(10.24.05) WALL OF SOUL, the debut album from Finnish boy/girl duo Juha Tuukkanen and Terhi Koivisto is a nice throwback to mid-nineties chill-out rooms, evoking those blurred hours coming down off a night of dancing and candy-dipping. Fans of the original This Is Acid Jazz… After Hours series will most likely enjoy these down-tempo, jazz-inflected, ethereal tunes. Although it might seem a bit derivative, the album has been dexterously produced and these original compositions blend seamlessly together to reflect a unified vision and clarity.
Through the wonder of technology, despite our mutual scheduling torments and the usual obstacle course of bureaucracy (labels, distributors, editors, etc.), the three of us got together to chat via computer. This is a pasticcio of some of our questions and answers fired across the wires.
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Samuel :: How did you become involved with music and what were those first experiences – listening to the radio with the family, school concerts, banging on pots and pans on the kitchen lino, belting out tunes made from nonsense words?
Terhi :: I can’t remember my first musical experience that well, but I do know that my mom used to sing a lot. She’s a very creative person and I can get inspired just by listening to her while she’s cleaning the house, so probably she’s the one who guided me towards creative work.
I remember being excited about studying music when my sister started to play flute. But I found it very fustrating and boring. My first music lesson almost made me cry and my flute didn’t make a sound. What can I say? Which one would you choose if you had a choice, would you be practising scales inside, or use your own creativity by playing imaginary games outside in the woods?
Then, music came to my life again when my mom was playing songs with her acoustic guitar. Even though she probably didn’t play that well and her voice was weak and thin, it touched me more than anything I had ever heard. I think I somehow understood that I could also sing and play in my own way. I listened to every word she sang, every tale she told with her guitar, and heard how the story and melody were unified. My mom encouraged me in everything I ever did, and she is a very important person for me.
Juha :: I was about 12 years old when music really came to my life and it grew from there. School-wise, I have always tried to educate myself in things other than music, as everything you know can only help your thought processes and approaches to yourself as an expressive individual – your place, as well as the whole image of yourself as a part of this world. And being the (spoiled) only child in the family, my home was always an encouraging and supporting place for me to do whatever I chose.
Samuel :: Having never been to Finland, I’d like to ask you what is your present “home” like?
Juha :: The view from my window is quite beautiful at the moment. Autumn is just showing its effects here in Finland and all the leaves in the trees have turned red and yellow, right before they drop. We call it “ruska.” It’s actually quite a beautiful time of year.
Samuel :: Sounds beautiful, especially since I’m staring out at a smog-covered blob of buildings in the middle of downtown Seoul. Most of the reds and yellows here are the result of acid rain.
Samuel (cont.) :: Your press pack describes your music as “an album of chilly, contemplative Northern electronics?” I can’t help but think it’s just the opposite in some ways. Terhi’s lyrics are so warm and full of a vibrancy that’s uncommon in a lot of young singers and songwriters. What do you attribute your sound to or, put it another way, where are these songs coming from?
Terhi :: Producing text is my way of telling about things I see, feel and how I understand different aspects in life. Some of the texts find their way to be the part of the music, and some of them exist on their own. The melodies are unified with the text, when I’m sitting in front of a piano, or in the final minutes before falling asleep.
I think a grocery list can be poetry, text, or some kind of a subtext for an emotion. At first, a grocery list reminds me about a routine or normal life, and then the idea of a list makes me think about the old man I saw at the park one day. He has his own routine, the exact time for arrival, time to feed the birds, time to go again, etc. I could imagine this old man standing in front of the shelf with the grocery list and how accurate he would be with it. And the aspects in his deeds, the sad things it tells about him, his last hold in life. Or maybe it doesn’t matter at all?
I think about things I see, and try to imagine the stories behind people. It’s just my way of watching people and life as a whole. I don’t think it’s important to draw a line between a text and a poem or a poem and a lyric. Why should there even be one?
Juha :: For me, I always try not to let my personal life and feelings affect my enthusiasm for making music, but it always shows up really strong anyway. Because what is music without emotions? And being honest is the only right way.
Samuel :: Who are some of the artists you respect or admire?
Juha :: There are a couple of names that have directed my personal musical progression, biggest of them being Mr. Gilles Peterson. The musical education he has provided through his sets is major. The most important single artists have been John & Alice Coltrane, Terry Callier and Björk. The pure intensity of emotion in their music is something Spyritual is also trying to capture. Currently, while writing this, I’m listening to In a Landscape by John Cage and Takk by Sigur Ros for the first time and finding both to be quite beautiful records.
Samuel :: Do you have an artist or genre that most inspires or moves you?
Terhi :: I have sung in several bands since I was young. I sang some funk, jazz, Finnish folk, acoustic pop-rock and rock. There have been artists and bands that have influenced me, but maybe more spiritually than concretely. Many strong artists are also musical leaders. These artists have encouraged me to also walk my own path, not someone else’s.
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It is just such an attitude, independent, almost defiant, that I think will allow this band to grow, maturing with age and experience, while honing their talents and defining their own particular sound. Terhi and Juha’s aspirations, combined with the tremendous talent already shown on this first record, augur a promising future for the Finnish duo.
Spyritual’s Wall of Soul is out now on Kitty-Yo. [Sound Samples]
