Friday Mixtape: illustrator Pauliina Holma's comfy mix to curl up to

Helsinki-based illustrator Pauliina Holma has a very particular illustration style and once you hear the genre of music she grew up and continues to listen to, it all kind of makes sense.

Always in a pastel colour palette, Pauliina’s illustrations are comfy. Her characters are always lounging around, reading, smoking or curled up in bed. The illustrator’s music taste mirrors and influences this as she notes records people tend to hibernate to, like Cocteau Twins and Radiohead.

With a music taste perfect for this time of year, below Pauliina shares this week’s Friday Mixtape.

INT: When or where should this mixtape be listened to?

PH: Early in the morning. Or when working a night shift. You could consider this a warm and gentle passage to the darker season.

INT: Are there certain albums you listen to during your creative process?

PH: All my serious thinking needs to be done in silence, but when I try to find moods and colours I listen to music, and it can really be anything, I’m not shy. Lately, I’ve been an NTS radio heavy user and more into instrumental stuff and jazz, which is a totally new area for me. I only have one certain go-to album and that is for deadline panic: Femme Fatale by Britney Spears. I love it and it never fails to work its questionable magic.

INT: What records did you listen to when you were a teenager?

PH: I went through so many phases! From hardcore punk to Finnish progressive rock to anime soundtracks. The first really huge thing for me was Amnesiac by Radiohead, it was something I’d never heard before. I listened to a lot of Sonic Youth, The Cure, The Smiths, Le Tigre, and at some point I had an unhealthy obsession with Porcupine Tree. I was very interested in finding any alternatives to mainstream pop, since I was living in a depressing little town and it was like the only way to get out.

INT: If a feature film about your life was to be made, what song would be on the trailer and why?

PH: Anything from Cocteau Twins! It sounds so pretty, but hardly makes any sense at all.