02 June 2009 (Music Interview)

Words: Lauren Murphy.

During a recent trip to the SPOT festival in the northern Danish city of Arhus, I happened across a set by a Finnish band called Joensuu 1685 (pronounced Yo-anne-sioux sixteen-eighty-five). Having no preconceptions whatsoever about the trio, their half-hour set blew me - and the other twenty people watching - away. Combining drone-rock with waiflike vocals, pulsating rhythms and funereal, psychedelic organs, the Helsinki-based trio (Mikko, Markus and Risto Joensuu) are undoubtedly one of the most exciting Scandinavian bands in recent times. I had a chat with singer/guitarist/organist Mikko about his band.

Can you tell us a little about how Joensuu 1685 formed? You and Markus are brothers - but how did you get together with Risto, and how old are you all?

Yes, me and Markus are brothers. I guess that's the reason we've played together since the day we learned to play our instruments. Markus met Risto in the army, where they became friends. When we needed a bass player in our previous band, Risto seemed like a great choice. At some point, we wanted to change the band name and ended up with Joensuu 1685. I'm 22, Markus and Risto are 25.

What’s the story behind your name?

I did some research of our family tree, and found a person named Peter Krook, born in 1685. The only thing written about him was the name, year and a question mark, which I guess was interesting enough to make it the name of the band. Our first idea was to have only numbers in the name, but we wanted to make it a bit easier for everyone. I'm not too sure if we managed to help anyone too much, though.

Who is the main songwriter in the band? How much input does each person have on the sound?

I suppose I used to be, but nowadays we try to make the songs together. It's more interesting for everyone when you're never too sure where the song is going. I think I'm still gonna write most of the lyrics, though. All the elements are quite crucial in our band, since there's only three of us and we make everything together.

A lot of people would automatically assume you're strongly influenced by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3, Ride - but what sort of bands did you listen to growing up? Who are your favourite bands at the moment?

We have quite religious backgrounds, and I guess because of that I didn't listen to anything else but gospel hymns until I was around fourteen. After that I've listened to everything from Dylan to black metal. Right now I really love Beat Happening.

What is the music scene like in Finland? Are there many bands like Joensuu 1685, or do you feel like you don't really fit into any niche?

There is lots of good music in Finland, such as Joose Keskitalo, Circle, Paavoharju, Zebra and Snake and of course 22-pistepirkko, who are a Finnish indie giant. But the thing in Finland is that you can find many good bands, but not really a scene which includes many bands with the same sound. I guess that's the case with our music, as well. We're pretty much alone, but no one here seems to mind.



Sweden, Norway and even Denmark have become known for great music over the past 5-10 years especially. Finland hasn't really had any famous musical exports, at least in the UK and Ireland. Is it frustrating for you to be on the outskirts of that successful, thriving scene? Have you ever thought about relocating to somewhere like London?

Well, it hasn't been frustrating for us, since we've had few nice opportunities to play outside Finland already. Actually it feels that right now Finland is more interesting, in a way, and not so obvious like Stockholm and Norway. Still we are a bit isolated, a bit leaned inwards and yes, we have thought of moving to make things easier, but I guess we'll stay here in Helsinki for now. Helsinki is getting more and more connected, in a way. The music scene is also very lively and quite interesting, so this ain't the worst city to operate from.

You released your album last year. How well has it done in Finland? Do you have plans to release it elsewhere?

We have been surprised how well the media took to us, and the debut album. We've had really good reviews and press, and now we even get to play the Finnish summer festivals, which aren't usually very open to new bands like us. We have been planning to release the record elsewhere and it is already out in Germany and few other countries. I guess for the rest of the Europe, the plan is to release during our European tour in next fall. We are quite excited to see how that goes.

What are you most proud of about the album? Do you have a favourite song?

I think we are most proud of the fact that we got it out. The whole process of making an album was quite exhausting at some points, especially when it started to look like that it would take longer than we thought. Still, we tried to remain true to the first vision we had of the album from the start, and we tried to reach for that in every point of making it, so I guess we could be proud of that. It's hard to pick one song from the album. Actually, now I'm not so interested in listening to the album since we get to play the songs all the time in our gigs. If I had to pick one song to play live, today it would be Crystal Light, I love that one most of the time.

Your live show is very loud, and very powerful. Is that sound something you wanted to do from the start, or did it progress and become bigger and bigger as the band grew?

I'm sure it has developed - at least, I hope so. It's hard to say if we have been aiming to gain a bigger sound. Maybe we have tried to remain intense and interesting, we have changed the setlists and tried new versions of songs and cover songs. I don't know if I think that sounding "big" would be one of the most important things to consider in our live shows. It's definitely been about sounding interesting, and maybe we sound 'big' because of all the great sound engineers we get to do shows with nowadays.

Finally , how about a trip to Ireland some time? We'd love to have you play!

And we'd love to play there! Maybe this is possible during next Fall's tour. We sure hope so.

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Joensuu 1685's eponymous debut album is out now. For more information, see www.myspace.com/joensuu1685

Video for '(You Shine) Brighter Than Light':

Joensuu 1685 - (You Shine) Brighter Than Light from Jonathan Ben-Ami on Vimeo.

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