Viima

"THOUGHTS FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD"

Interview with the guitarist Mikko Uusi Oukari

By Sergio Vilar

Mikko, thank you for your time and interest to answer these questions. What you can tell us regarding the origin of the band?
The origin of the band goes back to year 1998. I had moved from Helsinki to Turku and had no connection to local players. I started to play with a workmate of mine, guitarist Aki Laakso. After long planning and ground work we started to look for other players to form the band.

I would like to know how you defined the musical direction that would adopt the band and how did you make to achieve that perfect combination of styles and influences, so much folk how progressive?
We were looking for prog musicians and found players with prog background. An exception was the singer Päivi Kylmänen, whose background was more in folk. The musical direction evolved with time as the five persons were learning to know each other and to play together. Our style in “Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta” was mainly defined by Kimmo’s and my way of writing music, and Päivi’s vocals, the strongest folk element in our music.

Which are your more direct musical influences?
The influences in guitar playing are 60’s blues guitarists: Hendrix, Clapton and Green. Frank Zappa a bit later.

Concerning music in general, I absorbed my deepest influences from early 70’s English prog, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant and Camel being the most important bands for me. And I have to add Frank Zappa also here as one of the main influences. Tasavallan Presidentti and their guitarist Jukka Tolonen are the main Finnish influences.

Well, do you speak to us of “Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta”. What did you want to express through this work? Would you say that an idea general driver exists?
There is not really a general driving idea on the record. It is more like a collection of six songs. Three of them are composed by me and another three by our keyboard player Kimmo Lähteenmäki. We had two Kimmo’s songs (”Meri” and ”Johdatus”) and one of mine (”Leijonan Syksy”) as we started working in the studio. Those tracks made 23 minutes of music and we decided to make another three to complete a whole album.

Musically my songs are guitar-driven while those of Kimmo’s are keyboard-dominated. The structures and especially arrangements of Kimmo’s songs are more sophisticated than those of mine: he never stops to develop them further, still adding one more keyboard over the other three! I combine 2-4 different musical parts to form the basic structure of the song, add melodies (vocal or instrumental), leave room for a solo or two and there it is.

There is not any common theme in the lyrics of the songs. The lyrics in two of my songs are made by Petri Hyytiä. Both songs tell a story, and they contain descriptions of phenomenons people encounter in the nature. They are very ”on the ground”, the meaning is very clear. “Ilmalaiva Italia” tells the true story of Airship Italy that happened in the beginning of the last century. The lyric for my third song was written by Olli Valtonen. It is more esoteric, leaving things open, you have to imagine yourself what it is all about. English translations for the lyrics can be found in our web site.

Kimmo has written lyrics to his songs. A theme that emerges in several of his songs is ”entity”: how we can reach it or loose it. The songs seem to have a very deep meaning and are open for various interpretations.

The record was put together using my and Kimmo’s songs in alternating order. ”Johdatus”, having a guitar solo over 2½ minutes followed by a long keyboard outro was a natural end for the record. ”Leijonan Syksy” was chosen for the first track because the music has sunny, positive and forward-going feeling in contrast to most of our tracks.

We feel that the record was put together from six ”great” songs. We do not feel that any of them is a filler.

VIIMA (record line-up)
 

Could you give us a brief impression of the songs of this album and to be how you were inspired to write them?
“Leijonan Syksy” evolved over several years. I had made the main part a long time ago. I decided to put another part with vocals between the verses of the main part. Päivi made the vocal melody for that part. I added an instrumental part leading to guitar solo. It was easy to write the different parts, but difficult to go from one part into another. It took more time to write the linking melodies and riffs that join the parts together than writing the main parts of the song.

I wrote the melody and harmonies for “Ilmalaiva Italia” on a weekend morning in winter 2005 to get the sixth song for the record. I made a demo to Petri Hyytiä, and he wrote 4 verses of words. During 3rd verse the storm starts. Petri asked me to write a dramatic middle part between verses 3 and 4. That’s how the heavy and dissonant middle part came. We used the still feeling in verse 4 to emphasize the tragical end of the story.

The structure of “Luuttomat” is in a way similar to that of “Ilmalaiva Italia”. I wrote a simple melody for singing and put chords behind it. The melody consisted of a descending short melody that was repeated 3 times, and a fourth ascending melody that finishes the verse. I modified each of the descending melodies to get the final melody for the song. The melody for the verse is like a gentle lullaby, so I used heavier instrumental parts between them to make the song dynamic.

Internally, how are you distributed the work as for the composition and arrangements?
I mainly arranged my songs and Kimmo arranged his, but the co-producer Timo Haanpää and the other recording engineer Jonne Valtonen both had a great impact on the arrangements. I wrote keyboard parts to my songs and Kimmo wrote most “written” guitar parts to his songs. Kimmo was very strict with his singing melodies, while my melodies left more room for Päivi to sing them the way she felt.

The disc is a work of great level compositivo and instrumental. How long did it take them to carry out it?
A total of 180 studio hours was used. That includes mixing of the tracks. The hours were dispersed unevenly along the year 2005.

Are you fully satisfied with the obtained result?
Let’s say: we are very satisfied with the result!

Viima your only group is or is some of you participated in other parallel works?
Viima is the only band for me. Three of us (me, Päivi and Kimmo) participated in the Kosmos project “Tarinoita voimasta”. Päivi and Kimmo are also involved in their next project. Kimmo also participates to some cover projects every now and then. Our new singer Hannu Hiltula is playing in a funk band, and the new drummer Mikko Väärälä is playing percussions in a theatre. Viima is the only band for the bass player Aapo Honkanen.

Which are the groups and/or styles that the musicians of the band usually listen preferably?
Kimmo and I prefer 70’s progressive, the other three current members have broader preferences. At least most of us like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Yes and Genesis. I find Ian Anderson’s and David Gilmour’s latest solo records among the best records in the last 2-3 years. All of us listen Liekki (a more recent Finnish band).

What current bands do you find interesting?
Porcupine Tree, Anekdoten and Paatos. I also find Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull still current and very interesting!

Of now in more, what does it continue? Toward where does Viima go in its following album?
We have a couple of songs ready. They are more complex and more instrumental than the songs in “Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta”. Hannu Hiltula’s soprano sax plays a major role in many of the new songs. I find the direction very interesting. There will also be some shorter and less symphonic tracks.

How would you say that your musical development will continue in the future?
Everything depends on what kind of a new song somebody brings to the rehearsals. On the other hand, my roots are in 70’s prog, I can’t and have no interest in going far from that.

This was all Mikko. Would you like to add something to finish the interview?
Thank you for the interview, Sergio. If somebody has not heard Viima yet, you can hear us in the website www.viima.fi I wish you all the best!

www.viima.fi
 

Nucleus interview: 10/06/06