Distant Stares ist das Solo-Projekt von Lassi Salminen. Der finnische Künstler kreiert mit seiner Musik eine hypnotische Mischung aus elektronischen und gitarrengetriebenen Sounds und verwebt darin die Schönheit der Dunkelheit zu einem „emotionalem Sturm der Kontraste“. „Bleak“ ist seine neueste Single – ein traurig schöner und ergreifender Song, der in die dunklen Tiefen unserer Gedanken führt. Die Veröffentlichung macht Lust auf mehr und uns sehr neugierig auf Distant Stares!
Who is behind Distant Stares? What made you decide to start the project?
I, Lassi Salminen, formed Distant Stares in autumn 2022. I have a long background in making music. Many years ago, I had various extreme metal bands. Those were the days when music was probably more of a physical phenomenon to me – all about playing hard, loud, and fast. However, over the years, I’ve discovered the brilliance of having a strong context and concept attached to the music and the atmosphere surrounding it. Giving sound a bigger meaning than just one musical note after another. What hasn’t changed is the desire to seek beauty from darkness, and for that, Distant Stares feels like a right channel.
If you had to describe your music in terms of not music… what would you say?
It’s like a nightmarish, ragged canvas, causing pressure and anxiety, urging us to chase something or run away from something. Yet, it serves a purpose, as strange as it may be, evoking a flame of belief that we all can feel bliss and relief in life at some point, as long as we are constantly ready to overcome the challenges that come with it. It is an emotional storm of contrasts: without darkness, there cannot be light, and without sorrow, there cannot be joy. It is accepting life and death as they are and making the best of the precious time we are given.
Forget about genres for a second – Distant Stares’ music sounds like …
a vortex held together by a crudely beating drum machine, bass guitar or synth bass, twisted with distorted synth sounds and heavily-effected guitars, and narrated by low, howling vocals with occasional melodrama.
What are you looking for in music?
I consider music a great avenue to the world of the subconscious, to the world of feeling – places we could never reach just by using rationalism or plain common sense. When I create or listen to music, an engaging atmosphere is certainly always something I look for. It’s compelling how this can be achieved in an infinite number of ways; there is nothing limiting us but our imagination!
What is sound to you?
Sound is a dear old friend of mine that attunes me to life when I’m feeling disconnected. In difficult times, a little tickle of sound in my ear or feeling the vibrations of my guitar strings can work wonders. It’s fascinating how there are always new sounds to be discovered and heard.
What are your first musical memories? When did you first fall in love with sound?
I believe the very first memory I am aware of is from 1994, when I was a two-year-old toddler crawling on the floor, looking up at our picture tube TV and seeing those terrifying bird women from Depeche Mode’s legendary music video for the song ‚Walking in my shoes‘. It’s possible I was already impressed by the music itself, too.
Which person, artist or incident inspired you when you first started making music?
When I was 16 or 17, I started to become increasingly interested in extreme metal. Since I was quite lonely back then, I guess I just filled the voids in my life by picking up the guitar. There wasn’t a particular event that ignited my interest, just an overall mood in my life in general. I wanted to shred melodies in the style of Children of Bodom, but since I couldn’t play like that right off the bat, I started with something more crude.
What impact do your surroundings have on your art?
Long winters here in Finland and the tendency to stay indoors certainly have a major influence. It feels natural to add walls of reverberating instruments to create a wide soundscape and forget, for a while, how condensed and limited life can feel. Perhaps in the summer, more wild things start to happen with more melody and melodrama.
Where does your inspiration for music come from? Which sort of mood produces the best song?
The inspiration can come from almost anything from life in general. However, the most common recurring theme is a human relationship I have or had that is putting my emotional world to conflict. Seems like time after time, writing a song resolves or at least relieves part of that conflict and creates something beautiful on the process.
Recently your single „Bleak“ came out. How does the birth of a new composition happen for you? How does your compositional process work?
I think there are more exceptions than rules in the creation process, and it’s often quite spontaneous. Though it feels like every time I manage to create a song that means something to me, the lyrics and message are the core. It’s a challenging event to extract something from within. When that starts to clarify, it feels natural to work on the instruments, usually starting with the drums and bass. But as I said, it can vary quite a bit.
How does the visual aspect relate to and reflect your music?
My visuals are usually quite abstract. I like when they can be interpreted in many ways and are not too obvious, but at least showcase the overall mood of the music.
What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
I am currently working on my next single, which I hope to release on April 4th. Additionally, I have found a guitar and bass player, and we are currently rehearsing for upcoming gigs. Our first show was just confirmed, and it will take place on June 10th in the coastal Finnish city of Kotka. I will be handling the vocals. I am excited to connect with more people through our music and to experience all the rich experiences that await us. I am grateful that the universe has given me the opportunity to communicate with the world in this way!
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