Music/art is something I will do regardless, I don’t do it just as a job, I do it as a way of life, as a way of being in the world. - Juhani Silvola
Go for it, be brave, be bold! - Sarah-Jane Summers
In 1994, when I visited Scotland for the first time, I was taken to a real Scottish home in Inverness by my Estonian friend Kristi. She said that it was her friends house, but she could not come and meet us. So there was her mother, a lovely lady, who put a little red diatonic accordion in my lap. I could not play on it but I did take a photo with the instrument and the lady. 26 years ago I meet Sarah-Jane Summers in one of the biggest corona time collaboration projects Global Music Match. There are 96 artists divided into 16 groups and I am in group 13 together with Sarah-Jane and Juhani. It turns out that back then I was visiting her house, holding her little red accordion while chatting to her mother. Life certainly has its ways…
I have silently admired Sarah-Janes and Juhanis work from the side during many years. It is amazing how they literally make music with their hands and ears, putting so many different emotions into their playing and connecting autenthically with the audience. Hopefully we will meet for real some day and play music together! Until then, please enjoy my interview with them!
1. Where is home for you and what makes a home?
S-J: Oh goodness, what a complex question! I have called many hotel rooms 'home' over the years due to touring so much. Not if I have been travelling on my own, but when travelling with Juhani it has often felt like a home for that day. We used to do a lot of school concerts and could sometimes have the same hotel room for up to three weeks.
Now that we have a wee boy, for me, home being a fixed place has become more important as I see that that's what's best for him. Home is essentially where I can relax and be most 'me' with the people I love.
J: Yep, home is where I can relax. Can be many places, but right now it’s more fixed.
2. How do you solve crisis in your duo work? Any good tips to other duos to keep the flow going and ears open?
S-J: We've never had a crisis! As well as playing as a duo, we also work on our own separate projects and are constantly striving to develop our own musical skills. Juhani is an electro-acoustic composer and a record producer. We are both improvisers and composers/arrangers. (We have recently written new music and arrangements of old pieces to play with a chamber orchestra.) We also love working with other people's projects. So, we are always busy, always learning and the external impulses help create inspiration that we can channel back into the duo.
J: Indeed, never had a crisis. I think it comes from not thinking about us as individuals, but always serving the music. So my personal ideas are not so ‘important’ in themselves, only how they contribute to the collective result matters.
3. Your favourite time of year and why?
S-J: Autumn. I love the rain, the wind, the cold weather, the fresh air, the colours, lighting the stove, the darkness, the warmer clothes. Why? Perhaps because I'm from the North of Scotland where it is like this for most of the year.
J: Early spring.
4. When you were children you wanted to be...?
S-J: A famous lady on TV. And rich with it! Ooooops….
J: Archeologist, marine biologist/diver, explorer.
5. Where does the music start/end?
S-J: It doesn't. It simply is.
J: Exactly! It just is.
6. Best concert experience in the audience?
S-J: I have seen so many wonderful concerts! I go to many, many concerts, either as part of my job or when not at work. I wonder if I am too aware of how concerts work to be sucked into a sort of magic now? I tend to get that most nowadays from going to an art gallery, from staring into a photo or from simply walking in nature. I did get that magical feeling, however, when listening to the first track of your latest album, Tuulikki. I was sitting in a cafe working and suddenly the tears swelled up in my eyes. Tears of, my, this is so beautiful…
J: Many great concerts, but last time I was completely blown away was hearing the clarinettist/saxophonist Blagoj Lamnjov some years ago.
7. What life recommendations would you say to your younger self today?
S-J: Go for it, be brave, be bold! I would challenge her concept of what she thinks she's capable of, of what she thinks a woman should and shouldn't do. I would tell her to allow herself to dream, to dream bigger than that, bigger still, then to throw her energy into those dreams and have self-belief.
J: Go for it, don’t analyze things too much, exercise hard and eat healthily.
8. How has covid affected your careers and how do you see your future as artists?
Everything was suddenly cancelled. Plans that took time to put into place were suddenly ripped apart, the energy into future projects suddenly thwarted. It's hard to make future performance plans right now. Venues are closing, audience numbers are restricted if a concert is allowed at all, air travel is now much more expensive, so the business expenses have suddenly increased at a time when income has fallen. This is happening at the same time as Brexit is hitting UK musicians. It's a crisis like I have never known before. We are probably facing a deep worldwide depression. Add to this over-crowding and where are we heading? I daren't answer that but I have my fears.
On a personal level, Norway closed down 2 1/2 months after I had gone back to work after maternity leave. Those 2 1/2 months of touring with a baby were both intense and extremely rewarding. I must admit, however, that I was grateful for a kind of extension to my maternity leave. To be able to spend more time with our wee boy has been a true gift.
Financially, Norway has had a good support system in place but it is of course coming to an end. I am extremely lucky that I now have a stipend to write for string quartet and me as a soloist. So, I am cushioned for a while, thankfully.
J: It has had a huge effect on the performing side of things. The future is definitely uncertain, but I choose to be optimistic. Music/art is something I will do regardless, I don’t do it just as a job, I do it as a way of life, as a way of being in the world.