Sleeve Notes is a series where we pick an artist and get them to make a themed mix. This week: French Films, a Finnish five-man band formed in 2010. They made a mix on the theme SUOMIROCK (obviously). We also caught up with singer and guitarist Johannes Leppänen.
YNTHT: French films are known for being a little more melancholic and pretentious than other big film nations’ counterparts. But to me, your music sounds a lot happier than that. So, why the name?
Johannes Leppänen: I remember talking with Joni – our former guitarist and occasional lead singer – one night and he kept on talking about some French movie he’d seen and how good it was. Being the hillbilly I am, I wasn’t that familiar with French cinema at the time. To be honest, I still don’t watch that many French films. But anyway, I realised that it seems to be this common conception of what French films are about – even if you haven’t seen one. And that’s all cool, artsy, little melancholic, little pretentious…
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So yeah, I thought French Films sounded like a name for a band. Joni agreed, so I uploaded the songs to MySpace with that name. And because the music was put online before we had rehearsed more than once, and we all still played in other bands, French Films felt like this sort of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band thing for a while. But then I started to get some phone calls from here and there and people seemed to like those crappy demos so we figured we could rehearse some more, and ultimately went to record our first EP. Nowadays it’s just a silly name for a band we once formed.
When you guys started playing, did the sound find you first, and then the genre, or was it the other way around?
Before French Films, I played in, and wrote songs for a band with like seven or eight members. The music was big and pretty orchestral in a way. So one day I just wanted to do something completely different and wrote this super simple track, “Golden Sea”, without thinking too much about it. That felt really liberating. But it’s not like I had never heard similar music before. Of course the stuff you like will influence your songwriting.
House music for instance, is all about finding speakers to give the music a fair texture. What do you think is the equivalent for indie rock music?
I’m not sure what that would be… Um… No, I give up.
How do you think Finland compares to other countries when it comes to breaking through as a band?
If by breaking through you mean touring and selling records outside of Finland, I’d say it’s getting better. A few years back I didn’t know many local bands that were touring abroad. Nowadays it seem as if more and more bands are doing that. There are more fans for these bands outside Finland. And it makes sense: Finland is a small country and even though there’s an audience for indie music (and by that I mean everything from doom metal to hip-hop done self-motivated), the major-label-who-gives-a-fuck artists are naturally more dominant when it comes to airplay and such. And the majority of the people, who are too lazy to actually look around, are still listening to that crap. Obviously that’s the deal everywhere so whatever. But I’d say it’s okay to be a musician in Finland compared to many other countries. In Finland, you can at least apply for some funding from organisations that help artists with their touring costs etcetera. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. But it’s better than nothing.
You’ve played some shows in China. Are you guys big there? How was that? How’s the crowd?
In China we played at Strawberry Music Festival, which is held both in Shanghai and Beijing. It was cool. Both shows we played were really crowded, but it seemed like there were only a few people who knew our stuff in advance – it was fun to see people’s reactions. We had a great time there!
What’s the plan for the future? Tours? Albums? Swimming lessons?
We’ve all been pretty busy with other bands and projects we’re working on, but there’s definitely another French Films album coming out. We’ll be heading to the studio pretty soon. Previously, we’ve been on tour and then gone to the studio with new songs, produced them ourselves, and been learning how all of this works. This year we’ve had some time off, so we’ve been able to write more songs than before. And it looks like we’re going to have someone who’s not in the band to produce the new stuff for the first time, so yeah, I’m looking forward to that! Can’t wait.
What’s the thought behind the mixtape you guys made for us?
Finnish rock history is pretty rich, so I thought I’d make a list of few of my favourite Finnish tracks from the past. When I was a kid I hated all the music sung in Finnish. I couldn’t tell the difference between the musicians. I thought they were all the same, lame bullshit. Only because I’d hear mostly the worst of them on the radio. But when I got older and started to dig into it, I realised that there have always been talented Finnish artists and bands. The Finnish language, like all other languages, has its own feeling to it, and great Finnish lyricists such Juice Leskinen & Gösta Sundqvist from Leevi and the Leavings have written some unique lyrics. And even if you can’t understand the Finnish lyrics, you can still hear the melodies. I think they were excellent songwriters in that aspect as well.
Also way back, it was pretty common to translate foreign hits into Finnish like those Sammy Babitzin
[“Don’t Pull Your Love”] and Petri & Petterson Brass [“Horse With No Name”] tunes. And that Ratsia track is just one example of great punk bands we’ve had over the years. On the list, Hanoi Rocks is obviously the most well known band worldwide. It’s still one of the most influential rock ‘n’ roll bands to come out of Finland. Their songs were among the first tracks I tried to learn on my guitar.
How often do you guys use the sauna, seriously?
As often as when we can! None of us lives in an apartment with a sauna, but we’ve got friends and family who have saunas, so we visit them time after time.
soundcloud.com/french-films
facebook.com/frenchfilms
TRACKLIST
Jim & The Beatmakers – “My Only One”
Ratsia – “Yksin”
Sammy Babitzin – “Kuin Tuhka Tuuleen”
Petri & Pettersson Brass – “Päättömällä Pollella”
Hanoi Rocks – “11th Street Kidzz”
Leevi and the Leavings – “Rin Tin Tin”
Hurriganes – “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”
Juice Leskinen Slam – “Viidestoista Yö”
Hugo and Rasmus are on Twitter. Rasmus has nothing to do with the band The Rasmus as they formed in 1994, one year before Rasmus was born.
