Enfnts Terribles

You’re journey started in 2016 with “Karma”. How important is that song if you look back on these past years?

It’s a very important song for me and my career. Back then, I released the track without any plans and it kind of blew up on the internet. It was weird and a miracle, but it happened and it took me this far.

You’ve released an EP and many singles before you released your debut album. Did you release them to see what works?

I think I wanted to see what works for me because, in every aspect of my life, I want to do what works in that moment. By working and releasing the album, I found the sound of my music for the rest of my life. I say ‘the rest of my life’, but I’m actually always changing and try to become a better human I would say.

At first, I was putting singles out because we also live in this ‘single’ world. I don’t know why I didn’t put out an album before, but I released the EP, which I think is pretty cool!

How does Have U Seen Her? reflect your growth as an artist?

Have U Seen Her? is my story of growing up and is about finding myself, basically. The album is so important when I place it in the bigger picture of my life. Once I got stuck in this artist world that I’ve been living in for four years now, I’ve been so busy that I didn’t have time to figure out what I want to do and what my future plans are. By making the album, I really took my time to sit down and focus on my goals, who I want to be, and who my idols are. It’s a very personal and important album for me.

The album was recorded in Helsinki and Los Angeles. How did the contrast between both cities affect the outcome of your debut?

These four years, both cities have changed me a lot. LA has become a huge inspiration for me and I found the people who I want to work with. It became a home for me because I was more in LA than in my home country Finland. It was important for me to travel between those two places because both felt like home.

I wrote different kinds of songs in these two locations. In Helsinki, I was hanging with my family and friends, which inspired me to write about stuff that happened to me when I was a teenager, and memories came back. When I was in LA, I was this artist who wants to conquer the world and wrote from a different perspective. The album is just a mix between songs I wrote on these different locations in the world that have a different meaning for me.

“King Of The Castle” feels a bit like a metaphor of anxiety. What is the song about?

I think it’s about anxiety because I’ve got so many things in my life that I sometimes get overwhelmed. I still feel like a young kid that doesn’t have anything, but in the end I have so many things that it’s sometimes a lot to take. The song is also about the anxiety when you understand that you turn twenty and feel like you have to make it work in your career and start making your own money. I wish I could go back to when I was seventeen and not have any responsibilities. It’s kind of the anxiety of growing up.

In “Loser” you’re taking revenge on an article that stated you were a loser. Why did that trigger you to write a song about it?

I’m just sick and tired of being labeled all the time! In some articles, I’m the winner, and in others I’m the loser or they compare me with different artists. When I went into the studio that day, I was just extremely tired of reading all these things about me, so I was like: “I wanna be a loser!” because losers don’t have any responsibilities or anything they can lose.

Making the song, made me feel so much lighter and every time I feel that I’m under pressure, I tell myself that I can be a loser because it doesn’t matter. Obviously, the song is very ironic and a “Fuck You” to somebody, but I love the attitude of the song.

Photo credits: Lusha Alic