I guess I’ve been doing music for such a long time that one wants to change as the years go by, because otherwise you get bored. But the truth is that, even when I’m doing this jazz stuff, I like to compose electronic demos first. I come from a more electronic and experimental background than a jazz one. I used to do a lot of industrial stuff, like a lot of self-made instruments. But when working with a big band (like I am doing now) you have to be quite well prepared, so I have to leave the experimental apart.
I used to listen to things like Gary Numan, futuristic new romantic stuff.
That was quite late, when I was 25 or 27, then I started listening to hippie jazz and I went to see Sun Ra in the 90s in NYC and that kind of changed everything. I remember I was in the concert and I thought, “Wow! What is this?” It was a really wild experience and they were wearing amazing outfits. There were maybe 20 people in the band and it was completely free jazz. It was just chaos and living the music. It really had a huge effect on me.
(Laughs) I guess I have that kind of restlessness, but I’m not moving anymore. I’m a little bit tired of traveling and changing. And maybe I moved too much, for example I haven’t any records or any books that I used to have when I was younger because when you move constantly to different countries you can’t take them with you, so I left all those things somewhere, and even the furniture. That’s kind of strange.
About 3 or 4 years ago we did a couple of shows with Jori Hulkkonen. We did a new soundtrack for a film that I made in 1996, it was for a special festival and it was fun, so we thought we could do a special film only for this purpose. We could play on stage and there would be something like a film or some visual things. We always talked about that but we never did it. We always said “Let’s do the film! Let’s do the film!” and we never did it. But like a year ago, Jori called me and said “Ok! This week we make the film!” (Laughs).
We didn’t have any in the beginning, but we finally found one we both liked, so then we decided to to this thing – like a road movie from the house of Mr Normall to a place near the Russian border in Finland.
Yes! We knew this guy, he’s been a new romantic since the 80s but continues until today, so in the evening, when he goes out, he always puts make up on and wears special glasses. Why is this guy always in the same style? So we found him and we said “Ok, we make the movie!”. The travel of Mr Normall.
I’ve been working on this compositions for many years, I made demos but it was for no concrete reason. I’d just been working on it, and one day I thought maybe I could do something about it.
Flute is my main instrument, but I feel comfortable with everything! I did a lot of self-made instruments made of wood, like little percussions or other kinds of flutes, so I like to play this kind of things because what you can do is limited and you don’t have to be a professional. You can only get two sounds, so you just play something and it’s fun and it’s good too.
I’m still listening to some hippie and exotica music. The last thing I’ve been listening to is Pyramides, because we played at the same gig with them in Germany so I bought a vinyl from them from the early 70s. It’s a little bit like Sun Ra. Then I listen to a lot of pop music that happens to be popular now because of my children, so I know all of those new artists (laughs).
No, I’m not going on tour with them because it’s too many people. I did one big band tour in 2003 and it was really hard to organize, and sometimes you even lose money.
Oh, yes! That’s much easier because we just bring a laptop or the file and then there are two guys and sometimes Mr Normall comes to stage too, like he did during our Sónar performance. He appears from the smoke (laughs).
Yes, I did! I liked playing here! I played in 1998 too, in the evening, when it was in the beach and I remember I really liked that night because it was next to sea and you could go to the cocktail bar and take it easy. Maybe now it’s become too big for me, I don’t like big crowds at all and I don’t feel as comfortable as I did back in 98.
