Amuri Tekno interview documentary

Amuri Tekno are Miika Salo and Miska Väänänen, hailing from Tampere, Finland. Their music is a homegrown blend of Detroit-inspired techno, tech-house, acid house, IDM, and ambient. They have released on such Finnish record labels as Kontact Records, Spin Records and Turun Levytehdas.

They are both of the generation who was coming of age during the halcyon days of the early 1990s techno music and rave culture explosion which spread also to some more peripheral regions outside the obvious Detroit-London-Berlin axis, and furthermore, spawned such new musical genres as IDM and drum & bass.

For some years now pHinnWeb has been a big fan of Amuri Tekno's music, so it was time to find out about their origins, ideas and views. For the interview, often accompanied by a hearty laughter, they share their insights not only about their own productions and instruments but also of being long-time music fans, discussing their favourite artists, labels and records, Tampere’s local scene and its history, and electronic music culture in general.

Amuri Tekno's interview video is finally ready. It was filmed already in October 2021, but as my other projects kept me constantly busy, I found enough time to finish it only now.

My original intention was to continue, though in video format now, my earlier electronic artist interviews that I conducted in between 1995 and 2006 for pHinnWeb site's subsection called 5HT - An Electronic Non-Zine.

Little did I realise, though, how time-consuming creating and editing a full-length interview video would be in comparison to the earlier format. I had merely sent the artists a list of questions via e-mail and then edited them a little bit before publishing the end result on the site. So, it was a no-brainer, but the whole era was about doing things in a whirl, without too much premeditation on my part. Call it naiveté or hubris or ADHD that I had thought I would just get it rapidly made.

Instead at the same time, I found myself trying to get my main work project, a laborious (and endlessly delayed) war documentary finished, which left me with little time or energy for much else. I'm glad Miika and Miska of Amuri Tekno turned out to be very patient with me.

Though perhaps I might have spent my time more effectively.

In fact, before I could even dream of getting the main project finished, I still had time to create for Amuri Tekno the initial "teaser video" (December 2021), of the guys demonstrating their instruments. Which was followed by two DIY music videos (quotation marks optional here). First of them was Kataja (January 2022), basically filmed in one take from the backseat of Miska's car after the interview was conducted in Linnainmaa and we headed back to the midtown, with some colour filters added in post-production.

After that there was in August 2022 Sateen jälkeen, a bit more complicated affair where I could fool around with some "psychedelic" visuals, layers, filters and stuff. The thing is, it's more fun to work on "artistic" projects where you can basically indulge, experiment and take your time with the material and don't have to worry about such matters as a coherent and somewhat logical narrative (or even getting the lip-synch right), required for a decent interview video where you don't want your subjects to appear foolish. Things need to balance each other out.

Back to the final product. Notwithstanding the delay, the whole thing worked out better than I expected. As far as I'm concerned, the interviewees came off very well, both giving an sympathetic and enthusiastic impression, clearly knowing their subject. The answers were well thought-out and clearly expressed. So, no problem there. I tip my hat to the guys.

Of course, I realise the following of my YouTube channel is only very marginal compared to that of some more trendy Tubers, but I know I don't excel in playing the vox populi game. Meaning that the reception of the video will also probably be limited to the tiniest niche audience. Which in itself is a shame, because I think Amuri Tekno's music (as said before) would have so much potential. So, I know the video I made is just another message in the bottle drifting in that vast ocean of indifference. On the other hand, the bottle may well find its way to the unknown receiver on some distant shore. In any case, when you have finished the work, it's not really in your hands any more. However much you try to boast and swagger.

What next? Well, I've got another war documentary in the works, with the scheduled premiere in April 2025. I expect it to take most of my following autumn and winter months, so I don't really imagine of doing much else in the meantime.

In the future, though, I'd still like to do more on videos following the local (or Finland's) electronic music scene, in line with the work that I started in the mid-1990s when pHinnWeb (*) was started. I don't know exactly what or where it would be, but maybe time will tell.

Of course, as film projects go, most of all I'd like to work in (ahem) drama, but as the whole film industry in this country seems to be going through a long-term recession, with less and less money for any full-length features, and when it's continually extremely hard to get your foot in the door, anyway, the most viable option seems to be to keep working on anything that is small-scale, DIY, low or zero-budget, low-tech, under-the-radar, regional or local.

(*) For those wanting to know about the pHinnWeb site’s status at the moment, here’s an English version of my answer I recently posted for a person curious about the site’s current fate:

The following question had arrived in my mailbox. Since the matter may be of interest to others too, it is probably OK for the questioner that I publish it here.

“Hi, are you updating Phinnweb? It would be great if all the Finnish releases were there; do you have all the Finnish mixtapes, by the way, you could also add them there. How about a flyer gallery, Klubitus has some kind of gallery but I don't particularly like that page. You could probably download all those flyers they have there, too. And are you updating the layout of the pages? Thanks for a great site!”

So, as an answer to others too who are interested, I could say that "Yes, but..." This is mainly about the fact that there is no time, energy, or resources right now. I am currently committed to making a documentary film project intended for next spring, which will take all the above. And in principle, this has been the case for the last seven to ten years, when I've been studying film-making and doing related work (directing, pre- and post-production/editing, including graphics, scriptwriting, researching source material and archives, etc.). At the same time, I'm also really trying to get a job in the field (and in addition, the employment office somewhat controls what I can and can't do).

The website has always been practically a one-person project, and no one else has participated in its maintenance (apart from occasional people giving a hand, i.e. those who have helped with graphics, layout, etc., and of course all those who have sent information about record released or other information), not to speak about the expenses of maintaining the site.

So here I would make the same request as before: if you have the necessary computing resources of your own and you want to come and do some voluntary work, search and compile information about domestic publications, mix tapes and event flyers, etc., you are warmly welcome to join.

And if you're local (Tampere area), that's a big advantage, because cooperation works best when you can meet and plan face-to-face. For now, however, I'm only updating pHinnWeb's social media to some extent, but I can't maintain any all-encompassing service for the reasons mentioned.

So there.