Black audio

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Interview : Black audio

When and how was your band created?
Vesa: "Me and Ville went to the same art school in Imatra (a miserable little town in Eastern Finland) in 1997. I'd made some fuzzy electro blues tracks with a home computer & a four track tape recorder and asked Ville to do some vocals. He did. A couple of years later Antti joined in and in 2003 Arttu came along."

Where is the name of the band coming from?
Vesa: "Way back in 1997 I was on summer holiday, riding my bicycle, listening to Leftfield on my walkman. Suddenly it became crystal clear that I have to form a band called Black Audio."

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Vesa: "I'd say The Nits, Kraftwerk, Suicide, Sonic Youth, 22-Pistepirkko. All of which have had a more a less major influence on my life & our music."

Ville: "Let me add at least The Misfits, The Cramps, Radiopuhelimet, Meters, Black Sabbath, Johnny Cash and Fela Kuti to that list."

Arttu: "I've been massively influenced by traditional musics of North America, both rural and urban, old and new. That seems to be the one ingredient I take with me too just about every venture I engage in. Combine those with a punk rock attitude and all the relevant influences are there..."

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
Ville: "It's a very small music scene, so if you're making interesting alternative music, there's absolutely no chance of "making it big".That's a good thing, because people tend to do it just for the music. That's why we have a wide variety of great underground bands that have been making exellent albums for years and practically no one has ever heard of them. But the albums remain great. So it's a positive/negative thing."

Arttu: "I agree with the above stated positives... One of my major long-term complaints about the Finnish music scene is,
I've come to realize as years go by, actually of a cultural nature. Has to do with Finland being predisposed towards a dogmatic search for consensus and having room for one truth at a time. Societal resources are generally marshalled to drive the agenda of this one consensus truth and other truths are sidelined. This makes life as a producer of anything marginal quite complicated in a way that doesn't occur in countries with a longer cultural history... Given a few generations, perhaps this will change for the better. It's important to remember that Finland was, effectively, a part of the 3rd world less than a century ago:-) I hesitate to count us as what we endearingly refer to as "sivistysvaltio"..."

How could you define your style of music?
Vesa: "Rock and blues with a little country hee-haw & electronic beats. Rural and urban in equal measures."
Ville: "Diverse rock music. There's the modern electronic gadgets and the ancient blues influences, but it's only rock'n'roll. I like it."

During the years how has your musical style changed?
Ville: "We've expanded our musical range. In the very beginning it used to be sort of rocking and danceable all the time. Now it's about writing good songs. Good slow man and his banjo countryblues songs and good kick-ass electronic noise rockers. And everything good in between."

How do explain these changes?
Ville: "We get bored easily. Gotta try some new stuff. And hopefully we've gotten better at whatever we are doing."

What are topics you treat in your songs?
Vesa: "I think we've already covered just about everything from potato chips to the apocalypse".

Ville: "Potato chips, love, god, rental videos, panthers, video games, hate, heartaches, bellyaches...
so it's about the basics of human existence."

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
Ville: "For it me keeps changing all the time. Usually one the most recent songs. Album favorites change every time I listen to them and live favorites change every time we play live."

Arttu: 'My current recorded favorite is the first song on our NEXT album:-) Live, I get the biggest kick out of Knee Deep In Love, at the moment..."

Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
Ville: "I prefer both. We do the studio stuff pretty carefully and try to make it so that you can listen to it over and over again and still find new layers or meanings. Live we try to rock. I go by the wise words of Dee Snider: I Wanna Rock."

Arttu: "I like both. Occasionally, I would like to see a better infrastructure exist for the live aspect, in a hiolistic manner. Being almost 35 and sleeping on floors in Finnish towns with populations in the low five figures has its moments of absurdity. I spropose cutting the subsidy budget for all those jazzers with their mental nylon socks on and giving it to us"

During the process of making a song, what is the moment that you prefer?
Ville: "The moment I get to hear what the other guys have done with my crappy demo-song. Because usually they take it to a slightly other direction I would have have, and it always sound better that way. And that's the main reason why we make music together."

Arttu: "Hearing a finished song and then listening to the first demos and really perceiving the distance you can take stuff when you use four heads in stead of one."

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song?
Vesa: "I'll have to think about this one for about two weeks. OK, I'll say "Mourir avant quinze ans" by The Nits. Pure magic. I get something in my eye every time I hear it."

Ville: "It's impossible to choose one. But I say "Jäätie" by Radiopuhelimet and "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James."

Arttu: "Currently I am captivated by many versions of "Wayfarin' Stranger"... I think another lifetime fave would be Ave Maria, especially as performed by the young and relatively skinny Pavarotti. And Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations. Those always make me feel like there's a transcendent beauty to life on earth that we can only arrest for the briefest of moments."

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
Vesa: "For us it's more like a useful tool than anything else."

Arttu: "It's a great tool..."

What are your projects ?
Vesa: "Writing songs & recording demos for our new album (due 2007)."

Arttu: "Working on new Black Audio stuff. Contemplating new Giant Robot music and direction. Working on songs for a new duo project called Benway."

What "image" do you have of French music?
Vesa: "It seems that it's easier to find a three-legged ballerina than a French rock'n'roll band. But that doesn't really matter, since you've got Daft Punk (good), Air (super good) and Edith Piaf (super super good). Not to forget Mano Negra and Les Negresses Vertes."

Arttu: "I like all of the above, except Les Negresses:-) One mustn't forget MC Solaar. And Joe Dassin kicks Finland's ass: L'Ete Indien vs Kuusamo. Is Francis Lai French? He is a genius. In addition, many French songs I like turn out to be Belgian. I also appreciate Paris as the cradle for so much great music with its roots in northern and western Africa."

Is there one French song that you prefer? If so, what song is it?
Vesa: "C'est si bon", especially Eartha Kitt's version."
Arttu: "Sidi H'Bibi by Mano Negra"

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2006