Part 1

Name: Ringhold
Members: Kalle Tikas (electric guitar), Eleonora Kampe aka eleOnora (vocals)
Occupation: Singers, songwriters, performers
Nationality: Estonian
Current release: Ringhold's latest full-length album KAEV is available via MKDK.
Recommendations: Eleonora: 2046 by Won Kar Way for me always stops time.
Music wise I would suggest you check out the work of Irish musician Katie Gerardine O’Neill. She recently had a now album out but do take a dive deeper and listen to her older work. I am also big fan of her visual work.
Kalle: Documentary film: AHTO. Chasing a Dream
Album: A. Kostis - The Jail's A Fine School 

If you enjoyed this interview with Ringhold and would like to keep up to date with the duo's music, visit their official website. The band are also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.

For the thoughts of one of Kalle Tiktas's former collaborators in the Estonian Guitar Octet, read our Robert Jürjendal interview.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

Eleonora: I started quite late in my mid twenties and before that I did not imagine I would go into vocal art. Music was just one of the things I enjoyed to experience.

In the late 90s I used to collect CDs of live recordings of my favourite bands. I loved to hear how the same piece could get performed so differently, depending on the vibe created at each concert.

I was also a junky for small underground venues showcasing experimental gigs by unknown players. This alone definitely does not define musical quality, but I like the freedom of how music is created in this scene.

Kalle: As a teenager in the late 1980s I became influenced by heavy metal and this was also when I first picked up the electric guitar. It was only in the mid 1990s when I got up on stage.

It was with my first band BF that we did with my brother and we played a kind of a post Soviet interpretation of the British blues and the general vibes of rock music from the end of 1960s. In BF I played electric guitar and also keyboards, my brother was on bass and we had several drummers through the years.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

Eleonora: Music is a big mood support for me. It often helps me get on the flowing side of activities.

In my earlier days as a music listener I did a lot of binge listening. Kind of a ritualistic behaviour, finding one album or track, having it on repeat for some time. And when the binge is over, there is always a sense of freshness, like after the rain.

Kalle: There are two ways I experience music. One is more analytical, when I pay attention to how all the instruments, sounds and effects are being used. And the other way is I just listen and enjoy.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

Eleonora: It is challenging to be an abstract vocal artist and avant singer from the quite peripheral Baltics where there are not many opportunities to perform the musical styles that I am engaging in. So I drive a lot on my own fantasy for doing this.

I really enjoy developing and advancing my act. My vocal art, both in Ringhold and abstract work, are aimed at offering the listener an experience of a soothing, bold, scratchy, alive sounding voice paired with artful presence.

It is always a breakthrough when I get to finish a project and move on to start a new one.

Kalle: A breakthrough occured in 2014, when we started Ringhold and I introduced myself to the picking technique on the electric guitar and found a totally new style for myself.

More recently I have started to create instrumental solo pieces that have grown out of my work with Ringhold.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

Eleonora: I really like strange, unique, independent and self aware forms of expression and this reflects a lot on what gets a green light in my life. I like music that genre wise is in the stage of formation, kind of still cooking.

For instance when in modern 21st century music I enjoy genres becoming mixed with 20th century oldies. I always choose to listen to the pioneers of genres.

Kalle: I am a musician and a composer, I invent mechanical and electronical objects for theatre and art exhibitons, I have restored old motorcycles and other mechanisms – all these activities for me have something in common and shape my artistic and other wise personal footprint.

For me musical and technical thinking go together well.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Eleonora: In the age of commercialised art one main thing for me is to confront it. For me this means trying to create radically beautiful musical forms and sending them out into the world.

Mood wise with Ringhold we work with ideas like gloom and groove. A slightly bumpy ride, but we have a plan at the wheel.

Kalle: When I create I wish it will inspire someone in a positive way.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Eleonora: I admire originality and innovation but I like it to be warm, compassionate and unjudgemental. I am definitely drawn to timelessness, I think it is very difficult not to be.

“Music of the Future” sounds weird to me and perfection is not my thing. “Continuing tradition” is a very respectful thing but I am not sure if I do that.

Kalle: My approach is more traditional I think. But I am looking for my own ways in it, not simply repeating a pattern.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Eleonora: The most important thing has been continually practicing and reinventing and finding my voice.

Kalle: I started as a guitar player and this has stuck most with me. There have been many phases – from blues rock to progressive rock to free improvisation to picking technique.