Husky Rescue |
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Since
2002, a new music has been stirring from the Nordic chill of Helsinki,
Finland’s culture-capital. Following the release of the excellent
debut album, Country Falls (2004), the unique sound of Husky Rescue
has captured the imagination of many; bringing with it a rich sleigh
of mystery and melancholy.
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Rescue
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Your new album, Ghost Is Not Real has quite a surreal title, can you explain the meaning behind it? It is strange (laughs). I really loved my childhood, it was a good time for me, and I think I’m suffering from some sort of Peter Pan complex. I really loved that kind of world where I was living when I was a kid. I think it is somewhere that I can escape from this reality that we are living in now, so I think that’s basically the idea behind the whole album. The lyrics are quite cryptic as well? I’m really interested in creating some sort of world, I could try making movies or writing a book but I can’t really do these sorts of things. The studio became my first real instrument, and it’s the only one I have. When making music and using lyrics, the most important thing for me is that the lyrics are opening some sort of door to this world that we are creating. I’m writing songs with my best friend and it’s really good teamwork when we are together, but I’m not that much into singer/songwriter stuff where people are telling some sort of stories of everyday life. Country Falls, was an electronic pop album, but Ghost Is Not Real seems a bit darker and more guitar-oriented, would you agree? When I first played the album to our sound engineer, it was nice that he actually thought the album was full of hope in a way. It’s not that dark, but you’re right that it’s different to our first album. Constructing the music for both albums has been really natural, we didn’t have any kind of stand, but when we started playing live it was really obvious to continue in that direction, maybe it sounds a bit more like a band now. What tools do you use for composing music in the studio? The sound mainly comes from analogue equipment, and I use Pro-Tools for editing. Then I have this Revox PR99 reel-to-reel tape recorder from the early nineties. It’s in really good shape and is quite nice-sounding. I’m also warming and destroying the sound a lot with some analogue boxes. My oldest synths are the Micromoog and the Voyager, and then I have a Roland SH-101 bass synth. So mostly I’ve been using Moogs when composing tunes, and also a Korg Delta and ARP Odyssey. Those instruments seem quite well-disguised in your music. Yeah, that’s true. I don’t want it to sound like those instruments, although there aren’t that many synths used on this second album actually. I also have an ASR-10 Ensoniq Sampler, which is quite old-school. Do you use a lot of samples on your records? I haven’t been using many samples, but the ones I do use are almost always created by myself. I like that way of working, recording some samples and then using those clips in our production. It’s one specific part of my recording process, but the most important instruments are outboard processors, like spring reverbs, tape echoes and I have also been using some old radios converted to amplifiers. And what’s your starting point for building a track? Usually I try to express some kind of emotion, like painting pictures of certain emotions. I never actually play any kind of instruments when I’m composing, I never sit by a guitar or piano, it’s much more like building a model of a castle, putting pieces together. Of course I have some sort of melody in my head, and then I just start building layers – usually I have quite a clear image of where I want to end up. Although my main instrument is the studio, I never sit that much by my computer, because it’s not an inspiring thing – it’s much more inspiring to walk outside in the winter when it’s raining or snowing before composing tunes rather than sitting in front of my monitors (laughs). What is your favourite part of the production process? I’m not actually sure, I really love studio work but I don’t have a favourite thing. Modern instruments have so many possibilities - for example, I live in the centre of Helsinki where there are a lot of quite old buildings, and we go to the attic, which is very high, and it is a really spooky place to go during the night. We recorded some of the tracks there, because it has much more emotional content and feeling instead of standing in a vocal booth. So sometimes recording can be really magical, and we have been doing some trips outside of the city and recording in the countryside with my laptop. I’m really into using different microphones, EQ control and pre-amps; it’s something I would like to explore more with the next album. And what about promoting the album, do you enjoy the public side of things? Not really (laughs). It’s expected to be done and I don’t exactly like office work at all, like hundreds and hundreds of emails. It’s so nice to be in this situation, but I would like to create more interesting and powerful promoting tools. Composing music is completely for myself and close friends. Because it’s such an important part of my being - and for the band - the most important thing for us is to escape into that world rather than what other people are thinking about our music. For example, many people have asked if it was hard to come up with this second album, and of course it was hard to start the process because we were touring so much and we didn’t have any time to spend in the studio, but when we started I realised that it is not that hard to make music if you really like music. Has it been easy to transfer your music into a live situation? It’s not that easy because we are from Finland; we played many live shows in London but expenses are very high. It would have been nice to have a sixth member in the band so the live sound could be a bit more colourful. When the music is being played in the studio, of course there are a lot of tracks and instruments, and endless possibilities, but we can’t play all the tracks live – it’s been tricky but really exciting too. Is Husky Rescue well known in Finland, what sort of music scene do you have? The first album wasn’t promoted that well here by the label, but I think Ghost Is Not Real is going to be much better known, although the music scene is a bit different. Of course we listen to all types of music, it’s really well known about heavy metal, although there are some really interesting underground acts here too and a lot of pop music. I’m not meaning Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears, but more like indie-pop. Do you have a favourite Husky Rescue track? Not really, but at the moment I like this trilogy, Blueberry Tree Part 1, 2 and 3. I have been listening to those over the last couple of days because we have been rehearsing for some forthcoming live performances next month. At the moment, those are my favourites, because they have such continuity. I think this new album is representing the face of Husky Rescue really well, and where the band is at the moment. |
The Albums
A mysteriously and poignant debut, delicately combining elements of country & western with sophisticated electro-pop. David Lynch would be proud.
More acoustic wonderfulness. Still carries Husky Rescue’s expressive country twang, albeit slightly more rocky and uplifting than its predecessor. |
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What are your top 3 all-time
favourite albums? That
is a list that keeps evolving constantly, today it's the following:
1. Camille Saint-Saens: le Carnaval des Animauz Carnival of the Animals. When I was a kid it helped me to break the boundaries of time and space, and discover my own special world. That was and still is my aim when making music: to create something that takes the listener to another universe. 2. Portishead: Dummy Always reminds me of that wet and dark autumn in Helsinki, 1994. When I finally got the album I ran all the way back to home, too excited to wait for a bus or a tram! 3.
Serge Gainsbourg: Melody Nelson The
absolute definition of ‘sound’. So much air, you can actually see the
tiny particles dancing. Gives you an irresistible urge to go out and
fly a kite. |
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Husky
Rescue
interview, Barcode
2007 ©
No part
of this interview may be reproduced under any circumstances without the written
or verbal permission of the editor.
This
interview was initially commissioned for Future Music magazine - issue 185,
March 2007.