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Circle

Interview with Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Ektro records...).

To introduce Circle. When did it all start ? Who plays in the band ? And what do they play ?
Jussi L: Just like for all the mystic rock bands in the world, it all started in ancient times. Right now we are reconsturcting our early history.
The line-up is:
Jussi Lehtisalo - bass, vocals
Tomi Leppänen - drums, synths
Mika Rättö - vocals, synths, percussion
Janne Westerlund - guitar, vocals
Tuomas Laurila - sound engineer
and sometimes Janne Tuomi - percussion

When describing your music, I use the words "psychedelic", "krautrock", "heavy", "repetitive", each word fits well but doesn't really describe what Circle is, "weird" seems the best. How do you define it ?
J: We started as a pseudo-intellectual rock band, we were young and fanatic and wanted to try the limits of individualism. In the course of time that has become our "natural" approach. We consider our music just basic rock music, heavily influenced by our collective personality. Anyway, we are a rock band that takes influence from avant-garde and experimental music, not vice versa.

You seem to have no musical borders, each of Circle's album is different. What is your musical background and which bands made you want to play music ?
J: We are all amateur musicians. We have played in many different indie rock bands. As for myself, I've always been interested in monotonic and motoric and minimalistic and improvised music.

Can you tell me more about your heavy metal attitude which seems "parodic" ?
J: You can call us parodic but we take it dead seriously. It is important to take the music seriously, even more seriously than the music makers take themselves. Otherwise it's impossible to find the point of it, in other words, the reasons that made these musicians act in parodical way for example. You should throw yourself into things and keep as little intellectual distance as possible.
Heavy metal can be a way to bring out the primitive side, the cave man. Those kinds of characteristics are not that relevant in our unique and elitistic music world. It is possible that heavy metal is more psychedelic and experimental style of music than anything else if you bring it into the same context with "the avant-garde" and "the experimental" stuff. It is not essential WHAT do you listen to but HOW do you listen to.
I think today's problem with us people is that the form of music is stronger than the content. We should remember that the form is just the gate to the content. Heavy metal, or NWOFHM, is our form but it is not our content - yet.
As you can notice, we keep that little intellectual distance to this
subject.

An other interesting point about Circle is that you sing in finnish and your music has crossed many countries, how do you explain that ? Is it because there is a natural, ancestral feeling into this language ?
J: In fact we have Finnish, English and Meronia in our lyrics. Meronia is our self-invented language. We have always thought singing as just one of the instruments more than as a leading element.

About the last question. I and certainly most of your listeners (outside Finland) don't understand the lyrics. What are they about ?
J: Just like the Aboriginals are the only people who know the ancient aboriginal languages, only I can speak Meronia. We are singing about something that cannot be said, the text itself isn't that relevant.
Wittgenstein would most probably think that we should keep our mouths shut.

Is Finland a good place to live as a musician or as an artist ? It seems there is a lot of good bands there.
J: Yes, I think so. We have a good social security, no one would die of hunger.
There's many organisations that help popular music economically and so on. Anyway, we are trying to maintain our independency. We have our own music, and everything else is bonus.

What does Pori look like ?
J: Pori is an old blue-collar city that was almost destroyed in the 1970's by building terrible block houses. Today's Pori looks quite nice. We have a beatiful riverside and couple of old parts of city with wooden buildings.
Please take a visit: http://www.pori.fi/english/

Are you connected with other finnish bands like Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Tomuttontu...?
We know them personally but we haven't really collaborated. Sometimes we have played in the same evening somewhere. We appreciate their work.

What are your projects beside Circle ? And who is implicated in Pharaoh Overlord ?
J: I play in Rättö ja Lehtisalo, Pharaoh Overlord, Pharaoh Overlörd, Doktor Kettu and Rakhim and in studio projects like Eturivi, Kirvasto, Ektroverde. Then I have some secret projects like Krypt Axeripper, Tractor Pulling, Steel Mammoth and Leppästick.

Pharaoh Overlord's line-up is Tomi Leppänen, Janne Westerlund and me. For live performances we have added Pekka Jääskeläinen and Julius Jääskeläinen on guitars.

You have earned a good live reputation. You've recorded two live albums if I'm not wrong, Raunio and Arkades. For the last one you recorded for WFMU radio show, can you tell what did really happen there ?
J: Besides these two we have live LP's named Mountain, Empire, Golem-Vesiliirto and General. The WFMU session was improvised, we did it in about six hours at the end of our US tour in the fall of 2005.

Your last album Miljard is essentially piano-based and is really excellent but a little bit disappointing, why did you choose the piano ?
It wasn't a piano really, it is Mika's Korg Triton LE synthesizer that has dominated our albums for the last three years and has almost destroyed our sense of sounds. A new Circle album is always a disappointment for our fans. We have no idea what they want from us and that's why we are and will always stay in marginal.

You also run the label Ektro which had put out great records of bands such as Acid Mothers Temple, Los Natas and many local bands like Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Kuusumun Profeetta... You seem very implicated in music, do you achieve what you really wanted when you were young ?
J: One of my intentions is to bring different kinds of things into the same context, like putting an ashtray and the Eiffel Tower side by side. Ektro Records doesn't release the kind of music that I necessary like, Ektro lives its own life and I'm the only employed.

Which band do you want (or dream of) to sign on Ektro ?
J: Signing Led Zeppelin would be the ultimate dream but I can live with that because I can be part of Led Zeppelin of the 21st Century.

Who is in charge of the design of the covers and for the label ? Is it important for you ?
J: Tom Backström aka Musta Kirahvi is in charge. Yes, it is very important. Almost everything else is amateur-based but for cover art I use a top professional.

Last question : I 've never been to Finland (I want to). What do you eat ?
J: "Olen mystikko, vaikka syönkin pitsaa." - Kake Puhuu / Kirvasto (translated: "I am a mystician even though I eat pizza.") My favorite food is reindeer meat with cranberry jam and mashed potatoes. It is very traditional Finnish food from Lapland.

Anything to add ?
J: "Regressive is tomorrow's progressive" - Krypt