„I support Record Store Week, because they just F***ING ROCK!“

How important is the specialized trade for you in times of the Internet and MP3, as a musician as well as a customer and music fan?

For me it’s very important. It’s super cool how these days music is available in so many ways and in so many formats. Personally I think it’s very good that there are still many “traditional” record shops that take the artist as a part of their marketing & sales by letting them perform and meet the fans in stores. That is actually an easy way for the potential music buyers to  see how the artist really is behind all the polished posters and music videos. And it ‘s always very much fun to perform in such small and intimate place.

What meaning do record stores have for the music culture in the general and for your music in particular?

I am a digital buyer these days, mostly because I travel very much and I always have my laptop with me. It’s nice to buy your music lying on your hotel bed after the sound check. But I also love to touch the CDs & LPs  in the store and see the real art work. It feels more real and you feel safer buying it when you can have it in your hands. I was in Tokyo after our show at the legendary Tower Records and I realized I kind of missed the old times when I had to go to a store to buy the music.

When and where did you buy your first records or CDs and what memories do you connect with record stores?

My place was always MAXI MARKET near Helsinki. I always went there with my mom and my very first LP I ever bought was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet. They had a system with the shopping carts that when you collected 100 carts from the parking area back to the store, you got 20 Finnish Marks (3,6 €). An album was 100 FIM those days, so you had to collect 500 shopping carts for each album. That was good business. I remember fighting for the carts with some other guys to get my 16 € full before they close the shop. This is how I got my first albums. I was raised by a single mom and we didn’t have too much extra money.

What are your current CD tips and which musicians and albums should not be missing from any CD shelve?

Do not skip these 10:

John Mayer – Continuum

Seal – Soul

Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Tim Christensen – Live at Abbey Road

Keith Urban – Love, Pain and the whole crazy thing

Madonna – Ray of light

Mute Math – Mute Math

Green Day – American Idiot

Cold Play – XY

Sunrise Avenue – PopGasm ;)