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Articles
SNOWBOUND INTERVIEW BY HEATHER
HENDERSON
Listening to Kimmo Pohjonen play, you can feel your
brain being rewired. All the preconceived notions about
what an accordion should sound like and what kind of
music it should play are dismantled and cleared away.
Watching him perform is an even more shattering
experience, like a month at an accordion reeducation
camp.
Pohjonen has long been a prominent figure on the
Finnish folk scene, playing in the ensemble Ottopasuuna
and the duo Pinnin Pojat with JPP fiddler Arto Järvelä. In
the past few years he's expanded his horizons by joining
the rock band Ismo Alanko Säätiö and embarking on a
solo career. His CD Kielo is a collection of his original
compositions, experimental soundscapes created on the
five-row chromatic accordion. In his live concerts,
Pohjonen uses an instantaneous electronic playback
system to build layers of sound, weaving musical threads
together to create an impressionistic tapestry.
Last May he brought his solo show to Minneapolis for
its
US debut. It was a performance that was as much a
one-act drama as a concert, taking listeners on a journey
through a maelstrom of moods and emotions into the
heart of darkness. As on Kielo, the music conjured up
aural images of oceans and rainy nights, moving from
brooding meditations to moans and shrieks of madness,
the intensity leavened from time to time by a sweetly
beautiful tune. The climax was a tango dance that
gradually escalated into a frenzy, man and accordion
locked in battle, threatening to tear each other apart.
Offstage, this action-hero of the accordion doesn't seem
extreme. In fact, he's relaxed and funny. Recently I had
the pleasure of meeting him and talking about many
things, including his newest adventure,
KalmukkisinFonia, a work commissioned by the Tapiola
Sinfonietta.
~~~
Q: How did you get started
playing the accordion?
A: My father played accordion, so it was a natural thing
for me to start. I joined my father in a local accordion
club where there were 55 accordion players. I was the
only young guy at that time, in the '70s, who really liked
this weird instrument. I couldn't tell it to my friends,
because people at that time hated the accordion--they
thought it was an instrument which only old people
played. Everybody played guitar, more pop and rock
stuff. At that time accordion was only folk music,
classical, and humppa. My first band, my own band, was
humppa--I was about 12, playing with my sister, and my
father and a couple of other guys. So there was a reason
that people didn't like it so much, because it was a
narrow-minded instrument then. But it has been changing
a lot--nowadays it's a kind of pop instrument, people like
it, and if you say that you are an accordion player, they
say, "Oh really?"
Q: Since you joined Ismo Alanko Säätiö,
are rock bands
in Finland starting to add accordions?
A: No, not so much. I think it's still a big problem--an
accordion player has to have the right mentality. There
are a lot of good accordion players but not so many that I
would want to listen to in a rock band. The
narrow-minded idea is still there. People love playing the
same old stuff. It's good stuff, but if you want to play in a
rock band you have to do something different, you can't
play like humppa style.
Q: How do you like being in the Alanko band?
A: I have lots of space in the band so it's nice to play
with them. Nowadays I'm not so fond of playing other
people's stuff, but in that band it's a good experience. I
like the direction we have been going, because all of us
give our own thing and then we just build on it, so it's
more interesting.
Q: I understand that Ismo Alanko played classical
cello
as a kid.
A: Yes, he was playing in a symphony orchestra in
Joensuu. But when he was very young, something like
17, he started to do rock tunes, and then he made one
tune which is a legend in Finland, and his career started.
People in Finland they call him King of the Rock or
something like that, because he has been doing this for
so many years. For example there is this kind of stupid
voting in rock magazines, and he has been for the last
ten years the main rock guy they vote for. His career is
so long. But nowadays he is quite tired of pop and rock
music and he wants to find new things. And that is great.
I support him in that.
Q: The music on the new album, Sisäinen Solarium,
is
an eclectic blend--there are some sounds that are
unusual to hear on a pop record.
A: There are a lot of melodies which are coming from
folk
music and from world music and from the East. It's the
combination of the group. Ismo is a rock person, and my
attitude is coming totally from folk, so I give that. And
then there is Marko, the drummer, who is from Värttinä,
so he is an ethnic guy also. The players are from
different music, but still they understand each other, and
they have the same kind of way of thinking about music.
Now, somehow, it's the time for that. The more different
kinds of things you put together, the more people like it. I
think in a way it's like the '60s. In the music that I listen
to from the late '60s, I think that there was the same kind
of feeling--people are somehow more open to putting
different kinds of things together, like the Beatles were
doing in their last records. I'm glad to live in this time,
because I like to put different kind of things together, and
now I have a chance to do it. It wouldn't be possible to do
twenty years ago.
Q: So this particular Säätiö album
was a collaborative
effort of all the band members, not just Alanko?
A: Yes, we went to the rehearsal room and we
improvised for two weeks. Then we listened to the tapes
and we said, "Hey, there's so much good stuff here!" And
then we started to pick up tunes from this, and Ismo
made all the lyrics. This kind of group improvisation is
something that I'm fond of because it's more like the way
I'm doing my solo stuff, just playing and improvising and
taping, trying to get feelings and mood through that, and
then I start to build the tune. I don't take a pen and start
writing. It's too slow--somehow I don't get the feelings
from that.
Q: Do you improvise a lot when you're doing your
solo
show?
A: Yeah, of course, because in the solo concert that
is
the best thing. When you are alone on stage, you can do
whatever you want. You can change everything, even
change tunes, change how long they are. And that's the
main thing in my solo work--I don't have to be dependent
on anybody. I want to keep space so I can improvise
myself. Normally when you are in a band, you have to
listen to all the others.
Q: How did improvisation become so important to
your
performing?
A: I started to play first from written music, when I
was in
the accordion club, and then I started to study classical
music in the conservatory, Bach and whatever, trying to
play it from the written music. But when I was
performing, nothing was happening, I was so afraid! So it
was a great piece of luck, I heard there was this concert
in Helsinki--the first people who went to Sibelius
Academy folk music department were having a kind of
matinee concert--and when I saw them, I said "That's
what I want to do." And then I went to the Academy.
Heikki Laitinen was the director of the folk music
department at that time, and his main idea was doing
improvised stuff--no written music, and compose
yourself, and all kinds of things that when you're in
school they don't support you to do. It is strange that
from school you get that kind of idea, because normally
in school they're saying, "Don't do it like this, play like
this!"--and that's the thing that I've been trying to avoid
for the last fifteen years. I got such a traumatic thing from
my classical teachers--it took a long time to get out of
that. I had so many rules in my head how I should play
and I'm really glad that I don't remember much about
them. I've been doing a lot of work with modern dancing,
mostly improvisation--I start to play something, and this
dancer and I, we just improvise. Heikki Laitinen and Reijo
Kela and I have a trio, and the idea has been always that
we just go somewhere and we perform. We talk about it
a little, what we are going to do, and then we just
improvise. When there is somebody dancing there and
you're improvising, then you forget all those rules and
you just play. You find much more interesting things that
way.
Q: You play other instruments besides the accordion.
The most intriguing, I think, is the gogo marimba, the
Tanzanian thumb piano. How did you discover that?
A: There was a time that I was tired of the accordion.
I
couldn't find a new way to express myself. And I just
said to myself, I have to have a kind of vacation to decide
what I'm going to do. Then in Helsinki, I saw an African
guy who was playing that kind of thumb piano, and then I
just said, OK, I love the sound that he's playing, that
instrument and the music. Why don't I go to study with
him? And then I went to Tanzania. I spent three months
there in a small village. It was a good vacation for me. I
was studying eight hours a day. My thumbs felt like they
were broken, and I had never felt like such a bad
musician--I couldn't understand anything! I was his first
student. He didn't speak English, just a couple of words.
Q: How did you communicate with him?
A: Just body language. I was interested in his music,
so
he'd show me, and then I'd try to pick up things from him.
There were always kids in the house area, and they were
watching my mistakes. Then when I went to my hostel,
the kids followed me and told me how to do it. Small
kids! I went at the right time to that concert. I was at a
point that I needed some new perspective in my life and
my playing, and that was it.
Q: Do you still play the thumb piano?
A: I still play it. I played it a lot right after that,
but then I
found my instrument again--the five-row accordion. That
was my first instrument and my main instrument. I have
better technique for that because I studied classical stuff.
So I started with five-row, and then I went to two-row at
the Sibelius Academy, then I went to harmonica and
kantele and jouhikko and thumb piano and violin, and
then I found again my five-row. So it has been instrument
to instrument. And after I found my accordion again, I
noticed that I didn't play so much thumb piano anymore.
Q: Which do you have more feeling for, the two-row
or
the five-row?
A: Two-row is good in one way because you don't have
so many chords and you have to think more how to do
things. Sometimes it's good that you don't have so many
choices. But the big accordion is like an orchestra in one
instrument. When I do my solo thing, when I can really
do what I like myself, I don't take care of anybody else, I
just make all the decisions. And with the five-row, there's
more possibilities to be an orchestra and do all of the
things that I want to do.
Q: You use a special sound system in your solo show.
Could you describe that?
A: Nowadays I record myself on live gigs. I make loops.
I
have two loop machines, which means that I can make a
certain effect--for example, I can get a good sound from
the bellows, then I record that and I can have that as kind
of background. This is all recorded live at the actual gig.
Very often people think that I have background tapes, but
I do everything live, and all the sound is coming from the
accordion. And some sounds are so unfamiliar for them
that they can't accept that they're coming from the
accordion. The accordion is an acoustic instrument, so
using the sound system I've been finding so many new
things that I wouldn't have found before. It's giving more
space, more new sounds.
Q: Your solo show is unique. How have audiences
been
reacting to it?
A: Sometimes it can be a bit strange for people that
an
accordion player is doing the kind of stuff that I am doing.
But I'm getting such good feedback. I have noticed that I
have been wrong, I have been thinking that people are
narrow-minded. So I, myself, have been narrow-minded!
I've been underestimating my audience, thinking that
they can't accept it. But the reaction has been good. I
hear comments like, "I have never liked accordion, and
this is the first time that I've liked some accordion
music." And that is the best comment that you can get.
Q: You're a very physical and emotive performer.
I think
you're almost as much an actor and a dancer as a
musician.
A: Normally musicians are a bit afraid to do that kind
of
thing. I've been working a lot with dancers and theater,
and that has given me some kind of perspective for
performing and the visual aspect. For example in Labra,
there was one piece where I was spinning in circles and
playing. It started when the director wanted me to play it
standing in the center stage. We tried it and suddenly I
got an idea that I wanted to spin around. It's one of my
favorite things--I even have an idea to compose in future a
30-minute piece which I play while spinning. Soon I
noticed that the dancer joined and we made it as our
duo, a kind of fight between us. The idea was to make a
kind of dangerous feeling which the audience would also
get. Now if I play a piece and I'm spinning all the time in
circles, there's of course a theatrical aspect, a visual
aspect because I'm doing that. But also I want to have a
composition for that. It's not all theater. The main thing
that is the music is good. The music is always first.
Q: In your concert that I saw here in Minneapolis,
there
was a wild finale in which it looked like you were being
attacked by your accordion.
A: First there is a dancing part which often goes to
fighting with my accordion. So it's a kind of
battle/wrestling with my instrument. At the end the
accordion starts to live its own life and that is the time to
end the concert. The last piece is a kind of rough tango
where I want to go as far as possible, to do whatever I
have a feeling for. If the concert has been good you can
really go far and get all the energies out from your body.
If I can do well and feel free, I am happy about the
concert.
Q: Lars Hollmer is another highly original accordion
player--I was interested to find that you've performed with
him. How did that come about?
A: He was teaching at the Sibelius Academy, and of
course I listened to him, and then we had that kind of
feeling that we would like to do something together. And
then he asked me and Maria Kalaniemi and Olli Varis to
go to Sweden and rehearse one set of his music, and we
made a tour in Sweden. After that tour we felt more
deeply to do something together. Then we made a gig in
Barcelona where we put my stuff and his stuff together
and played a concert.
Q: I like the Accordion Tribe CD that he organized.
A: Yeah, I like it a lot also. The Accordion Tribe live
concert was great. I saw it in Helsinki. Five accordion
players, all with different styles. But considering that
there are so many accordion players in the world, there
are very few people who are doing their own style. There
are some, but I think that there could be more. Some of
them are a bit too much into technique. Listening to
them, I start to feel that the main point is the technique,
not the music. Accordion is actually, in a way, a very
easy instrument to play virtuoso stuff on. So that's how
accordion players often go, they start to show their
technique, playing very fast, and then they forget the
main thing. Music is not competition.
Q: Tell me about the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the
piece,
KalmukkisinFonia, they commissioned you to compose.
A: It's one of the best symphony orchestras in Finland.
And it's interesting that they asked me to do this for
them. Nowadays they are interested in new things. My
approach to them was that I had them learn the music
mostly by improvising and by ear. That's a new thing for
them, that I don't give them written music. Also, I used a
sound system like what I'm using in my solo gigs. I've
been playing the violin through my sound system, and
I've been finding really great sounds that I've never heard
from the violin. So I tried to somehow get all these new
ideas for them, so they can find some new things also.
Q: Did they give you some kind of framework?
A: No. I said to them, "I will do it only if I come
to see
you and I tell you my ideas." And I went there and told
them all my most radical ideas, and of course some of
them asked, "But how do we know that this is good?"
And I said, "If you think you don't know, don't join." I just
wanted those who are most open-minded, because I
know that most open-minded classical people are too
narrow-minded for me. If I do a big work with them, I have
to somehow get them doing things that they really feel,
not just reading the music.
Q: Did they stay open-minded?
A: Yes. There were some problems at the beginning, but
the further we went, the players started to see my point
for the music and at the end of the process we were a
band!
Q: Were you satisfied with the results?
A: I was 100% happy about the work. The process was
hard but at the end everybody agreed that it was worth
doing the work. Three concerts in Helsinki sold out. We
will publish an album of it next year.
Q: When will you do another solo album?
A: I start to make a second album next April. Lots of
ideas going on. Next autumn you will know more.
Q: Your solo work is so unusual and experimental,
it's
kind of challenging for some people. Do you ever think
about doing more mainstream material to reach a bigger
audience?
A: It's not my meaning to go to the top-ten list. I don't
mind if my tune would be there, but I'm sure that it
wouldn't. Because so far, I'm thinking in my music first of
myself, my own feelings and my own things. In pop
music, the first influence on your music starts very easily
to be the audience. The audience is of course very
important in every kind of music, but I feel that the first
approach to music has to be yourself, your personal
thing that you want to do. And when you have finished it,
then you start thinking about the audience, how to give it
to the audience. But in pop stuff, many people are writing
songs thinking, OK, the audience will like this! So then
the audience is the boss, you are not any more doing
your personal thing, and then you lose something. I am
privileged to do work where I can decide myself what I
can do, and there are some people who like to listen to
the stuff which I want to do, and that is really the
greatest privilege in the world.
© Heather Henderson
SNOWBOUND
4 | 2001
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