Sami Sänpäkkilä
Sami Sänpäkkilä of Finland is musically
active in several different bands; the solo turntable mysticism of Es, the
surrealistic melodic experimental pop of Kiila, the all instrumental band
Velvolino, and his contributions to releases by Kemialliset Ystävät,
Office Buildings and others. He’s also the head honcho of Fonal records;
who have recently been extremely active and productive. He was kind enough
to contribute two great tracks to our CD included with issue #2, and was equally
generous with his time; doing this interview with Dream magazine during early
2002. He makes several different kinds of captivatingly original sorts of
music.
G.P.: How did the sound(s) of Es develop,
how did Es come into being?
S.S.: I think the birth of Es can be traced to 1994 or 1995
when I began to plan a photograph exhibition of mine. I wanted the gallery
to have sound as well as my pictures. I recorded many tapes of material with
my 4-track recorder using my guitar, the cameras I had shot the photos with,
a super 8 projector and other "instruments" I could find from my
room. Most of this material can be found from the Flick cd released by (K-RAA-K)3
records in 1999. How I came to do the kind of music I do is probably due to
the fact that I have absorbed most of my influences from movies. Not always
from the soundtracks but from the images as well. The music of Es has been
said to resemble soundtracks in many cases and I do agree to a certain point.
I don't imagine any scenarios of images or any moments of happenings while
I make the music. More perhaps it is the moment and the feeling that guides
the process of recording. At the moment I am patiently processing the third
full-length album of Es. Flick was very guitar oriented and A Love Cycle was
basically a theme album of looping "lovecycles", as I like to call
my turntables. This third album is spread on a wider range of my own history
and I'm making it more open and more personal record (to myself at least).
More romantic and quiet at times with grandness around the corners. It will
hopefully cover many aspects in how I perceive the world or how I would like
to perceive it. The first two albums were both recorded in a relatively short
period of time and were put together in a short time. Now I have worked on
this third album already for a year, constantly thinking of it and the concept.
The name of the album (or the subtitle) will probably be Kaikkeuden Käsittämättömyys
ja Kauneus which roughly translates as "the inconceivability
and beauty of everythingness". I don't think there's any exact word for
kaikkeus in english.
G.P.: Who and what is Kiila?
S.S.: Kiila is me and Niko-Matti Ahti. I have learned to
play and make music with Niko and we have been friends many years. We began
Kiila in 1995 and it's grown with us. I think you might say that Kiila is
a collective of two, heh. I like to see Kiila as an experimental pop band.
Niko doesn't like this term but he hasn't come up with anything else to describe
Kiila in a few words. Kiila has always been a very analytic band. We've talked
about the songs and their recording more than we've spent time in the studio
actually making them.
G.P.: What does Kiila do, and what
do they sound like?
S.S.: At the moment we are beginning to begin the making
of our next album. We've already recorded some new stuff (Jealous Birds song
that was released on the Surrounded By Sun compilation) and some other stuff
as well which is less pop, and I think this the direction we are aiming for.
Heartcore cd was very structural and was painstakingly constructed like an
animated movie. We are now spending lots of time freeing ourselves from this
way of making music. We've done some improvisations and we are hoping we could
record some stuff with other people in addition to ourselves. To this date
we have recorded almost everything ourselves. The live concerts we have been
doing have been very fruitful. We have arranged the songs to a five piece
band and we are certain that this would be the best way to record our songs
in the future. Even if we still would continue composing the music amongst
just the two of us we would like to record them with a band. At the moment
I am making a video version of the Heartcore cd. It will feature all of the
music from the cd made into music videos by various directors. I think it
will turn out to be almost two hours long! It will have documentary stuff
form our everyday life, our concert trips as well as me and Niko speaking
about the music and about each other.
G.P.: Finland!?
S.S.: Finland rules. I love living here and I love the fact
that my parents have a big house with a garden where my cat Ramadan (Rampe
among friends) can wonder and roam freely. I'm planning on doing a documentary
about Rampe. I will live two days with him and follow him around our yard
and sleep with him outdoors.
G.P.: Does Finnish folklore influence
your life or art?
S.S.: I think it's really fascinating and I've always liked
the fact that we have our own mythology in Finland which is oral heritage.
The mythology is not too strong and the old pagan "religions" have
been washed away when christianity spread to Finland. But they have survived
as cultural history and the finnish mythology is something that I think everyone
can be proud of and acknowledge. Actually I've never read Kalevala, which
is the national finnish folklore tale, but instead I've heard it told to me
by an Irish man in English! I've gained a sense of national proudness not
too soon ago which is due to the fact that I've read many books and learned
a lot about Finnish culture and history recently.
G.P.: Do you have a ghost story?
S.S.: I've never seen a ghost. My dad has seen one but there's
no story behind it, he saw a woman with a hat standing in front of a door.
G.P.: How important are dreams to your
art and/or your life?
S.S.: I don't remember my dreams. Maybe once a month I remember
one so there's not much to draw from. I do like to think that they do some
sort of work unconsciously for me. Well, it's a fact that in the mornings
many things are more clear to me.
G.P.: Tell me a bit about the primarily
instrumental group Velvolino?
S.S.: Velvolino is a five piece band where I see myself as
the guitarist. This is a band that I enjoy playing in and consider it to be
less stressful then my other projects in the light that I don't have so much
responsibility. In Es I do everything alone, and in Kiila there's me and Niko.
It's great when you can sometimes just sit back and be silent and still there's
music in the air. Velvolino is a very slow project. We actually have many
songs waiting for recording and live shows but it seems that the band is haunted
by the curse of not enough time (of course this is wrong cause time never
ends, it just keeps adding up) to do stuff. Our clarinet player is leaving
to spain for a year and we hope to record and play a few gigs before that.
G.P.: What was your favorite cartoon
or comic book when you were a kid?
S.S.: I read loads of comics as a kid and was a collector.
I had all the Spidermans, all the Batmans, all the Lucky Lukes, all the Asterix's,
all the Donald Duck books and thousands of other comics. I think I enjoyed
all of them equally. The last comic I followed was Sandman which I still think
is good. Nowadays I don't read too much comics. Maybe I read enough to last
lifetime as a kid.
G.P.: Does your work sound like Finland?
S.S.: A friend of mine from Belgium actually compared my
work to Sibelius. Which I first thought wasn't true but one can make connections
around the corners. Sibelius thought of notes as colors of the nature. He
often listened to the nature and made compositions listening to the birds,
the water and the trees. Also the fact that my music (speaking of Es) is very
classical and romantic in a sense. I like to think of my music as northern
music. It definitely doesn't have much to do with the nature around the equator
or anywhere near it. The colder atmosphere has always appealed to me more.
G.P.: What good is art?
S.S.: A good question. I've been thinking about the meaning
of life a bit more for than usually during the last weeks. Somehow I don't
see myself joining the Amnesty or Greenpeace but an excellent idea came to
my mind. I was thinking that I could go to north of Finland and maybe live
in the woods for a while and try to find an animal friend. A deer, a moose
or even a wolf. I'm serious with this and I don't mean I would live with it
or anything. Just gain it's trust so that when we'd see on the bank of the
river, me gathering wood and it having drink, it wouldn't run away and we
could look at each other and wonder what life is all about. Maybe guilt drives
people to activism, but I would rather be one of the animals.
G.P.: What's next?
S.S.: This is the busiest summer of my life. So I think at
the moment I'm living the "next" period. After this a vacation.
Maybe up north...
G.P.: What inspires you?
S.S.: What drives me to make music, films or art in general
is basically the need to have something to do. If I don't have anything going
on I feel unnecessary to myself. People really think it's necessary that other
people appreciate their work but the truth is you should learn to cherish
your own work. Develop your own way of thinking and create your own universe.
That's the only way to create something new and original. Of course there's
plenty of examples where this has driven people mad as hell, so there's certain
boundaries not to be crossed if you want to stay in contact with the rest
of the world. When you see work by people who have really thought about things
you can truly enjoy it. You can get new ideas, thoughts that create chainreactions
of further thoughts from animals, nature, films, music, people... And those
thoughts are what inspire me.
G.P.: What is psychedelic?
S.S.: Life man! Life is!
G.P.: Who are some of your favorite
Finnish bands or musicians?
S.S.: Here's a short list. Kemialliset Ystävät,
Ville Leinonen, TV-Resistori, Kuusumun Profeetta, Office Building, Pan Sonic,
Deep Turtle, Sweetheart, Circle, Shogun Kunitoki.
G.P.: How about a list of your all
time favorite recordings or films?
S.S.: In the order in which they popped in to my mind.
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda (album)
Maya Deren: At Land (short film)
Werner Herzog: Land of Silence and Darkness (documentary)
Pekka Streng: Kesämaa (album)
Robert Bresson: A Man Escaped (movie)
Jacques Demy: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (movie)
Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air (album)
Kemialliset Ystävät: Kellari Juniversumi (album)
Ville Leinonen: Raastinlauluja (album)
Philip Jeck: Vinyl Coda I-III (album)
G.P.: A Sami Sanpakkila discography?
S.S.:
Kiila: Original 7" (Fonal, 1997)
Kiila: Free Will is Hard To Kill 7" (Fonal, 1998)
Kiila/Chamellows: Split 7" (Fonal, 1999)
Velvolino: Tango cd (Fonal, 1999)
Hektix: The End Of... 7" (Fonal, 2000)
Es: Flick cd (KRAAK3, 2000)
Office Building: To See Only Shadows cd (Played guitar, bass and saw on some
songs. Fonal, 2000)
Es: A Love Cycle cd (Fonal, 2000)
Kemialliset Ystävät: Pieni Palatsi 7" (Played various instruments.
V.A.U.V.A, 2000)
Kiila: Heartcore cd (Fonal, 2001)
Kemialliset Ystävät: Suurempi Pieni Palatsi cd (Played various instruments.
Alice-in-Wonder, 2002)
Kemialliset Ystävät: Kellari Juniversumi cd (Played various instruments.
Fonal, 2002)
Interviews
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