-jS-: Hello Krii, for a start I would like to ask you all the usual
stuff, like your real name, age and the place where you live.
Interview with Krii/Rebound/TDR
-jS-
-jS-: Hello Krii, for a start I would like to ask you all the usual
stuff, like your real name, age and the place where you live.
Krii: Yep, the name is Ilpo Kärkkäinen and I'm 19... I've been living all my life in a town called Kiuruvesi (in Finland)... A really small place but breeds lots of good talent like Wesi and Dijin of the Rebound Crew. I might look out for some new local talent sometime possibly on rbd. At the moment I mostly fuck around in Mikkeli though due to my military service...
Mmm about my life... music is the thing for me... besides that... I skateboard... and do some graphic and web design... some poetry and prose (even more nowadays while in the army)... I'm very interested in science, been doing a little photography too... I wish I had the time to concentrate well on all of those things... but I don't so. Music stays number one. Style. No matter if it is skating, music, art, the way I look... there has to be some style in my life. Generally I just have tons of ideas and plans about everything in my life, most of them crash but something always comes out of it.
-jS-: Another pretty common question: How long have you been tracking and when did you start? On which tracker?
Krii: Mmh well... I haven't been tracking for that long, 4-5 years... but more seriously (like, tracking every day), only for 3 years... nothing much but music. My first experiments with a tracker were back in the early days with Scream Tracker 2, but that didn't last really... I got really more excited about tracking when FT2 was released. I used that for a little less than a year, then I decided to learn ST3 just for fun and change and as I got into it I noticed how much more comfortable ST3 was to use actually... no hassling with the mouse and all that stuff. So I guess I could say moving on to Impulse Tracker was a natural step I took as I keep moving.
-jS-: One can see that you are pretty attached to Impulse Tracker. Why's that? Just because of those resonant filters (which btw sound really good in dance tunes)? Or do you have some other reasons?
Krii: Only because of the filters? No way... The time I started using Impulse, we could only dream of having such things in trackers *smiles* and I only started using resonant filters some months ago as I upgraded my computer to MMX. Anyways... I just simply love the way the thing works. Once you've got it under control (which takes some time and learning, I admit that) you can friggin' track with your eyes closed. *smiles* Fast and smooth and nothing much to complain about in terms of sound quality.
-jS-: In your opinion what would the "perfect tracker" (program) look like?
Krii: An interesting question, really... Aren't we all complaining about our trackers lacking this and that all the time... (All mah respect to the programmers tho, especially Jeffrey Lim... brilliant job on the Impulse.) A perfect tracker for me... Impulse has the interface, it's hard to think of anything to make that better... Add up more real time effects (support for Direct-X plugins), add up midi-sequencing possibilities, well... Hmm basically I could say that a perfect tracker for me would be Cubase/Cakewalk with the basic interface and the tracking capabilities of Impulse Tracker.
-jS-: What other programs (besides IT) do you use for creating your music?
Krii: Ding, and dang. A little this and a little that, you know. *smiles*
-jS-: Where do you get your samples? What 'real' hardware do you possess?
Krii: I sample everything. Although I lack a proper microphone, I've achieved some very interesting results by sampling a hoover for example. I also sample piles of real old vinyls and stuff... the television... I own a Korg Prophecy synthesizer and a Roland S-760 sampler... also an electric guitar and bass... I always spend the money I save on music equipment. My friends Wesi and Dijin (both in Rebound) own stuff like Yamaha cs1x, Yamaha an1x, Novation Super Bass Station, Behringer Virtualizer, SBlive... so I often get to use those too. Sometimes we gather all our gear together and have some wicked sampling sessions... vocoding and filtering and ringmodulating (all in real time). The television output for example is real fun and gives ya great samples... We also do lots of loop-twisting... just tweaking everything until it becomes something completely new and unrecognizable.
-jS-: What's your opinion on sample ripping?
Krii: It's definately a good thing for one to be able to rip samples in the tracker scene, for not all of us are maniac enough about this to spend lots of money on gear... some people dislike ripping but I don't quite see their point... As long as the respect for the samples goes to the ones who deserve it, ripping is definately okay... It serves creativity, although it is always more creative to create your own samples. Of course it is possible to create great samples just by using software as well, things are just not as versatile that way. However, I think that an original track needs original samples - always try to produce as much of your own samples as possible and then rip if you have to. In the commercial scene... ripping is a completely different thing, since there is money involved, which sucks. I just think it sucks.
-jS-: From where do you get inspiration? Because you are obviously one of the most productive musicians around. And besides being very productive you offer some pretty quality tunes and I guess that this involves a bit of inspiration too.
Krii: My inspiration comes from music that I listen to, the sounds that I hear... the world can be a funny thing... emotions... a great source of inspiration... one can turn anger to art. The ultimate goal is to blend the art and the emotion into one.
-jS-: Has someone remixed you (your music I mean)? Usually Internet label EPs contain the original tune and some remixes. So, do you ever plan on releasing an EP or do you just release your tunes one by one?
Krii: Oh I have released some EPs... mostly on Rebound. Not many people ever seem to remix my tracks. It's more like I remix theirs, I love remixing... Anyway... if somebody wants to get on it... feel free to remix any of my stuff, send it over and I'll check it out for a release somewhere maybe.
-jS-: Which is your favorite tune amongst those which you've composed? And why?
Krii: I have no favourites amongst tracks of my own, coz my perspective to them is so much different than with the other music/tracks I listen to. Basically I'm usually trying to make my next tune better (on some level) than the tune before that... and I think I've pretty much succeeded in that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make every tune more popular or liked (screw that sort of thing), but better in some area of production that I think has to be improved. There is always so much to do with that stuff.
-jS-: Another common question: please tell us who your favourites are. In the commercial music scene, the tracking scene, your favourite demos, demogroups and other stuff like that.
Krii: There are tons of them... To name a few of my definitive favourites... Commercial artists and bands: Ed Rush, Optical, Dom+Roland, Grooverider, Panacea, E-Z Rollers, Matrix, DJ Krush, DJ Krust, Tha Alkaholiks, The Wu Tang Clan, Public Enemy, DJ Teebee, Squarepusher, Banaczech, Flytronix, Jori Hulkkonen, Man with no name, Union Jack, Hidden Agenda, Cypress Hill, 4hero, Jonny L, Procul Harum, Beck, The Cardigans, Carbage, Smashing Pumpkins, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Pantera, Machine Head, Method Man, Ghostface Killah,... Music is one and music is all about emotions.
The trackerskkene... Deepflow, Maverick, Mentz, Holyghost, Ganja Man, Deginge, Falcon, Velvet, Hardwax, Mad-E, Dharma, Stereoman, Workbench, All the Rebound Industries, Luke Skywalker / The Twang Dewd, Distance, Nekrite, Orlingo.
Demogroups... Mmh to tell you the truth I really don't know much about what's up with the demo side of things... Well I made a track to this demo "Toypush" by Purple and although I haven't been able to watch the demo I've seen and loved a couple of their other creations so let's say Purple is my favourite kru... And of course the Amiga posse Agravedict... made some 4chans and stuff for my friends in there. The favourite demo... yee, "Panic" by FC. Coders and graphicians... Don't ask.
-jS-: Your attitude regarding real commercial music? MTV?
Krii: Music is always music. Any kind of music created because of the passion for it is worth learning to understand. Anyone creating music only because of money is not worth my respect. Respect and music are two different things. I loved Madonna's latest album.
-jS-: Are you thinking about going commercial?
Krii: For me at least it's not like I just decide to "go commercial"... it's not that simple, and it's not that easy. Of course one can send demos to every goddamn piece of shit labels (with all due'spect - I have had some bad experiences), maybe get released, suddenly get screwed in the end, and then say "Dammit, lads, I'm commercial"... But that kinda action is not worth it, it only hurts a person that really wants to try his/her best all the time and maybe get respected some day. Like, it would be great to earn some money with my music, really incredible to live on making music... and that indeed is my aim at the moment (as I will also start studying MIDI-music, media and trade in a college in fall 2000), but one must not let money or fame or shit go beyond the music. I don't wanna put out piles of crap on some commercial labels, I'd rather put it out in the scene for now. *smiles* However, I will be releasing two tracks on Neferiu Records (Calgary, Canada) in some time (1-3 months). Neferiu also involves some other lads known from the scene, like Mortimer Twang and Dupont. So look out for some quality underground music in that direction. On their site are some realaudio previews of the forthcoming releases.
-jS-: Just for the fun of it: What was your favourite music group when you were... let's say 10? If you can remember of course...
Krii: Nah I wasn't in the scene at the time. *smiles* I watched my first demos when I was something like 10 though... So the Future Crew was my fav demo group. *smiles*
-jS-: I really like graphics included in releases. If I could make a rule I would say that all releases should contain some art in addition to the music because it's really nice to watch some appropriate graphics while you are listening to the tunes. What do you say? Should this be a rule?
Krii: Let us just keep music as music and enjoy the possible graphics included as a nice extra. *smiles*
-jS-: What's your opinion on diskmags?
Krii: I love diskmags, of course. Really, it's great to have such things in the scene to keep it all together.
-jS-: Greets and other stuff?
Krii: Props to all my dewds who stand there for me, as you know I stand here for you. For music... If you wanna keep updated keep checking my new site (some stuff available in there that will never be released in the scene). Also naturally you'll find me releasing on Rebound and Tokyo. I just invested all my savings on some more equipment (samplers Roland S-760 and Casio SK-1) so in the future my stuff will get more and more MIDI based... Yea and you can always hit me at eeka@dlc.fi. I'm always ready for interesting conversations on just about anything...
One more thing... one of my latest projects is to put up a webmag covering areas such as the music/demo scene, commercial music scene, graphic and literal art, design, maybe skateboarding, graffiti, philosophic stuff, underground movements, lifestyles, whatever's interesting... whatever's fresh... a mag aimed not only at our scene, as you might already have concluded... a mag for everyone sharing the kind of mentality/interests that makes the mainstream maintain a certain distance... art, music, design, articles, interviews... whateva we can come up with. If there's anyone interested and talented out there reading this... any "freelance" journalists or photographers... graphic artists... simply just people who can do something that might help and are interested in such a project... get in touch, the team for issue 01 is being built up. All ideas, comments, criticism and stuff is always more than welcome. Hit me....
-jS-