Tommy: Probably. Someone somewhere has probably seen or heard a perfect performance, and after that they've escaped into the woods or the mountains to die happy. On a more serious note, we certainly feel strongly about striving for perfection everytime we climb on stage. And perfection in music doesn't consist of flawless technical ability, it consists of expressing your own original voice and enjoying yourself during that expression. We also feel a live performance should always be alive by nature, the players constantly communicating with one another as well as with the audience. And a strong element of improvisation and surprise is always present when we play.


Kari: This is a tough one. We think our music is a blend of many influences, with hip-hop as one of the main ingredients. Still, most people don't consider us being a hip-hop band. I guess our music can be described as being beat-oriented and electronic music, accompanied with traditional live instruments.

Tommy: We take inspiration from many different styles of music; house, jazz, dub, classical, pop, alt rock and even country - which is a secret passion for everyone in the band. [laughs]


Kari: Originality and feel. Genre does not matter too much, at least not for me. I have always enjoyed the work of Beck (not referring to Jeff Beck, although he is a great artist too) to a great extent, for example. He switches genre many times within an album and does it so fluently that the listener hardly even notices it. There are lots of interesting and original artists like that. Recently I've listened to a lot of Depeche Mode, Amon Tobin and old Brian Eno albums. Great stuff.


Kari: I think every style of music can have a very soulful feel. Take Kraftwerk for example. They have defined an electronic sound with more emotion delivered with a few synthesizer notes than a bunch of your average singer-songwriters could ever express with a guitar by the campfire. [laughs] I definitely think there can be lots of spirit in pure dance music or heavy metal just as well. It really doesn't depend on genre.


Kari: We played to 26.000 people in Pori Jazz last year, which was definitely a highlight for us.


Tommy: We have always kept our focus on the music so we try not to think about publicity or such things too much.

Kari: At least we don't go to these VIP parties too often although we do get invitations regularly. [laughs] I think we've been quite fortunate not having to deal with yellow papers too much. In Finland we've been treated very well by the press.


Tommy: Inspiration comes from everyday life. There is no subject too small or too big to be turned into a song. And artists should first and foremost try to communicate something relevant to their own lives. Our songs cover a wide variety of themes, and sometimes they have no theme at all.

Kari: Besides basic everyday life, I get lots of musical inspiration from travelling and seeing new people and places. Travel is the best education, as somebody once said. It might be true.


Tommy: Not nearly enough. Just like all Finns, we are probably much more acquainted with our closest Baltic neighbor, Estonia. But we do know that Kaunas was once the capital of Lithuania, and hopefully after this first visit we will know much more.


Tommy: Hopefully the public will be as open-minded as possible and ready to let themselves go with the music. Our shows are usually packed with energy, and our aim is to have people leave with a smile on their faces after the show. And obviously we hope our music will find many new Lithuanian friends.


Kari: We have a certain selection of songs that we usually incorporate to our live set but we always make the final list just a couple minutes before the concert. We have two percussionists in store for the gig in Kaunas so… you'll have to see what happens. Even we don't know yet. [laughs]


Kari: We will be touring throughout the summer and after that it is time to think about the next album. At the moment we have lots of ideas flying around for new material and we will organise some recording sessions during the summer. The next album will probably be out in 2005.


Kari: Well. You will have to...

Tommy: ...keep it real! [laughs] 4 real.


Photos: Teppo Leppänen