Mikko Alatalo made a big decision. It took away my sleep and my thoughts. Next, a new phase in the folk artist’s life begins.
Mikko Alatalo74, finished his last album. There will be no more.
It cost him the equivalent of a small car, a five-figure sum. He has been a self-published artist since the 1990s, but even now he admits that the price was salty.
– Yes, it was quite a lot. The bottoms of the lair have now been emptied, Alatalo says.
Still, it had to be done.
– This is my farewell and final thesis. Some do a dissertation, I did this.
He had been obsessed with his own symphony record since the 1980s. Without it, my life’s work would have been incomplete. But did he hawk too big a piece?
The thought has kept Alatalo awake at night for two years.
– I got downright ramp fever. I’m wondering if I can fulfill those expectations, so that I don’t ruin this album, he confesses.
Small details have been kept in mind and supervised. He says he was annoyed Seija-his wife by constantly talking about the album.
– She is a lady from Lapua, so there will definitely be feedback from there!
Alatalo knew That’s rock…and symphony -record, that his voice is not in the same condition as that of a cheerful singer boy at the beginning of his career.
– Of course, the voice of a man over seventy is different. But if you think about something A person’s longing for another -song, so maybe such an experienced voice, which has seen sadness, fits it.
Alatalo felt insecure while making the latest record. Timur Yilmaz
In addition to Alatalo’s vocals, the music of over a hundred players can be heard on the album. Pete Hossa Photography
Alatalo is proud of its sparkling young team and the 120 players of the Oulu and Kuopio symphony orchestras it employs. On the album you can hear new versions of familiar songs, for example I’m a country boy bends Frank Sinatra’s into a stylish swing version.
He is not going to do a tour around the album, but he will do individual gigs. The self-published artist cannot be expected to receive strong radio calls, but Alatalo is not discouraged by it.
– Good if the record is playing somewhere.
One door closes
Mikko Alatalo, who made his living as a TV journalist, musician, songwriter and MP, seems like a person who can’t stay still for a moment.
– Whenever one door closes, another opens, he says.
More than fifty albums would not have been born without the mood of making.
– Even if someone doesn’t like it, everyone has to admit that at least he’s been hardworking.
Alatalo sits with relaxed shoulders, although it cannot be a light decision to put the songwriter’s pen on the shelf after more than 700 songs. He soon admits that one unreleased song is haunting his desk drawer.
– The subject is wrinkles, Alatalo says with a twinkle in his eye.
From the look, you can see that he would probably be tempted to publish a song. However, he reportedly doesn’t make a whole album anymore.
The musician made a record with Oulu Sinfonia and Kuopio City Orchestra and conductor Jukka Myllysen. Along with Myllys, the album was arranged by Sampo Kasurinen, Jussi Lampela, Artturi Rönkä and Perttu Vänskä. Timur Yilmaz
But the folk artist has other dreams. They certainly do not include the peaceful life of a pensioner in Tampere’s Pispala, because there has to be some excitement. He says that he was in contact with a long-standing Swedish pop artist Niklas to Strömstedtfrom whom I got the idea.
– Strömstedt had a rock monologue in which he told about the barren moments of his life, such as when his wife Effva Attling fell in love to Eva Dalhgren. I will A gamblefifty years from the album in the fall, so I’m doing a tour, he surprises.
Alatalo plans to entertain the people with the twists and turns of his life with the Hasardi-hommi: Country Boy’s Travel Narrative in Songs and Pictures tour. There, he tells funny twists and turns about how he met Juice Leskinen and Harri Rinnehow he has climbed Kilimanjaro and skied on every continent, even in Africa.
– Yes. This is what happened – in Morocco, he specifies.
Mikko Alatalo is already planning a new tour for the fall. Timur Yilmaz
At this age
In the name of honesty, Alatalo has noticed that the ravages of time spare no one. He turns 75 this year.
The field warriors of entertainment have fallen by the side, and your own body announces itself after a game of tennis.
The children live their own lives, at home in Pispalan Seija’s spouse is already part-time retired and the family dog Ringo is a 15-year-old pappa girl.
At Christmas time at Levi, he suddenly realized he was the oldest dude at the top of the Levi Black slope.
– I saw that no goddamn time, there aren’t any people this old here, he laughs.
The musician pats his stomach.
– There’s a bit of this bullshit, but what I lose in strength, I can create with technology. Even in Austria, old papas drag reeds with scarred faces and lower them down the slopes.
He says that he also plans to go downhill in the Alps like a model.
Nowadays, Alatalo has to watch his eating due to type 2 diabetes.
– Before, anything was done, there were no limits, he sighs.
Repeat it now: you must sleep well and live in moderation. He injects an insulin spike every night.
Now it’s important to live in moderation, Alatalo says. Timur Yilmaz
– You can have a couple of glasses of wine, that’s it. Seija also offered a vegetable omelette this morning without meat. I am a guinea pig in his cooking.
At this age, the best thing is accumulated experience and the courage to throw yourself. Alatalo plans to travel and see, for example, the three US states he has not yet visited.
Mikko Alatalon’s Se se on rokkii…ja symphoniaa album will see the light of day on February 27.
