10
EESTI ELU reedel, 3. septembril 2021 — Friday, September 3, 2021
Nr. 35
EMW at Jazzkaar Festival
Exactly. And without these guys, I’m pretty sure the live sound wouldn’t be what it is right now. Actually, me and Totte, we met at this theatre thing I was acting in, I was playing Stokely Carmichael in this Miriam Makeba theatre thing. He was the sound design
er, so he really knows how to fill the space. He’s a valuable asset in that sense. In Noir, the tracks “Stars in Your Eyes” and “Pushing Daisies”, combine folk and aspects of electronic music. Do you decide how these genres combine before you start recording an album? It’s more spontaneous be cause I don’t know how to read notes or anything. So I loop things and mess around with the keyboards. Even with “Pushing Daisies”, I only had [Nicolas “Leissi” Rehn’s] guitar riff, and the whole song was built on the guitar riff. That little drum jam session we had at the end just happened at the studio. Teppo started beating the drums. I was like, “Okay, keep going, keep go ing.” Even after that, me and Totte actually edited that thing, ‘cause he was going real crazy with it. But, because I come from the sampling world, I wanted to give [for people who also like sampling] a simple drum break at the end that they can have fun with, too, and make their own songs. It’s real spontaneous in that sense. You’re trying to find the “it factor” of whatever you’re try ing to do; the main thing that pushes this song forward. Even with “Pushing Daisies”, we have four different versions. You know, anything might happen. At some point, we had this little clapping thing before the last chorus. I was like, “that’s too corny, let’s take that out. We can do it live, but on the record, that’s too corny.” ••• That spontaneity and con tinuous refinement made for a great live show and recordings to support it. You can find Jesse Markin’s latest album on Spoti fy here: https://tinyurl.com/ m3wp98ux (This interview has been edited and condensed.)
see the teeth bared, wide open flat lips, and you’ll hear an “euuu” sound, more or less. Ä is pronounced like the hard letter A in “cat.” For Ö, imagine that the täpid (dots above, or umlaut if you’re being very proper) are your eyes, and the wide, round Ö is the shape you need to make with your lips. Estonian lan guage YouTuber Liisa Orav has described the Ö sound as being similar to the letter E in “her,” which is perhaps a clearer explanation, but I promise that imagining that face will help you remember the sound as well! For Ü, Orav has compared the sound to the “ew” in “few.” You’ll want to move your lips into a tighter rounded shape, as if you were about to whistle. Now try going through all nine vowels, saying them three times each. It’ll let you hang off each letter a little bit before moving on to the next one. When that’s coming out smoothly, say each of the nine
vowels again, only once this time, at a slow and steady pace. When that’s ready, say the letters a bit faster, at the speed of your heart rate. If you mess up, don’t worry. Just pick it up and try again. When you’re ready, turn Angus’ song back on and take it at the tempo of the recording. Then use these sounds and harmonize as best as you can. For instance, take the octave above the main melody. When your cheeks and jaw get tired, just bob to the onedrop rhythm of drummer Rauno Vaher. Move to the sloping groove of bassist Mati Tubli, the two and four beat guitar chop of Elari Ennok and Anton Ventsel, and the grand procla mations of this seven-piece band’s horn section. Rejoice in the fact that you’ve exercised your Estonian muscles for the day, by not only vocalizing the sounds of the language, but doing it through the singing of a song. Hästi tehtud! Well done!
Part Two: Interview with Jesse Markin Interview by Vincent Teetsov Prior to his performance on Thursday August 26th at the Vaba Lava theatre centre, Estonian Music Week caught up with Finnish singer and rapper Jesse Markin, for a round of questions at the venue’s restaurant, KÄRBES Kitchen & Bar. Markin was the winner of two Finnish Emma Awards in 2019 and a Teosto Prize in 2020. To date, he’s released five albums, including three as a member of the duo The Megaphone State and two solo albums. Having just released his second solo album, Noir, an auditory spectacle with un expected turns in each song, it’s clear why he’s become a re spected name in Finnish music. ••• Coming from Finland, does Estonia feel comfy and familiar, or is it something totally different? It feels comfortable because the languages sound pretty much the same. There are some words that are very close to each other. They sound similar but mean different things. Culturally, we’re not too far from each other. Plus, I’ve been here before for this music thing I’ve got going on, because we’re basically like neighbours around here. I live in Helsinki and it takes an hour and 30 minutes by boat. You can just hop on it and be in Tallinn, have a nice weekend, and go back. How would you describe the Finnish hip hop scene on a global level? What’s some thing that it alone can offer the genre?
Language Lounge: “Konsonantide hümn” by Angus Vincent Teetsov Vowels are nine reasons, among others, why Estonian is a difficult language to learn. But tackling pronuncia tion and the alphabet is the first step before you can learn basic phrases, sentence struc ture, verbs, and so on. When you’re starting out with Estonian, it’s difficult to
Still from Angus’ “Konsonantide Hümn” lyric video.
On a global level I’d say it’s non-existent because, even if we’re looking at the language alone, there are only two, maybe three, artists that make hip hop in English, me included. So, on a global level, the impact is not that great at this point. But I’m trying to change that. Do you feel like a pioneer then? In a sense, yeah. But hey, we had Bomfunk MC’s way back in... was it in the 90s? They had the “Freestyler” song that was all over Europe and stuff like that. But I’m not sure, did it reach Canada or did they reach anywhere else? But yeah, there ain’t too many people rapping in English, or even singing in English in general. So, the Jesse Markin and his band. pressure is on me! You’ve been performing Everything is already made up. live with a band that consists Basically, he could just press of guitar, drums/percussion, play. So that’s the difference. bass, keyboards. Is there a You don’t really get feedback noticeable difference in the back and forth or anything like energy of shows with this, that. compared to performing with What has been your favou primarily electronic in rite part of translating the struments, like with Simo experimental production ele Tuominen for The Megaphone ments of your latest album State? into a live setup? Well yeah, definitely, because When we made the album, even with Teppo [Mäkynen], most of these players that I my drum player, and Totte jump on stage with were [Rautiainen], all these people, a lready on the album, like they’re real professionals and Teppo plays the drums on the they’re like sound nerds, the album. So it’s more like you same way I am. At the same tweak stuff in the studio. But time, Teppo’s doing something Totte himself, he’s a sound on stage, and I look at him and e ngineer. He’s making movie he gives me that energy, or I trailers, he’s in movies, docu give him something back, they mentaries, and stuff like that. change something, and then So he really knows a lot about Totte helps with the bass and does something crazy. Some sounds. They bring a lot to the thing always happens and it’s table. fun. When I was working with There’s this human element, Simo, we had the beats. where you can hear that it’s not
figure the vowels out because they are probably unlike letters you’ve ever heard or seen before, at least if the sounds of English are your only frame of reference. Thankfully, the reggae and ska band Angus, from Viljandi, have a boppy song just for this conundrum. If you want to practice Estonian vowels, “Konsonantide hümn”(“The Consonant Anthem”) is the song for you: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=EkbEHkS Ly1w&feature=youtu.be Ok, so the song title is a little confusing. For song lyrics that are all vowels, the title should probably be “Täis hääliku hümn” or “Vokaalide hümn.” Then again, maybe it’s meant to be a joke. Plus, put ting all those complex vowel sounds in the title would make it more difficult for us to name the song before we ever get acquainted with the sounds within. So how do we pronounce each vowel? To start, we must
target the vowels without special accents. That’s just what singer and guitarist Anton Ventsel leads us into at the song’s one minute mark: “A – E – I – O – U...” Ok, ok, hold up right there for a second! To clarify, the letter A is pro nounced softly, like opening wide at the dentist and saying “aaaaa...” E rhymes with “hey.” The letter I rhymes with the double Es in “feet.” O is like the rounded ending of “dough.” U sounds like the double Os in “root.” All good? Right, let’s continue. “...Õ – Ä – Ö – Ü.” Whew. This escalated very quickly. How can we make sense of all of those dots and squiggles over the letters? Well, the University of Tartu Phonetics Lab explains how the Õ sound can be voiced by placing your tongue “at the same height [as for] O and E. Your throat is slightly closed and your lips are unrounded.” When Õ is pronounced, you’ll
Photo: Tiina Palm
playback. We try to create live sound. We have these personal audio rehearsals at this farm every once in a while, where we tweak the sound. We have our own tables and everything, so the sound is always going to come out the way we want it to come out. It’s not supposed to sound exactly the same as on the record. You can recognize it, but you bring more power to it. The drums kick a bit differently and stuff like that. And obviously, Teppo has all these electronic percussion things. So you’re fine tuning for the acoustics of a live venue?
