Below you will find a list of client testimonials regarding my English language lyrical and/or pronunciation help, which I have performed with various companies and bands in Finland.

Jonathan Tuovinen – Head of International, Rabbit Films

“Michael Majalahti has been our go-to guy for several years now.  He is a true professional and a pleasure to work with.  As a native English speaker with great voice, versatility, superb attitude and fluency in Finnish, he brings all the necessary skills to the table.  It is my pleasure to recommend him for any kind of television work.”

“When you need to kick down some serious walls with deep, powerful and dramatic voice-over, Michael is your guy! We have worked with him for few years now doing trailer-based videos and have been more than pleased with his output in front of a mic. Michael’s fluent Finnish also helps when facing situations when it is necessary to come up with some text modifications fast.”

Ville Virtakainen – Producer, Lemeon

Timo Kotipelto (vocalist/songwriter) – Stratovarius, Kotipelto

“StarBuck has helped our vocalist Pasi Rantanen to better express himself through both tighter enunciation and pronunciation on lyrical English, in addition to assisting with a few lyrical recommendations that made a lot of sense in the long run!” 

Nino Laurenne (guitarist/songwriter) – Thunderstone

”Over the years, I’ve received more than my fair share of criticism over my English pronunciation. After all, I’m a Finnish artist, but on top of that I’m also from Kemi, in the north part of the country. What I mean by this is that being from this neck of the woods, so to speak, we do not distinguish so much between the pronunciation of B or P letters, which in turn has been a problem when reverting to the English language. This of course stands as only one of many examples that I could give.

The solution to these language-related problems was to recruit the help of a native speaker of the English language for outside coaching. This is where Michael Majalahti, aka StarBuck, came into the picture. I cannot sufficiently express the measure of his assistance in terms of English help. I was also able to assist myself independently through StarBuck’s help during the recording of our “Unia” album.

Naturally, there were a lot of details that needed tending to, and it wasn’t always easy or without inherent stress. Yet, at the end of the day when I was able to sit back and listen to the end result of what I had laid down on tape with StarBuck’s help, I felt the hard work had definitely paid off. Truly. Listen to the difference in my pronunciation between our latest Unia album and its predecessor Winterheart’s Guild. I believe the audible results speak louder than words ever could.

As a musician himself, StarBuck also has many applicable ideas of his own that he brings to the table for consideration to the artist. There are times when second party approaches and ideas can considerably improve the desired end result, even if only serving to solidify the confidence in one’s own vision for their music.

The only regret I have in hindsight is that I didn’t take hold of this outside opportunity in regards to our earlier albums…”

Tony Kakko (vocalist/songwriter) – Sonata Arctica