A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a record called Up and Running by a Finnish musician by the name of Matti Jasu. Sitting somewhere between Magical Mystery Tour, Pet Sounds, The Soft Bulletin, Midnite Vultures, and Summerteeth, it’s a glorious technicolour dream of a record full of pop nuggets, pocket symphonies, and cosmic wonder. You can read more of my typically long-winded thoughts on the album in my recent review here, but the short version is that it concludes with the words “I love it. Love, love, love it.”

Anyway, as great as I found Up and Running to be, it was only the beginning. Originally a founding member and, alongside Valtteri Virtanen, one of the principal songwriters in an indie pop band named Goodnight Monsters – releasing two records between 2006 and 2008 – Jasu has since gone on to release four exceptional solo records: 2012’s Samurai Vs the Computer, 2013’s Pin on the Map, 2016’s Gone to the Dogs, and this year’s Up and Running. Broadly speaking, you could band the first three together as a trilogy of records in thrall of the golden age of 1960s guitar pop, largely drawing on influences from the British Invasion, Laurel Canyon, indie rock, and widescreen Americana. In the context of its predecessors, Up and Running is something of an outlier in this respect. Whilst those same ingredients are still in the mix, the range of synthesisers, effects, and experimentation have been turned up to eleven, with the arrangements and production work somewhat given away by its atomic pink sleeve.

The one constant spanning across all four records is Jasu’s songwriting, which is lean and concise, packed with playful lyrics and melodies that burrow deep into your grey matter. Whether it’s the economical, live-sounding Neil Young-esque jams that populate the first two records, the immaculately crafted Rubber Soul-era-Beatles-meets-the-Byrds of Gone to the Dogs, or the kaleidescopic cosmic pop collage that is Up and Running, Jasu is an astute writer and, well, basically a master of the art.

With all of the above in mind, I wanted to throw a few questions Matti’s way. Having spent some time exploring his back catalogue, I emailed a few questions over and awaited his response – hoping that my convoluted, rambling style would make some kind of sense. Fortunately they did, and it’s been really interesting (and a pleasure) to not only find out more about how Up and Running came to be, but also how Matti goes about his practice as a musician.

Note: as ever with these things, my questions are in bold and Matti’s responses in plain text.

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• Hey Matti. I’ve been bingeing your solo records over the last few days. I think I’ve instantly become a huge fan. I know that it’s not an original question to start with, but I was wondering whether you could just kind of introduce who you are and what you do?

I’m a songwriter and musician from Turku, Finland. A multi- (but not a virtuoso) instrumentalist making independent music on the outskirts of pop and rock genres.

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• Your new album really stands out from your previous records, with a far more eclectic sound palette and some truly gorgeous instrumentation. I’m listening through again as I type out these questions actually, and I’m still picking up on more tiny details in the arrangements. It’s such a rich piece of work in that respect. What was your thought process as you approached the project?

I wanted to do something different from my previous albums. I like the guitar-driven “band sound” as much as the next guy, but I thought there was another side of my music that was missing from my earlier work. So I headed to a new direction and kicked my songwriting, arrangements and the production up a notch. The goal was to make a colourful pop album and experiment with recording techniques, instruments, sampling and whatnot.

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• I mentioned a few influences that I could hear coming through on the new record, but I was wondering who (or what) specifically you were inspired by during its making?

I listened to a lot of Beck, mostly Odelay, Midnite Vultures and Modern Guilt albums. All the kaleidoscopic pop records were the main inspiration. The classics like The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips, Sgt Pepper’s and Abbey Road… Bowie, Janelle Monáe and De La Soul were playing on the stereo too. Some specific songs were often influencing the production. Like on “Sundown Interlude”, I wanted to make something like The Beatles’ “Flying”. McCartney’s weird “Check My Machine” inspired me to use banjo on “Sunday Scaries”. Lorde’s “Buzzcut Season” had an effect on “Bicycle Boy”. And so on and so on…

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• I’m intrigued by your previous three solo albums each having different backing bands – two with The Loose Train and one with The Close Encounters. I can hear parallels with your work and Neil Young, especially on Gone to the Dogs where your playing really reminds me of some Crazy Horse stuff. I guess I’m asking two questions here; firstly, what’s the reason for the different names, and secondly, am I right about the Young reference??

Those two bands have slightly different line-ups and sound, so I thought I should use different names for them, too. And you’re right about Neil Young – his music has had a huge influence on my songwriting, guitar playing and recording process.

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• How do you write a song. Do you tend to sit at the piano or with a guitar and see it through, or are you chipping away at things over a long period of time? I’m also wondering whether you approached the writing of the new album differently to how you did on, say, Pin On the Map?

I usually write small amounts, like a one verse or a chorus at a time. I play guitar or piano and if something comes up, I record it. Later I glue these little parts together to make whole songs. During the making of Up and Running I kept changing and writing stuff pretty late in the process. For example, I completely changed the verse chords and melody of “Bicycle Boy” three times while recording it. Basically, the writing process has been the same on my previous records, but this time I kept editing and re-writing the songs for a longer time.

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• Your lyrics are consistently great too. In terms of your overall sound, I think they’re a huge part of the attraction for me. There are so many artists that make music that is similar in having the same reference points and things, but are often let down by having generic lyrics. What I really love about your work is that it’s familiar yet alien at the same time. I hope that makes sense! I’m presuming that you’re writing in a second language which makes it all the more interesting too. Do lyrics come easy to you, but also how does it work for you in terms of the language – do you tend to write in English naturally?

All my favourite artists sing in English and the same goes with TV-shows, movies and stand-up comedy. So in that way it feels natural for me. There’s also a difference in phonetics of Finnish and English – I prefer the sound of English in pop music. I like your “familiar yet alien” depiction because it’s really something that I try to achieve in lyrics. It’s also the main struggle for me while writing – how to convey a feeling without being too generic and po-faced or how to tell a story without being predictable. Composing and arranging is way easier for me than coming up with good lyrics. The English language itself isn’t really a problem although sometimes I do find myself searching for an alternative to a word I can’t pronounce well enough!

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• How do you tend to record? The first three records especially sound like they are built on live performances to tape. I was wondering what your studio process is…

The first three albums were recorded live in the studio. We played about 2-4 takes per song with the whole band. So those were pretty straight-forward and fast sessions. Pin On the Map album was recorded in approx. 6 hours + the time it took me to record the vocal overdubs. But Up and Running was a totally different project – I recorded the tracks one by one on my own. I started by creating a basic drum track from loops and then began to build on that, usually recording the guitars first. Markus Jalonen, whom I’ve known since our first band Goodnight Monsters, provided really funky and powerful bass tracks. The songs kept changing their form a lot during the process. I went a bit multitrack-happy and resulted in 30-40 tracks per song. I felt sorry for my brother Appu who then had to mix and balance those tracks! But he did an amazing job and really took the songs to a new level.

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• Are you already thinking about the next record?

Yes I am! I have some production ideas and I’m writing new stuff. The demo cassettes and iPhone folders are starting to fill up.

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You can find Matti Jasu on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. His entire back catalogue can be found on Bandcamp.