Finnish producer Misha and Finnish composer / jazz pianist Jussi Halme are 30 years apart and come from different eras, but their love for music has brought them together.
Their shared music journey began almost three years ago, when Misha reached out to Halme to sample his track “Early Evening in Brazil”, a track which Misha later reworked with Monma for “Brazil“, an instrumental released through Chillhop in 2018.
Misha and Halme also collaborated on Funny Funk ‘18, “Luv Pact”, the song “Bliss” in 2020 and most recently they created their first EP together: Bliss (A Felicidade), released on June 9th.
It is a project that bridges the old with the new, born out of love for emotional Brazilian/Latin music, where they joined forces and created something new, rather than just sampling Jussi’s older records. Thanks to music, not only have they become friends, but they have also developed an almost father-son bond.
We spoke to them about their chemistry, their latest project, being a jazz/boogie musician in Finland in the 80s and today, and much more…
Misha & Jussi Halme
First of all we want to congratulate you both on the EP, are you guys excited?
Misha: Yes, very excited. It’s our first collaboration EP. Although we wrote quite many songs after we released “Brazil”, this is our first collaborative EP project.
Misha you’re visiting Jussi right?
M: Yes I am at their place. I will stay here for two nights, near a city called Tampere, in southern Finland, a very nice place. Jussi has a studio here, a lot of keyboards and synthesizers…
Could you guys introduce each other? Misha you can start!
M: I would call Jussi “the best kept secret in Finland”, he’s a very kind and talented musician, and I would also call him the uncrowned king of Finnish funk!
Jussi Halme: Ladies and gentlemen (drum roll) I would love to introduce my very special friend. First of all he’s a wonderful person, a big human being and a very talented producer, beat maker, composer, whatever you want… Misha is my boy!
Jussi, how was being a boogie/disco/jazz and funk musician in Finland in the 80s?
J.H.: It was like chaos. I think it’s a little bit still the same these days in Finland. Music culture in Finland comes strongly from melancholia, heavy metal music, rock, punk, etc., it doesn’t have anything to do with soul and funk and disco or boogie. In those times we didn’t have many places where to play that kind of stuff, but still I played with my band, like the famous Pori Jazz festival in 1979.
In the 80s there were some clubs here where you had the chance to play this kind of stuff, for example in Helsinki, and a few other ones. However, I understood then that I also had to do something else to earn money, and between 1979 and 1983 I did nearly 1000 gigs with other artists and bands, just as a keyboard player.
Jussi Halme in the 80s
When you first started, what was the main struggle you experienced playing this type of music in a country where this genre/culture was very small?
J.H.: I had these gigs with other artists from 1979 until 1983 and then I decided that I had to stop because I wanted to do my own stuff. It was in my heart all the time. I was very young, I was 22, 23 years old and I decided that if I couldn’t make my own music, then I would have had to change job.
When I composed and released my song called “Funny Funk” in 1983, I didn’t mean for it to be a big hit, nothing like that. I just wanted to do it, but none of the radios wanted to play it. I also sent it to record companies and they said to me that I was crazy and I got a ‘no way’ answer from them. They just told me to do more like the Finnish stuff, melancholia, heavy, etc. and I said to them “I am not fucking heavy” (he laughs). It was quite hard and I was very young, but I never gave up.
“Funny Funk” was not a big hit, but after a few years, around 1987, TV producers started to contact me and they were very interested in my sound. That was a big start for me because they wanted me to make music for TV programs, so “Funny Funk” was the one little key for me to open that business with them. I have been doing music for nearly 100 TV shows/ films and it has been a very big thing for me and for my family. If I never did “Funny Funk”, maybe they would have not found me, but because it was so different from the other songs they hear in Finland, it happened like that, it’s so crazy.
Funny Funk by Jussi Halme
Jussi’s passion for music motivated him to be persistent and keep going throughout the 80s, and in the meantime he also started appreciating hip-hop…
J.H.: I had an appreciation for hip hop long ago, I started to listen to it more, maybe 15 years ago. Five or six years ago my son, who’s now 25 years old, started to make rap music here in Finland and I started to listen to hip hop more, beats and that kind of stuff.
I found Misha on YouTube at that time, he was also doing rap music with his artist name Haamu. When I found Misha I really liked him, there were maybe two artists in Finland that I really liked, and he was one of them. Of course because my son started to make rap music, I wanted to listen to it more and more and try to learn what it was, that’s how it went.
What was your first thought when Misha reached out to you?
J.H.: I was very honored because I was following what he was doing already. Five years ago I was already thinking that if I wanted to still do soul music, beats or something like that, I needed some younger producer besides me who could help me and who I could give some ideas to.
I am turning 60 years old next summer and five years ago I had a very strong feeling that I could help younger producers, but I needed somebody to bring my music to these days, so I was very interested about it and I was very honoured when he contacted me.
We’re talking so much about life and things and also this shit business sometime, music. I can bring some ideas to him and we have loads of talks about it because I have done this nearly my whole life, more than 40 years. I started when I was very young, and I just try to help. In this case, because we like the same music and I know it has been so hard here in Finland, I feel like I have something to give to him and this is very nice. Misha is a very good friend to me and I think of him as a second son.
Misha & Jussi Halme
Misha, how would you say meeting Jussi has impacted your approach to producing/your music in general, as well as you personally?
M: First of all I need to say that Jussi is definitely like a father figure and mentor to me, musically and in life in general. We became friends, we call each other quite a lot nowadays and talk about life and the music business, he’s like a mentor figure which I didn’t have before, so definitely he had a great impact on me.
Musically I have also learned a lot. Before meeting Jussi I was composing my own songs, but I come from a sample background so I usually sampled artists like Jussi from the 70s and 80s. Working with him I learned a lot about composing, chord progressions and about arranging songs.
When we work together, usually Jussi sends me out like a composition, with all the arrangements and for me it’s like a learning process to look at the session and just listen to what Jussi did in the intro and what happens in the hook and C part and of course sometimes I might add some sounds, or sometimes I might compose a C part, but basically every time we make a song it is like a lesson for me. I definitely learned a lot about writing music, I am not exaggerating, it really is like that. That affected a lot how I approach music nowadays.
Also, I have a background as a rapper, so I initially was doing music only for Finnish audience, and Jussi has encouraged me a lot to go international because he already experienced how things work in Finland, or better how things don’t work here. If you do this type of rhythm music, anything related to R&B, Disco, Jazz, Hip Hop, it’s better to forget about the Finnish music industry and go international and that’s what Jussi has been telling me a lot.
He has been giving me some insights on how things have been in Finland and I can really relate, because things have not changed that much.
How did you work together to create the songs of Bliss (A Felicidade)?
M: On this EP we only did original compositions, so for most of the songs basically Jussi made a composition, he prepared the whole song and sent me audio stems of all the tracks he’s done. I then might re-arrange something but usually I keep the same arrangements as Jussi has already done, I add some sounds or chain some sounds, or build a B or C part.
Most of the time I send Jussi a drum beat, like a pattern of four or eight bars with the verse and hook, and then Jussi builds on top of the drum break, and that’s how we roll.
Jussi has a studio with Fender Rhodes, I think on most of the songs he played Rhodes, so those songs are usually based out of Rhodes and some old synthesizers from the 70s & 80s that Jussi has been playing.
What did you and Jussi want to achieve with the EP?
M: We want people to feel in a good mood when they listen to our music. People are kind of expecting a certain type of music from Finland, more heavy metal, dark and melancholic, and we wanted to showcase something different.
Even if we’re living here, in northern Europe where nights are cold and dark, we can still make sunny music and put people in a good mood. This is something we wanted to showcase, something new from Finland. We are a weird pair and we wanted to also encourage these weird types of cross-generational collaboration, I haven’t seen so many duos like this (they laugh).
To end the interview, if you could describe the EP in three words, which ones would you pick?
M & J/H: Soulful, emotional and jazzy (because Jussi has a jazz background)
Bliss (A Felicidade) is available on all streaming platforms.