Category: Interview

With the combination of weird, dumb, meaningless faces and words, Multistab has been stabbing normative thinking on the illegal and legal walls of the Estonian streets since 2009. Signor Ssick, Karma and Pheriskoop – three artists with disguises, who have never adopted any specific genre or traditional stenciling of graffiti and street art. Instead, they set their base on “destruction of absolute two-sided thought models”. In doing so, their long-nosed, pig-faced, and crocodile-faced characters have made satire, mocking and fun towards linear and limited thought-process, that has already brought them into the keen attention of art enthusiasts and critics. 

This was more than just an interview, a conversation in which everyone took part, expressed and exchanged views and generated points of departure by engaging each other. Due to the pandemic reality of Covid-19, we all hung out on Skype and Pheriskoop joined in at the end of the conversation, as he had fallen asleep on the couch. During the conversation, we did not keep our cameras on, nor did we call anyone by their real names. They talked about their beginning and very recent works, the choice of themes, characters, selection of walls, the process of painting, how they see Estonian and European graffiti and street art and eventually about their way of thinking.    

How have your art activities been going on in these pandemic days? Have you painted any walls this year?

Ssick: Yeah, this year is coming to its end and we have done eight works; five of them on illegal walls and three are commissioned. You know, Karma lives outside of Tallinn, in another city, so all three of us didn’t always paint together. Some we painted together, but the rest either Pheriskoop and I or Karma and I did as pairs. Besides wall painting, Karma and I did one graffiti writing at Paljassaare. It was in April and because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city was in lockdown, but you know it was summer, it was very sunny outside, and we really wanted to paint something together. So, we did. It’s on an illegal wall, but such a wall, that already had some other street art. And if I say about the commissioned works that we have done this year, they are more focused on the environment and urban life, but the themes of the illegal walls are completely from our own head. For example, Pheriskoop and I did one wall with the theme of a small bug which is very dangerous and is common in Russia, Finland and Estonia. If it bites you, it can cause death, it is as dangerous as the coronavirus. So, this painting represents this region and its forests and its seasons of summer and spring.

That’s nice, coronavirus couldn’t stop your art activities. Let’s talk about your beginning. How did all this start with Multistab?

Karma: In 2008, as far as I can remember, Signor Ssick started his own movement with… was it with your girlfriend at that time, Ssick?

Ssick: No, it wasn’t. She was my classmate from high school, not a crew. We did drawings and writings of the Necker cube. Back then, I only drew like letters, sometimes characters, but it was mostly graffiti. And then I met Karma at Linnahall. I think one of our friends was doing graffiti and painting there with a bunch of other people for his birthday occasion. I asked him first: let’s go and paint something and we painted there, and somehow, I saw the possibility to do something together. Then we sat together and thought – let’s call it Multistab.

Karma: Um, yeah. If I remember correctly, I was quite bored with just painting graffiti letters, and I really wanted to get into character drawing, and then I met Ssick. Back then, the main aim was to draw or paint only our made-up characters. That way, it was like a change in graffiti work for me – from letters to characters. We started with weekly character painting together and went through a lot of paintings. That is how it started a decade ago. In the beginning, it was like a side project that became the main project over time. 

That means you guys had been very passionate at the beginning of your journey. Now it’s more than one decade you have been active in this scene and have attained a lot of attention from the art enthusiasts and critics; could you give some idea about your theme, wall selection and process of artwork?

Karma: Let’s talk about the two standing black and white characters on the old Patarei prison wall. Besides Ssick and I, Pheriskoop was also involved in this work, and this was his first work with us. This was not an abandoned building, but they didn’t use it anymore at that time. It had many, many buildings, and this was one of those walls, and we did it during an art festival. I don’t remember the name of the festival, but it was a legal wall, and as you can see in the picture, we had photos printed on the right side. Ssick’s canvas runs diagonally along the right wall, and the two main characters are painted with spray paint. So, we wanted to make something that fits the place. Basically, we painted two prisoners, and the weird thing is that my grandfather was once in this prison. That is why I somehow wanted to paint something for him, and from the left side of the picture you can see something colourful painted on the wall, which is Pheriskoop’s work, but he was not in Multistab at the time. Through this work, he clicked with us, or, can say the three of us clicked with each other. Eventually, Pheriskoop got his own character and his own vision of doing character graffiti.

Ssick: I remember something from this picture. We did this work as part of the festival called Kultuuritolm or Cultural Dust and were invited to paint or do something basically. It was in 2010, and I think nobody knew us then, so we made a lot of effort there and so on. We really had the intention to transfer our true thoughts to mimic the idea of the prisoners. And the wall was really a nice spot to paint standing characters vertically.

I am also curious about a painting – two figures reading a newspaper.

Karma: Yeah, have you translated the words to that?

Yeah, something like good news and bad news…

Karma: Yes, yes. On the left side the pig (that is Ssick’s character) is reading the bad news. The news about the weather forecast, which shows that it’s raining, and on the lower left side of the newspaper, there is a picture that shows a tree falling on a person. The media in Estonia at the time said that everything was quite bad, and people read this news and started to worry. And, the reflection was that many people left Estonia for better weather, better life, for example they left for Australia, New Zealand, etc. So we were quite fed up with this mindset. I really love living in Estonia, because I know that in autumn and winter, when it gets dark outside, I have something to do inside, like making music, drawing or doing something creative. And I thought that if you say Estonia is a bad place to live and therefore leave, you just do not have much to do if it’s not sunny or warm. So, I wanted to make jokes about these people. So, my character is on the right side. Ssick’s character pig reads the bad news and my character begs him, please let’s go abroad, let’s leave Estonia. (Laughs.)

So, you develop ideas from the media? 

Karma: Not always from the media, something that makes us scoff at painting for fun. For example, the mural from Rummu’s prison wall, on which the three of us worked together. It has three characters. If you zoom in, then you can see that the left character is holding wires, electric wires. The middle character is tearing down buses, and the right one is like eating buses. So, our main idea was to mock the decision of the Tallinn City Office to create a new bus lane on the street where regular cars were not allowed to drive. So, we thought, OK, we will mock this decision with some evil characters. Because the city office wanted to make the city better, and in this way our characters were evil on this wall, and evil will eat up all the buses. It’s like a kind of performance to tear down the buses and demolish the city… (Laughs.)

I am coming to the point of your process of painting and selection of walls. Before I move on, I want to ask you about your pseudonyms – you three took three different names under Multistab.  

Ssick: (Laughs.)

Let me ask Karma first, why did you take this name? 

Karma: (Laughs.) Yeah, I have to start from the beginning. My father has always been interested in metaphysics and spiritual consciousness and everything that has to do with his spiritual thinking. When I was growing up, I always read about destiny and then a lot about karma. Personally, I am not religious, but I really believe in destiny and that some things are really written down in that sense, and eventually karma has become something like my philosophy of life. So, when I started thinking about the tag name, karma just came into my mind, and I chose it as my name. It’s just a gibberish tag and that is how I have become Karma. 

Seems like karma in Buddhist philosophy. What about Signor Ssick?

Ssick: For me graffiti is really intuitive and somehow random. I took that name after I painted some graffiti and character paintings and I wanted a different name for painting the characters, to separate it from writing graffiti letters. At some point I thought I needed a transformation of myself that could be taken in many ways, like ill or crazy or cool or just a tag as a placeholder. In my other tag or graffiti name, I had some letters like “I” and “S”. Then it somehow evolved into ISick, you know what I mean…

No, I don’t know what that means. (Laughs.)

Karma: (Laughs.) It just means that I am sick.

That’s really fun and a very existentialist expression as well. What about Pheriskoop, has he arrived here yet?  

Ssick: No, I don’t know what the problem is, he didn’t answer me yet. 

Okay, I am really interested to know one thing that is written in your book Multistab that the basis of Multistab’s work is “destruction of absolute two-sided thought models”. Does this mean that Multistab criticizes the normative way of binary seeing? Normally people see things as either good or bad, right or wrong, black or white – as if there is no other layer between two folds. Last year I visited the exhibition of Tommy Cash and Rick Ownes at Kumu Art Museum, and their exhibition title was “Damned and Pure”, which is a straight two-folded frame of seeing. So, I am really curious to know what you really meant by that.

Ssick: I think, yes, if you look closely at our works, you will see the reflection of multilayers of thinking, not just the two-sided meaning. Multistab is a shortened form of Multistability which comes from seeing a geometric form or a picture or an image that plays with many perspectives. We are particularly fascinated by geometry and geometric forms with the idea that there can be one thing, but it always has many layers, not just two meanings. Our logo is a Necker cube, which is an optical illusion that consists of a simple wireframe drawing of a cube and can be interpreted in various ways. When people see a childish image on the wall with this name Multistab, I think it somehow plays with their minds with multiple meanings. What we have painted on many walls, I think they have multiple meanings or jokes or sarcasm, you know. 

Let’s talk about the characters. If I am not wrong, the long, pipe-like nose is Karma, isn’t it? 

Ssick: We have no main character like the German street artist Flying Fortress – flying trooper, something like a teddy bear. Karma and Pheriskoop have their own style, which they use quite often when they draw the characters. Pheriskoop, for example, has a static character with the same look in its eyes and other details of the character. Similarly, Karma’s character always has a signature feature – a really big nose. But for myself, I feel that I don’t have that kind of static character, a certain thing I always do the same way. Of course, I also use some patterns that I like to use, but somehow, I always make some changes in detail. What are your thoughts on this, Karma?

The left one is Karma and the right is Ssick, Kalasadana, Helsinki, 2013. Photo: MultistabKarma: Yeah, I think it’s very clear that everybody has their own vision of their characters, and Ssick is always changing, and I really try to stick with my character, that somehow, he always looks like what I am. I don’t bring that much change, but I really like that big nose. (Laughs.)

Most of your characters take some features of monsters, square faces, Boogeyman, sometimes a mix of all, that look very different than what we generally see or imagine – kind of scary, but funny at the same time. Why do you choose such features? Isn’t Boogeyman an Estonian cultural thing?

Karma: A bit of it, yeah. We, or our parents or their parents or their grandparents always said that Boogeyman will come or something to scare us. I have two kids, but I have never told them the Boogeyman is coming, but it’s part of our tradition that the Boogeyman or the monsters live in the woods, and if you are bad, they come to you from the woods. In that way, yeah, it’s in our culture and therefore reflects on our characters. I really like the naive part of my character. I always want to put my character in a silly situation where he looks a little bit stupider than me. (Laughs.)

That’s a very subtle way in engaging local mythology. As far as I know, street art is prohibited by law in Estonia, so, how have you managed your activities on the open walls of urban sites from the beginning to date?

Ssick: I think in the beginning or in the first five years, we were really active and did a lot of, like, let’s say, illegal walls. But these illegal walls were mostly in abandoned spaces or this kind of places where nobody cared, basically. In our experience, local people have been very curious about our work and instigate conversation with us by asking questions, like, how much does a spray can cost or why are we doing this or commenting that we are doing great, mainly positive talking. Most of the time, we receive support from them. And, regarding police action, basically once a police car came to our site while we were painting in 2010 and they asked to show our identity card. We don’t have that many bad experiences dealing with such things, but the possibility that something disturbing could happen during the illegal wall painting is always stressful. Therefore, painting on an illegal wall is always different from a legal wall in terms of time and process.

So, there are walls, ideas or themes, and characters and letters. Could you tell me a little about the process by which you put sketches, lines and colors on the walls?

Karma: You know we don’t do traditional stenciling, that’s our choice. In the beginning, we started to do graffiti only with spray paint. Then we realized that we could make really large murals with bucket paint, and our plus point was that Ssick and I knew how to use spray paint before we got into Multistab. If I say in a way that getting an idea or theme is a mental part of our painting and the rest is really physical. For example, go to the spot, make the sketch on the wall, then press the button and apply the paint and then with the roller press synchronize it with the paint. And then you realize that paint is not enough, then you apply more paint. Sometimes, fingers start aching. This is really both physical and mental work, like sports.

Have you travelled to other countries to paint? 

Karma: Yeah, but not that much. For painting, Ssick and Pheriskoop, I think, visited France in 2017, Pherishkoop and I worked in Denmark during my studies in 2011. And the three of us worked together in Finland in 2012 and 2013 and Latvia in 2014. 

How do you see the European street art scenario while Nug from Sweden, Egs from Finland, Petro from UK, Flying Fortress from Germany have been significantly involved in the scene? 

Karma: Nug is a really big inspiration for me. He is a character himself and he has unconventional ideas and he is definitely a good guy. Especially the things he did, when you look at the train graffiti and the way Stockholm Graffiti has evolved, Nug has definitely played a big role. But I really like the work of Egs and Nug and yes, they are the kings for me. 

Ssick: Yeah it was 2013, I don’t know if I somehow got the chance or I do not remember how it went, but I organised a festival and an exhibition of street art in Helsinki and then I was like a curator or something to invite artists. I invited those I thought were interesting at the time. So I invited Egs. I like his work. We met first in 2010, since then we meet one to three times a year to paint or travel around Estonia and Finland. We are still good friends. 

What do you think about the Estonian street art scenario? Edward von Lõngus, also known as Estonian Banksy, how do you see his artwork? What about other artists like Lé 60, Mina Ja Lydia, Uku Sepsivert?

Karma: Of course, they are part of the Estonian street art. Edward von Lõngus has definitely done something, but I really like Uku Sepsivert a lot. If you look at the artwork of Lõngus and Mina Ja Lydia, they do this kind of street art that I don’t like, for example stencil graffiti. It’s something that isn’t ringing my bell, or I just don’t like it. I don’t hate it at all. It’s just really static, and I don’t understand it, at the same time I don’t need to understand it that way.

Ssick: I don’t want to be skeptical, for me this scene is kind of boring. I don’t think that much extraordinary artwork is happening here these days.

Well, the very frequently asked question now comes up in my head. It’s about Banksy, you know, it’s like the whole world knows the name for his street art, and it’s claimed that no one has ever seen his face. Besides Banksy’s mysterious identity question, how do you see his artworks? 

Ssick: Nowadays I don’t think about him, like, not in a bad or good way. I just don’t think or read anything about him. But when I was very young, like 10 years ago, I saw news about him. He had some interesting thoughts, and of course he made street art really popular. Like Karma, I am also more of a fan of freehand, graffiti, drawings and things that involve this kind of hand touch.  In the beginning of my artistic journey, I was really a big fan of the artist Blu. He did really big, really nice, kind of surrealistic, detailed, also quite sociocritical works on the wall.

Karma: He has a lot of good ideas and he has a really good team behind him. But when it comes to the aesthetics of graffiti or street art, I just don’t like his style. In that respect, Nug is much better compared to Banksy, because he’s like a real graffiti guy. 

Ssick: I am seeing Pheriskoop here. 

Wow, he has joined in, finally! Hello, Pheriskoop! 

Pheriskoop: Hi, really, I fell asleep on the couch. (Laughs.) But I am fine now. 

(Laughs.) No problem. We have already discussed the style and process of Karma and Ssick’s work. What about your side? And, why did you take the name Pheriskoop? 

Pherishkoop: Well, I also do music – hip-hop. As a musician I use a different name that has the two letters P and H. So, when I was added to Multistab, I thought I could use these two letters and I got the name Pheriskoop. That is how the name Pheriskoop was made up. And about the process of work, I usually follow the errors and then correct the technique. When I write lyrics, I always draw at the same time. When I draw, I have made many mistakes and I continue to do so until I get something right. I follow the same process in writing lyrics. Sometimes I get nothing, but sometimes I get something I can use. It’s nothing romantic, I just put my pen on a piece of paper and scribble until I get something.

It sounds nice. Now, if I ask all of you, what’s the future plan for Multistab?  

Karma: Doing graffiti or street art is something you can’t erase from your identity. You will be looking for a cool or unique place to paint your stuff. It really widened my way of seeing the walls, especially the way I see a regular gray brick wall. After starting this journey as an artist, I see the possibilities on the walls, how to express something we didn’t express earlier – that might sound romantic, but it is what it is. My plan for the future is to do the same thing I have always done: walk around, see new places in Estonia, find walls, take pictures, draw characters, see my friends and paint together.

Pheriskoop: Actually, we have been talking about stopping it for some time. It has just been like a word we’ve thrown out, but we haven’t stopped. I don’t think we are going to stop, we have been doing some commissioned work, clothing design and silkscreen stuff apart from street painting and graffiti writing. 

Ssick: The point is, the dynamics of our work have changed and it’s normal in a sense that it will change in the future to adapt our personal lives. We never did or do work according to a master plan or mission. It has always been organic, and we want to stick to that.

Multistab was interviewed by Shameema Binte Rahman.

On January 24, Estonian electronic-pop act NOËP and British rising star Chinchilla premiered their new song ‘Fk This Up’ at the gala show of the Estonian Music Awards 2019. Culture.ee now sheds a little bit of light on who is this ‘powerhouse of a lady’ called Chinchilla.

You recently completed a new single ‘Fk This Up’ with NOËP and performed it for the first time in front of the audience at the Estonian Music Awards show. How was it?

It was an extraordinary experience, what better way to test a new song out than on a crowd that big and supportive?! It was an epic night, NOËP and I had a great time and the performance and song seemed to go down well, fortunately!

How did you discover NOËP and how did the collaboration between you two start?

We met on a songwriting camp in London, by chance we were put into the same group together and began writing for NOËP. He played us some of his music which I loved so it was easy to get into a vibe and get started. I was in the room as a writer so it wasn’t until we were stuck on the chorus idea for a while that we decided to have me singing on the track.

Right now, ‘Fk This Up’ is probably one of the very few things that Estonian people know about you. If you were to describe yourself as a musician to someone who doesn’t know anything about you what would you say?

Well, I’m 22 and an Urban Pop artist from London. I’m massively inspired by female empowerment and big powerful female artists have always been huge influences of mine; from Janis Joplin to Amy Winehouse to Queen Bey! I write and produce most of my stuff and basically make sassy, feisty, empowering tunes that you’d put on when you need to feel BOSS.

You are working on your debut release right now, tell us a bit more about that.

It’s called ‘Elements’, I wrote and produced it all myself and I’m proud of that. For me, this song is all about female empowerment. It’s an upbeat, attitudey, solidarity song about three of my best friends; the girls I hung out with most growing up, and the individuality of them all and different aspects that make them incredible and fierce. It’s basically my favourite song I’ve ever written and with the messages behind it, it had to be my first single … can’t wait to release it on March 15th!

How does your creative process look like?

It depends if I’m writing by myself or co-writing with others, but usually I’ll start with a lyric or melody idea that I’ve come up with (in the shower or in the middle of the night recorded on my voice notes – somewhere inconvenient like that). Then I’ll make a bass line or beat to go under it and start riffing off that idea to create a concept for the song and section. I don’t have any set rules of writing the chorus first or verse last or writing it all to piano etc. I’m sure that works for some but for me, I like seeing where the song takes you naturally. I think production choices can really shape a song – so producing as I go along, adding bits of manipulated vocal as countermelodies etc and just seeing what happens and where it takes me – that is my favourite way to do it.

Who are your musical influences?

As I mentioned before, I grew up listening to massive female vocalists like Christina Aguilera, Tracy Chapman, Janis Joplin, Etta James, Amy Winehouse, as well as girl-bands like Atomic Kitten, Sugababes, and more recently I’m loving Little Mix. I then started to love Rihanna, and biggest of all – Beyoncé. I listen to a lot of different music, from Classic FM in the car to Radio 1 Xtra. I think you can really be inspired by anything. I love artists like Kendrick, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Prince, MJ, definitely Mark Ronson. I could go on …

You are from London. Have the vibes of London influenced you as well?

It’s hard to say because I’ve lived here all my life so I don’t know how I’d be if I hadn’t. But I think London is a cool place to grow up and it’s inspiring, there’s a vibe of motivation and acceptance. There are so many cool characters here, people who wear and do whatever quirky stuff they want, so it definitely pushes you to be the best (and most extra) you can be – otherwise you’ve got no chance of getting noticed amongst the masses of talent here.

Have you discovered any recent phenomena in music that you are particularly interested in and that you would like to try out yourself in the future?

This is always changing for me, at the moment I’m really into Billie Eilish and James Blake’s new album. I love how they’ve changed things up. In terms of trying things out in future – I’m always inspired by artists from past and present and influenced by them but I wouldn’t ever directly copy anyone, it’s always more interesting to start a new trend yourself!

Can you briefly summarize what needs to be in music for it to sound ‘right’ for you?

I think all it needs is to be different or special in some way. I never think of music as being ‘right or wrong’ but some stuff is more to my taste than others sometimes and what grabs my attention is something quirky and different from what everyone else is doing.

What album or song have you listened the most during your lifetime?

Probably Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’. That album was a total game changer for me, and the closest to my heart.

What’s your favourite sound?

Anything with strength behind it and a beat which you can’t not move to.

The Black Nights Film Festival’s diverse programme included among other great movies a unique and exciting gem called All the Gods in the Sky by Quarxx. In the following interview, the French director and multimedia artist Quarxx discusses his feature film debut in a little more detail.

Synopsis: Simon, a 30-year-old man, works at a factory and lives confined on a decrepit farm alone with his younger sister, Estelle, who is severely handicapped since a childhood game that took a disastrous turn. Despite his deep remorse and the violence of the world that surrounds him, Simon desperately hopes to save his sister by liberating her from the weight of the world. What if their salvation was coming from “them”?

You have said that the fundamental subject of your movie All the Gods in the Sky is remorse. Since you are an artist, which are the other subjects that are most interesting for you in art, and why did you feel that this is the topic that needs to be presented in a form of film?

The film is definitely about remorse but not only. As I wanted the narrative structure of the film to be a reflexion of the state of mind of the main character, I didn’t want to have a linear story with one single subject but different layers that define the psychological unbalance of Simon. As the film is a blend of genres (drama, sci-fi, horror, comedy), the sublayers of the plot deal with other subjects such as schizophrenia, loneliness and differences to the norm.

Those are the kind of topics that interest me at the moment. Nothing lasts forever and I like to evolve but for now, I feel that exploring the darker (and the brighter) side of the human spirit is a very interesting artistic challenge and it makes great stories!

First of all, you wrote it as a feature film script, but then it came out as a short film A Nearly Perfect Blue Sky and only a few years later, the full-length movie All the Gods in the Sky was born. Are there any kind of major differences between the short and the full-length movie, or are they basically just two versions of the same movie?

It is really two versions of the same movie. A Nearly Perfect Blue Sky is just a darker concentrated version of All the Gods in the Sky as it is shorter. It doesn’t include the emotional part that the feature-length contains. It has also a few other twists.

While you were making this movie, were there any situations where you had to change something that was written in the scenario or improvise quickly because you couldn’t follow the script for some reason?

No, I worked a lot in pre-production in order to avoid all the problems that we were facing when shooting the short. I had a very precise idea of what I wanted and how the film should be that in my mind there was no place for improvisation.

Fortunately, production went very smoothly and unlike the short, we had no major problems.

All the Gods in the Sky is quite a genre-bender and features elements from different genres. For example, in the programme of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, it was called a fantasy drama which is a pretty good definition. But parallels have been drawn also with French New Extremity movement. Are you aware of this movement and how do you feel about that comparison?

Yes, I was talking about it previously, I didn’t want to be restricted nor confined in what people consider as a genre. For me, there are no boundaries between those so-called genres and I often like to cross the line between them. I think ‘fantasy drama’ is a quite good definition.

Regarding the French New Extremity, of course I’m well aware of that movement. Of course I am a huge admirer of Gaspard Noé’s work. Marina de Van’s In My Skin was also a major blow to me. I also like the work of Pascal Laugier, Philippe Grandrieux and many others, so it’s very flattering to me to be compared to them but I don’t really feel I’m being a part of this movement but maybe it’s not for me to say.

Given that All the Gods in the Sky is dealing with rather dark subjects, did you feel that you need to censor yourself at some point or pull back somehow while you were writing the script?

I didn’t feel at all I had to pull back in any way. First of all, because I never wanted to push the limits, to be voyeuristic or being shocking for the sake of being shocking. I just wanted to tell the story I had in mind. And second of all, I had some very supportive producers in the person of Vincent Brançon from TBC and François Cognard from TOBINA FILM that understood where I wanted to go and why I was going there.

The film is set in an idyllic rural area. Except the fact that it’s just charming and down to earth, did you decide to use such setting due to the fact that it allows showing the progressive isolation of the characters more easily, or was there any other reason for preferring the countryside?

You are right when saying that a countryside environment allows more of an isolation feeling than an urban one. Since the beginning I wanted to focus on the aesthetic aspect of the film, I also wanted to put my characters in a rough environment for both those reasons I thought a rural area was appealing.

One of the subjects that stuck with me while watching the movie was offering physical intimacy to someone who is not able to express their wishes. This is played out very realistically but at the same time, it’s more like a nightmare than satisfaction. How did you decide to present that issue in this way, any inspiration from real life?

I wanted to show that Simon is taking care of his sister but just the wrong way. What he thinks is beneficial for her, turns out to be a nightmarish experience. The scene is intense, crude and sad and by adding long moments of silence I wanted to emphasize the loneliness of both characters facing something neither of them wants.

Have you received any feedback to the film that has really surprised you or given you a great deal of thought?

I am always surprised and very pleased by the critics that are written on the film. So far it has been only very positive. Even though I know the film is dividing and not for all audiences all the feedbacks are on the green!

Does the film contain any direct or indirect references to some of your role models, favourites or influences?

No. I really didn’t want to make a reference movie. I wanted to create and develop a unique universe that is not the product of my own influences.

Is there something else you would like to say?

It’s been great presenting my film in Estonia during the Black Nights Film Fest, hope to be back soon!

Questions by Helina Koldek.

Today and in the next few days, it’s possible to see a performance Sauna by the start-up theatre company Elektrooniline Jumal (Electronic God) at Kumu auditorium. The production examines the modern understanding of vulnerability and the sense of life in the midst of our digital revolution. What is it about and what has sauna got to do with it – the director Barbara Lehtna sheds light on it.

How did you come up with the idea of physical theater performance Sauna?
The idea was born with Sten Õitspuu, who is actually the initiator of this project. We discussed the social media and internet as a topic with him and I started to think that sometimes I feel that the world around me is getting hotter and hotter – sometimes it feels like you’re in a sauna and someone else is controlling the temperature.

What should people expect when they decide on going to see the performance? Is it in Estonian?
Very physical bodies on stage, warm humour, but also discomfort in the best of ways, chills, but also the feeling that the characters on stage are actually very familiar to ourselves.

Who do you consider your biggest creative influencers?
I’m very influenced by the Austrian choreographer Doris Uhlich, because I have now danced in her dance company already for many years. Also, I could name Sasha Pepeljajev and his kinetic stage language that has really stuck with me.

You have called Electronic God a start-up theatre company, what does it mean?
The term, of course, comes from the business world, where the point of start-ups is to really focus on a specific issue over a period of time. We also feel that this is similar to our aim – to focus on the topic of technology, internet and social media. We also work in the same frame – we have a certain amount of time and a certain amount of money and we either make it or go down. Hopefully this time we have made it.

What’s next after the Sauna project?
The next plans are already cooking and as the purpose of Electronic God is to create one piece a year to really concentrate also on pushing the quality up, we can say that we will create another piece within the next year. On the meantime every member of the group is also working on their solo projects: for instance, I’m bringing out my next physical theatre piece out already in spring and it will be called “Together Forever”.

Why should I come and see Sauna? When can I do that?
I have also asked myself if I was a part of the audience then what would make me go and I think it’s the feeling I get sometimes that technology is sometimes like a war starting to happen – you may not want to deal with it, but you’re left with no choice. Maybe coming to see the piece is already a good way to deal with this topic. We are looking forward to seeing the audience from the 15th of November until the 17th at Kumu auditorium.

The next performances of Sauna take place on November 15, 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. at Kumu auditorium.

Photo: Ailan Daniel Mark

Our film editor Helina Koldek asked a director called Jonas Govaerts some questions and found out quite a lot about his film art and some about the horror film tradition in Belgium. His film The Cub will be shown on  Sunday at Haapsalu and it is also special, because Flamish cinema is  in the spotlight at this year’s HÕFF (Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival).

Tell us something about your background and how you got into filmmaking.

I’ve loved watching movies for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until I found Evil Dead 2 in the local video store that I figured, ‘Hey, maybe actually making movies can be fun too!’ There’s something about the manic energy of that movie that’s very inspiring.

You’ve told that the very first idea for Cub came when you were 12 years old and a boy scout yourself. So how much resemblance there is between the movie plot and your own experiences? I can see that at least you came out alive but…

However weird it sounds, Cub is actually pretty autobiographical. So much so that after the premiere, I got calls from the other kids in my old scout troop, who wanted to know where I found those lookalikes of their younger selves! I really had two leaders called Chris and Peter, I had a crush on the scout cook, I’d get into fights with the local youths at our campsite… And my middle name is Sam, the same as the lead character. So you’re not wrong: apart from the bloodshed, Cub paints a pretty accurate picture of my youth.

Why horror? Is this genre in any way more special for you than other genres?

I love all genres, but horror was my first love, and always will be. I get an almost visceral kick out of a good horror movie, much like when I listen to a good punk or metal song. Horror helps me purge.

How is it to make a horror movie in Belgium? Do you feel that you can do just about anything that comes into your mind without too much pressure and restrictions or is it hard to stick with your plans? And I don’t mean because of the budgetary reasons.

Before Cub, the last Belgian horror film released was Daughters of Darkness, made 43 years earlier. So we have no real horror tradition in Belgium, at least not in the cinema. Because of that, I found I could pretty much do what I wanted with Cub. The people funding the movie were apparently unaware of unwritten horror rules like You can’t kill kids, or You can’t hurt animals. In fact, despite the gore and high body count in the film, the Belgian censorship board initially gave Cub an All Ages rating – assuming that a movie featuring kids would automatically be suitable for kids. In short, I was able to get away with quite a lot in Cub.

But do you have any limits as a movie watcher? For example, are there any subjects or approaches that you find unconditionally unacceptable?

A movie can do anything, except bore me.

If you could choose only one what would you prefer in a movie – a good story or a good atmosphere?

Atmosphere, no doubt. To me, movies are dreamcatchers: they don’t have to make sense, I just want to be transported. If I want plot, I’ll watch TV instead.

Are there any specific films or directors that have influenced you or your cinematic style?

Plenty, but the film I always return to, is Michele Soavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore, a zombie comedy about a gravedigger with an existential crisis. It’s simultaneously funny and scary; sexy and disgusting; profound and low-brow; messy and masterful. It’s also my cinematic 8-ball: if I have a problem, I’ll put on Dellamorte Dellamore, and it will give me the answer.

Could you recommend some really good but maybe less-known movies to our readers and HÕFF-goers?

There are a few films of which I’m still not sure if they really exist, or if I made them up. The Dark Backward, about a stand-up comedian with an extra arm growing out of his back. Singapore Sling, a Greek, gory neo-noir about incest. The Birthday, a Spanish apocalypse comedy told in real-time for no reason.

What are you working on right now and what are your future plans? Are there any particular ideas you definitely want to address in the future?

I’ve just finished work on a Flemish horror series called Tabula Rasa, which is currently streaming on Netflix. Hopefully, I’ll get to make another movie next. My dream is to make a horror film in every major subgenre: a zombie flick, a creature feature, a ghost movie… And of course, a Flemish apocalypse comedy told in real-time for no reason.

Helina Koldek did an enchanting interview with Bertrand Mandico, a  bold  and provocative  author and director of the feature film The Wild Boys that was also his debut as a feature filmmaker. 
What’s your background as a person, as a cinephile and as a filmmaker?
 A journey of passion, a frantic love for the cinema, a modest approach through animation and experimental cinema. An exuberant appetite for inspiring films. The romantic desire to make films that take spectators on a wave, salty and sweet.
Your first feature film The Wild Boys is finally conquering the film festivals and hearts of the audiences. How long did you make it and how did it go?
I have made a lot of short and medium-length films over the years, I have written feature films that have tangled in the nets of passive producers. Finally, I could do The Wild Boys pretty quickly, I wrote the script in an urgent and feverish burst. I shot the film a few months after writing it. The development of the soundtrack and editing took me over a year.
The universe of the mysterious island in The Wild Boys is really unique and haunting. There’s something exotic, erotic, dreamy and generous but also cruel and dangerous in the air. What’s the story behind that island?
It is an encounter between a Jules Verne like robinsonade and the stories of William Burroughs. This border between the childhood stories and the book discovered in adolescence. I wanted to make an epic and poisonous adventure movie. Something between an embrace and a bite, a free and frisky film.
Desires and brutality, eroticism and cruelty often go hand in hand in your films. What’s fascinating you in these combinations?
I like contrasts. Or the contrary currents. They are the driving force of fictional subjects. Without the two poles, there is no movement. It’s a substance of fiction, emotion.
You are revisiting some topics over and over again. One of these is sexual transformation. How do you see this kind of metamorphosis? In Wild Boys, it seemed that the bodies were changing but the personalities stayed the same. So is that a mere body journey and not at all a mind trip or…?
I am for the idea of borderlessness, confusion of genders. Bodies change and minds adapt. Nothing is fixed in sexuality or gender, everything is metamorphosis. You can slalom from one side to the other while remaining yourself.
Women have very exciting and extraordinary roles in your movies and one of your special actresses is Elina Löwensohn. Tell us about this co-work.
With The Wild Boys, I was able to give previously unseen roles to the actresses. I find that actresses are too often confined to conventional roles. Elina Löwensohn is a brilliant actress with a vast register. We have been collaborating for more than eight years on short films, a collection that we have undertaken. A kind of fictional reflection on aging and desire. Elina helped me to better understand the work of actresses to perceive nuances of the field of possibilities.
The Wild Boys has a fantastic and truly atmospheric soundtrack. How do you put sound and images together?
It’s a very time-consuming job. I film without taking any direct sound. Once the first editing is done, I create a soundtrack. I record the voices which allows me to direct the actresses again, I create emotional and sensitive sound atmospheres with my collaborators, we develop realistic or surreal sound effects, and I place music. Some pre-existing, others are composed by Pierre Desprat. And then I try to measure out all these elements to create a kind of sound river, an emotional and coherent current. On this movie, we had more than 400 tracks on the mix.
Which movies, artworks, and books are some of your favourites or have influenced you the most?
The list is long, for this film: The Wild Boys by Burroughs, Two Years’ Vacation by Jules Verne, drawings by Henry Darger, Genet’s Querelle for Fassbinder, Fighting Elegy by Suzuki, Wakamatsu, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Lewis John Carlino, Lord of the Flies by Brooks, Onibaba by Kaneto Shindô, Stevenson, Cocteau, The Profound Desire of the Gods by Imamura, Kenneth Anger, Max Ophuls, Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening by Jean-Claude Forest, Ulysses by Lob and Pichard …  to name but a few.
What’s next? Do you continue with the shorts or are there more feature films to come in the near future?
I am just shooting a medium-length film about desperate women during a sci-fi film shoot … and a short film about organ liberation. I hope I can shoot a new feature film in a few months (currently in financing). And I have a fantastic series in a finishing stage of writing.

Fiery film director Bertrand Mandico

This Saturday, Koidula Street will be transformed into Tallinn Literary Street, which will contain exciting events for both younger and older readers.
How did you come up with the idea for the festival and why did you decide to hold it in Kadriorg?
It’s common knowledge that Kadriorg is full of art. There are Kadriorg Art Museum and KUMU located on Weizenberg Street. The cobblestone of the parallelling Koidula Street has been marked by the footprints of countless Estonian writers. That’s why we were inspired to bring Kadriorg’s literacy to the public’s attention by literally bringing the literature out to the streets.
Who’s invited to the Literacy Centre festival? Are any preparations necessary?
We welcome everyone who takes interest in the event- to the point of an eyebrow raise or even an exclamation. Festival essentials are weather appropriate clothing, a bit of cash and most importantly, a friendly and curious mindset.
What kinds of activities have are in stock for younger readers?
Rahva Raamat’s and Estonian Children’s Literature Centre’s tents will be solely dedicated to kids’ activities. The tent named Segasummasuvila (Villa Villekulla) contains exciting children’s literature, fun activities every hour and different workshops. Tallinn Central Library will also be providing kids with tons of entertainment. It’s very important to bring children closer to books, so it’s delightful to have multiple participants working on that at our festival.
The programme is very diverse. Do you have any reccomendations for a book lover or, vice versa, for someone who doesn’t connect with literature that much?
A true literature lover should definitely attend the presentations of various writers, as well as the impelling talks on the topics of literature and culture. Listening to texts presented live by the author cannot be compared to reading them alone at home. Enthusiasts should also familiarize themselves with the new books introduced at the festival. Another pastime would be visiting the Mati Unt bench, which will be opened at 12 o’clock next to the Swan Pond. The pond is a significant sight for literary Kadriorg as it’s a place that the author- while living on Koidula Street- loved visiting.
Someone not so keen on literature should still feel assured to check out the tents. It can can be suprising to discover all that Nation Library of Estonia is enaged in or just how many copious and educational culture magazines there are in Estonia. All these organizations have come out on the streets, out of their comfort zone. They would like to introduce everything they’re working on, which is exciting to say the least. There is no doubt that even those not avid about literature can come to enjoy the festival and autumny Kadriorg.
Is there any book presentations inluded in the programme?
A grand total of six new books will be presented during the festival, two of which are thoroughly linked with Koidula Street. We are very grateful that the writers have aligned their releases wih our festival.
Is it possible to buy writings from the festival?
Yes, you can buy both old and new books as well as a selection of children’s books chosen by Rahva Raamat.
Are you planning to hold Tallinn Literary Centre in another distric in the future?
We’re definitely not leaving Kadriorg; nevertheless, there is a lot of potential for our festival’s growth.
How did you choose writers for the festival?
The programme was developed in cooperation with the institutions represented at the festival. They were the ones to pick out all the speakers and topics, so, altogether, the festival is a big collaboration.
It’s especially heartwarming to see how supportive the Kadriorg community and Koidula Street residents have been towards our project. One household will also hold a literary yard event in their frontyard. It will involve music, books, children’s activities, a cafe and much more. Even the local startup is participating and organizing historical tours of Kadriorg. Another big contributer is the cafe Gourmet Coffee located on Koidula Street.
Tallinn Literary Centre festival is a big collaboration of a lof excellent participants, after all, that’s the only way it should be!
Interview translated from kultuur.info blog by Emili Maiste.
 

Tallinn Photomonth started  on Friday evening  with the opening of the main exhibition  at the Tallinn Art Hall and lucky for us, we got to ask a few questions from the organizers Kadri Laas(left in the photo) and Laura Toots(right in the photo) before  everything  went into action.

When it comes to this year’s programme, it is notable that many of the represented artists don’t necessarily express themselves through photography on a day-to-day basis. Why make these choices?
Ever since it was first held in 2011, Tallinn Photomonth– despite it’s name—has been about taking a look at contemporary art as a whole. Still, we’ve stuck with the name Photomonth since the modern world is overflowing with photos; it’s aware of its’ photogenicity, so it uses these photos as a fundamental way of communication. The 2017 programme includes painting- and photo exhibitions, installations, residencies, book presentations, studio visits and film screenings in both cultural institutions and open space.
How was the Photomonth programme put together? How were the artists and their works chosen? Which themes were developed?
We started working on the programme with the opening exhibition in Tallinn Art Hall. In the summer of 2016, we organized an international curator contest. As a result, we picked Anthea Buys (a South African curator and writer) to be the curator of our group exhibition. What made Buys’ exhibiton project stand out was the fictional approach- the characters are real, historical people, who Buys has written into different fictional situations.
We made a conscious choice of not giving the participants a central topic to work with, giving every artist and curator their respective creative freedom. Regardless, it seems that Photomonth’s opening exhibition „Visuaalkurnatus“ („Image Drain“) has also inspired the rest of the programme, covering many significant breaking points in the past, present and future. Key words like the passing of time, dreaming about the future, emigration and occupation have established a pronounced direction for the entire programme.
The selection process has generally been multifaceted. We’ve included a lot of our old favourites that step away from the exhibition format (f.e the film screenings in Sõprus cinema, artists’ residencies in EKKM and Narva’s art residency), as well as a lot of rooms that exhibitions are not commonly held in. The key issue was the so-called „matchmaking“- finding an appropriate room for an exhibition, attuning a certain artist to a certain room and getting curators to create projects centered around specific places.
This year there have been over 20 exhibitions in addition to the hectic public programme.
Photomonth is divided into categories (exhibitions, fair, events), how does this division work?
There are no divisions in the context of the medium- there are exhibitions, residencies, book presentations and other events taking place. The main programme includes exhibitions in Tallinn Art Hall, Photomuseum, Estonian Contemporary Art Museum, Kanuti Guild Hall, ARS project room, Telliskivi Creative City, Puänt bookstore, Freedom Square and KUMU. Furthermore, Sõprus cinema is showing artists’ short films and people are visiting artists’ studios all over the city.
In addition to the main programme, a gallery programme is being held in parallell with Photomonth. The programme features Estonian artists’ solo exhibitions in the following galleries: Temnikova & Kasela
gallery, Hobusepea gallery, Art Hall gallery, Tallinn City Gallery, Mihhail gallery, Vaal gallery, Draakoni gallery.
This year, Tallinn Photomonth extends to Narva with two exhibitions and a foreign artists’ residency held in Narva Art Gallery and Narva Art Residency.
In September, Estonian Photographic Art Fair will take place for the eight time in Telliskivi Creative City.
What are Photomonth’s goals, does it aim to introduce (Estonian) photography to a wider audience or is it targeted at the people aready acquainted with the art field?
It is important for Tallinn Photomonth to be diverse and intertwined, especially in engaging different audience groups. The lectures, the guide excursions, the conversations with the artists, the movie nights and the book presentations are all aimed at not only art professionals, but the general public and that is also reflected in the topics we’ve chosen for our events. Moreover, the plays held in Tallinn and Narva act as a platform for our educational program, which we offer free in Estonian and Russian. The aim of the educational program is to improve visual reading skill, raise interest towards contemporary art, improve the ability to analyze art phenomenons and offer inspiration for creative activity.
I would also like to bring up Professional Week (held during the last week of September), which includes a programme on the topic of professional perspective open to all those interested.
Photo by Helen Melesk. Interview translated by Emili Maiste.

The Tallinn Chamber Music Festival will take place on August 19–30. Festival features performances by foreign guests such as Nordic youth symphony orchestra Orkester Norden, piano trio Teos (Finland/Estonia) and chamber orchestra Baltic Neopolis Virtuosi (Poland) and a great number of Estonian top soloists.
The festival has become a tradition and it is one of the Estonia’s classical music top events. Our beautiful capital’s quality music festival gives the audience a possibility to enjoy an extensive amount of Estonian and foreign top musicians’ performances, beautifying and enriching the cultural scene of Tallinn and of whole Estonia while doing so.
Before the festival begins it is suitable to ask the organizer of the festival, founder of the PLMF Music Trust and an acknowledged Estonian opera singer, Pille Lill, some questions which concern the organizational part of the festival.
How did the idea to organize the Tallinn Chamber Music Festival come to being? Did you see a certain kind of void in the cultural events that were already taking place?
The birth of the festival was a logical continuation of the founding of the Music Trust, which indeed filled a kind of void because Estonia didn’t have an organization which would take care of the well-being of professional musicians. Since one really important factor in enabling the development of the musicians is performing opportunities, then creating the festival was the rightest thing to do.
What have been the biggest ordeals connected to the organizing of the event?
Everything had to be started from scratch – budget, marketing, international cooperation etc. Everything has been a trial and still is.
What have been the biggest joys? What is the one thing that always makes you organize again?
Our musicians and their standard. I am moved to tears every time by their dedication.
What kind of feedback have you gotten from the audience?
Extremely pleasant. During the last few years, we have gotten the best feedback, which is that the concerts of the festival are accompanied by the quality label, which is very true and we enable that with a fairly decent price. This year, two concerts are with a free entrance again. Fantastic!
Which are the concerts that you definitely recommend to the audience?
All concerts are with an extraordinary energy. I have known all the musicians who perform this year already for 15 years or more and I know what they are capable of. Also, the foreign guests are with a high standard: Baltic Neopolis Virtuosi chamber ensemble features concertmasters from Berlin Deutsche Opera and London Royal Opera House. The Nordic young talents’ symphony orchestra is worth to listen and the piano trio Teos, which consists of Finnish-Estonian top musicians, has found recognition in Scandinavian countries.
What are the concerts that you yourself expect the most this year?
I do not wish to make any choices because I am very happy about every performance by our top musicians, who love their specialty and are dedicated to music.
Where to next? What are the plans for the future and who else do you plan to invite to Estonia to perform?
I believe that the festival will come again next year and we already have agreements with many foreign performers, which we will surely soon announce to the concertgoers. Soon to be created PLMF Academia Nova school will enable master classes for young musicians, so there is much to expect!
 

What is the idea behind Tolm?
The idea of the festival is to create a platform where art and music meet in a critically entertaining form. We want to offer cool bands and performances to surprise the audience and to not let them escape with a whole skin. We want to make the audience think a bit. Perhaps, for a moment, they should even feel discomfort and confront their inner stranger to overcome it and to become a more broad-minded person.
I understand that the idea of moving to Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (CAME) started to grow when things went bad in Patarei complex. Is there a plan to hold the festival there also in the future?
CAME has always been in the air. In fact, CAME was presented in the festival program in 2011 when the program concerned Eastern European issues. Then the Rael Artel curated international exhibition Lost in Transition that studied and played with the East European identities took place at CAME.
Tolm is very eclectic. What scenes are represented this time? Line-up is impressive as ever but please give a short overview of what kind of music can be heard and what kind of performances can be seen?
There will be some good old punk, indie, shoegaze, electronica, techno, soul, and nouveau and post weirdos who combine all the above-mentioned styles. If Friday night belongs mostly to the artistic and indie bands then post punk sets the tone of the early evening of Saturday, and the late night till the morning is filled with performers and electronic artists who are using soul motifs. The festival will also feature a party of all parties – the Haigla Pidu, and the favorite party series of all techno freaks – Mürk.
There will be very different performances. The assortment features video-acoustic, as well as text and dance performances and numbers, in which case you can not actually tell if it is music, performance or joke. Tolm is trying to follow this thin line where different disciplines meet. The list of performance artists features choreographers Rene Köster and Henri Hütt, transgender researcher and photographer Alan Proosa, and performer and researcher Riina Maidre whose performance will also open the festival.
Please give three to five must see recommendations for Tolm.
You should definitely come and see the Australian soul-pop artist JOEL SARAKULA whose music is just so bright and good that it cleanses the soul. Also, you can’t miss the Siberian Russian hypnotic tribal cabaret rock band SHORTPARIS. Everyone who saw them at the Tallinn Music Week said it was the absolute top of TMW and a cathartic experience. Then you should definitely see the electronic live dub duo SOBRANIE 8 18 from St Petersburg, the Lithuanian nouveau jazz weirdness SHEEP GOT WAXED, Hannaliisa Uusmaa’s audiovisual soul pop ensemble HUNT, soul pop artists MALCOLN LINCOLN and FLORIAN WAHL, future punks ST CHEATERSBURG, etc.
Tolm has taken place several years already, in what direction has the festival evolved over the time?
The general idea of the festival hasn’t changed much but it seems to me that every year the program has become more sensitive and consistent. For example, this year we have a very decent art program which consists of two parts, performances, and an exhibition. The latter includes photos and (video) installations.
What issues does the festival’s art program address and who are the performers?
As alienation and fear of the foreign are ever-expanding phenomena both locally and globally, we are exploring various phenomena that can be placed under the common denominator – “the stranger”. What kind of feelings does a stranger evoke in those who perceive a stranger as a stranger, and also what kind of feelings does it evoke in a stranger who is perceived as a stranger and who oneself perceives oneself as a stranger? The stranger does not have to be just an exotic refugee from somewhere far away. The stranger can also be “our fellow man” who is wearing different clothes, eating different food, listening to a different kind of music or behaving differently in bed. The stranger is excited by the things that do not excite “me”. Things that I do not understand will make me feel uncomfortable. But one can also be a stranger for oneself. Maybe the stranger makes us feel uncomfortable because it reflects the stranger in ourselves. How much do we really know ourselves? Perhaps the fears and inconveniences that the stranger evokes in us are actually the fears of ourselves, that we do not really know ourselves and we are not complete.
The art program consists of two parts, exhibition, and performances. We spoke briefly about performance artists. The exhibition will feature JOHNSON & JOHNSON, MARKO MÄETAMM, MARGIT LÕHMUS, and KIWA, to name just a few.
What else happens at the festival?
On Saturday afternoon there will be a fair of records and band T-shirts. The entrance is free and the culmination of the fair arrives at 18.00 when the punk poet Freddy Grenzmann presents his debut poetry collection. The book and its presentation by the singer of a group Psychoterror may be one of the most exciting literary events of the year. On Saturday, there is also an exclusive exhibition, which is opened only during the festival and is free of charge, and the exotic movie program by Fifi.
More information about the event could be found from the culture.ee calendar and from Facebook.

Helina Koldek interviewed Evan Katz, the director of the movie „Small Crimes”. The European premiere of „Small Crimes” takes place at Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival on April 28 19:00.
Before we proceed with the movie talk, tell us something about your background. What did you do before getting into the film world?
Well, for the longest time I was kind of a fuck up – I did graffiti, dropped out of high school, and mostly skateboarded and smoked weed. Lived with other fuckups, and wasted lots of time. I even had a dumb job as a traveling magazine salesman in a “mag crew” (anybody see the film American Honey? Like that kind of shit). Fortunately for me, before I could go too much down a stupid road, I started really getting involved with music, which really focused me. I started going to hardcore/punk/metal shows – even became straight edge for a while. I began to roadie for some bands, traveling with them, and taking pictures of them at shows – which led to me wanting to put together my own homemade music ‘zine’.
My little magazine got into the hands of some bigger music publications, and I started getting paid to interview bands – meanwhile, my love for horror started to draw me towards some of the early online horror publications, and I joined the staff of creature-corner.com, under the name Frank Booth. That experience taught me that there was possibly a career path or focus in the horror field, so when I eventually went to film school, I knew in what department I wanted to focus.
You have written some quite straightforward horror movie scripts previously, like Home Sick and Pop Skull for Adam Wingard. Your directorial debut Cheap Thrills and your new film Small Crimes, on the other hand, are an interesting fusion of crime-thriller, some elements of cynical dark comedy and a gentle touch of horror. What genre has had the biggest influence on you and what film motifs interest you the most?
I think Home Sick and Pop Skull are pretty out there, so I’m not sure if I would refer to them as straightforward per se. Those are some weird films! But yeah, in terms of my own stuff, I think that you’ve sort of nailed it. Dark comedy has been a pretty huge driving factor in my work, but also in my life. My grandparents were a hilarious holocaust survivor and a Polish soldier who survived Stalingrad, and their world view was always an interestingly humorous one. Filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch, The Coen brothers, Álex de la Iglesia, and many others have had a huge influence on me – I’m also full on obsessed with film noirs, particularly the very violent, eccentric ones from the 70s and 80s. On top of that I’m a horror freak with a Fulci tattoo, so you can see how all these influences sort of car crash into each-other.
I think one thing I’m obsessed with is lying – I found human bullshit to be fascinating … and I love that in many ways, stories, particularly film stories are forms of lying as well, even if for entertainment sake. The noir genre is partically good at this, because every element of the form is sort of a lie, the characters, the perspective, all of it. I’m obsessed with people talking about themselves, because they present the movie version of themselves to the world … the version that they’d like to be seen as … and the world is then the audience that can either believe or reject the version put in front of them.
Regarding the horror genre, there are always some discussions about the bad influence of these movies and a constant need for explanations that being a horror movie fan is not quite the same as being a psychopath. What are your thoughts about violence in the movies and the impact of it? Do you think that violent movies have to bear an important message to justify the violence or can a violent movie as well be a mere entertainment?
I’m not really drawn to films that are excessively cruel, with prolonged scenes of being tortured – but I would never say that those films are not allowed to exist, or need some social message behind them … but if they don’t have that, it’s hard for me to at least take them seriously, or be that drawn to them as a viewer. On the other hand, I really love stupid violent action movies, and would never demand they be about much more than entertainment. I think human expression has many elements, and sometimes it’s just for the dumb lizard brain, and sometimes that’s okay.
So, your new movie Small Crimes. What’s the story behind that?
Lots of blood, sweat and tears! I’ve always wanted to do a 90s neo-noir, been obsessed with them since before I even knew I wanted to be a filmmaker … and after Cheap Thrills, most of the projects I received were studio films that weren’t that exciting. When my brother showed me the book Small Crimes, I really saw the potential to play in a space that I loved, but also in a way to sort of satirize and subvert another genre that I think can sometimes be a little full of shit … the man out of prison, searching for redemption subgenre. I was a fan of Macon Blair from Blue Ruin, so when I discovered that he was also a super-talented noir screenwriter, I reached out to him to see if we might be able to collaborate on this project. We talked about it, and found the same things amusing, and he came on board. A French company called Memento (Blue Ruin, Cold in July, Cop Car) paid for the writing of the project, and then the producer David Lancaster (Drive, Nightcrawler) got involved, which steamrolled this motherfucker into exisitence.
What was the hardest part in the process of making Small Crimes?
The schedule was very difficult, since we only had 24 days, and they were only 10 hours, so in many respects it was a 21 day shoot, with lots of location moves, stunts, characters, and some nasty bad weather during a particularly ambitious action sequence that we had to pull off in half a day. I aged a year in those 5 hours.
How was the casting process?
It took us 3 years to find our lead, essentially because on the page, the script felt much darker than how it was ultimately executed – and many actors didn’t want to play a piece of shit dude that doesn’t really find redemption (although I kind of think he does, even if it’s a minuscule moment). When I skyped with Nikolai, he was bold and funny, and totally got it. He didn’t need Joe to be a great guy, he just wanted him to be watchable. As soon as Nik signed on we were off to the races, and we basically had like a month to cast the rest of the film in time to shoot it to fit Nik’s schedule. On that end, we really lucked out – Jacki Weaver, Robert Forster, Molly Parker … there was a chance that things could have gone a very different way.
Any funny stories from the movie set?
We had a professional actor “hissing” cat, that was the least professional actor on set. Total prima donna. He almost took Nikolai’s face off at one point. Guess that was mostly just funny to me, but it could have been horrible.
Could you recommend some really good movies to our readers? Something old and something new.
Okay, old stuff: Branded to Kill, Night Moves, Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Point Blank, Cisco Pike, Red Rock West, One False Move, Prime Cut, Friends of Eddie Coyle. New stuff: Wiener (documentary), Raw, Green Room. Fuck, I really need to see some new films.
And finally – what are the most intriguing small crimes that you have committed in your lifetime?
I got arrested for doing graffiti when I was a teenager. Couldn’t get my license until I was 18. I popped a bicycle tire for no reason when I was in junior high. I used to steal comic books.

When visiting the Tallinn Music Week, we were lucky enough to encounter an  extraordinary musical adventurer, a potential e-resident  and a heavy coffee drinker Joel Sarakula.  He is a London based and Sydney born artist, who spends most of his time  performing all over the world and writing soulful music.

Let’s start from the beginning. When you were a boy, what kind of music did you listen to and how did that boy become a musician? Did you study it somewhere?
Earliest influences: When I was a child my parents had a huge collection of vinyl LPs from the 70s, so they set the tone. I also used to teach myself the theme songs from childhood TV shows. Then as a teenager while everyone else was listening to nu metal and grunge, I was obsessed with the 60s and 70s. Personal favourites that are still with me are The Zombies, Sly Stone, Todd Rundgren and The Beach Boys. But I had so many guises as a kid: I was into 60s baroque psychedelia one week, then I was a mod the next week, then a 70s punk revivalist. I had a few years of some classical piano lessons as a child but my teacher was really inspirational and helped me experiment with jazz and blues. Since then I’ve just learned from records and grown from the people I perform with. That’s why I always try to play with people who are better than me!
For how long have you been making your own music and what periods would you say you have gone through?
I’ve been making music since I was a child – It’s been a lifelong journey. When I started out as an artist, I painted with lots of colours and styles, not quite knowing where I fit. I guess I’ve had lots of different lives and played inside a few genres. But over time I’ve narrowed down the palette and I’m pretty happy where it’s sitting now: I call it Soulful Retro-Pop.
You have a band of great musicians also, how did you guys meet and for how long have you been working together?
I’ve been lucky enough to perform with some incredibly talented people over the years and I don’t have a regular band. However my TMW band – Geno Carrapetta (London) and Alex Dommisch (Berlin) do perform with me quite often. I met Geno in Sydney and we decided to work together in London as we were both relocating there. Geno is an artist on his own terms and we play in a few projects together. I met Alex at Reeperbahn Festival a couple of years ago, his other project is The Jooles who perform as my backing band in Germany.
I like to pick up musicians and backing bands from the regions I play in. It keeps the costs down and the concerts fresh. Also helps having a band who speaks the local language to deal with bad promoters and rider requests! I have a few bands worth of people in the UK, Germany, Paris, Australia and I recently played at SXSW with an amazing Austin guitarist Jon Sanchez. I am a musical philanderer.
If you were not an artist, what would you be, have you studied anything else?
I’m not sure my mind would escape unscathed if I wasn’t an ‘artist’ of some kind. I love the freedom of what I do: no boss, no rules, only self-expression. But I really love cities and how we humans interact with them, so maybe I was an urban planner in another life. And yes, I did study  something else. It was Computer Science, but that was a long time ago, so my geek glasses aren’t just for show!
You have such an eclectic style and your songs have very different vibes, how does inspiration come to you? Are they the sweet pains of life that make you write or is it hard hours by the piano or… ?
I don’t write at the piano or guitar very often. Usually soundscapes and lyrical ideas just float into my mind. Life, people, emotions are all part of my influences and then there’s some silent work going on deep in my subconscious before it rises up for me to use. I walk a lot and like to keep my body moving as much as possible. I like to think the songs are creative responses to this physical activity.
What does your usual work day look like in London?
I think I’m quite disorganised so I don’t really have a normal workday routine. I’m constantly travelling around performing festivals and tours so it’s difficult to get into a regular pattern back at home. But there is one constant every day: coffee!
You have a new album coming out at the end of 2017? Tell us about that?
The new album is called Love Club. It goes deeper down the soul/funk/r’n’b route that I was playing with a bit in The Imposter (2015 LP). I don’t want to say too much as I’m working on it now and it’s constantly evolving. I will say that Love, in it’s many forms and guises is an overall theme of the album.
You are so booked with gigs and travelling all over, what do you do for a rest … do you ever rest?
I’m pretty busy right now but I actually took February off and spent the time in Sydney, Australia. I didn’t do very much there. I just jogged to the beach and swam everyday and ate good food. Simple plan. That was a beautiful time and it recharged me for the rest of the year so I don’t need any more rests this year!
How did you end up at the Tallinn Music Week and what is the most memorable thing from it? Did you book any gigs here? Are you coming back or maybe thinking of becomeing an e-resident?

I put in an application to perform at Tallinn Music Week because the idea of visiting Estonia really intrigued me. My family surname has some long lost origins in Finland or Estonia so it became a kind of journey for me to connect with some unknowable past. I didn’t book any gigs there but I would dearly love to come back and I think my music was really well received at the concerts. I’m thinking of applying for e-residency, though it does sound like living in the matrix a little bit.
What did you think about Estonians, are they the singing nation, as is said?
Estonians do have beautiful singing voices. Maybe it’s because the language has a mystical, sing-song lilt to it.
Joel’s webpage is there and  you can listen to one of his biggest hits here.