“You don’t need music to deal with positive emotions”

The ego stands at the balcony railing and struggles to resist temptation. The latest single “Hapentuhlaaja” (Syreslösaren) is a fierce song about the emotional consequences of bullying at school.

“None of the songs are directly based on personal experiences, but I always try to apply my own feelings to a story,” says Kaisa Karjalainen, who writes all the lyrics.

– I think that all people feel unappreciated at some point. “So I can identify with the song,” Anna Karjalainen continues.

The siblings each sit in their own corner of the sofa in the record company’s office in Stockholm and often complement each other in their relatively short answers. With only a year difference in age, they look more like twins, similar yet different: Kaisa is the determined one with strong opinions, while older sister Anna is calmer and more empathetic. They grew up in Vaala in northern Ostrobothnia, where they rummaged through their father’s record collection and found music by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, as well as Finnish favorites Leevi and The Leavings.

– We lived in the country and had three or four TV channels. We didn’t have MTV like everyone else. “I’ve heard of the Spice Girls, but I don’t know many other bands from my childhood,” says Kaisa.

Maustetytöt simply means “the spice girls”. The sisters previously played in the band Kaneli and describe themselves as products of the city’s music school. The new album “Itken jos mua huvittaa” is produced by Gustav Ejstes (Dungen) and Mattias Glavå in his studio in Gothenburg, the city where the sisters’ aunt also lives. The sound is more organic than before with elements of string quartet and children’s choir, but also analogue synthesizers. The string arrangements are handled by Ahti Marja-aho, who has worked with idols Leevi and the Leavings, among others.

The album title means “I cry when I want to” and is unknowingly borrowed from Lesley Gore’s old sixties hit.

– I had received a sticker from one of our fans that said “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” in Finnish. “I didn’t know the song back then, but I thought it sounded like a good title,” says Kaisa.

Many of Maustetytöt’s songs touches on depressing topics such as alcoholism, suicidal thoughts, climate anxiety and eating disorders.

– You don’t need music to deal with positive emotions, you need it for all the bad things. For me, music is a way of dealing with difficult topics and emotions, explains Anna.

At the same time, the lyrics often contain a deadly sense of humor. Like when the melody in “Styroksi” tries to drown out the worries, but they float like Styrofoam. In other words, it was only a matter of time before Aki Kaurismäki would be enthralled by Maustetyöt, whose kitchen realism recalls the mood of the film director’s legendary drama comedies. The video for early hit “Tein kai lottorivini vain” (I think I filled in the lottery line wrong) reinforced the similarities, shot in a retro bar with a “Man from Le Havre” poster in the background.

Four years later Maustetytöt appeared in Kaurismäki’s latest film “Autumn Leaves Fall” with the song “Syntynyt suruun ja puettu pettymyksin” (Born in Mourning and Dressed in Disappointment).

– We always joked about it, but never thought it would happen. “We’ve been big fans since we were kids,” says Anna, whose personal Kaurismäki favorite is “Shadows in Paradise.”

After the film debut, her international career really took off. The previous album “Maailman säkkösin kansa” mocked the image of Finland as the happiest country in the world.

– The question is whether we are the happiest or whether we are the biggest liars when we answer the question whether we are happy. But of course things are better in the Nordic countries than in many other places, so we shouldn’t complain, says Kaisa.

“The funny thing is that Finland is at the top of the suicide list at the same time,” Anna continues.

The duo’s music is localized Somewhere between synth-driven indie pop and post-punk. A kind of hopeful tinged melancholy about life when it seems darkest. The somber facial expressions on stage are par for the course for the sisters, who rarely smile.

– You should see our parents, calls Kaisa. They never smile. But as an adult, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to smile. Otherwise, people around you will constantly think that you are unhappy.

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