Music Finland will be represented at South By Southwest in Austin, TX by Von Hertzen Brothers and The 69 Cats at this year’s edition. Von Hertzen Brothers will be performing at The Trophy Club on March 18, 2015 at 11 pm and the 69 Cats showcase is on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at the Lucky Lounge at 10 pm.

The Von Hertzen Brothers are bonded by blood and their music shows this connection. Formed in 2000 in their hometown of Helsinki, their progressive rock has topped the charts with their last four albums. All have been certified gold in their native Finland and in 2012 they were nominated Best New Band Award at Classic Rock Magazines annual awards show and in the New Blood category at the Classic Rock Prog awards.

The 69 Cats came about when Jyrki69, the singer of The 69 Eyes, had an idea. His Helsinki-based gothnroll band had been playing their unique music for a quarter century and at their occasional acoustic shows the singer was able to show his rockabilly roots and Elvis-like voice. Fans were overwhelmed and begged for more.

Years later he was introduced to Danny B. Harvey, the guitar hero whose past bands include Rockats and recently the Lemmy-fronted Headcat. They immediately worked out a number of cover songs that needed resurrection and recruited the Cramps bass player Chopper Franklin to this new dark rockabilly supergroup.