Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Svang interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 112

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Harmonica group Svang join me on episode 112.

Svang are a harmonica quartet from Finland, who have been performing and recording for over twenty years now. They first formed in 2003 when Jouko was teaching at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and suggested forming a harmonica group with two of his students.

The group doesn’t play the typical harmonicas of a harmonica group, with a harmonetta used instead of a chord, and bluesy diatonics used as part of the sound alongside chromatic.

Their repertoire includes folk music from Finland and the rest of the world, but is equally influenced by classical music or Finnish tango. They have released ten albums to date, with the latest, Svang Nuevo coming out in 2024 to celebrate their 20 year anniversary.

Links:
Website:
https://www.svang.fi/

Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/svangharmonica

Concerts:
https://www.svang.fi/concerts

Galileo Music: (to buy their albums)
https://www.galileomusic.de/katalogsuche.aspx


Videos:
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@SvangHarmonicaQuartet

Appearance on Jools Holland BBC TV show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwEkbFHpLTc


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
--------------------------------
Blue Moon Harmonicas: https://bluemoonharmonicas.com

Support the show

SPEAKER_05:

Harmonica group Svang joined me on episode 112. Svang are a harmonica quartet from Finland who have been performing and recording for over 20 years now. They first formed in 2003 when Joko was teaching at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and suggested forming a harmonica group with two of his students. The group doesn't play the typical harmonicas of a harmonica group, with a harmonetta used instead of a chord and bluesy diatonics used as part of the sound alongside chromatic and a whole new comet. Their repertoire includes folk music from Finland and the rest of the world, but is equally influenced by classical music or Finnish tango. They have released 10 albums to date, with the latest, Fang Nuvo, coming out in 2024 to celebrate their 20-year anniversary. This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas. Hello Slang and welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. So welcome guys. So you're a harmonica group from Finland. So there's four of you in the group. So I think probably best maybe if you introduced the members of the group so I don't pronounce your names wrong. So if you want to just tell me who's in the group first of all. Thank you. My name is

SPEAKER_02:

Jouko Kyhälä and I'm playing harmonetta.

SPEAKER_06:

My name is Tapan Ivaris and I play bass harmonica.

SPEAKER_02:

Our first soloist is Eero Turkka and he's having technical troubles joining in but he's playing mainly the lead parts of our group.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, so just to explain, yeah, so we've got you four guys on. We're actually missing one at the moment. Hopefully he'll join us shortly and then Eero, as you say, is just having a few issues. So we'll cover with Joko and Topani as best we can and then hopefully the other guys can chip in as we go through. MUSIC You're the New Harmonica Quartet from Finland. You founded, I think, back in 2003, so your 20th anniversary just gone, yeah?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that's true. It's funny to say New Harmonica Group anymore. 20 years is quite an age for a band.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely, yes. So congratulations on a long distinguished career now. You've had 10 albums out during that time. You just had one released this year, 2024. So we'll get on to that shortly. So that's well done. So, you know, how's it been, you know, over that 20 years as a harmonica group and, you know, what sort of success have you had?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we have had quite a good success. I think we have been very lucky that we have found persons who are interested in selling this group and interested in our music and from the very beginning we found this formation such a funny thing to make music with sounds of harmonicas only that we got fascinated by the idea that we could make new music with harmonica band and i think that was the speciality of the start

SPEAKER_04:

About

SPEAKER_05:

how you all formed then. So you all studied at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, and Sibelius, of course, is a famous Finnish composer. So I think you were teaching Joko at the Academy, and then you met a few of the other guys, and that's how the band started. You could tell us about how you got together.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yes. Eero Turka and Eero Grundström, both of them. They were my students in the beginning of 2000s. Erturka was having an exam that he was supposed to compose his own music for a group. And I suggested to him that, okay, why won't you... Instead of composing for a typical folk music group with fiddles and other typical folk instruments, why wouldn't you compose for a harmonica group? And that was how it started. Obviously Eero was the lead soloist because it was his exam and then the other Eero, Grundström, was chosen to be the second soloist and I had just recently bought a harmonetta by that time and I said, okay, I will learn to play the harmonetta and I'll be the chords. Then we We just needed to find the bass outside of Sibelius Academy. Of course, there was no one here in the house who played bass harmonica.

SPEAKER_05:

Great. So you mentioned there that you play harmonetta yokels. So this is instead of a chord harmonica, which traditionally we'd seen a harmonica band. So we've talked about harmonettas before on the podcast. So aware of what they are, the fact that they're a sort of keyed instrument that allows us to play chords on a harmonica sort of sound. So that was the decision that, you know, you definitely don't play any chord harmonica, it's just the harmonetta as a chord, yeah?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I think the chord harmonica, in my opinion, it's kind of a cubism instrument. The chords are only the basic formation, and to me, who is originally a keyboardist, they sound quite bad. you should be able to choose how you position your chords. So the normal chord harmonica was no question for me. I think it's not a very musical instrument, in my opinion. And harmonica is really the only harmonica that can produce the chords so that I can enjoy the sound of the chords.

SPEAKER_05:

Fantastic. So we bring the other guys in and what you guys play. So Eero, tell us about yourself and what you play.

SPEAKER_01:

I play diatonic and chromatic harmonicas and mostly I play like second voice and my specialty seems to be both playing second voice, playing low harmonicas and then arranging stuff. Normally Eero Turkka is the solist and I play something under it but in this new album I also play some leads more than before.

SPEAKER_05:

Interesting that you play diatonic and chromatic. So we do get some diatonic in harmonica groups before, but it's not that usual to have diatonics in harmonica groups, is it? No,

SPEAKER_01:

but also we use lots of combination of chromatic and diatonic. And that's where the many interesting sounds can come. When there's like diatonic solist with some bending and overbending and then low chromatic stuff. under it. That's my

SPEAKER_05:

favourite sound on

SPEAKER_06:

swang. some songs for this group. I'm actually the newest member of the group. Originally they had Basileino playing with them, but he chose to retire maybe a year or two ago. Gradually I've been coached to this position that I'm now, and I've been playing gigs with the band now for, what, almost two years.

SPEAKER_05:

It's a Suzuki bass you play, I think, isn't it?

SPEAKER_06:

yes yes Suzuki has has made it manufactured yes that's correct

SPEAKER_05:

so did you play bass harmonica before you joined the group

SPEAKER_06:

no before playing any gigs with them I practiced for a year because you know I'm not a harmonica player at all I'm a bass player and a wind instrument player and and they kind of figured out that well we might ask Tapani to join in I guess that's how it went because he plays bass, wind instruments, equals bass harmonica.

SPEAKER_05:

Fantastic. So you play a normal stringed bass then? Yes. So how did that translate to moving to play a bass harmonica?

SPEAKER_06:

In the beginning it was quite difficult, but eventually I'm slowly getting hold of it a little bit better.

SPEAKER_05:

Do you find you can play the same bass lines on the bass harmonica, or do you have to approach it quite differently?

SPEAKER_06:

It's a different approach. Things that are easy on normal bass are not necessarily easy at all for bass harmonica and vice versa.

SPEAKER_05:

And so we'll see if we can get Eero Turco to speak.

SPEAKER_07:

I probably wanted to add that besides normal blues harp kind of diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, we are using quite a lot of so-called double reed harmonicas. and a type of echo harp by Hodder and Comet, which is like an octave-tuned harp. And also, when we are playing with normal blues harps like diatonic, we are also using quite a lot of double stops, because you can play an interval like third or fourth, or you can play in octaves. Also, all this makes it more diverse sound-wise, because there are very different sounds like this diatonic double reed, harmonica stay accordion sounding

SPEAKER_05:

You were all well I think all of you the Sibelius Academy as I say in in Finland there so you we are all there studying different instruments you know i appreciate that you know studying um harmonica at these institutions isn't always easy although yoko will get onto your your position there but you were all playing other instruments were you

SPEAKER_07:

yes it's like all of us i think we played many different instruments besides harmonica i was always singing also but in slang we wanted to keep it instrumental so we don't include any other instruments

SPEAKER_05:

Definitely, that's what we like here as well, a proper harmonica group, so that's great to hear, thanks Eero. So Jokko, just turning back to yourself, so I think I just mentioned there about studying the Sibelius Academy, so you I think did study the harmonica exclusively at the academy, and in fact I think you have a PhD in sort of harmonica studies, so what is it you've got exactly?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I was the first to graduate as a master's bachelor from Sibelius Academy in the 1990s. First person to study harmonica and graduate. And then later, 2004 to 2007, I made artistic doctoral studies and a PhD. of music. So I made an artistic doctoral degree. In 2007 I graduated and I spent four years after the bachelor studies to really study harmonica and the possibilities of the instrument and made five concerts with different viewpoints to what you can do with harmonica. Yeah and Swang was kind of born at the same time so I used Swang as an experimental laboratory also that I brought in the new ideas that I found out when I was studying and so we could put them in practice quite soon that was very very good combination.

SPEAKER_05:

Sure, yeah. And so the Sibelius Academy, obviously, again, the Sibelius is a Finnish composer. So is it sort of more classical based? You know, you're doing music reading or is it quite wide what's covered at the Sibelius Academy?

SPEAKER_02:

There is different departments. There is definitely main, the biggest department is for the classical musicians and orchestra musicians. But there is jazz department, folk music department and music education department. And at least the folk music education is quite wide and you have a lot of opportunities you don't need to go one direct path but you are supposed to be creative and you are allowed to experiment so that's wonderful place to study and become an artist.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah fantastic so you all play I was going to say different instruments and so as the you know how's the harmonica group been in your career I take it you probably play in different bands and outfits so is Is the harmonica group quite a major thing for you? Is it a sideline? How important has it been over the last 20 years for you guys?

SPEAKER_02:

At least for me, this is the main band in my musician's life that most of the concerts in my life I have had with Swang. We have such a special sound and a combination of persons that all the other bands, they are not so active and not so popular.

SPEAKER_05:

So you played all around the world and had great success. So we'll get into that. But we should also mention an honorary member of yours, an associated member, I think you call it. It was Filip Gjers from Sweden, who I've had on the podcast before, and he's a great player. And I know, Joko, you've released an album with Filip, haven't you? So what's his role in the group?

SPEAKER_02:

Filip jumps in if one of the heroes cannot. Filip is so talented that he can jump in either for Mr. Grundström or Mr. Turcka. He has been a stand-in guest for both of them.

SPEAKER_05:

That's fantastic. And you also got, I should mention as well, so Anne is your booking agent, an important part of the group as well, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. I don't know if we would still exist if there wouldn't be Anne Hofstadler, who has been maybe 16 years selling us concerts and being the one who tells that, OK, guys, go on and compose new music. We need a new CD.

SPEAKER_07:

We call her Empress, Her Royal Highness.

SPEAKER_05:

so we touched on there you know about the Sibelius Academy and again maybe classical and would you consider yourself you guys more from the folk tradition in the academy and what about when you you know you talked about you're all composing do you play from written scores you know do you write it out you know how do you approach that side of things it's a

SPEAKER_01:

mixed this is From my bands, the one who use most scores, not every time and not every song, but lots of things are written. Like they are first maybe written, then we try it out and rewrite and then change things and learn and then play without the scores. But because roles are so different than other bands, you really have to think about arrangements and in many cases it's just practical to write

SPEAKER_05:

I mean what about writing for you know sort of diatonics and and the harmonettas and things is that it's just something I guess you got used to over 20 years of doing it

SPEAKER_01:

yeah we have systems like like for harmonetta you just write like Chord symbols plus rhythms. I write also the chords because I want to hear them from Sibelius software when I write how they may sound. But in practice Jouko plays from chord symbols. And for diatonics, I like to read them like they will be a C harp. So if I write for A major harp, it will read like C major in the score. I like to transpose. Yeah. turkka is better reading in both ways like transposing on the fly but yeah we write because we use lots of chromatics in different keys as well even though chromatic can be played in any keys but it sounds better in certain keys like usually the flat keys are both easier to play and sounds better like a flat e flat and so on so It's written like a transposed instrument, like saxophones or trumpets.

SPEAKER_05:

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SPEAKER_07:

yeah actually when I was doing the exam I was familiar with the harmonica band tradition, like because of Yoko introduced us to the harmonic cats, you know, American popular harmonica

SPEAKER_04:

bands.

SPEAKER_07:

The music, I was never really so big fan of that kind of music, like easy listening jazz and virtuoso showcase tricks. And actually finding harmonetta, I think it was very crucial because it has very nice and very rhythmic sound because you can make all the possible kind of harmonies.

SPEAKER_05:

So what about the practicalities of you guys meeting? Are you all, are you based in Helsinki? Do you all live there and, you know, you're able to get together and practice or are you spread out?

SPEAKER_07:

Just to say that I've been living almost like now 12 years in Bulgaria. Okay. Which makes it kind of complicated like seeing often but anyway, like the other guys also, they are busy all day even though we are living close to each other. So they're not always free so we strictly kind of before concerts we know that everybody repeats they rehearse their own material like the songs that and we agree about beforehand what we are going to play more or less by ourselves and then if needed usually when we make a new material for the new cd so then we make three four days spend

SPEAKER_05:

some time together yeah yeah are you able to practice remotely i remember during the pandemic there was these claims some different software that they removed the lagging you were able to practice live but i don't think they were quite there no no

SPEAKER_02:

that's nonsense yeah we don't have

SPEAKER_05:

at least that kind of

SPEAKER_02:

connections

SPEAKER_05:

that we could use. So you practice your parts individually and then you get together before any concerts or when you're recording so that you're up to speed and you know so it works that way for you that's great and what about the the other three guys are you all based in the same place or you spread out?

SPEAKER_02:

We are spread out I live half an hour outside of Helsinki Tapani lives in Helsinki and Eero lives more than half an hour from Helsinki.

SPEAKER_05:

But that's great that you're able to keep the group going for 20 years and you're pretty spread out, especially with the era you're being in Bulgaria, as you say. So there's hope for other people then to form groups, you think, and you've managed to do it over all that time and keep it together, even though you don't live on the same

SPEAKER_02:

street, right? Yes, and we have had this special, I think, called the band camps. When we start to make new music, we come to my studio. I have a studio... at my house and we come there for a week and practice and create new music and then we have another week to record. So we spend a lot of time when it's time to do something new.

SPEAKER_05:

So let's get into the music then. So I read a good description from Joko from you about about the roots of Finnish music, and it lies between the East and the West, kind of melancholic Russian and kind of more cheerful Swedish, and it's in the middle of those, and then you kind of get this minor tonality with wistfulness, reading the description here. So, yeah, tell us about that approach to music that you have there in Finland.

SPEAKER_07:

The keys, like, there are more minor keys, definitely, like in Finland. In folk music, a long time they produced only for Finland the kind of echo double reed harmonica that you turn over so there's you have on one side minor on the other side there's parallel major

SPEAKER_05:

We'll have a look through your albums. And so, as I said earlier on, you've released 10 albums over the last 20 years and covering lots of grounds. Some things that have come out which pick on that Finnish approach to music. So, first of all, we're talking about Sibelius. So you produced an album of Sibelius's music, which celebrated his 150th birthday. Sibelius So that was quite a big task for you guys, right, to take on your sort of national composer and to do it on harmonica, because you wanted to do it well, right, and to do it justice.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yes. But we had an earlier experience. We made also a tribute to Chopin.

UNKNOWN:

Chopin.

SPEAKER_02:

that was the first time we tried to arrange classical music and we learned a lot of this transcribing piano music for harmonicas so Sibelius was a natural next step but it was very interesting I and Eero Grundström we made the arrangements and at least I just had the whole orchestra score in front of me and I was trying to imagine which are the most crucial parts I can deliver with four harmonicas out of the work and still make it function as meant by Mr Sibelius himself and I think we succeeded and the audience seems to love some of the versions of swang

SPEAKER_05:

so yeah so exactly that's when you play to the classical audiences for example this sibelius music that's um it's well received right and they uh you're representing the the harmonica well in this uh more serious setting

SPEAKER_07:

It's actually, it doesn't have to be serious, because I think especially when you play harmonica with classical music, there's a little bit of unintended comics in there, because it's like the sound can't be the same as a symphony orchestra. but also maybe that's why we have tried these sidesteps to classical music. We have done it with composers that actually took a lot from folk music. Like Chopin was very inspired from Polish folk music and Mazurkas. Also Sibelius studied a lot of Finnish runo singing and Karelian dances. So it's not completely only classical. So maybe the harmonica brings these classical composers back closer to folk music. Our interpretation, because we are not classical musicians in the first place, so we tend to make everything sound like dance music.

SPEAKER_05:

And of course the great tradition of harmonica groups is to be very easy entertainers.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, yeah. exactly and it's like it's allowed to smile you know it doesn't have to be serious it's like we can play seriously without being comedic but still like enjoying the and admitting the funny part of it.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. You guys have got kind of crazy hairstyles and things. Are they just for the act or do you always have your hairstyles like that?

SPEAKER_07:

No, it's funny because I think it's very natural. Everybody decides how they cut their own hair. But now it's kind of funny because when you're looking 20 years, more or less the same. So you want something interesting to... and to be at least experimenting with your hairstyle.

SPEAKER_05:

And do you do anything else particularly to entertain like the old, you know, the classic harmonica groups, you know, the sort of tricks and show things they would do, like running around to the other side and all these things that you see on those old videos?

SPEAKER_01:

Not really. We try to avoid that. We, of course, the things we use... Of course we get all the low-hanging fruits when it comes to impressive sounding things from harmonica, but we have no need to show off. And it's funny that actually audience has no clue about what is easy and what is difficult because sometimes playing the melody the whole melody like expressively play all the notes is the hard part and then you can do something that is extremely easy sometimes it's vice versa but our main goal is to play the music not the harmonica so we approach it like for example with classical music Sometimes it's impossible to play all the fast notes what composer composed but we extract the main melody and then play that as good as we can and that's the thing and no one misses the fast notes. Sometimes we can add like we did when we did this Harry Potter music, Hedwig's theme. Here is the example if you want to hear from harmonica perspective how to avoid playing impossible notes but still play very, very fast and impressive notes that are easier from harmonica. So there's lots of thinking, thinking behind, but our impressiveness is in different place than these traditional tricks.

SPEAKER_05:

yeah sure so your first album came out in 2005 which you called spang and you got dance ribbons finish folk balkan beats on there

SPEAKER_04:

so

SPEAKER_05:

So how do you think you've evolved over the years? Have you got a lot better? What have you done to improve your repertoire? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01:

It's funny that the basics of swang kind of accidentally formed from the very first album. Like things like Balkan music, tango, then something completely different, then some Finnish traditional rootsy folk music. But when we start to evolve from there, we of course got lot better players. Jouko did all his research with playing techniques, with doctoral exams and we picked up all the information and rehearsed. Then we learned to play as a group. not only rhythmic music, but also more classical rubatos, accelerandos, diminuendos, retardandos, and so on. So, yeah, it's expanded a lot.

SPEAKER_05:

So you mentioned a few different styles, so you play various different styles. So you mentioned tango, so we should mention this. So tango apparently has a special place in the hearts of Finnish people, so you released an album of tango music. TANGO MUSIC

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

Tell us about Finnish tango and your album playing tango music, which you also have on pretty much all your albums, Jek.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the tango has a special position in Finnish culture. It came here about 100 years ago, like to other countries in Europe, and Finnish people really loved tango. and especially after wartime it really popular among the dancing audiences all around the country and there was big tango singer stars and they developed a very feelings type of melancholy minor melodies tangos and the lyrics were very emotional and the golden era of tango was maybe from 1950s to end of 1970s even. Now it has been a little bit fading but still it has a big part in the Finnish music culture. So do you guys play, have you played to dances, you know, to tango dances? Not really. We haven't had an opportunity. We had performed with tango dancers in concert, but not played for dance.

SPEAKER_05:

And then you did an album in 2020 called In Trad We Trust, which won the best album from the British Songlines magazine, which I think is a folk magazine here in Britain. So this was based around a lot of kind of Finnish folk music, was it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, we wanted to make a theme album of only traditional tunes. Trad was a tribute to folk tradition of Finland and Scandinavia.

SPEAKER_07:

And also it's like it's really known like how many different kind of folk music you have in Finland because the Eastern and Western traditions they are quite different and the instruments are very different also like the West Coast is lots of bands or musicians playing with accordion and fiddle but then in the Eastern tradition it was more like these old epic songs instruments like Kantele and Jouhikko that's also we wanted to try out how this kind of Completely different music with sound, with harmonicas. Can you imitate the harmonica?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and so a lot of them, as we've said, are composed by yourselves. Obviously, you played some music of Chopin and Sibelius and some traditional, but you're applying the harmonica approach to these and then composing some of your own songs too.

SPEAKER_07:

Yes. Well, we played together for such a long time and we have composers from each of us. So you learn a lot from your colleagues. Like playing, learning Erg Rostram's compositions like... It's really useful. When I'm learning those tunes and playing them, I know, okay, he used this and this kind of double stops with chromatic harmonica, for example. And then you can use the same tools or same methods to learn about harmonica. So next time you can try it out with your own

SPEAKER_03:

composers.

SPEAKER_07:

That's how all the members of the band, they're kind of teaching me a lot.

SPEAKER_05:

Your latest album has come out this year, 2024, it's Spangol Nouveau, which is celebrating your 20 years together. Tell us about this album. You've been touring around.

SPEAKER_07:

Very present. We so far played the material two times in Germany and one time in Finland so far. In concert, some of the tunes we actually tried out before we were in Japan in January. So we tried out one tune there. Svango Nuovo has kind of double meaning because as a band we are renewed ourselves with Tapani Baristin's bass so it's kind of second incarnation of the band.

SPEAKER_03:

hey

SPEAKER_00:

everybody you're listening to neil warren's harmonica happy hour podcast sponsored by tom halcheck and blue moon harmonicas out of clearwater florida the best in custom

SPEAKER_05:

Another interesting project you've had is you've had the Svangfonia, which is, were you playing with a classical orchestra?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that's very interesting. So we wanted to try what could an orchestra bring more to our compositions, and this idea got some attention. boost and finally we ended up two years ago we started to play with Finnish symphony orchestras music of swang and some Finnish tangos and a small orchestra and actually this year we are going to do the same thing in Germany and that will be interesting we have a Finnish conductor traveling with us who knows our music and who can guide the symphony orchestra players how to survive the rhythmical aspect of our music

SPEAKER_05:

Great, so you'll be doing some concerts in Germany with this orchestra?

SPEAKER_02:

It will be next November. We have one gig in Württemberg in Germany that we perform with the local symphony orchestra.

SPEAKER_05:

Several of your albums are on a German label, Galileo Music, so you've got a connection into Germany.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I think we have mainly been playing in German-speaking countries. Most of our gigs have been in Germany, And then, yeah, it was natural to pick up a German label. about 10 years ago. Great

SPEAKER_05:

stuff, yeah. So talking about your gigs and the gigs you play through the years, do you do like two sets, three sets, or do you just tend to do one set? How do you break up with it being a harmonica group?

SPEAKER_01:

Normally they are like two sets in a concert house, sometimes one long set, but basically we can play the whole evening and be interesting for the whole concert.

SPEAKER_05:

And so how many gigs do you generally get? You know, you've been very busy through the years. You know, is it just the occasional gig? You know, how popular and busy have you been?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, the best years have been that we... I think best year we had was close to 70 concerts in one year. But typically, I would say that before COVID times, we had something... from 30 to 50 between that. And after COVID, it has been a lot worse. So it's kind of sad.

SPEAKER_05:

You've also played and appeared on the BBC's Jules Holland's New Year's Eve at Houtenay, which is, you know, the New Year's Eve TV program, music program here in the UK. So there's a video of that. I'll put a link on. So, yeah, was that a highlight for you, appearing on that TV show? I think it was a highlight of TV appearances.

SPEAKER_07:

And visibility. And also kind of funny, you know, I remember there was... And then

SPEAKER_05:

you've toured all around. You mentioned that you dropped in earlier on that you played in Japan earlier this year. You've also played in obviously around Europe, but also in the USA, Mexico and even China. So you've toured around these different countries.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, exotic places, Mexico and Japan and China are the most far away places.

SPEAKER_05:

yeah fantastic yeah and are these generally you know well you've been to various festivals where you're normally playing are these harmonica based festivals or are they different sorts of festivals

SPEAKER_02:

actually we try to well not really try to avoid but we don't think too much about the harmonica scene that doesn't give us bread or living we are aiming to be make music for normal music audiences and then we have the surprise of being making music on harmonicas but once maybe be to Trosingen Harmonica Festival, yes. And I don't know if there have been any other harmonica events after that.

SPEAKER_05:

You've won various musical awards. You won Artist of the Year in 2019. This is a Helsinki award. And as I mentioned, this British Songlines magazine, you won the 2020, one of the albums of the year for that. And also the Nordic Council Music Prize. So you got yourself some music awards there as well. You got some trophies on the mantelpiece.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, actually, we didn't win the Nordic Council. We were just nominated, yes, but we didn't win that. But yes, we have some I don't know if it has been really a big beneficial thing for us. Anyway, I think the main thing is that if you get people to your concerts and then they will come again, that is something more important.

UNKNOWN:

.

SPEAKER_05:

A question I ask each time then is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing? So if you can focus this maybe as a harmonica band, what are the important critical things to practice as a harmonica band together? I

SPEAKER_07:

think one thing is what kind of role it comes with playing is just to find your common timing and being able to hear each other well enough. For that in slang, actually, we are quite lucky because everybody except me are very good in audio techniques and we've been improving like our sound also that way so we have a rack where we have every song has kind of there's always right balance and it's very hard to screw up the guys are so professional so they can tell what to do and just give their lines out. But we have ear monitors, which make it very much easier for us so that every individual player can adjust the balance that he wants to hear. This is very personal, like somebody wants to have more bass, somebody wants to hear very clearly the chord. So for this, it really helps. Because many times it's quite complex and you really have to have a common groove together. It just needs playing together

SPEAKER_05:

I've seen various ear monitors, and I think you can get some quite cheap ones, but I think it seems to be that unless they really block the sound out, then, you know, they don't work that well. So have you got quite expensive ear monitors so that works well?

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah, it's just investment, actually, because, like, you don't want to suffer for bad ear monitors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's important to get good ones in there, I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Yeah. Sometimes, like, I miss personally because I play also, like... harmonica elsewhere like as a soloist so when you play the blues for example I really like the like 58 like a hand mic because you play differently like you can use your hands more freely if you have a stand but for the practicality reasons in slang we have this practical hand mic that you can which is very small you can hold it inside your hand and it leaves some freedom for the using hands but not so much like I mean the wow wow way that usually the blues have players when you play acoustic so this is you can do it so good

SPEAKER_05:

yeah so that brings us nicely on to the last section we talked through the gear so picking up on the microphones as you say Eero so you're using handheld microphones mainly aren't you you don't use microphones on a stand

SPEAKER_07:

actually I use sometimes because with this two-sided harmonicas I need to turn them which is kind of you asked about the tricks like actually this is some kind of trick that I'm doing basically because I'm many times playing these double reach harmonicas which is two harmonicas on different sides and it's very traditional folk harmonica players in Finland they love to turn the harmonica around because it looks way more difficult than it actually is But there is, of course, like it's kind of showcasing. But for this, I can't do it with this wire mic inside my hand because it will be very complex.

SPEAKER_05:

And Sipani, on the bass harmonica, I think you use one of the Suzuki ones, do you, on the bass harmonica?

SPEAKER_06:

Yes, yes. That's what it is on the... it's actually old one that Jouko had I think he had one extra just to be on the sure side that if Basileno's similar microphone would fail at some point which it didn't obviously and so I ended up purchasing it from him yes it's very good mic actually I think it's probably the only way to make the bass harmonica in a way that really the bass of the bass harmonica comes out effectively enough but well there's also this one downside that it's also very sensitive which means that it feeds back very easily so that's actually probably one of the biggest reasons that that SWAN uses in air monitoring rather than the more common wedges on stage because immediately if you put it in a wedge it starts to feed up feedback that there's no No cure for that, really. But with that microphone, I have been really, really satisfied. It really changes the whole thing when you hear yourself in that sense, that you realize that this is really a bass. Because actually, if you play bass harmonica acoustically, well, it is actually quite surprisingly quiet, quiet instrument in a way. And especially if you want to have a decent tone out of it, you don't want to blow too force, as you may understand. And so you don't actually... especially from the position when you play, the sound goes out and all of a sudden when you really start to hear it decently, it really makes much more sense to do the lines that are written or otherwise played by bass.

SPEAKER_05:

I own a bass harmonica myself, and not that I'm great on it, but I've played it through the years. Like you say, it's quite a quiet instrument, isn't it? Whenever I've tried to play it in public using an acoustic microphone on a stand, it never picks it up very well. So I think, as you say, you need that sort of dedicated microphone, that kind of built-in as you're using, don't you?

SPEAKER_06:

Yes,

SPEAKER_05:

I totally agree. They're not cheap, those microphones, though, are they? But well worth it. Well worth it, I'd say. And what about what do you use? Are you always playing into the PA? Do you use amplifiers? What sort of sound systems do you use?

SPEAKER_01:

We normally have PA always. Since we play in concert houses and stuff, we have this rack where we process the sound. There is preamp and then we do the basic preamping. processing with main stage software so it's easy to switch even between the parts of the songs so we can have reverb on some part of song and then no reverb on other part and we consider the microphone quite integral part of the sound since we always play with microphones and we rehearse with microphones and we don't aim for acoustic sound but kind of like not natural but little bit supernatural sound so thinking how can it be even better than the acoustic sound and mainly it means using when you play to close microphone you get this extra boost this low mid frequencies that sounds warmer than the actual acoustic thing and we take a full benefit of that sound so harmonicas can sound little bit bigger and more warm than they actually are But no, we don't have amplifiers since we have to tour with everything to go to that 24 kilos that you are allowed to bring. So there's no space for any extra equipment. And we are quite fine if we want to use like traditional overdrive sounds. You can do it with software. It's not the same. Real thing is better, but it's good enough. And you have it always with you.

SPEAKER_05:

Sure. And the microphones that you use, the handheld microphones, what are those microphones?

SPEAKER_01:

It's Audio Technica AT350, I think is the model. It is electric condenser mic. I think it's originally meant for... violins or wind instruments but it works fine as very close it's like one or two centimeters or one two three centimeters from the instrument so you get lots of sound and little very little feedback with that mic

SPEAKER_05:

yeah and you mentioned getting some uh you know different sounds are you using any effects at all not really effect pedals

SPEAKER_01:

since we use this software in gigs But functionally there is some overdrive on some songs and some delay on others and some reverb. So we use effects, not like very exotic ones. I think chorus and flanger and stuff like that doesn't really work with harmonica. In one song we have this Moog style filter, but that's all. Normally it's just this very... basic some coloring sound wise we very much trust the sound from the player and just make it as good as it as it gets with PA

SPEAKER_05:

yeah but you do you look after the sound yourself or do you have to rely obviously on the sound people

SPEAKER_01:

yeah we do we get all the lines separately the sound engineer so it's both from our side the basic sound and basic aesthetics but then this house guy can can do the rest and do the actual balancing because we can't really do that it depends so much on the room and va and all the variables

SPEAKER_05:

What about any advice you might have for people who are interested in forming a harmonica group? How should they go about that from your perspective?

SPEAKER_01:

Just go for it. But if you have a bass, you should really consider the proper microphone. What else? Just use your imagination and follow what you are interested in. And I think the key for us has been Combining harmonica traditions to other music tradition. One example is like I in this album in two of my compositions I use kind of old time music traditions that you play this train rhythms and double stops and stuff. But I use totally different tradition musically. So That's the thing, find the things that are nice to play with harmonica but are not necessarily harmonica traditions. There you can find great music and combining brainstorming with your bandmates you can go to amazing places.

SPEAKER_05:

So harmonica groups are still quite popular in Asia. There's quite a few over there. There's not so many in Europe now.

SPEAKER_07:

We are not really having so much contact with other harmonica bands.

SPEAKER_05:

What about the name Swang? Does that have a particular meaning in English? What does Swang mean?

SPEAKER_07:

Well, it used to be like, actually, it was kind of a joke, like our teacher, he was saying that, okay, well, it doesn't swing. It kind of swangs. So it was kind of like, way to saying us that the groove was not exactly what we wanted. But later on, we liked the word svang. It has many different meanings for us. We are joking like, okay, svang is a language. It describes all the beautiful and different kind of attitude, different groove, not the usual one, but the good one.

SPEAKER_06:

Swing with the twist.

SPEAKER_07:

Only problem is that there is such a word in Swedish language, which means a turn. But anyway, that's not intentional. So we don't admit the Swedish meaning.

SPEAKER_05:

And just then, the final question. And again, thanks so much for joining. And just about your future plans. So obviously, you got this new album out this year. You mentioned you're going to be doing some concerts in Germany later. So what else have you got planned?

SPEAKER_07:

Well, now the immediate plans, since the new album is very fresh, so I think it's just to enjoy performing the new material. Because it's very refreshing for us also, like change the repertoire every now and then. So now I'm very excited just to play the new material. And also kind of because many tunes in the new CD are very danceable.

SPEAKER_05:

So... Can you see Svang playing for the next 20 years?

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely. We have an aim that we will play for next 200 years. Of course, that requires that after, I don't know who is the next one to retire. We always replaced with new person and so on. It will continue. way after we are all dead that's my dream anyway so I'm sure we will play next 20 years

SPEAKER_06:

yeah and don't forget the development of medicines and you know stuff

SPEAKER_05:

so yeah so yeah hope you guys keep going for the next 200 years they're saying and getting new members through that time so so thanks so much the Svang group from Finland joining me today thank you thank you very much thank you Once again, thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast. Be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas. Thanks so much to the band for joining me today. Great that harmonica groups are still alive and spanging. Let me know about any others you're aware of. I hope that this episode, and the one with Fatima Garner from December 2020, might inspire some more harmonica groups to form, and who knows, we might return to the golden era of harmonica bands. Remember you can find some of the tracks used in the episode by going to the Spotify playlist, which is listed in the show notes on the podcast page. And thanks again all for listening. I'll sign out now with the title track from the latest album, Spang Nubo.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you.