Electronic duo Jesse likes it retro: you won’t see them perfect looking at their laptop’s screen, but hitting old synths, instead. Their first album, ‘Kaikki’, was well-received and they quickly move to the front line of Finnish electronic music, appearing in several summer. Now the duo is back with the follow-up, Tum Tum Tum, in which they go deeper into their AOR-influenced old-fashioned electronica. But now we will let Kalifornia-Keke (left) and Stiletti-Ana (right) talk in the following Q&A.

One year older, one more album… how did your music evolve during this time?

Keke: I guess we wanted to go deeper into things with the new album and have more sounds and levels. More distortion and mistakes. We did this album very much live, so we played lots of things and we avoid doing much “copy-pasting” as with the first one. We also bought tons of analogue synths and gear and that gave us new perspectives. It’s great to use machines in a wrong way. It gives you a lot.

Ana: There was a natural development. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves and I think there is a big difference between our debut and ‘Tum Tum Tum’. We somehow managed to reach deeper levels and tighter grooves and that is mostly because we played so much stuff live.

Was it hard to work on the always feared second album?

Keke: No, we had the time of our life and didn’t give a damn about any norms and shit like that. It was our summer job.

Ana: Making the album was like a serious moment of hedonism.

There is a retro feeling in your music, do you avoid laptops and samples?

Keke: Yes to a certain degree. We use computer to record in the studio but thats about it. Samples we like, but you gotta have some dirt in them. Old samplers are great. In our live shows, we avoid laptops like the plague. I think it is underestimating the audience and yourself. Old gear gives you so much more because it gives you limits, which you must break to be creative.

Ana: It is pretty much what Keke said. Computer is great for recording and arranging songs, but I would hate to play live show with a laptop. For me, it is much more enjoyable to make music with instruments and it sounds way better too. Just the other day I played around with one old spring reverb and you all probably know that if you hit or drop one of those units it makes a big thunder like sound. Physically hitting your plugin wouldn’t do the same thing, hehe…

Your music is instrumental, so why not to name the songs in English so they would be more appealing to the international audience?

Keke: I love Finnish language. I don’t know so cool words in English so it would be really hard to figure out anything.

Ana: We’re just Finns, you know, we like to keep it in our mother tongue.

Will you consider featuring vocals in the future?

Keke: Music can take you to space and beyond, without lyrics. Sometimes lyrics can be too much. I don’t know right now, but there has been plans with some dudes. I don’t see any problem with instrumental music, though. Except trip hop, which sucks big time.

Ana: Smoky beats and jazzy vibes. Seriously, I would like to work with some vocalists.

What did you think when the single artwork was forbidden in Germany because of its resemblance to the SS insignia?

Keke: It was boring, because we didn’t mean the logo to be interpreted that way and the single was delayed because of that. But I understand the whole thing. To us it was always a heavy metal logo.

There are some new electro bands coming from Finland (Nightsatan, Le Corps Mince de Françoise, Zebra & Snake), any new favourites?

Keke: The electro album of the year was Randy Barracudas’ incredible debut, but he’s not a new dude on the scene. I’m more into the older bands like Op:l Bastards and Jori Hulkkonen, but I’ve been listening and playing Nightsatan single a lot. I think they have more of that “edge” I like in music. Sometimes the new bands sound a bit too polished. People shouldn’t be afraid of mistakes and things like that. It makes music interesting.

Ana: I’m not so much into new electro bands, but that might because I don’t follow the scene. But I’m a huge fan of some older Finnish electro bands, like, Imatran Voima, Mr Velcro Fastener, Acid Kings, Op:l Bastards, Uusi Fantasia etc. I saw Nightsatan live and that was great, I enjoyed their attitude and was impressed by their performance. It is always a pleasure to see a good synthesizer live in the days of crappy laptop shows.

Check out Jesse on MySpace.