On May 25th, Finland's Jack's Basket Room released their new adventures EP called Vanilla Club. Recorded mostly live on tape by using only vintage gear, Vanilla Club finds inspiration mixing Cuban and American sounds pondering, “What if Elvis or Wilson Pickett had been born in Cuba as a woman?" in a collection of fresh originals. Here, band member Pasi answers his Essential 8 and speaks about the album, songwriting, his appreciation of vintage gear, and more.
Did you have a musical mentor? If so, who was it and how did they influence you? Yes, my uncle who is also playing in the Jack´s Basket Room. He has been a huge influence for me. First of all I wouldn't probably even play guitar without him cause he made me my first guitar. He also taught the basics and printed a huge pile of Guns ´N Roses notes, I was crazy about the band at that time, for me to learn. Actually, when he started making the guitar for me he asked what kind of guitar I would want and my immediate answer was “the same kind that Slash has!”. With any particular song, was there an “a-ha” moment when you knew the song was completed and perfect? On the Vanilla Club EP it was the "Mango Man" [Watch HERE]. It just kind of wrote itself and I could see the woman driving in that old 52 Chevy in the streets of Havana. Musically, it was also so simple that it couldn't go wrong. In my opinion when the song sounds good when you play it only with acoustic guitar, it's going to work, at least for me. Is there a story behind your album’s title? We wanted to have a title that has some reference to Cuba. Something that could have been in the 1950´s travel ad. Cause in a way this EP was a holiday for us. Then there is also a little reference to the band´s name. Jack´s Basket Room was an old blues club from the 1950´s and we kind of feel like we have groups of people coming in and out to jam with the “house band” all the time. We are always open to have players sit in with us. Havana Club had the same feeling in it.
Why did you choose to anchor the album with the songs you did?
It was pretty much because of the way we recorded it. This album was made in an analog studio by using only vintage gear and it was also mixed analogue. Most of the album is played live in one room and some of the songs we had would have been hard to record this way. We found this out immediately when we walked in the studio. We had only two days booked so we picked the tracks we knew we could record in the way we wanted to without too much hassle. Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? From everywhere, but most of the songs have some kind of connection to my life or something near me. I don't always realize the connection when I start to write something, but I usually can see the connection after the song is finished so it's not always intentional. The lyrics to Vanilla Club's songs were finalized after my trip to Cuba. I wrote big parts of the songs before I went to Cuba, but after the trip, I tweaked them a little bit so they would be closer to reality if you can say so. What’s the best advice to give to a musician just starting out? Do your own thing and keep doing it. Is there a recent release you cannot stop listening to? Dan Auerbach's new solo album Waiting on a Song. I think the album is really fresh and different. For me it has these songs that could have been done in the 1950´s, but the arrangements are really unique and modern. Great album and it keeps getting better. Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off? I like all vintage guitar gear. I´m a huge guitar geek. I watch all these Pedalshows and Rig Roundowns on YouTube and read endless articles of old guitars and amps. So there really is too many to mention. But let's say 1955 Fender Champ Amp, we used one on the album, and 1961 Gibson SG. Jack´s Basket Room | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Youtube
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