Momentary captures.
Interview w/Smak
It's somewhat 11pm and Music Bar Friday is starting to fill up with people, let it be secondary if they're present for the alcohol or for the live music about to be performed. It's cold outside but there's no snow on the ground. We're sitting downstairs on the backstage with the whole band present, they're about to offer the music of the night and seem tired yet happy and relaxed. Smak is celebrating their anniversary this month; "8 years ago we live debuted at a school Christmas party, and tonight is kind of like a Christmas party too, here in Helsinki", the lead vocalist Kalle Lindroth says and smiles. A lot has happened during these 8 years; the 15 year old boys that they were when Smak first started out have now grown into four fine musicians, who have put out three albums. The latest one, Shopping Mall Religion was released this fall, presenting a whole new pop side of the band. The band also changed their language from Finnish to English.
"At this time we play sort of pop rock leaning to major scale", the guitarist Henri Salonen says and adds that he doesn't really know how to describe the music better. "Our music has lived quite a lot between these three albums of ours; it's hard to say what the future brings. But what Henri said describes us pretty well; Smak is a pop rock orchestra that is sung in English", Kalle adds. "We're rooted from metal and punk, so if you mix all these things you'll find us somewhere in there", the drummer Markku Saarinen says. "So we're a really unique band; pop and rock sung in English!" Henri declares and laughs. "Yeah, we turn from mainstream quite a lot", Kalle adds and smirks.
Smak is wrapping up their Nivala, Send Me a Postcard –tour this December. What happens in the near future is still open. "However we're going to start writing new music. That's for sure", Markku says.A GOOD AMOUNT OF MADNESS
In December 2007 Smak ceded from playing shows to write their third album. Their break stretched out to last somewhat two years. "With all the changes regarding the alteration of the language and the organisation around us really needed the time so we could focus on the music itself, after", Henri says. "Also for the first few years with this band it was all we had, now we're growing to be young adults", he adds and Kalle continues with what Henri left off; "Now we can do other stuff too and maybe not even think about Smak all the time, even though we do think about the band every day. It's good to do other stuff too; it keeps your mind fresh."
A lot has happened during the break; the guys graduated, finished school and started to work on their third album. Because the language in the songs changed, a lot more songs were born than usually. "We worked with the songs for a long time and we were on the studio physically for a long time too. It was an instructive and hard process but hopefully the next album won't take so much time… I mean it has to take less time to stay sane", Kalle says. "The making of the last album took way too long. I don't know if it could've been even a better album if we would've done it with a more intensive schedule", Henri says and adds; "But it's no use saying ‘if' now." "It was a good thing that it was done this way and we learned a lot from it", Kalle says.
As we get into talking about their personalities and weather it reflects on their musical output, the guys pause for a long time. "That's a deep one", Kalle says and keeps wondering; "Maybe... varying, personally. My feelings undulate quite a lot; sometimes I'm having a really good day and sometimes I'm having a really bad day." "Yeah, sometimes you create awful crap and sometimes you create semi crap", Henri says and they laugh. "Henri is stable", Markku says and looks at him. "Yes, I'm a perfect role model for every one of you", Henri says and laughs again; "I think it's hard for me to see if my characteristics reflect on our music, maybe someone else could see it better."
"But for what I can say is that we've been playing together for so long that our characteristics match really well. We know each other well enough to work together and if someone is feeling a little unstable there's still someone else who can keep it all together. So that we're not all in a wrong place, usually at least two of us are in a good state of mind", Markku says. "I don't think a totally sane person ever starts to do these things. That's just how it goes", Kalle adds. Markku nods; "A good amount of madness is good but we're not all crazy, at least not at the same time."
LINES OF PROGRESS
In where the band's debut Sic Transit presented a young, promising band, their second album Elohopeaa showed a new side of Smak with hard riffs and elements of hard rock and metal. Their new, third album Shopping Mall Religion presented a pop band with simple upbeat sounds. Now Smak has three albums in their back pocket, each one totally different from each other.
"We never know a fucking thing about what we're doing or what we want to do so that's what happens", Henri says and the band laughs. "Growth, to some direction", Kalle adds. Henri wonders a moment to form a complete thought; "The way I experience it, is more like… Not progress in a straight line, but more like lines of progress across each other and the albums are just momentary captures." "Before we start to write an album we don't decide if it's going to be a pop album or what it's going to be. We have improved that way; what ever comes, comes naturally", Markku says. "But in the future that might be something we should think about; what is our sound like? We've never really thought about that and now we have three albums completely different from each other", Kalle thinks out loud. Markku thinks it has been a learning process so far; "Before the second album we were learning to do difficult things with our instruments and that's how our album shaped up to be what it is. This time we tried to get away from that and to do an album as simple as possible; now we learned that to so I don't know what we're going to do next. I hope it's something in the middle." Henri agrees; "That's what I think too. I think the two latest albums represented our musical extremities. Unless we're going to do something completely different and create an electro album next like Radiohead or something like that."
Smak believes that the source of their inspiration has changed during the albums too, having an apparent impact on the musical output. Kalle thinks that the primary inspiration on their second album came from the artists and bands they listened to at the moment; "The album represented exactly the kind of music we listened to back then so our influences had a huge impact. On the latest album our taste in music and the entity of what we listen to has widen so much that we listen to anything really. Therefore it didn't necessarily have such a huge impact this time." Henri agrees again: "This time the motive was pop music in general, in that way this album is more timeless than its predecessor."
At this point you can almost see the light bulb above Kalle's head. He arises his hand to stress what he's about to say; "Now this is a grand thought; the new album is pretty timeless, in where it's predecessor is more like a capture in time." He smiles and looks proud to have formed such a great thought. "Congratulations!" their live guitarist shouts from the background. Samuli Sirviö has been touring with the band after their latest break.ZEN
In general Smak gets its inspiration from life itself. Henri says that regarding the lyrics, movies and TV-shows inspire him the most. Kalle thinks that the sources of his inspiration change quite a lot; sometimes it comes from own life it's going well or not, or if someone close is going through interesting phases; "Or sometimes you find a new artist and realise that damn, you can see things like this too. So it can be a new discovery in music as well. There are musicians who say that they're only inspired by life and that every song is based on a real story. We have a lot of fiction in there too." "But they're always based on something", Henri adds and continues; "I always have to have a personal level included too, otherwise I can't place myself in the song."
The guys' musical favourites at the moment range from Tegan & Sara and Mew to Paramore to anything that's played on the radio. "John Mayer is a pretty huge deal for me right now. A general motive in life and in everything I do, is Hank Moody", Henri says and the band laughs. The first season of the American comedy-drama Californication has been playing in their tour buss during the tour. The second season is going to be watched this weekend.
"In general good songs, cool sounds and a great atmosphere in good albums touch me, but what in John Mayer touches me is his talent in general. Like what a tough guy a person can be. Like no matter what you do in your life you're just the toughest guy in the world. I think that's cool", Henri says and sighs. "He pretty much has the whole package", Kalle agrees. "He's kind of like Justin Timberlake... they can do anything they'd like and they're the toughest guys in the world. Though I don't like Justin as much as I like John", Henri stresses. Markku says that he feels like he's musically been in a deep pit for a while and hasn't really searched for new artists. "I'm stuck with the old favourites. But Paramore is a great band. I like it. I love it", he says. "I love certain parts of it too", Henri says and the whole band laughs out loud.
In general Kalle defines good music anything that arises feelings; "Also crappy music; if it arises any feelings there has to be something good in there in my opinion. That might be a little contradictory as a thought but in my opinion if it arises any feelings at all something has to be done right." Henri wonders a moment. "I don't know if there is objectively good music or bad music, there's always someone who likes something. You can objectively define what sort of elements a good song beholds but in the end it always depends on the listener if it's good or bad." Kalle thinks it would be impossible to live in a world without the bad music. "It would be awful to live if everyday was damn great; at that point life would be actually pretty dark. I think all the things need the good and the bad. Yin and Yang works. Being Zen. What?" Kalle says. Henri laughs: "Yeah, our band beholds so much Zen…"
Text: Joanna Tzortzis.
Photography: Nelly Tatti.