Desertplanet.com

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THE FINNISH POP CULTURE PORTAL

Music
Interview: Desertplanet.com

When and how did you start to make music?
I started to make Desertplanet.com -stuff in summer 1999.
Just started to mix my classic video game and computer hobby with pop-music.
And the result was kind of joystick-pop, arcade-electro or something like that.

I live in very norh of Finland, Lapland.
The distances are long so the touring is quite expensive. I thought I could use internet as a "stage to perform my music", and that´s why I named my band after a internet-site. And the idea has worked well. I have get many international fans and friends from Japan, France, Italy, USA, Neatherlands and UK etc. Also I have a managed to make a record deal with a excellent record label here in Finland. Things have went more than well, I can´t complain.:)

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
As a "videogame pop" -musician I respect the composers of the classic video game music as Rob Hubbard ( commodore 64), Allister Brimble (Amiga), Martin Galway (c-64), Koji Kondo (Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES) etc.
But I dont wanna be a purist regarding to making music.
I try to take influences from childrens music to industrial noise, too.:)
Everything good, wild or weird goes.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician / singer (in Finland)?
The positive side: long distances. You learn to invent your own fun, cause you dont see much good action.
The negative side: long distances. Travelling and tours are expensive.

How could you qualify your style of music?
There is a good conversation in one french websites forum:
http://www.freeoldies.com/forum/showthread.php?s=b2f1e98fec7fdb5f73abc8a7 922e52b3&threadid=9132
a guy named RyF describe desertplanet.com music as " bon je sais, c'est pas un jeu, mais la zik est très forte (entre, pong - pop corn et space invaders... =^___^= )
tiiiiiiiiii tituu tiititi " ("entre, pong - pop corn et space invaders...tiiiiiiii tituu tiititi" is a good description. . :)

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
I have done it allready once.
I have been playing electric guitar in indie guitar rock -style for years in a band called Jalla Jalla.
http://www.hiljaiset.sci.fi/bands/jalla_e.htm
Jalla Jallas records have been published in UK, USA and Germany. And we toured in Europe many times.
We didn´t ever had a gig in France, but once we travelled trough some norhtern part of your country on our tour in Europe.:)

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
The tracks are kinda soundtracks for imaginary video games from the 80´s and early 90´s
mixed with my personal attitude and sense of humour.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
It it usually the newest song that feels better than the older ones.
Now I think the best song is "Dune Buggy".
It´s going to be first Desertplanet.com single released by a such a big record company in Finland. (The release date is 7th/10/02)
I´m little bit excited how people will react.:)

Do you tour regularly? Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
I´m doing live gigs with Jari Mikkola.
We have worked together with Jari a lot.
Jari directed the "Asteroid Hopper" -music video.

When we are performing live we are dressed as spacemen in green helmets.
Our show is quite fun to perform as a musician.
We are planning to do a tour in Finland this autumn with Tero, who plays live commodore 64 www.mp3.com/tero

All of Desertplanet.com music is made in my home studio by simple equipments.
In general "My home studio" means a couple of computers, some software for recording and mixing and some real instruments.
Many of the softwares I use are freeware.
These simple equipments are enough to produce "lo-fi-retro-game-pop" sounds I like.

During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer? Why?
The best moment is when you get a track ready and play it to your friend.
Thats the moment. And occasionally the moment even gets better when the listener thinks it sounds good. :)

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
- If I want to check out some new stuff I listen to some electronic mp3 -labels like monotonik, commie etc. , www.mono211.com , www.commie.oy.com
- And I listen to some webradios. In fact there is quite good electronic demoscene webradio called Nectarine
http://www.scenemusic.org. And its run from Paris, France.
- I get my info of a new good stuff also from a news-sites like vorc.org www.vorc.org and from some mailing lists.

What are your actual and future projects?
- I´m working with my single and a long play records to www.spinefarm.net/odor -label.
If you wanna some more info about the Desertplanet.com releases coming up you can email straight to the record company info@spinefarm.fi ( I´m sorry, but it would help if you could do it in english )
- A future project: I´ll be neat if one of my future releases could be "a soundtrack for an imaginary long animation movie".:)

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song? Why?
The Replacements: Bastards of Young.
Replacements did come from Minnepolis USA and it is kind of guitar rock.
The band was active at the 80´s and early 90´s.

The songwriter Paul Westerberg have got his own style
and he has made many great songs with his band Replacements.
"Bastards of Young" is one of my all time favourites.

Internet is something interesting for musicians because it gives them the opportunity to touch a larger audience but it is also a threat for them (regarding the copyrights). What is your opinion regarding this medium?
I think there will allways be people who wants to buy records or wants to support their favourite artists.
I dont worry about the copyrights regarding to mp3´s.
On the long run I think internet will help muscians a lot.
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2002