Questions & Anwsers

Pepe Deluxe hit their third album haemorrhaging sonic inventiveness and heavy, heavy funk. The Finnish band, led by Beatmag regular contributor James Spectrum (AKA Jari Salo) and JA-Jazz (AKA Tomi Paajaanen) have mutated from a sampladelic big beat frolic into a proper band with a sound rooted in the ‘60s and ‘70s, notably paying tribute to the spirit of prog. Signed to Brighton label Catskills for almost a decade Pepe Deluxe are not the most prolific group but their three albums (the other two are ‘Super Sound’, 1999, and ‘Beatitude’, 2003) are defined by a spirit of party-infused optimism that won’t quit. Thomas H Green catches up with James Spectrum to garner the lowdown on the latest events in the Pepe camp.

What have you been up to since the world last heard of you, apart from making this album?

JS: “OK, first you have to understand that with us there’s no such thing as ‘apart from making this album’. The actual recording and mixing of the album is just a very small part of the whole picture. Most of the time is spent on sort of musical archaeology, tracking down obscure material like tapes and records, studio gear, instruments etc. Also books and inspiring visual stuff, not forgetting and insane amount of photos taken, as we also provide all the raw artwork for the graphic designer to finish. So basically it’s always working on album even if you’re not officially doing it. Apart from that I finally managed to finish my Master’s thesis ‘Improving Automatic Music Transcription Systems’. In addition, I’ve travelled quite a lot, helped Marko [Nyberg] with some TV ad tunes, collected vintage household accessories and Russian electronic components, worked on various inventions, and of course written Beatmag articles.”

What are your most exciting and unlikely recent sonic inventions?

JS: “I’ve been working on a project developing the world’s first fuzz synthesizer, an effect that creates a great range of different fuzz sounds, ranging from subtle to insane. I call it ‘Bad Hair Synthesizer’. Unfortunately when I submitted my list of about dozen improvement suggestions, the original designer freaked out and the circuit is not to be touched. Not a problem for me, as now I own the one and only unit in the world. But most of my stuff is based more on simple physics than electronics, as I started with physics and I like that hands-on approach. Now I’ve been working on acoustic flangers, various large cans with speakers connected to them, partially filled with water and mechanically rotated. They give a shimmering and, for the lack of a better word, watery flange sound.”

Did you have to go back in time to the 1960s to record certain numbers on the album?

JS: “Only if by ‘certain’ you mean ‘all’ numbers! I think it was Marko [Nyberg] of Husky [Rescue] who said something like, ‘It’s ‘60s music without being a copy of any ‘60s band or sound’. I admit I’ve been completely obsessed with 60’s for quite a while, and usually not the ‘original’ stuff but more like pop culture mutations, like Japanese ‘Eleki’ scene inspired by US surf music, which itself was rarely played by anyone who actually surfed. They had guys such as Takeshi Terauchi combining traditional Koto playing techniques with surf guitar. Takeshi sounds like a Ventures LP on 78 with strange Japanese overtones. If you want to party, more is generally better. One of the big reasons ‘60s music sounds so good is that you can hear not just the music but also the sound of the recording.”

Does James Spectrum have a rock’n’roll lifestyle to match the music?

JS: “Hmmm… there’s a famous Finnish rockabilly dude who has a saying, ‘Born to be wild – except at home’. I guess my version is, ‘Born to be tame, except at the studio’. Maybe it wasn’t always so but let’s say it is now.”

Who is Pepe Deluxe these days?

JS: “The official lineup is the same as on ‘Beatitude’, that’s Tomi and me. Then again now we’re working on the live team, who in addition to us has McGyver, a multi-instrumentalist who played on all the tunes on the album except one) and Vilunki 3000 who’s also a graphic designer and works with us on the covers, Chris Cote of The Upper Crust who sings and playsguitar. And then there’ the long list of friends who’ve actually played the music while we’ve been sitting back shouting, ‘higher, faster, stronger!’. Also friends have contributed to compositions, three of the songs are partially written by Paul Malström. So the whole thing is more like a small scale art movement than a traditional band.”

Tell us a few facts about Tomi Paajanen.

JS: “Tomi is an ex-sailplane pilot who likes his sugar with café au lait, bicycle adventures, 8-track players and according to my theory, took on the tedious job of DJ-ing just to justify his record collection that kept growing like the US national debt. Last summer he married a Swedish-Finnish soprano singer. Just to remind you, so far every single hit tune of ours has had soprano singing on it, so the future definitely looks good. And like me, Tomi is hooked on Grundig Audiorama speakers.”

I detected a touch of Lee Hazlewood about the new album…

JS: “‘One Velvet Morning’ is one of my favourite reality check songs. Every time I start to feel a bit too good and confident about the music I’m working on, I just need to hear maybe thirty seconds of that marvellous piece of aural perfection to realize it’s still a long way to the top. Have you seen the video? Words fail…”

And what’s with that album title – please decode.

JS: “It started as ‘Spare Time Bottling Machine’, but got shortened to ‘Spare Time Machine’. Naturally there are multiple meanings, but I got the original idea when I realized that the only thing me and so many of my friends don’t really have is spare time. It seems that overall tempo of life is getting faster and faster, people work long days, even weekends and when they’re not working they’re busy doing something else. So I figured what we need is a machine that brews spare time that you could enjoy when you needed it the most. Also during my and Marko’s recent trip to New York I suddenly realized we actually do already have that elixir of spare time: good music that takes you to other times and places.”

How’s Finland been to Pepe Deluxe?

JS: “Simply magnificent. The people are still quite down to earth and sane in here. I read of this Finnish video director who called his friend to tell super good news: he had just been chosen to direct the new Will Smith video. His friend merely replied. ‘Oh that guy’s last movie was SO bad’. What can I say… art is important, but so is nursing. It’s just you rarely hear nurses screaming, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ when denied privileged treatment.”

How old are you?

JS: “35, that’s about 5 in cat years.”

Who are your parents and what do they do?

JS: “My father is a barbarian and my mother is a temple dancer. Well, OK, my father runs a small farm and builds and rent cottages on his land. Pretty much living the life of a happy freeman. He occasionally builds stuff but I guess he’s getting a bit lazy. My mother, now retired, used to work as a nurse, but she also spent a few years working in the Finnish national art gallery just because she loves paintings so much. She’s still hoping I’ll end up as researcher at the university … she doesn’t realize thats not far from what Im doing right now.”

Is Pepe Deluxe like The Gorillaz but without Dangermouse and some cartoons?

JS: “I’d say we’re more like Anti-Gorillaz. They have Dangermouse, we have Catskills. They are fronted by cartoons, we are puppets of the characters James Spectrum and JA-Jazz. In fact Spectrum keeps calling me, sometimes even in the middle of the night, about some crazy music ideas. It’s a bit of a nuisance. They are a virtual band, we’re not. They are very famous, we’re modest.”

Is Pepe Deluxe a political unit and if so what are its origins?

JS: “I do generally encourage people to use their brains, and take pretty much everything those in power say with a grain of salt. My personal opinion is that most of the problems of the world exist simply because of short-term selfishness. It’s a bit like being too lazy to exercise, what you gain is actually less time with less energy to enjoy the good things.”

How Finnish is the Pepe Deluxe sound? Tell me something Finnish?

JS: “Very Finnish, it really reflects the unique landscape, the forests, the 187,888 lakes where all the people go skating during the winters while classical music plays softly in the background, and the people, quiet and somewhat reserved but trustworthy and very reliable. And the fact that Anglo-American pop culture has invaded us like it has done every other country in the world. ‘Ollaanko me tultu saunomaan vai ollaanko me tultu puhumaan paskaa?’ is a very important sentence in Finland. Something you ought to say if anyone ever opens her/his mouth in Sauna. Roughly translates as, ‘Have we come here for Sauna or have we come here to talk s**t?’”

What live Pepe Action should we be expecting?

JS: “We’re working on the live-thing right now. The main thing is that we definitely want to keep it special, so there won’t be any heavy touring, more like special parties for people … including ourselves. The good thing about gigs is that you get to meet people, like last year when we went to Australia we had a super nice tour manager Boi Crompton who turned out to be a great singer too, and he ended up singing on tree tunes on the new album.”

Tell us five facts about your life that a biographer should know.

JS: “1. When I was a young boy I used to work as a summertime cowboy at my grandparents farm. The concept of child labour didn’t exist way back then. 2. I owe my basic musical education to my older brother; he told me things like, ‘Iron Maiden sucks, Led Zeppelin rocks’. Though later on I realized he wasn’t always right on the conceptual level. 3. The Finnish army taught me to shave, shower, dress, make my bed before waking up, hide behind other people’s backs to avoid any duty and instinctively salute anyone with glittering objects on their shoulders. 4. I named the first Pepe studio Tearoom 1 simply because at that time I hadn’t yet met my cappuccino pusherman, Marko. 5. The literally coolest sauna I’ve been to was built of big chunks of ice.”

Tell us five false facts that you wish were true?

JS: “1. I can do longer and flashier wheelies than Ville [Riippa] of Husky Rescue. 2. A picture taken at my friend’s bachelor party, me and the boys wearing vintage ladies swimsuits, wasn’t uploaded on the official Pepe site by our dear feline bosses at Catskills. 3. I cannot be bribed to work on non-profit music projects with GrandMa’s Cookies. 4. I still have a lucrative second job as a male hand model. 5. I’m the ruling Finnish lawnmower racing champion.”

What is the maverick art-concept motivating Pepe Deluxe?

JS: “I think the main driving force; the sort of playful underground hip-hop DJ attitude has been there since day one. I’ve always been fascinated by the challenge of getting people to listen to music they’d normally ignore or even dislike … something Beck did with country. An additional thing, introduced on this album, is multiple levels and meaning on lyrics, apparently silly stuff that hides real life events or even some serious issues, a bit like a court jester telling a joke. And naturally we try very hard to sound like no other group in the known universe, to create something that didn’t exist before.”

What else do we need to know?

JS: “In my opinion the key elements to a successful career in music are good food, good sleep and good exercise. The rest is just play. Also when it comes to knobs, bigger is better.”

Pepe Deluxe’s album ‘Spare Time Machine’ is out in June on Catskills

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