Part 1

Name: Lauri Järvilehto
Nationality: Finnish
Occupation: Musician, writer, philosopher
Current release: Lauri Järvilehto's latest album Songs About Sadness is out now.
Topic I rarely get to talk about: Intensional semantics. That's more of an aspect of my academic work, but it's something that has been quite a big oversight in both philosophy and linguistics. Now with the new AI systems, especially the large language models, this deeply networked character of language is finally coming to light and some theories that were developed in the 1940s and since forgotten have really been vindicated.
I think the way language works is really a kind of a network of hidden connections, both within an individual but also between each of us. It's less private than we tend to think. Even now, this interview has changed some of those connections in my mind and this interaction has changed the way words work for each of us, as well as with whoever may come later and read this. Modelling these connections has been notoriously difficult in the previous decades, but now we finally have technology that can give us a glimpse of all of the myriad connections of words. The the secret life of words, to boot.
So that's definitely something I'd love to see talked more about, and maybe we will now that it's no longer just confined to a few off-mainstream philosophical theories from the 1940s.
 
If you enjoyed this Lauri Järvilehto interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, and tiktok.  



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

I started writing music when I was around 12.

My dad's workplace had a Yamaha electric piano with a very rudimentary sequencer and I'd fiddle around with that, eventually making a bunch of songs. At around the same time I was hospitalized and my grandparents got me a Synthesizer Greatest cassette that really clicked. After that I started spending time at a local studio, learning synth programming, sequencing and studio techniques.

As for writing lyrics and poetry, that started a bit later, about the time I was in high school. My mom would always give these poetry books to me that I really didn't get. But then in high school, I read some Keats, Yeats and stuff and that carried me away. At around the same time I went from writing just instrumentals to starting to work with vocalists, so poetry pretty naturally also migrated to song lyrics.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

A lot of things really. There was a time when I drew a lot of inspiration from science fiction, and many of my Songsworth songs were actually written as kind of soundtracks to my favorite books and stories. Obviously, I also draw a lot from my life and thinking, seeking to express things that I find important so that it might resonate with the listener too.

I'm a total book worm, at any given time I have half a dozen books going fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Right now my top three authors are Jorge Luis Borges, Stephen King and Louise Glück. But in a month it may change again.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

I think the first lyrical artist that really hit hard was Peter Gabriel. My most constant mainstay has been David Bowie since mid-nineties. Also, Leonard Cohen has been huge for me for decades, and I recently re-discovered nineties Björk.

For the last fifteen or so years, also Bob Dylan has had a big influence and his Freewheelin' is probably one of my top ten albums of all time.



It's really hard to pin down what moves me in a lyric. I don't really think it's an intellectual thing, but rather a combination of candor, originality and expressive power.

I also read a lot of lyrics from lyric books, for example Bowie, Dylan, Kate Bush and so forth, and it gives me a quite different angle to how the writing works than when it's set to music.

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

Dylan's “Blowin' In the Wind” certainly put some social issues front and center for me. I think also Björk's “Bachelorette” was massive for me in the late nineties.



I was in a really deep relationship at the time - my first love - and somehow that song became to me a kind of a soundtrack of that relationship. I don't think there is an explicit connection – I don't really know what the "killer whale" would've been in that relationship - but once again, it was rather the emotional connection.

Interestingly, there is also a song on my new album, “Hey Kid,” that has had an impact on my life. Channelling some of the stupid things I did as a kid into a song has helped me to let go of them at least up to a point.



It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

Music is a tremendous way to create connection beyond words. Words always carry at least a bit of intellectual content, whereas music goes even deeper and beyond that through the emotional connection formed through melody, chords and rhythm.

I recall some theories that the origin of speech would actually be song and dance, and it kind of makes sense to me. Music has somehow a deeper reach to connect us to each other than words, although I guess that's why music and words together make such an impact.

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

Poetry is certainly music; there is obviously rhythm, and sometimes even a kind of a melody in poems.

But kind of like I said above, music still has a deeper reach somehow.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

I think they are different yet similar and complementary expressive avenues that can help create connection between people. That's what I think all art really is connection and deepening not just understanding but just existing itself through that connection.

That's also why I'm not really that worried about AI in arts. It's going to replace a lot of "industrial art", like background music and ad illustrations, but for "actual" art, the connection to the artist is really what matters, and even if AI happens to be a tool to create that connection like a guitar, a fountain pen, a drum machine, it cannot replace the artist.

For me, music rarely "takes me to places" the way writing does. Books are for me teleports to other words. I experience very vividly the fictitious worlds and people contained in books. Music is more like an emotional transport. If I feel down, I'll punch up some Metallica or AC/DC in the car, and if I feel intrigued, St. Vincent might be the ticket.

I also often have very specific cravings for a particular album, like the other night I just had to put on Muse's 2nd Law. Can't for the life of me explain why, but it just fit that point in time and space perfectly.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Social issues have been a theme I've been revisiting since my first writing in high school. Also, the more challenging aspects of life have been a driver for my writing for a very long time.

I've always struggled with being able to produce the more classical love story song, I don't know why that form doesn't really capture me, even though I love to listen to a great love song as much as anyone else.

Also, stories, narratives, and I guess still sci-fi, have a strong pull for me.

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

Oh boy, where to start. I think all of the songs on Songs About Sadness have so many layers built into them that it would take me a while to get down to all the details.

One interesting track, though, is “Maze.” It's about seeking and struggling with understanding faith in life.



Spiritually I'm something of a mix of Catholic Christianity and Zen Buddhism. I was actually raised an atheist, or at least an agnostic, but have been a Catholic now for almost 15 years, mostly through the influence of my wife and Søren Kierkegaard. All through my life I've also gravitated strongly towards Zen Buddhism, and especially the writings of Alan Watts and Shunryu Suzuki have been transformative in my life.

“Maze” started with just trying to understand why it's sometimes so hard to maintain an active relationship with God. Why religion is so often so much about struggling, both with respect to navigating a mostly secular world but also with respect to maintaining a personal spiritual relationship. This, at least in my case, sometimes feels quite challenging. As the song started developing, it also led to the realization that sometimes "heaven is here" - that spirituality is not so much about awaiting a reward in some ostensible afterlife, but rather about living a good life right now as best we could.

And then the song took me to some quite strange place that also ultimately gave it its name. That is to say, the realization that a mind is a tremendously complicated thing - mine is anyway - and that can sometimes also lead us away from the more profound way of just being in sync with the world. So the song became an expression of the endless seeking that I think characterizes not only spiritual or religious experiences but the very state of human existence itself.