To me “Broken Snow” is the quintessential Impersonators track, fusing The Beatles with Phil Spector and adding a bit of Motown for dramatic effect. Janne’s contribution to the track is priceless; it’s his production that makes this track what it is. 

The song came about from two separate incidents. I still remember writing bits of the melody and some of the lyrics without an instrument, lining up to the Eiffel Tower. This street vendor was trying to sell me (and the other folks lining up) necklaces that looked like disfigured snowflakes. He kept asking “is your broken heart kind?” I don’t know what he meant by that but it got me thinking. It’s so easy to criticize others, to see what they are doing to you, but it’s very difficult to see what you are doing to other people. Basic human weakness I guess. A few months after this, once we got snow in Finland, I went for my usual run and noticed that somebody had urinated in the snow, managing to draw a yellow heart in this otherwise beautiful white bank of untouched snow. This is where I got the idea for using the phrase “broken snow” in the lyrics. In fact, I took a picture of that “yellow heart” in the snow and wanted to use that shot for the single cover but everyone else deemed it too vulgar, so we went ahead with a more traditional approach in the end, which was probably for the best.

Broken Snow

“Effigy” has a history unlike any other song in our catalog. It was in a way commissioned. Way back in July 2018, The Impersonators’ publicist asked me if we were ever going to release a Christmas song and I said, “probably not.” I know artists do this a lot, they release holiday songs and I actually like some of them, but writing one for The Impersonators had never really even crossed my mind – until that afternoon. It was a challenge though and to prove to myself I could write one if I wanted to, I gave it a shot but nothing came out of it. I caught myself thinking how much easier the writing process would be if Christmas had a tad more street credibility, if it were a little more like Halloween. Then it came to me, why not write a Halloween song instead? Well, a song that would cater for Halloween in terms of its feel and atmosphere but a tune that could also stand alone. As it happened, my bandmate Antti Autio had sent me a lyric a few days prior that seemed to perfectly capture the right mood. I added a few lines and “Effigy” soon became a rock song about killing your ego, a topic that’s been of great interest to me lately. 

Janne did a fantastic job in capturing just the right mood to go with the disturbing lyrics on this one. My favorite bits of the song are the guitar riff in the beginning and the final choruses with their multi-layered vocal harmonies.

Effigy

Relationships are hard. When hopes, dreams and expectations don’t come to pass, we learn what disappointment tastes like – yeah, I know, it tastes like sh#t. The bad news is that if we taste such a cocktail often enough, we become disillusioned. This is usually when resentment steps in, and we all know where that leads…well, no place good.

“Sad Café” came about in a burst of anger. I remember being so angry with someone that my hands were shaking. Once left alone, out of frustration, I slammed my fist into the wall. It hurt…for four weeks. During weeks one and two, I had immense problems operating my right hand. I got scared. I’m a guitar player and the thought of breaking my hand irreversibly is daunting. I was lucky, the pain subsided, my wrist healed. The anger stayed though, it burned, and to make it go away, I started writing this song. 

The bare bones of the melody as well as some of the lyrics came easily. But then I got stuck and like so many times before, my trusty collaborator Antti Autio finished off the lyrics for me – he did an outstanding job. After that, all the song really needed was a bit of help from my wife and a generous sprinkle of magic dust from our producer Janne Saksa and voilà, we were done.

I feel “Sad Café” is not just our funkiest track so far, it’s quite possibly also our best work up to date. Click play and you’ll know what I mean. Blast it out loud, dance like nobody’s watching and sing with me like nobody’s listening. In other words, join me for a cup of bitter disappointment at my favorite hangout, the “Sad Café.”

Sad Café

“Burning Blue” was inspired by a friend who had lost his wife to cancer, and while I was trying to console him, the melody of this song began to play in my mind (you know, the hook, the haunting melody that’s also the chorus). Antti and I wrote the lyrics from this perspective. My friend, whose loss inspired the track, said that he consoled himself by going to all these restaurants and stores, places where he had once gone with his wife. According to him, it made him feel closer to her. Hence, the protagonist in our lyric is walking around aimlessly downtown somewhere amidst the neon lights and a crowd of people having fun, trying to make some sense of what’s happened, remembering when he “was king and life was kind” and when it was “us against the world” and “how nothing seemed to hurt.” 

"Burning Blue" has an esoteric lyric and you probably need to understand the story behind it to understand its meaning. This is why the music video ended up being about a man who has lost his mind, sitting around with a wedding dress on his lap and having dinner with a mannequin head, pretending his wife is still around. I really dig the Beach Boys-influenced middle eight and the cathartic guitar solo that I played completely off the cuff but that was somehow just right for the song.

Burning Blue (EP version)

Broken Snow (EP version)

Effigy (EP version)

”You Are The One” was our first single released by FBP Music Group. It came out in November 2017. This was our first collaboration with Janne Saksa on the production front and all I can say that Janne floored us completely with his incredibly tasteful production of the track. The string arrangement continues to send shivers down my spine, as do the horns. I really like the way this song turned out. 

"You Are The One" was written during the time I had just met my wife. We weren’t married yet but dating and of course, still in that phase of our relationship where the other person could do or say nothing wrong. It was magical. I’m very lucky to have experienced what falling in love with someone feels like. It’s like a thousand bolts of lightning hitting you from all directions – an incredible feeling. I can still remember the sleepless nights, my heart pounding with excitement, being unable to think about nothing else expect her. From what I’ve gathered, not everybody gets to experience this and that’s too bad. “You Are The One” was inspired by this indescribable feeling.

You Are The One (EP version)

The initial inspiration for this tune came when I met this guy from Sussex, England. I did not know Sussex isn't exactly thriving these days and he was dirt poor but blissfully happy and jazzed up about life. Then there was me, blessed with everything and still not being content. I felt slightly embarrassed.

As often is the case, a song is inspired by something autobiographical and then once you start working on it, it evolves into a composite of reality and fiction. Unlike the protagonist of the song, the British guy I met was not married nor unemployed. However, the lyrics Antti provided for the verses and the middle-eight, needed the character in the song to be both of those things. I edited the bits we wrote together and painted a picture of a disappointed man, on his last legs, waving goodbye to all the mundane, trivial and hurtful issues of everyday life, saying, “You win. You can be as nasty and indifferent towards me as you want, I won’t fight back from now on but I won’t rent space in my head or heart for you anymore either.”

The promo shots and the video for the release were shot in a real circus tent. It was a lot of fun doing that. Antti floored everyone with his acting abilities and also, I love the single cover, doctored by Sven Klitsch, with the little circus bits in it. 

Excited about how the photo turned out, I showed it to my four-year old son. He looked at it slightly worried and said, “Were you scared of standing so close to the tiger?” 

“Not one bit,” I answered.

Circus

Having previously been signed to Sony/BMG with Carmen Gray, one of Finland’s finest rock bands, Tom Tikka has formed The Impersonators, a two-man project born out their ashes and designed to cut out the politics and strife which come from the rock ‘n’ roll carnival of band life. Resolutely studio-based, The Impersonators channel the bejeweled power-pop of The Go-Betweens and the immediacy/worldliness of early R.E.M. to deliver timeless alt-pop melodies.   

Comprising Tom Tikka and lyricist Antti Autio, The Impersonators are just that: a duo which masquerades as a full band and does everything it can to defy convention – whether that being their insistence on avoiding touring or their songs, which home in on the warts-and-all gnarliness of love and real life. In fact, if one were to find a common theme that runs through the group’s entire catalog, it would probably be how life very seldom resembles or turns out like Disney fantasies.   

Despite their poignant lyrics, The Impersonators are still a joyous and sweet proposition, with their vocal harmonies and chiming chords harking back to such 60s pop majesties as The Beatles, The Byrds and The Beach Boys. Together with their secret weapon, producer Janne Saksa, The Impersonators craft their lyrics and melodies into retro-flavoured “alternative pop/rock”. While adding a modern twist to the final soundscape, their goal is to nurture and cultivate the creativity, spirit, and warmth that graced the pop records of yesteryears.

The Impersonators

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