Jaakko Eino Kalevi

M: Hey Jaakko.

J: Hi.

M: Can I ask where you are now?

J: I’m in a café close to my home, because I still don’t have internet at home.

M: Did you just move? You’re living in Berlin these days right?

J: Yeah.

M: Do you find that it’s quite an adjustment from your life in Finland?

J: It is. It’s pretty different to live here rather than just visit. There are a few difficulties, because I don’t speak German, but I get by pretty well with English.

M: Yeah, I’ve lived abroad too and it’s pretty different from being in Finland, personally. Do you feel it alters your personality at all?

J: Yeah I think so. Or I feel like it does a bit. That also depends on who I am with. On the other hand, that’s also true for when I’m in Finland. It kind of depends on whose company I’m in.

M: Do you feel there is any difference between public and personal life? For example, are you recognized more in Finland than in Berlin?

J: Not really. In Finland I just know a lot more people overall. Although, this one time I was at a supermarket close to my home and a woman came up to me and told me how much she loved a new song and said that she couldn’t wait for the new album. That was pretty strange.

M: About the new album, the opening track is the initials of your name and in the chorus you repeatedly chant your own name. Is that a way for you to present or establish yourself?

J: Well, difficult question.

M: I mean, how does that tie in with your identity?

J: Eeeeh. I don’t think it relates to it all that much. I would say that it was inspired by some rap songs, playing with repetition. I think it’s fun. A lot of people can’t pronounce my name, maybe I play with the rhythm partly because of that too. Not really in the way that my name is pronounced but more as how the rhythm in the song is a bit strange.

M: Are they all your names?

J: Yeah, they’re my first names.

M: It seems like a certain type of image has been constructed around you, the way you look and the way you’re often portrayed. Have you always been the same or did you ever face a crisis as a teenager?

J: [Laughing] I doubt I’ve always been the same, but I don’t know. What kind of an image is given off about me? It’d be fun to know.

M: Perhaps a dreamy image

J: Oh, I’m not very dreamy.

M: Do you ever daydream?

J: Not really. Well actually I was wondering if there is any point to dreaming? Haha. Of course there is a point. What do I dream about? Now I’m dreaming about getting internet at home.

M: [Laughing] What about dreaming at night?

J: Actually I had a dream last night or the night before, but I didn’t write it down…I just listened to Perttu Hakkinen’s radio show the other day and it was about spiritual growth, and there was a good thing about dreaming and daydreaming.

M: What did he say?

J: That people dream about a better life and make radical decisions and then the same emptiness follows them. That it’s better to live in the moment, and that dreaming is not that. On the other hand, there are many ways of dreaming. You can dream about this perfect, blissful life, but you can also dream about having internet. Perttu Hakkinen’s shows are good, but I guess change is also refreshing.

M: Is there anything you’ve changed in the past year?

J: I’ve learned that it’s good to save up money. Even though I haven’t. I theoretically have.

Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s self-titled album is out via Weird World on 11 June. You can catch the man himself live at OT301, Amsterdam on 18 June or at Wastelands Festival at 019, Ghent on 8 August. Both events are free for Subbacultcha members.