Here's a little something we recorded with my good friend, Antti Mäkinen, back in the day. Antti needed music for his play-along project, and I was happy to submit this somewhat silly track for us to groove on. The lyrics are profoundly mindless, but I still quite like the vibe of this track... So sit back and enjoy the funk, ok??!! That's Antti Mäkinen on the drums, and yours truly filling in the gaps! :)

Friend Chips

5/11/2016

Mind Go Boom

Here's a fairly recent track from a project I brought my .02$ in for. A quote from the website http://mistylate.com/ :

"Under the banner of Misty Late, talented Finnish musicians formulate a sparkling, glimmering blend of pop rock and folk, with a dash of ancient world music mysticism injected under the surface. Laura Eklund’s vocals and tight lyrics with JP Järvinen's vital and formidable composing and production are the foundation of Misty Late."

Despite the elaborate description above, this is pure pop/rock right here. Recorded in July 2011, the writing credits for "Princess Ice" continue in the Järvinen/Eklund tradition. My role in the studio was originally to provide the bass track for the tune, but I somehow ended up also playing all of the guitars and some synths for "a bit of nice, aural wallpaper". On drums, we were privileged to have Lacu Lahtinen (Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe, Popeda) pushing the track forward with his powerhouse drumming. Engineer and mixer Kari Luukkonen finally added a touch of organ to round out the song. Everybody in our production team had their say, so I guess that makes us all producers somehow...

Sent out to Finnish radio stations right about as I type this, we're naturally hoping for some airplay - but with Laura's personal permission, YOU get to hear it right here and now!

Thanks for listening!



MISTY LATE: Princess Ice

Originally written for a theater piece, this ambient track became an essential part of a song I wrote called "Sick And Somewhat Scared' from my 1st solo record 'None For The Money, Two For The Show'. Further elaborated and edited for the album, this is the original version heard in the theater audience back in the day. You might want to grab onto your crucifixes for this eerie soundtrack of losing one's sanity... :)

"...now go, cats, go!"

Just Scared

Here's a little something I recorded way back in 1996 or 1997 on my trusty old ©Tascam 4-track tape recorder (yes, I still have it). I was going through a phase where I wanted to record ANY piece of audio once a week for a year, adding up to 52 tracks. I eventually settled with about 40 tracks, but it sure was a great experience. And, as you'll find out upon your listening to this track, this was certainly one of the goofiest things I managed to capture on tape...

So what the h*ll is this, you may ask? Well, this is me, in my bedroom, running all four tracks full on with vocals, through a ©Digitech Whammy. I didn't even have a decent microphone back then, so I opted to use the small earplug-like headphones for audio input (I also recorded several live bootlegs this way - trust me, kids, it works!). So, the audio chain: me -> makeshift microphone -> ©Digitech Whammy -> ©Tascam 4-track. You should have been around to see the craziness of it all! My mother was laughing her *ss off upon her first hearing of this crazy little thing...

Naturally, the "lyrics" are just off-the-bat nonsense. No real language here, folks. I apologize in advance if there's words or sentences that could be found offensive, rude or violative in any of this world's beautiful languages we humans speak. Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation of writing a "chorus", if only for the sake of continuity of some sort.

Oh, and if someone's crazy enough to transcribe these "lyrics" for me, I'll buy you a beverage of your choice, add you on my thanks list for my first solo record, and maybe even send you a personalized thank you message (skip the 'maybe' part).

Thank, as ever, for listening!

-jw-

Alien Rap

Yesterday, I had a chance encounter with my good friend Karri Miettinen, aka Paleface. As is, he had promised to provide a music box scroll of his original music for an upcoming art exhibition, a task that he ultimately felt like having a little outside help with. Enter yours truly. We sat down to work at my place, meticulously mapping out a perfect grid for Karri's awesome song, "Talonomistaja", punching in the holes in this very particular "sheet of music", and finally scrolling the sheet through the specifically designed music box. As per natural, I had to record the results - and here it is! In all its lullaby-like somberness, I'm pretty freaking stoked to have played a small part in this infinitely wonderful experience that seriously made my yesterday one of the best Sundays ever! Like I already told Karri, I would love nothing else better than owning a music box, a few blank scrolls, and start making original music on this wonderful instrument. I hope you enjoy this short piece of music which was clearly "a-first-one" for both of us!

Jaan Wessman