K I N O K O M A

goodnight monsters

DINOSAUR JR. VERSUS SIMON & GARFUNKEL

Mit „Summer Challenge“ erschien letztes Jahr bereits das zweite hervorragende Album der finnischen Goodnight Monsters um die begnadeten Songwriter Matti Jasu und Valtteri Virtanen. Wir trafen die sympathischen Jungs vor ihrem umjubelten Gastspiel als Duo im Hamburger Hafenbahnhof, bei dem sie zahlreiche Highlights ihres aktuellen Werks und des Debüts „The Brain That Didn’t Die“ in teils neuen Arrangements präsentierten. Besonders gelungen waren Mattis Keyboard-Improvisationen und eine waghalsige Neuinterpretation des Klassikers „Demonstrator“. Zwei verspielte Coverversionen von Buddy-Holly- und M.I.A.-Hits sowie schelmische Zwischenansagen sorgten für weiteres Vergnügen.

What was it like working on your second album at 22-Pistepirkko’s Altai studio?
Valtteri: Very nice.
Matti: Yeah, we had this mixer guy, Petteri Rajanti, the producer, and he was a good leader of the recording sessions. It was really easy with him and he was ready for all kinds of ideas.

Asko of 22-Pistepirkko is also credited as co-producer.
M: He listened to the demo tapes and had some ideas, helping with the overall arrangements. And Petteri was more the technical guy.

Good to finally see “First One On The Beach”, which you have been playing live for years, on a record.
M: It’s been around since 2004 when we started. It very nearly made it onto “The Brain That Didn’t Die”. I wrote it the same summer, but it didn’t make it.

Why not?
M: The song wasn’t ready at that time.
V: It’s lucky that it’s on “Summer Challenge” because now it’s hi-fi. If we had put it on “Brain” it would have been lo-fi.

It turned out really well. It’s a cross between The Beach Boys and The Ramones with some disco for the middle eight.
V (laughs): Yeah, it’s like we’re jumping on the post-punk trend for a while.

Also, the brilliant guitar riff at the start of the middle eight is so short that you want to listen to the song all over again.
M: It’s a funny song that some people like a lot and some people just hate.

Some people hate it?
M: There are people that think that it’s really annoying and I can see why. It’s really repetitive.
V: The Finns, the dark guys, have problems with it. People who may like the rest of the record may feel that this one song might be too upbeat and cheery.

I think it’s one of the highlights of the album. Another is “Keep Me As A Secret”.
M: I’m happy with that song. It turned out really well. We had this trumpet on the solo. And Leo Fourastié, the French guy who was hanging around at Altai at the time we recorded it, added some bongos, because he has played drums for quite a long time. We had the idea because the song wasn’t rolling smooth enough, so he was the right guy to do that. And he also invented the handclaps on the chorus.

An essential part of the song.
M: It was a fun memory from the sessions that we were standing in a circle around this microphone with Leo leading the claps.

Another stand-out song is “Mocking Bird”. The chorus reminds me of Teenage Fanclub, a band which Valtteri is a fan of.
V: Yeah, it wasn’t meant to be, but now that I think of it, the chorus structure reminds me of some of Gerard Love’s songs.

The glam guitar solo in the middle is especially great. Julian Cope has got this theory about the “glam descend” to describe this sound.
V: It’s called the Unison band. It’s my favourite guitar technique. I learned it just before I wrote the song. I had been wondering for years how to do it. And then Matti just said: “It’s done like this.” And I was like: “Wow!” (laughs)
M (laughs): I was surprised that he didn’t know how to do it, because I was doing it all the time.

And the instrumental ending turned out very nice as well.
M: I think you can hear some some sort of delay system that is similar to the “Eleven” album of 22-Pistepirkko, so I think it’s Petteri Rajanti’s fault. He missed one beat of the song. He mixed it really well.

The opening instrumental is called “Black Labrador”. Is that a reference to “Golden Retriever” by the Super Furry Animals or is it one of your pets?
V: No, actually I wrote some lyrics that I didn’t show to anyone. It was supposed to be a proper song with lyrics and it had some line about a black Labrador. I have always liked black labradors. And then we decided to make it instrumental and the title just stuck.

Who’s Jacques Lapin, mentioned in your song “Le Beat De Jacques Lapin”?
M: It’s some sort of a word game that we made up. It was first called “Jack Rabbit Stomp” and then we translated it to French.
Well, that fits because it sounds a little like Serge Gainsbourg in his beat phase.
M: I had an idea that the Jack Rabbit Stomp would be this dance movement, like these old songs, “Mashed Potatoes” and stuff like that.

And what’s the story behind the “Milk Club”?
V (laughs): It’s simply that when we started playing that song I started a new job at a school for disabled kids. And I had this workmate that used to drink milk with coffee, same as me, and we were the only ones in that workplace. So we took turns to buy milk and so she suggested in Finnish that we are the Milk Club. And I thought: Well, that’s the title. It’s nothing to do with the lyrics but I thought it sounded good.

The song that really surprised me on the album was “Better Times Comin’ Up”. It reminded me of classic soul and funk, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes – quite a departure from your usual sound. How did you come up with that?
M: You know, that was the target. I was listening to Curtis Mayfield a lot at the time. And the song’s working title for a long time was just “Mayfield”.

Oh, really?
M (laughs): If you put the CD in a player which reads the CD text it actually still says “Mayfield” by accident.
V: Also, I think on the song “Drifting” it says “Zombies”, because that was the working title.
M: Yeah, it was the target to make it as good as Mayfield.
V: We’re all big fans of Curtis Mayfield.

I think it’s really uplifting, almost like “Move On Up”.
V (laughs): Thank you, that’s quite a compliment.

Well, almost. But I really love it.
V: “Move On Up” is like the best song in the world or something.

Are you going to do “Better Times Comin’ Up” live? I can imagine it’s quite difficult without brass.
M: We never have. We tried to make it as a live number but it didn’t happen. So it’s not in our live set, unfortunately. It just didn’t roll like it should have and of course the trumpet and trombone are playing a big part of the song. So it’s studio version only.

You would need a few extra players to do justice to the song. And now you’re playing live as a duo. What happened to the bassist and the two drummers?
V (laughs): Well, the other guys are at home and we have a gig as a foursome in two weeks. We’re going to return to that format. This was only a one-off promotional tour.
M (laughs): It was cheaper to make it this way.
V: The first leg of the tour was Germany where we were supporting Cats On Fire. It was just an option to do it as a duo and we agreed and then started rehearsing as a duo.
M: It was easy for us to do, because Cats had this mini tour bus which had eight seats and they were filling six seats, so we fitted in the bus. It was easy to do.
V (laughs): The reasons are very practical.

But you’re not going to turn into an acoustic duo?
M: No, it’s a bit like “The Brain That Didn’t Die” album, I guess.
V: Actually, this is the first time we ever played live as a duo. Back then, although this first album was recorded by the two of us, when we did it live we immediately got the other guys in. But it’s been interesting, nice and quite easy. It only takes ten minutes to do the sound check. (laughs)

So what is programmed, the beats?
There is a sampler with some drum stuff. Then there is a keyboard and acoustic guitar.

But it’s good to hear that the others are still in the band.
V: That’s true. And we are looking forward to get back to the noisy stuff again.

Noisy stuff?
V (laughs): I mean, noisier stuff.
Like “Demonstrator”?
V: Yeah. To me now it seems that the foursome is like Dinosaur Jr. and we are like Simon & Garfunkel. When I think of the foursome I always think it’s so noisy and we are such a punk rock outfit, though it’s pop anyway.

Have you already written new songs for a third album?
M: Yeah, there are new songs and we have made some demos out of them.
V: But there are no particular plans to record yet. We hope it’s rather sooner than later. I hope it doesn’t take two and a half years this time.

Interview: Philco Bendix
Fotos: Varecia Variegata

Aktuelles Album: „Summer Challenge” (Bone Voyage Recording Company)