Magyar Posse

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Music
Interview : Harri from Magyar Posse

When and how was your band created?
In 1997 we gathered some people from previous bands, schoolmates and all around to have a drummer, 2 keyboards, guitar and bass. I suppose we were at a bar when we all met together for the first time and agreed to start playing music. In 2000 we changed the name and the concept and started with the thing we have now.

Where is the name of the band coming from?
From a wine that we used to drink a lot a the time.

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
Movie soundtracks, the local scene in Pori + everything that each of us liked.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician in Finland?
The positive thing is that the audience is very open minded, a lot of Finnish mainstream bands are actually quite experimental. Also considering the population there are a lot good venues to play and most places have good equipment + the staff knows how to use them. This is something that you don't notice until you go abroad.

The bad thing is that with the kind of music that we play there no chance to make a living out of it. Not that we would even try that. Other thing is that Finland is like an island, you always have leave the country by boat unless you're going to Russia. That makes planning a little hard sometimes + it costs too much money.

How could you define your style of music?
Instrumental rock music with a soundtrack twist.

During the years how has your musical style changed?
Well it hasn't changed that much, it's just that we've managed to arrange the songs better and we rely more on less than before. We have confidence in the little things, so to say. There are also bigger differences in the individual songs, so that we cover a wider range of feelings and such. We're starting to understand that we have no obligation to sound like "this" or "that", we can just do as we wish. It's an obvious thing of course but not as easy as it seems.

How do explain these changes?
We've played for nine years now and things change. We've made three albums now and albums are the biggest source of growth.

What are topics you treat in your songs?
No topics. Themes, atmospheres and the entity that these make.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
All songs of the upcoming "Random Avenger" album. I think we succeeded well on making it. I like every single track on it a lot.

Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
I like both. If you have goog gig, it kind of makes all the trouble and the bad gigs worthwhile. So you have to have bad ones to have good ones. Live you can just play loud and it sounds all right anyway.

In the studio you have time to think things over and try all kinds of neat things. It's a whole new world to start recording something that you've played live for a year or so.

During the process of making a song, what is the moment that you prefer?
I always like the moment when things are almost done. When you have all the pieces that you need, you know that, but you just don't know how to put it all together. You go to sleep thinking of one chord and what to do with it... I just love that for some reason.

Another moment is when you hear or play a bit of song for the first time and you think to yourself "something good will come out of this..."

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song?
It is a stupid question ;) I can only say what I like at the moment:

Mark Lanegan : One way street
Shpongle : Divine moments of truth

There is more, but it's all I can think of right now.

What is your opinion, as a musician, regarding internet?
It's great. It's good for spreading the word. Also a lot of things that I would never find from I can either buy or download online. I use Soulseek a lot. I've found so many good things there that I would never have the time or the money to get them from any record store. Bands or artists that I like the most I try to buy the original CD, at least at some point. Just for support.

For us because we won't be making any money from it anyway it's good that people share it online. I can in a way understand that major companies complain about piracy, but 22 euros for a shit CD is a lot of money. They release Idols winners or something AND complain about record sales going down. HELLOO!!! I have no principle against major labels, it just happens to be so that the stuff they release is not good in an any standards. Usually they have no interest on building a long-term relationship with the artists. That's the great thing about less-profit-oriented labels, they give the artist freedom and even they're not at their best all the time they let them do as they wish and support that.

But when speaking of the "music industry" and people like us who are making music we are talking about two different things. For the industry, the music and the artist are products, just as a pair of Nike sneakers or a car. They are not making art or spiritual content, they want to make profit and the image of the artist along with the copyrights are they key for doing it. I don't know but maybe there should be a list of labels that allow people do share their stuff as they wish and list for those who don't. This is a tough question and it's hard to draw the line.

What are your projects?
There isn't time for anything else that much. I'm not saying that MP would employ us but there are things like work and study that take a lot time. Me and Pasi (one of the two keyboard players) have a thing called Teatteri
Moderni Kanuuna, we've made some plays and soundtrack for these. The
second album is in the making at the moment.

Other than that, just random things here and there but nothing serious. It's enough work to keep this one thing rolling in some way.

What "image" do you have of French music?
I really don't have any idea what the contemporary French music is like. I know Air, or course. And isn't M83 french also? And I remember seeing some MC Solaar video on MTV a long time ago.

Other than those, I like Jarre, Piaf, Aznavour and Gainsbourg. But these are classics. And Magma, they played in my hometown 2 years ago and I had the honor of meeting them at the airport and translating the menu of a gas station to Mr. Vander. That was great!

Is there one French song that you prefer? If so, what song is it?
Don't know about preferring, but I just recently saw the video for Gainsbourgs' "Lemon Incest". What the fuck is that all about?????

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2006