Santtu Luoto was a punk, and then he became an archive mouse, known for the end credits of many documentary series

“Here I would like to thank all Finnish archives and archive workers”, journalist-nonfiction writer Santtu Luoto says.

In recent years, Luoto has been able to peruse the archives to his heart’s content. He works for the Intervisio production company, which has made several documentary series about history shown on Yle, such as Top secret – espionage in Finland, Kekkonen, Koivisto, Finland is Swedish, Finland is Finnish, Finland is Russian and so on.

Even though we are on TV, the work is basically the usual work of a journalist, doing interviews and reporting on things.

“Drinking coffee and getting a dust lung”, Luoto sums it up and laughs.

In the light of the information found in the archives, even familiar events of recent history may often appear from a new perspective. Luodo is currently working on a series about the relations between Finland and the United States. Also, when doing that, one of the best aspects of the job comes true: you always learn something new.

Learning appreciation is so important that when he was younger, Luoto didn’t really enjoy himself at school.

“Let’s just say that me and the school didn’t get along very well.”

Instead of going to school, Vesa, from a left-wing radical family, was more interested in taking over Lepako and his own activities. In particular, the punk spoke.

Luoto says that he has been hard at reading and writing since childhood. With Punk, they started making small magazines, and he rustled them too. Little by little, the patterns got bigger, and soon Luoto noticed that he had drifted into being a journalist.

“It was by no means determined. When you’re young, you just react to it. But when punk and writing started to come together, it was only natural that a black man became a rock journalist.”

Luoto worked in popular culture institutions like the rock magazine Rumba and Radiomafia, which were generational experiences for both their creators and the audience. Many have fondly remembered the open-minded and passionate articles and programs.

“Perhaps afterwards you will have understood what kind of meaning they have had,” says Luoto. “But I didn’t think while doing it. The primary motive for doing it was somewhere else entirely.”

In Radiomafia, Luoto’s programs were not necessarily mainstream. For example Jukka Lindforsin done with Cafe Veijon Bar has gone down in radio history as a program whose hand-picked playlist included all kinds of weirdness.

“We were able to make the program for a surprisingly long time. Sometimes we suspected that Radiomafia’s management had forgotten the existence of the entire program.”

Would there still be room and opportunities to do something similar in this time?

“If there was an order today Cafe Veijon Bar for a program like that, surely someone would. Every generation creates its own stories.”

Luoto says that he is sure that, for example, there are all kinds of bubbles in social media that he himself has no idea about.

“And that’s fine. If I was completely on the nerves of the times when I was sixty, it would be alarming. Then one would have to ask what is wrong with the youth.”

Luoto expanded into television in 1995, when Broadcasters Oy Saku Tuominen called and asked about work. During his Broadcasters years, Luoto produced and scripted, for example, popular News leakprogram for its first seven years.

Along with the TV programs, several books about popular music have also been published. However, the main focus of what he does nowadays is backgrounding television documentaries.

“I like doing interviews and going through archives. I’ve always been a bit of an archive mouse.”

The greater part Luoto’s free time is spent on the side of the soccer field. He has coached girls’ and women’s teams since the turn of the millennium.

“I like watching how a young person grows. The first trainees are now in their thirties. But of course it’s great to watch them learn football.”

He is currently coaching the girls’ team born in 2010-2011 of Helsinki Ponnistus.

“Coaching is a great counterbalance to work. Besides that, of course, I love the sport.”

Luoto says that he was interested in coaching as a process already when he was younger, when he himself played futsal in a junk team. He describes his own coaching philosophy as humane.

“I don’t believe in coaching where the player is not treated as a whole person.”