Learning new languages

So I listen to a ton of Finnish bands, right? And I'd love to learn a second language (I'm a native English speaker in case you have not guessed). But I don't know which one. I really love Swedish because of how trollish it sounds, and my favorite band's music is in that one, but what do you Finntrolls speak in everyday life? If I were to go to Finland, which language would help me survive better? If I were to meet the band members at a gig and wanted to speak in something besides English, should I use Swedish or Finnish? Which language do most Finnish people speak? It's been confusing to me a lot lately, I've been getting mixed messages about this, I think, so I'm finally coming out and asking lol.

Which language do most Finnish people speak?

Finnish. Swedish is kinda hated here (or the teens hate it) thought it is an official lang. here. Here is the typical Finn speaking Swedish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi5wKs_CYgM . I think you could just use English here, it's very practical, tho we Finns usually pronounce it kinda... crappy.

Most Finns speak finnish, the Swedish-speaking part of the folk is a clear minority and they're mostly located to southern Finland and the western coast. The band members, as far as i know, mainly speak finnish as their first language & the Swedish-speaking Finns usually know Finnish fairly well too.
Although in general Swedish is probably a more useful language, since tehcnically the whole Sweden speaks it and with knowledge in the Swedish language you can also more or less understand several other Nordic languages.

If you understand Swedish you can understand the more "clean" norwegian dialects and written Danish. Icelandic is way too far back in history to be intelligible to the rest of this part of the world. Swedish is an official language in Finland, but If I am to believe prejudice you're going to get into knife fights if you speak Swedish in the less civilized villages of Finland.
It's a complicated relationship.

I'm slowly learning German, myself.

I am learning Swahili, it is going to be the language of the future. I am also learning Swedish because it is the first language ever spoken by human beings or god anyway....." One Swedish philologist claimed that in the Garden of Eden God spoke Swedish, Adam spoke Danish and the serpent spoke French."

Most Finns speak finnish, the Swedish-speaking part of the folk is a clear minority and they're mostly located to southern Finland and the western coast. The band members, as far as i know, mainly speak finnish as their first language & the Swedish-speaking Finns usually know Finnish fairly well too.
Although in general Swedish is probably a more useful language, since tehcnically the whole Sweden speaks it and with knowledge in the Swedish language you can also more or less understand several other Nordic languages.

For as far as I know, not all of them have Finnish as first language.
Finnish is indeed usefull if you think you'll be going to Finland a lot, but else you can better learn a language that's more spoken in the world like Spanish or German or French or so.

I learned several languages at school, but I don't speak all of them that well anymore. My English is kinda ok, my German too, but I had 6 years of French and forgot almost all of it.

...and the serpent spoke French.

Of course!

[Aldhissla]

I'm slowly learning German, myself.

Das freut mich sehr - ich selbst werde nächstes Jahr hoffentlich ENDLICH anfangen, Schwedisch zu lernen

I'm slowly learning German, myself.

Das freut mich sehr - ich selbst werde nächstes Jahr hoffentlich ENDLICH anfangen, Schwedisch zu lernen

Das Bullerbü-Syndrom!

Most Finns speak finnish, the Swedish-speaking part of the folk is a clear minority and they're mostly located to southern Finland and the western coast. The band members, as far as i know, mainly speak finnish as their first language & the Swedish-speaking Finns usually know Finnish fairly well too.
Although in general Swedish is probably a more useful language, since tehcnically the whole Sweden speaks it and with knowledge in the Swedish language you can also more or less understand several other Nordic languages.

For as far as I know, not all of them have Finnish as first language.

No, not all My point was that most of them can use both of the languages pretty fluently (note the word "mainly").