With the release of his eponymous debut LP back in June, Kalevi’s particular blend of baroque pop has begun to enchant an international listenership. Yet regardless of the audience, the Finnish performer’s primary hope is that listeners aren’t distracted by his own intentions behind his songs. His music is a soundscape that each person should chart on their own.
“I kind of like [listeners] to be ignorant in a way,” he says. “Not to be 100 per cent. I don’t like to explain too much. I don’t like to put quotes to my music, or other music as well. I kind of want [the songs] to be away from me – not so much me as them.”
Kalevi would ideally see most music stripped of biography. The background clutter – the real world genesis of lyrics, the process of recording, the artist’s aspirations for what comes next – shouldn’t influence a listener’s appreciation of a song. While he takes great time and care crafting each dream-dappled track, it is the preoccupations of an unknown audience that will ultimately decide their fate.
“Sometimes it’s interesting [to know more], but usually it’s more fun to have your own meaning,” Kalevi says. “I usually say that my music is experimental pop. Well, I think it’s a good start. It would interest me to check something like that out, and I guess eventually people would just hear the music and make up their own minds.”
It is a fine sentiment – after all, if we happen to not like a song, learning about the composer’s childhood is unlikely to change that. Still, Kalevi’s background is of interest, if only because of the unusual day job he found himself in while his music career was still fledgling. As a tram driver in Helsinki, he was in an enviable position to chart the demographic of the city; situated among the bustle of unknown lives, he sat at the intersection of multifarious characters and stories.
“I noticed the same thing,” he agrees. “I haven’t been doing it in a while, I had a break from the job around two years ago. It’s nice, and it gives you a good view into the city, into the people. So many different kinds. But there is nothing directly in my music that comes from there. No tram songs.
“It wasn’t at all an anxious job, just the opposite really. Quiet and easy. I could put on music and listen while I drive around. I was making music before as well. But, you know, you have to work sometimes.”
Music and work is now one and the same thing for Kalevi, which brings us to his imminent Australian tour. “[I’m] looking forward to Australia. I don’t really know. It seems like such a big and different world. I think it might be very English.”
Not only will local audiences get to hear songs from Jaakko Eino Kalevi come to life on-stage, but there is also the promise of his earliest musical love, the saxophone. “I played it and thought it was quite easy – easy to get started, but to be very good at it takes time. It’s very hard. Often it’s very cheesy, and I like more… well sometimes I like that cheesy sound too, but I usually like more raw sound. Sometimes if you can play saxophone too well, it doesn’t sound as good. But most people seem to enjoy that, but me not so much. I like sound that is raw.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
