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Nov 25, 2019 By Mark Redfern Web Exclusive

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Jaakko Eino Kalevi.

The Finnish multi-instrumentalist released a new mini-album, Dissolution, last Friday via Domino imprint Weird World. The seven-song release is the follow-up to 2018’s full-length, Out of Touch. Out of Touch was his fifth album and was in turn the follow-up to 2015’s self-titled album. Dissolution was recorded in Berlin and Helsinki. It was announced via a video for its first single, title track “Dissolution.” Kevin Luna directed the “Dissolution” video, which featured a man who can’t stop dancing. Berlin-based Taiwanese singer Yu-Ching Huang features on the song (she also sings on two other songs on the album).

In a cryptic press release statement, Kalevi had this to say about Dissolution: “Just as a drop of ink dissolves in a glass of water, it is said that life on Earth began in this way. It’s impossible to become that drop again. Life on Earth is a mystery—it’s a story of dissolution.”

Read on as Kalevi talks about his first best friend, an unusual first pet, a kiss at music camp, and how he started out a prog metal fan.

First best friend?

My first best friend must have been Tuomo, who just one day walked on my street and we became friends. I guess that’s how easy it is when you are a child. You only need to be in the same place and kind of the same age. It was pretty chill back then, even if Tuomo wasn’t at home I would go to their house to play with his Sega and vice versa.

First pet?

My first pet was a crow called Kalle. I guess we found him hurt somewhere and then started to feed him. He lived on the top of a ground cellar for a while and then flew off with other crows.

First broken bone?

I broke my first bone pretty recently. It was a few years ago in Danzig in Poland after the show. I got too high and climbed on the top of the Jan III Sobieski statue. Then when I came down I jumped from too high and broke my foot. On that trip I saw a dead person for the first time in my life too at the airport.

First person you kissed?

My first kiss was at a music summer camp when I was about 11. Behind the main house a violinist girl asked me if we could be together and I said yes and then we kissed. I never saw her after that camp and we never actually broke up.

First album you bought?

The first album I bought was Images and Words by Dream Theater. Somehow this kind of genre was very hot in our music scene in my village. And in a weird way it works for me still. Maybe it’s nostalgia or maybe it’s something else. Horrible music.

First favorite band?

Dream Theater was the first band I was really a fan of.

First musician you had a crush on?

We had a CD of this artist Tatjana called Feel Good. I thought she looked hot and I often was listening to this album eyes closed and dreaming of her.

First time you got drunk?

First time I got drunk was when me and my two friends were walking around in my village and found an abandoned kick sled with a bag of beer hanging on the handlebar. We took the beer and went to one of these friends’ place. I didn’t drink many but I got drunk and thought that it makes focusing very difficult.

First job you had?

My first job was to clean windows and wax floors for my mom’s friend’s company. Cleaning windows was okay but the waxing was shit! Some houses never had the wax removed so it was impossible for me to do as well. I needed money for my trip to London and because I couldn’t do the job fully I didn’t get paid fully. Negative experience.

First car you owed?

My first car was Peugeot 205. My Father bought it to me. It was a beautiful cabriolet car and I would love to have it again.

First country you visited outside of your own?

I think it was Sweden. We went to the Kolmården zoo and it was fun. I still remember the bus company’s name, Atomi Lines. Atomi was the name of the driver and his wife was on the mic.

First computer?

Must have been a Commodore 64 or Tandy 1000. Tandy 1000 had a green screen monitor and my favorite game was Rampage. My favorite game in Commodore was Rambo III.

First email address?

Hotmail. Our secret password among my friends was “Toast with marmalade” and my email was related to that.

First instrument?

My first instrument was a Landola acoustic guitar with nylon strings. I got it for my birthday and I was little bit bummed to get that because I wanted to have an electric one.

First band you were in?

It was called Masterpiece. We were very inspired by prog metal like Dream Theater. There were four people in the band: Henri, Sami, Tuomo, and me. No vocals.

First bad review?

Probably not the first one but one that I remember was from some Swedish magazine calling my album Jaakko Eino Kalevi “semi-funking onania.” Not necessarily bad though.

www.jaakkoeinokalevi.com

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