Suurlahettilaat

[ WWW.FINPOP.NET ]

THE FINNISH POP CULTURE PORTAL

Music
Interview : Jussu from "Suurlähettiläät"

When and how was your band created?
Our band developed during the late 80´s. Three of us had been playing together for a couple of years and the rest joined little by little. We played our first gig as ´Suurlahettilaat´ sometime in -89

What musicians or artists did have a major influence in your life / work?
I personally have always been a big fan of David Bowie, but I´ve always listened loads of all kind of music. I´ve never really cared who or what band is playing as long as I like the song.

What are the positive and negative aspects of being a musician / singer (in Finland)?
Well, the most positive aspect is that I´m now doing the thing I always wanted to do when I was a kid. The travelling is not that hard inside Finland and I imagine the music business is not that rough as elsewhere.
The negative side is of course that we are working in a small business in a small country and nobody else understands our language. Thus, it´s surely not very lucrative in anyway even for me as a song writer. So, it´s hard work with not that much money.

How could you qualify your style of music?
I guess it is rock/pop music with influences from soul, funk, and even bossa nova from time to times.

Have you ever considered the possibilty to change totally your style of music? If so, what style of music would you choose?
Yes. I´ve actually written some songs that are totally different from Suurlahettilaat in other project I work on whenever I have time to. It´s called ´Taxi´ and these songs are in english. Nothing have been published yet, but I hope other people will hear of it sometime.

What are stories/topics you tell/treat in your songs?
Most of the songs are about different aspects of ordinary life like, of course, love in it´s various states, friendship, happiness, sadness..you name it.

What is your favorite song in your repertoire and why?
it has always been impossible to name one. At the moment I do enjoy performing a song called ´Rahat on loppu, muttta myydaan volvo´, roughly translated, ´There´s no money left, but let´s sell the volvo´. It´s a bossa influented song about toughness of life told in warm, gentle way.

Do you tour regularly? Do you actually prefer performing your music live or in a studio?
Yes, we tour regularly, making the total of approximately 80 gigs per year. Playing live is the greatest thing I know of, not counting sex, of course.

During the process of making an album, what is the moment that you prefer?
To listen the song fresh from the mixing table and knowing that you really don´t hear anything that should be fixed or changed and feeling totally shure and confident about the song. That´s it. It does not happen often, though.

What kind of music / What artists do you currently listen?
My current favourite is a norwegian acoustic duo called `the Kings of convenience´. Their album`Quiet is the new loud´ is best I´ve heard for a long time.

What are your actual and future projects?
At the moment we are writing songs for our next Suurlahettilaat album. It should be in the shops next march. Also, the Taxi project will go forward, I hope, in the near future.

A stupid question but... what is among all the songs you've been listening in your life the BEST song? Why?
Tough question. First that I can think of is `Space Oddity` by David Bowie. It´s just so great song. It has it all.

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?
It is great that anybody can have his/her music disseminated there, but you should also be able to prevent your music from free downloading there, if you want to. It´s a powerful media and it´s getting bigger all the time. I think in the future music business is even less about making albums than making just individual songs and then selling them. More and more via the internet.

Do you use computers or home studios during the process of making an album or a song?
Yes, I have a small mobile combination of a laptop and some hardware that I use at home.
Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2002