Bio
Gyan Dookie is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, martial artist, educator and actor. He also has a Master of Arts degree (University of Helsinki) in comparative literature. Gyan was born in London, UK, but moved to Finland at the age of five.
The Music Artist
Gyan's "updated old school funk" -style integrates funk with elements of rock, psychedelic, blues and jazz music . His influences include Muddy Waters, Elvis, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Motown & Atlantic Soul, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Christian and the Beatles. His live funk show, which the City Magazine chose as the Best Act in the City (of Helsinki), is full of feet tapping and booty shaking energetic action. Gyan's intense and uplifting soulful music is accompanied with splits, pirouettes, jumping kicks and sexy funky dancing. In the autumn of 2018 Gyan will be releasing a full length album featuring 9 of his original funky songs. The first recorded and finished song from this coming album will be released as a single in April 2018.
Gyan’s former band Gyan Dookie & Telecastercombo, which specialized in authentic 50’s Chicago Blues, won the Blues News Magazine’s Best Blues Album of the Year (2007) -prize in 2008 with its 20 Years After -album.
The Martial Artist
Gyan has a long experience in the training and teaching of martial arts. He is a fourth dan black belt and a three time Finnish champion in taekwondo and also a certified MMA-instructor (Shootfighting). Besides taekwondo (with Master Dae Jin Hwang) and MMA (with Master Bart Vale and Master August Wallen) Gyan has practised the arts of hapkido (with Master Bo Mikael Lindström), jiu-jitsu, brazilian jiu-jitsu (with Master Marcello Garcia and Master Juha Järvinen), judo, boxing, kickboxing, thai-boxing (with Master Janne Mustonen), karate (with Master Kari Haajamo), savate and yoga. From these experiences he has created his own unique combination of keeping fit, focused and energized.
The Educator
Surprisingly many of today’s top Finnish musicians, composers and producers have learnt music in Gyan Dookie’s legendary Gy-Do Arts music school. He has also taught martial arts and ICT to various students from different backgrounds.
In 2010 Gyan completed his teacher's studies in The Häme Applied University of Science and is now a fully qualified teacher.
The Movie Actor
Gyan made his acting debut in 2000 in Olli Saarela’s Bad Luck Love as a gang member named Leo. In 2001 he acted in Olli Saarela’s Rollo and the Spirit of The Woods (Rölli ja Metsänhenki) as Ryhmy Rölli. Both movies won several Jussi Prizes (Finnish "oscars”) and utilized Gyan’s martial arts skills. All movies featuring Gyan Dookie are listed in the IMDB (International Movie Database).
The Academic Explorer
Gyan Dookie completed his first Master of Arts degree in 2017 (Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki) and his second Master of Social Sciences degree in 2019 (Media Studies, Tampere University). In his Master thesis "The Almighty Capitalist - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch as an Allegory of Neoliberalism and Post-hegemonic Power"(2017), he analyzes critically algorithmic power, one of the main problematics of today, in relation to Sci-fi author Philip K. Dick's 1960s science fictional work (the Master's Thesis is in Finnish).
Gyan's second Master's degree (2019) "The Possibility of the Public in the Age of Algorithms and Platforms" elaborates John Dewey's concept of the Public in the context of algorithmic and platform power. In the beginning of 2020 started as a doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication in Tampere University. His areas of interests are social media platforms, networks, AI, the Public (Dewey) and computational propaganda
