Interviews - Neuroactive

Neuroactive - Jarrko Tuohimaa - Interviewed by Darrel Hughes.

Formed in Finland during 1991, Neuroactive are Jarkko Tuohimaa (music) and Kimmo Karjalainen (vocals-lyrics). A band that has a very distinctive sound, fantastic production and a very creative sound designed to harness their thought provoking songs.

With the imminent release of their new album “Transients”, here is an insight to musical genius of Neuroactive.

DH: What musical collaborations have you been involved in since you formed Neuroactive?.

JT: Fiber-Optic Rhythm was very interesting collaboration in total. I had to learn new approach to my music when I worked with different singers. I've mixed a lot of bands during all these years. I have produced some. and one interesting collaboration has been with Chrissy (from The Echoing Green) our band is called Blissbaby. We will do album together later this year.

DH: Which collaborations did you find the most rewarding or most creative?.

JT: Remixing work has been really interesting. I've enjoyed remixing of B! machine and Iris the most.

DH: Do you have any plans for new collaborations?, and what makes you decide who you work with?.

JT: Usually I decide, if I like the material I'll do it -simple as that!. Of course sometimes it's just work and I do it for the money.

DH: Since your work on the Neuroactive albums; Morphology, Phonic Trace, Fiber-Optic Rhythm , how would you say your approach to making music developed?.

JT: I'm glad to say that all music is about progress towards something new. That's why it's so interesting world. When 1994 we released "Morphology" it was mixture of long period of time before that. All the tracks were made during 6 years before that. It somehow reflected our teenage times and somehow rougher side of me and my band mates of that time. Phonic Trace was much more mature and many ways more finished album. Music had progressed more into Electro territory. Fiber-Optic Rhythm opened much more melodic world to me. A Different Drum must have made our entrance into Synth-Pop world much easier.

DH: What studio(s) have you been working in?, do you have your own?.

JT: I have worked on several big studios in Finland, but all Neuroactive material has been done on my own studio (Soundwave 2000).

DH: What production or remix work have you been involved in?.

JT: I've done so many that it wouldn't be interesting to read whole list, but couple of the most interesting ones has been with: Iris, B! Machine, Alphaville.

DH: Explain how your home studio set-up is configured to your requirements?.

JT: Soundwave 2000 configured for my needs with 62 digital mixer channels and 320 MIDI channels on mixdown. And addition to that I have Pro Tools system. So I can do quite freely what ever I want to with my setup.

DH: What is it like to be on tour as Neuroactive?.

JT: It's fun, it's quite hard to describe. We come along pretty well on the road. But there's always long periods of travelling which is quite annoying.

DH: Do you miss performing live?

JT: Yes sometimes, recently we have had only good shows.

DH: What was the best and worst times on the road with Neuroactive?.

JT: I think one of the funniest times were when we toured in Finland about 4 or 5 years ago and our singer wore women's robe and long Marilyn styled wig on stage and just danced with big hairdryer on stage.

DH: How did the Neuroactive tour go in the USA?.

JT: It was great fun.. Audience were more open than in Europe.

DH: Any plans to tour England?.

JT: Unfortunately we don't have plans to come down there, but it would be nice to play there sometime in future!.

DH: Neuroactive have a new vocalist-lyricist, can you explain how this came about & why?.

JT: When former members left the band I decided that I want to do instrumental music. But somehow that didn't feel right for me by that and I asked Kimmo to sing on one Neuroactive track (Parallel). We liked the result so much that we just decided to continue our co-operation.

DH: At what point of the creative writing process do you decide if a track will have vocals or not?, which comes first the lyrics or the composition, or are they born together?.

JT: Composition comes always first, but usually composition is worked out somehow to fit vocals more perfectly. I always know from the start if I'm working on vocal track or instrumental track.

DH: What kind of song theme's do you write about these day's, if any?.

JT: I usually give a track a working name that sort of describes it. Usually Kimmo changes it totally into something else. And I think it's great fun to see what he comes up with lyrics. I think Kimmo's the one who gives the track the theme. I usually just make track that's moody in a way.

DH: What are the best conditions for you to compose?. Describe your working methods?.

JT: It's quite hard to say, because I always use my studio to work on a track and conditions are always pretty much the same. I usually work on day time, sometimes it extends to night time. But usually I loose some of my creativity If I'm tired.

DH: What inspires you to write/compose lyrics/music?.

JT: Other music inspires me to compose. I think music is communication. Composers have to communicate with music. And communication brings out progression and that's why music is developing constantly.

DH: What direction(s) is your music evolving into regarding style-genre?.

JT: I hope it's going towards the perfect pop tune;-) No, I don't really know. I want to keep some Electro, Trance and Techno elements in my music but I want always maintain catchy melodies on top of it all.

DH: How did your fans deal with the changes in your music style over the years?.

JT: It seems like most of them like the process we've gone through. We haven't had too much complaints about it.

DH: Where are you most popular?.

JT: It's hard to say.. probably in Central Europe.

DH: Have any recent artists/bands influenced you in anyway?.

JT: I think Faithless and Fluke has been most influential during past years.

DH: What other artists/bands do you like or listen to?.

JT: I have been very impressed by last Mesh album and Underworld is also totally awesome.

DH: Do you plan to generate a more prominent presence on the internet?.

JT: We don't have any further plans on that. We just want to give our listeners better online service in our own website.

DH: How do you feel about promoting your music on the internet?, the pros & cons?.

JT: Internet is great way of promote, but there's always threat of giving away too much. I still like the idea behind real records. Record is concept that is sold. I don't like that songs are sold online. Music looses it's personality.

DH: How involved are you with the Official Neuroactive website?.

JT: I maintain it.

DH: What new material have you recorded?, when can we hope for it to be released and via what label?.

JT: We are doing final mixes on album "Transients" now and it will be out through A Different Drum and it's Licensed to Memento Materia in Europe.

DH: Has anyone made or making new remixes for you?, from where and when will they be released?.

JT: No.

DH: Are you working with other musicians for Neuroactive? what is their role?.

JT: We aren't doing same sort of co-operation on this album as we had on Fiber-Optic Rhythm, but we're hoping to do more in future releases.

DH: Have you tried or discovered any new approaches in writing & recording your new material?.

JT: This album was written quite the same way as the last one. I started all tracks from the chord progressions. Then I work on basslines and after that comes melodic hooks.

DH: Why did you choose Neuroactive for a band name, what other name(s) did you nearly choose instead of Neuroactive as a band name?.

JT: I think it felt quite unique by the time when we decided to use it. Then I thought It didn't really mean anything directly. Afterwards I found out that it's quite common name for neural medicines. I don't remember many of those alternative names, but I think one was Nova.

DH: Do you plan any T.V. appearances or radio interviews in support of Neuroactive and any forthcoming new releases?, etc.

JT: I think there will be some...

DH: Do you have any tour planned or in the pipeline?, is this something you consider?.

JT: Not right now, we're not going tour this year.

DH: Have you any other deal(s) or involvement(s) with other musical companies?.

JT:  No.

DH: What does the near future hold for Neuroactive?.

JT:  Mostly album related promotion and we will release some CDM's from the "Transients" album after it's released.

DH: What else have you been doing outside of the world of music?.

JT: I'm working as a Sound Designer... so my world is kind of related to music all the time.

DH: What made you choose 'Transients' as the title for your new album?.

JT: It somehow covers everything that the new album is about.

DH: What theme’s does this new album cover?.

JT: It is telling sort of stories of different kind of relationships between people. Some of them can be considered even love songs. Many of the lyrics are about inner state of our mind. Somehow revealing our intimate thoughts.. But all our lyrics are not really taken from our own life. They're just things that we think of.

DH: What video work have you done and how did this come about?.

JT: We have done 2 videos. First one was "Scanner"... which wasn't really any professional video, it was just made for our own fun. Second video was from "Space Divider" it was really low cost video also, but we wanted to use it commercially. It gained 2nd position in Much Music video awards here in Finland. It really surprised us, but director of that video was even more surprised, because it was his music video!.

DH: What is your all time top 10 of synthesizers?.

1. Waldorf Microwave XT (amazing and very unique synthesis!).

2. Roland JP-8000 (simple but effective. Very trancey!).

3. Roland Juno 60 (basic machine for good basses.

Better sounding DCO's than Juno 106's).

4. SCI Pro-One (great for hard basses, Great ultra clean filters + very fast envelopes).

5. Korg MS-20 (I love it's ring modulator and distorted filters).

7. Korg MS-2000 (different from MS-20 but sounds good on it's own). Very good vocoder!).

8. Roland JV-1080 (very slow to edit but always worth doing).

9. Doepfer 100M series modular (What can I say).

10. Yamaha AN1x (I like FM-part of it's synthesis).

DH: Also from Finland, what do you think of Darude?, and his success?.

JT: I'm glad that finally something from Finland gets into to spotlight internationally. Otherwise. I mean musically Darude doesn’t really do it for me. It's just too much 909 for me. if you know what I mean.

DH: How is your collaboration working with A Different Drum in the USA?.

JT: A Different Drum is amazing record company. I have only good things to say about them. Our collaboration has been really fertile. Todd Durrant (head of the company) is ultimately a great person. A Different Drum has offered me many great co-operations during these years.

© 27-06-2001 - Copyright Darrel W Hughes.