HEAD VS HEART
Released November 22, 2013
What are the songs about?
Incomplete
I saw a video of the famous polar bear Knut dying and wanted to write about the experience. It didn't really get anywhere. I had a private concert in the beginning of 2012 and so I thought I'd write 'Incomplete' as an 'open letter' to someone special in the audience. Unfortunately she was absent that night and eventually, I got over her and wanted to write new lyrics in which the co-producer Jaani Peuhu helped me. I had nine pages of ideas and lines and so we went through them at Jaani's place, put the lines in order and wrote the song that wintery night in March. I am very, very pleased with the lyrics. I love strong statements such as the opening line in the chorus and I also love the juxtaposition of the poetic verses and the straight-to-the-point chorus. I released the first version of the song in October 2012 and got messages from people from all around the world telling how the song helped them in their life situations. I was stunned, it felt amazing.
Oh These Days
April 2012. One weekend I decided that I would write a song, played with sounds and came up with a beat. Out of blue, I started singing 'o — oh, oh these days we've been so lonely'. Those were the first words to come to my mind. I knew there was a strong potential in the song but the lyrics took months and months to come. I ended up writing the lyrics with Jaani in October — they tell quite a clear story about a 'friend crush'. I'm satisfied with the musical aspect of the song, too. It sounds BIG and the melodies do get stuck in your head for days.
Shadows
I wrote 'Shadows' in April 2012, too. The lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, which I like. Originally, I wrote it for myself as a reminder for not letting 'the shadows close you in'. The song built up in only a few hours, if I remember correctly, and later on it developed into a massive piece of art so to say. I remember it was kind of a tricky one to mix but I'm really satisfied with it, even now! Lyrically I'm most satisfied with this thought I realized during the writing process and which made it way to the c-part: "I need to lose my fear of endings / to be able to begin".
Hold On
I was enjoying summer at our summer cottage and suddenly the chorus melody took over my head. 'Hold On' was a pleasure to write, it was quickly finished — though, the lyrics took ages, again. The initial lyrics had gone out of date and I had to have new ones; I remember taking a tram ride from the city centre to Munkkiniemi in the winter of 2013 only to write the lyrics of the song. I came up with something that we then finalized together with Jaani.
Unspoken
This is the most personal song on the EP and actually the last song I wrote to it, too. Sometimes it's better to leave it all unspoken, just let things be in the status quo even though it hurts, that's what the song is about. I'll share an anecdote: in fact, I did not leave it all unspoken but did indeed open my mouth. I'm really satisfied with the song, it's one of the best ones I've ever written. It's a hard song to sing — especially when you stubbornly have decided to sing it from the highest notes you can possibly hit without falsetto. But we've done it live a few times and hopefully in the future, too.
