passed away last year, and reflecting on his “why:” bringing a classic, musician-centered energy back to R&B and encouraging young artists to pick up an instrument.

“When a little kid sees me playing guitar on the Grammy stage or if they see me performing on Instagram playing drums, I want them to ask their mom for a guitar or some drum lessons,” he says. With the rise of AI, he says that live musicianship may become less common. “I hope that we can inspire a revolution of intelligence, people who are intelligently making music and coming from a standpoint of history.”

Thomas will close out his whirlwind year with two shows at the Wiltern on Dec. 22 and 23 before embarking on the European leg of his tour in March and heading to Australia in June. In the meantime, he’s trying to avoid thinking about the Grammys in February — though everyone, including myself, is making it impossible for him not to.

Whether he walks away with a golden gramophone or not, Thomas has already created a body of work that has reinvigorated not only R&B but also music in general, and he plans to continue pushing himself creatively. He’s known all along what he’s capable of and the career he’s destined to have because he’s envisioned it. It’s the world that’s had to catch up.