We should have fun and play with the tradition.
- Antti Paalanen
Me and Antti Paalanen met for the first time in Helsinki, Finland in September 1997 when we both started our music studies in Sibelius Academy folk music department. It was and always will be a legendary place which has sent quite a few remarkable artists to the world. I have never talked about the time in SibA with my old university mates, so now when we are in Global Music Match in the same group together with Antti, some thoughts about our study time came up for the first time.
We also discovered that we have quite a lot things in common from forest live playing to being a family person with all the challenges that this brings to artists life.
Most of your videos are filmed in the open air or in the nature. Do you get any inspiration from Finnish nature at all?
Yes, I get a lot of inspiration from nature. There are many songs on my first two albums, Äärelä and Breathbox which are inspired by nature. For example there's tunes like Northern Wind, Winter's Dance and Permafrost paints a landscape from my hometown Kokkola's seaside during the Spring Winter. Child in You video from my latest album Rujo was filmed during the cold the winter in the near seashore and over the ice. Actually nearly all of my videos has been filmed outside in nature. The latest was Live in the Woods which was a Livestream from our nearby forrest.
What and who are your foremost inspirational sources nowadays?'
I like modern pop music, so I get a lot of influences there. DJ:s like David Guetta, Avicii, Galvin Harris. One of my favourite artists is Ed Sheeran. And overall, all the 1980´s heavy metal, ACDC is my all time favourite band.
I remember when we studied at the Sibelius Academy many years ago, there was still a huge focus on traditions and how to interpret them in nowadays modern world. Do you ever remember feeling trapped in the traditional playing?
Well, yes in a sort of way. We should always remember that it has been music of its time, so we shouldn't take the tradition too seriously. We should have fun and play with the tradition.
Did you work on your artistic image or did you just let all the feelings and emotions go free and greeted the person who was born through that liberating process?
He started to develop when I was recording the Meluta album. I felt that the music needed some vocals and I started to improvise words like hummani (Acc Rider) or Yeah Mama. The Meluta lyrics line was written by my wife Heidi Maria Paalanen. Once I started to use vocals and throat singing on stage, the new artistic person was born. And now he lives his own life, many times I get surprised after the gig of the things that he has done on the stage, he is quite funny and openminded, just the opposite of me :)
Living a family life and being an artist, how do you fit those two parts together?
It's hard. Thou I have such a loving and understanding wife and son. But I always forget to rest after the tours, I just get back to normal life as quick as possible and that is not a good thing for your health. I'm also struggling for a burn out at the moment. All the years of travelling and sleepless nights are now getting back at me. But it's getting better and I am lucky to have a good therapist at the moment. Rest is the key factor to ease the stress. Oh and I see it's 23:30, maybe I need to go to bed now :)
Describe your creative process, how do creative things come to you?
It comes by doing. I take the instrument and start to record something. First I create a riff or short melody line or vocal thing. I improvise a lot. Then I start to record more tracks and the tune starts to write itself, in best cases. Sometimes I just have to stop the whole process if the work is not going anywhere. The albums have all taken about 3-4 years to compose and record. So I'm quite a slow man :)