Category: Writings
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About “Poliphilos’s Party For The Poor And Betrayed”
Never has songwriting been such a journey as with “Poliphilos’s Party For The Poor & Betrayed”. And right away I want to thank my produced Juho to staying with me as I tried to merge the impossible. What I knew from the start that the “Eternal Echoes” album needed a “mentor song” – a track…
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Journey to “Poliphilos’s Party”
The Island Says No Prologue: The Leftovers Once. They. Were. Gods! Now they lived on an abandoned island, because everybody who is somebody migrated to America. Indeed, in the mid-19th century, as the great steamships churned across the Atlantic carrying empires, fortunes, and the promise of a new dawn and gold, the major deities migrated…
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About “Skylark”
1. The Origin: A Room, a River, and a Rebellion The seeds of Skylark were planted in the early years of my independence, a time of raw self-discovery and quiet rebellion of the 1990s. After graduating from high school and completing my army service, I was expected to follow a conventional path—doctor, lawyer, or pilot.…
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Journey to “Skylark”
Doin’ the Pompeii Late last summer Poliphilos was passing by Pompeii when he heard a strange sound. The Italian heat sat upon the skin like in August like it has done for millennia, and pressed his emerald green Indian silk suit into the bones like a heavy, ancient weight. The air in this region smelled…
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About “European Son”
1. The Origin: From Daydream to Dualism The inspiration for “European Son” emerged from a deeply personal place, rooted in my own romantic 20-something daydreams in the 90’s. There’s also a sonic memory from the performance of Helsinki Dance Company and its interval act sung by Tove Wingren in 1996. It must then have been…
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Journey to “European Son”
The Letter and the Flight The letter arrived at his Scandinavian getaway on heavy, cream-colored parchment, sealed with wax that smelled of river mud and old pine. It bore no return address, only a single line in elegant, spidery script: The River is being drained. Come. The Maidens Poliphilos knew the handwriting. It belonged to…
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Did I Write Anthems for War?
Part 1: The Theories of War Prologue: The Myths We Fight For War continues in the world. Some conflicts may end, but new ones emerge – like hydras growing new heads. Personally, I find it astonishing how many resources – let alone human lives – we sacrifice for war. Second, our inability to stop these…
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Player Characters in Dialogue: The Weight of Our Choices
This summer I was reading Plato’s dialogues on holiday (as one does…) and got to wondering: what if the characters from my Player Characters album had their own philosophical conversations? Not the formal Socratic stuff, though, but something messier. More like what happens when three people realize they’ve all made choices they can’t take back,…
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The Narrative Arcs of “Player Characters”
When you listen to a music album, do you hear individual songs, each with its own melody and emotion or do you perceive a larger story, like in concept albums such as Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” or David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust”? I recently asked myself this question about my…
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About “Lover Costing Average”
The Story The inspiration for “Lover Costing Average” came from observing the dating culture in today’s world, where apps and algorithms often dictate our choices. The song is the story of an investor playboy who maintains multiple intimate relationships simultaneously, treating them like investments to see which one yields the best return. He’s a strategist,…