How did you guys ended up at Texicalli in the first place?
Tuomo: ‘Our first EP ‘White Light’ was released through the Dorado label in London. There were some communication problems with them, so we wanted to find a new label. We tried to negotiate with some other foreign indie-labels and also major labels in Finland but nothing seemed to really hit the spot. Then Martti "Mr. Texicalli" Heikkinen happened to catch Emma's other project, a bossa nova trio, live at a Helsinki gig. He wanted to make a record with the trio, and when Emma asked whether he was also interested in signing Quintessence, he said yes without hesitating. Actually, what he said was "When can we book the studio? Two months from now?" The funny thing is that the band's sound had changed a lot from the first EP, but he didn't even ask to hear the new material. He gave us all the studio time we needed. Weird man.’

What’s the relation between Jupiter and Texicaly?
Tuomo: ‘Actually, Jupiter is the sublabel. Texicalli is a finnish indie-label that has released around a hundred records of varying styles during the ten years of it's existence. Jazz, folk, country, boogaloo, blues, surf rock, garage rock, electro ... whatever (In fact Martti once said that his policy is to release "good records and his friends' records" ...) When our co-operation with him kicked off, we started putting together ideas for new records that could be released through his label, like our own side projects and music by people we knew and played with. We had a very good feeling about the albums that were coming, so we suggested that a sublabel would be a good idea, something to make these records stand out from all the other stuff on Texicalli. But Martti was already one step ahead of us, he had the name and the logo ready.’

If I’m not mistaking the debut album only has been released in Finland, but is about to conquer the world right? How was the response in Finland?
Tuomo: ‘‘Talk less’ is being released in Britain right around now through whatmusic.com, and I think it's already out in several other countries. It was received quite well in Finland, there was some sort of hype thing happening. All the reporters seemed to want to be the first to praise our music, but sometimes you got the feeling that they hadn't really heard much of the music ... Anyway people seemed to think it was something that hadn't been done in Finland before, which may be partially true. We are not very big on the radio, most finnish bands that get a lot of airplay play rock, and we don't quite fit in with the american R'n'B stuff either. Luckily there are some smaller, more local stations that have been kind enough to play our music.’

The tracks of ‘Talk Less Listen More’ probably have been recorded years ago, do you guys still feel closely related to the sound of the first album?
Tuomo: ‘I think it sounds good. Maybe a bit sketch-like in places, because it was the first thing we did in the studio as a band. We produced it ourselves (with a strong contribution from our sound engineer T-mu Korpipää). We didn't have much experience in making albums. But there are two sides to that. We were really enthusiastic about trying things, and while some things on the album may sound silly or unprofessional, there's a certain good vibe in there. And of course we did succeed in many of the things we tried too.’

‘5am’ is out and about now (in Finland, that is), how would you say the overall sound has evolved looking back at Quintessence’s debut album?
Tuomo: ‘The music has more diversity, different tempos and grooves, different moods, different sounds. Better song writing I think. We used a different sound engineer (Mikko Raita), so the overall sound is quite different, maybe a bit softer and fuller, with less sharp edges. The production is more focused on this one, because we had a better idea of what we wanted and how to achieve it.’

What’s the story behind the album title?
Tuomo: ‘I think it started as a joke. We had recorded a good lead vocal track to the song ‘Think we should’. There was a line in the lyric that said "5 am in the morning". I think it was Aki (Haarala) who pointed out that "am" and "in the morning" mean the same thing. So we had to record that one line again as "5 o'clock in the morning". When we were talking with Vesa Manninen about the album covers, we had to decide on a name for the album and someone suggested "5 am in the morning". When we started thinking about it "5 am" actually seemed like a good name. We noticed that many of the lyrics had references to things happening at 5 am. The opening song ‘30th hour’ is about falling in love and staying up all night for the first time. There's a line that says "Let me add a few more hours to my usual 24". Coincidentally, the "30th hour" starts at 5 am. Then there's ‘Think we should’ that handles a couple fighting at 5 in the morning. Some of the songs didn't have names when we had already finished making the album. We decided to name the last song ‘5 am’. So it actually became a sort of theme for the album. That's why the sleeve also says "Strange things happen at 5 am".’

Read on ...

You already mentioned the sleeve art, happy with the outcome?
Tuomo: ‘As I said, the sleeve was designed by Vesa Manninen, who also is directing our music video for ‘Delirious’. I think he made a perfect visualisation of the phrase "strange things happen at 5 am". For example the inner sleeve has a picture of a very Finnish grain field at dawn, and there's an elephant walking through it. There's a dream-like feeling that I really like about his work.’

Jouni Helminen (aka Dharma One) was one of the originators but then made place for different artists. Is he still following it closely? Or translating the sound to the dance floor by means of a remix or something?
Tuomo: ‘At some point there was talk of remixes, but we've forgotten that. Hmmm. Maybe we should bring that up again ...’

Who’s taking up the mic alongside Emma on ‘Game Over’ or ‘Dig Deeper’, his voice reminds me of Georg Levin (Sonar Kollektiv) sometimes.
Tuomo: ‘That would be me.’

All tracks preserve a great balanced production; all instruments come into the play with shouting down others. There are always nice keys that pop up all of a sudden, strings or chilled drum sticks, whatever really. Who’s handling end production? Do you guys talk about it/change a lot?
Tuomo: ‘We try to be as democratic as possible when it comes to production, but of course it gets hard when there are seven people with opinions in the studio. Me and Aki (and the engineer, of course) spent the most time in the studio, especially during the mixing. The others would mostly drop by now and then, to give their contribution. Everyone is very precise about their own sounds.’

How is the group dynamics? How does a song generally come about? And does Emma Salokoski come up with all lyrics for instance?
Tuomo: ‘I've written some songs alone, but we write most of the songs together as a band. Someone, usually Aki, has an idea, a chord progression or something. We jam on them and try to develop a groove. The lyrics come from Emma and me, about 50/50.’

Most lyrics handle about (lost) love - agree?
Tuomo: ‘So it seems, at least on ‘5 am’. Maybe we'll start writing happier songs in the future ...’

Are you guys on a common musical diet? I mean, has the group got lots of artists/genres in common out of which the q-sound evolves?
Tuomo: ‘As a band we were initially deeply influenced by the neo-soul sounds of Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, The Roots and other artists from that scene. Also we draw a lot from classic soul and funk. On ‘5 am’ we also explored with some afro-beat rhythms. But as individuals we have widely varying tastes. Maybe the biggest thing we have in common is that we are quite open-minded about music and styles. I think we'll be seeking for that open-mindedness some more in our own music as well.’

The sound has got an amazing live feel, I assume almost all of it is recorded live and sample free?
Tuomo: ‘Yep, all live. There may be some self-made percussion loops in there somewhere, but always mixed in with live stuff.’

Will you guys be taking it on stage outside of Scandinavia?
Tuomo: ‘Hopefully so, nothing lined up so far... We did play a gig in London at Cargo. The night was hosted by Gilles Peterson, so it was big for us.’

Finally, are all of you involved in the funky Q-continuum outfit as well?
Tuomo: ‘Yes indeed. It's all of us and many more! I'm the lead singer in that group and we just released a spectacular double-cd (Organ Kane's Quintessential
grooves) in Finland a few months ago, hopefully it will reach the record shops near you soon enough.’

Where does Q-Continuum starts and/or Quintessence start?
Tuomo: ‘Quintessence is from Tellus, Q-continuum is straight from Jupiter.’

Anything else you’d like Beyondjazz readers to know?
Tuomo: ‘You are all beautiful.’

'5am' will be available worldwide from September through Soulseduction distribution

by Hans for PLaSTIKS Magazine and beyondjazz.net