Interview : Mika Vainio (Ø, Pan Sonic, Vainio / Väisänen / Vega...)

1. Your first musical memories?
My father coming home late in the evening with the new Beatles album 'Revolver', and then listening to it together. I was little over 3.

Another one from the same time is me banging the strings of a broken acoustic guitar with spoons. I told my mother that the 'piece' was called "Night of the bats".

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
The best: 'Gold is the metal' by Coil, in a limited special edition of 55. This was not on public sale. They agreed to arrange one for me.

The worst: The Muppet show soundtrack.

3. The first record that you lost? 
'Rife' by Foetus.

4. The name of your imaginary band?
Proboscis Moose.

5. What was your main inspiration when you recorded 'Konstellaatio', your latest album for Ø?
What equipment did you use?

Memories of my childhood before going to school. I spent a big part of it with my grandmother in a small town in the south of Finland.

As usual I used mainly analog synths / sounds. A sampler, with most of the samples taken from my analog instruments. Analog and digital fx. An electric guitar.

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
In 50 years, most of it will be the same idiotic crap that it has always been since the beginning of the 20th century.

In the year 5014, the number one hit will be Prince Harry vs Miley Cyrus - in a 7 dimensional special edition.

7. Who changed your life?
Alex Harvey.

8. Can you tell us more about Sähkö Recordings and your relationship with Jimi Tenor?
Me and Tommi Grönlund put up Sähkö to release my two first 12' inch releases. Tommi then continued to run the label as I wanted to concentrate on making music. Jimi is a good old friend of mine, though I see him only occasionally nowadays.

9. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
'Drift' by Scott Walker.

10. Your dream collaboration?
To make a soundtrack to a new Andrej Tarkovski movie (he is not really dead...? ) with György Ligeti - contributing telepathically from parallel worlds.

11. The record that freaks you out? 
A compilation of movie soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu, it being such an odd and unexpected combination of styles in the most wonderful way.

12. We can really hear the influence of Alan Vega and Suicide on your sound but, more surprisingly - we recently read in an interview that you are also a fan of Johnny Cash and Reggae music. In which way do all those influences affect your music?
They sure influence me, but it is hard to say how. It is happening quite indirectly.

13. The film that tickles your creativity?
There would be so many to mention. Let's say, 'Exotica' by Atom Egoyan.

14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
'Les Cloches - part 4 of 48 Esquisses' by Charles Valentin Alkan, played by Steven Osborne.

15. An album you wouldn't want to be?
Best of Goa trance vol. 178.

16. The cover version you would love to do?
King Crimson's 'Larks tongues in aspic' - the whole album.

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
I would move to some place where nightingales live all-year-round.

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
'Flowers of Evil' by Charles Baudelaire.

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Yes, several. For example hearing symphonic music all night, created by an air ventilation system, while having a high fever.

20. How would you like to die?

By being hit by a million ton freight train.


Hear 'Konstellaatio', Mika Vainio's new album for Ø. Go to Mika Vainio or Sähkö Recordings websites, and read his wikipedia and his discogs.

A selection of our favourites tracks by Vainio & Sähkö Recordings :




pix : Joséphine Michel