10 x 4 – Mesak

Thanks to founders of the label Laton Anna Ceeh and Franz Pomassl, modern soul musician Mesak has been in town a couple of times now. I’ve always wanted to sit down with him and have a little chitchat about the music he produces, but each and every time one or the other of us was too drunk to talk about things like how it feels to be the torchbearer of awesome musical genre skweee, or the Finnish-styled sauna. Of course asking him about his huge amount of pseudonyms would have been great, too, but as I said, I missed the opportunity. So I decided to send him this questionnaire, which he answered to some extent.

But if you live in Berlin, you have the chance to meet him in persona when he enters the stage of the Haus der Kulturen at the Worldtronics Festival 2011 along with some other very talented musicians on November 30th. That’s exactly four days before his new project will drop, but don’t worry! We’re going to remind you about that.

Favorite part of the day to create?
I’m most active in the mornings; very rarely I do anything creative in the studio in the evenings. Almost never in the night time. Problem is that even if I get up early I like to stretch breakfast past noon so I might miss that creative moment quite often.

Method or madness?
Madness.

First musical love?
They were showing “The Tripods” on the Finnish TV when I was nine, I think, and I taped the title sequence a few times in a row to listen to on my Walkman so I wouldn’t have to rewind so often. There must have been other stuff before but I guess that counts as early musical love.

Last musical love?
I wish there was something hitting as hard as the synth stuff from when I was a kid, or the rap a bit later and certain techno after that in the early 90´s. Most of the biggest things for me lately have been old records actually.

Favorite instrument?
Roland SH-7, got that more than 15 years ago already but I’m still using it in every second track. But I consider effect boxes as instruments too, for example the Boss DD-3 can be very musical. Mine got busted a year ago and after I had it repaired it wasn’t so good anymore. Still, I don´t wanna get a new one to replace that.

Your biggest break so far?
That could be Mr Velcro Fastener: Electric Appliances with Plump DJ´s remix. Don´t know any exact numbers though, cos the labels “vanished” afterwards.

A place to create?
Almost any summer cabin in Finland, preferably the Turku archipelago.

Last thing that inspired you?
Some random Albanian turbofolk I heard played by DJ Zuzu. I would aim for that if I was making pop music.

One thing you would live without if you could?
Security checks….

Last thing that inspired you?
Going through Muslimgauze backcatalogue, keeps on inspiring and surprising.

Published November 21, 2011.