Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2016, Page 34

Music Interview
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late night dining
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Finnish brand of charisma.
We meet the day after his show
at a packed Loft Hostel, where
Jaakko played a set gleaned mostly
from his recent self-titled album.
It’s his second visit to Iceland—
like many other musicians, his
first was Airwaves. “It was a little
bit wild,” smiles Jaakko. “There
was a lot of drinking. The week af-
ter, I had a red mark on the bridge
of my nose, and I was wondering
how it got there. Then one day I
took a sip from a pint glass, and re-
alised the mark was exactly where
the glass touched my nose...”
Doing something interesting
Party damage aside, Jaakko quick-
ly found himself at home in Reyk-
javík 101. “It was crazy how many
friends I made on that trip,” he
recalls. “Reykjavík is such a spe-
cial place. Everyone seems to
know each other, and to be friends.
There’s no competition—people
just support each other. It reminds
me of my hometown, Tiituspo-
hja—but everyone here seems to
be doing something interesting.”
Jaakko now lives in Berlin,
and recently released a self-titled
album that’s thrillingly fully
formed. Employing everything
from playful 80s pop references to
flashes of psychedelia, disco tex-
tures and krautrock basslines, it
remains sonically coherent, pull-
ing from all over the musical spec-
trum in a way that feels instinctive
and natural. One constant across
the ten tracks is their warm, ana-
logue sound. Is that something he
strived for?
“I wouldn’t want to admit it,
but I guess it’s true,” he smiles. “I
recorded all of it to my computer,
but I do like the tape sound. There
are no plug-ins—it’s more inspir-
ing to be hands-on. Instruments
inspire me a lot. It’s fun to play
around with them, and you have to
experiment more.”
Station to station
The album seems to have taken on
a life of its own, and resulted in
an emerging international audi-
ence. “In autumn we did a crazy
tour—54 shows in two months,”
he says. “We also went to Austra-
lia and Hong Kong. The scene in
Hong Kong seemed small but ac-
tive—we played in a small club,
but it was a really nice show. I met
a record seller called ‘Paul the re-
cord seller.’ He had this crazy life
story—his mother had put him
into a shipping container when he
was young, during the Vietnam
war, and he’d ended up in Hong
Kong. He lived in the streets, and
people started donating records
to him. He ended up having a big
collection and starting a shop.
And now he has 300,000 records
in a huge warehouse. He was a real
character. I bought some Chinese
electronic music and some Japa-
nese stuff. It was a real mess in
there, but he knew exactly where
everything was.”
“It can be tiring,” he finishes,
looking plaintively into the dis-
tance, just like he did onstage at
Loft. “Sometimes I find myself
somewhere and just think: “What
am I doing here?” But I guess you
can get those feelings anywhere.”
SHARE: gpv.is/jaakko
Jaakko Eino Kalevi is an oddly
compelling presence. Usually seen
live with a small backing band, he
plays languid, hazy, analogue pop
music with shades of psychedelia
and disco, swaying onstage barely
enough to make his long hair move.
His eyes remain fixed on the keys of
the synthesizer until he addresses
the mic to sing in his deep, dispas-
sionate voice, gazing somewhere
into the distance. He’s at once a ca-
sual and slightly stiff performer—if
it’s possible to be effortlessly awk-
ward, Jaakko manages it. It’s a very
Jaakko Eino Kalevi
Wanders Through
Scenes, Genres,
The World
Words JOHN ROGERS
Photos ART BICNICK
34The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 4 — 2016