Arto Rinne from Myllarit

I did this interview "blind"...or maybe deaf as well. I had never heard anything of Myllarit, knew hardly anything about Finnish let alone Karelian music. I just saw it in McGonigel's schedule, thought it sounded interesting, and went down for an interview.

Arto Rinne from Myllarit, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston, 7 January 1997

J: I'm talking to a member of a band called The Millers...what's your name?

A: My name is Arto Rinne and our band is from northwest Russia, from the Republic of Karelia and we play a mix of Russian...northern Russian and Finnish music.

J: So you're from Russia...right next to Finland?

A: Yes, our place is very close to Finland. We have

J: Part of Finland at one time?

A: A little part of our Republic was part of Finland before the second world war, but the biggest part, it always belonged to Russia, so its Russian instruments and Finnish, a mix.

J: So the music you play has Russian influences...

A: Yes, true.

J: And Finnish.

A: Yes, yes.

J: It seemed like you were playing a little bit of, farther western, like even American influences.

A: Not very much, a little bit, I don't know...

J: If I were to go there, and listen to music, what kind of music would I hear? What you're playing, or country music, or..

A: No, no country music, people don't play country music in our place.

J: Good.

A: So we use only traditional melodies, traditional songs...many of the songs which we sing we wrote up from bearers, from old people who knows the songs from generation to generation...old women in Karelia, and we recorded their singing, we got melody and we got words and then we make our own arrangements so we use our...

J: Your arrangements seem a little modern...

A: Maybe maybe, yeh. Sometimes we play in clubs, sometimes we play in the rock festivals, you know, maybe some people don't like it, but we try to save the traditional rules, the traditional melody, maybe our arrangements are a little bit more modern, some songs.

J: So are those the instruments that are traditional, like the mandolin?

A: Yes, the mandolin has always been played in Finland since the end of the last century, I think, so...people here are much more to Russian music because of balalaikas or dobras, we try to play northern Russian music, northern Finnish, so we use those instruments, maybe they're more Finnish instruments than Russian....I'm sorry, my English IINT...

J: No you're English is fine. So, is it easy for a musician in Karelia?

A: What?

J: Is it easy to make a living?

A: Uh, no, its very difficult, very difficult. We have gigs in our hometown in Karelia, so many because we want to earn some money. We also play in Finland because we also have a recording company in Finland and we spend much time every year playing in Finland, we grab some festivals, we play in Germany three or four times. Now we are for the first time in the United States.

J: Your first tour?

A: Yeh.

J: Where have you been?

A: We were in Colorado, Boulder and Denver and here, course me and the head of our group Sasha we played in the Christmas revels show last near at Rice University, we played traditional music from Karelia...not this group, maybe more traditional than this, we've got some contact here and we decided we would try to come to the United States.

J: Now these bagpipes he was playing, are those traditional for Karelia?

A: Yes...from Karelia, no, but this bagpipe its from Estonia...Estonia it's a Fenno-Ugric republic too now its independent but it was a part of the Soviet Union and Tallin is the capital and we use from this area bagpipes, its true and in the middle of Russia, people play the bagpipes.

J: Is your music similar to music from the Baltics?

A: No...no...

J: Its not at all like Estonian music?

A: No, Estonia is not...oh BALTIC! Baltic!! Maybe, yeh, we play a couple Estonian tunes too, so its close.

J: So are you playing dance music?

A: Yes, we play polskas and waltz.

J: I liked that polka..

A: Polska.

J: Polska polka....Tango...

A: Yeh...no tangos, we don't tango. No tango is not kalinka, kalinka malinka, no Maybe is most important Russia song they wrote. We don't play Russian traditional music, you know.

J: Do people play electric rock music?

A: Uh yes, I play in a rock group, and we use some traditional elements, so we try to get rock music and traditional Karelian music and we made a few singles in Finland, so it was very interesting.