Jukka Leppilampi has renewed spiritual music

Musician Jukka Leppilampi arrives for his birthday interview directly from Helsinki Cathedral. He moves around the scenery of Senatintor regularly, because the weekly moments of prayer by artists led by Leppilamme have continued in the Cathedral for ten years.

“When I look back on my career, it has been an encounter. The prayer group gives us the opportunity to be seen as people. We have a really motley cross-artistic gang, and the network already includes more than 300 people,” says Leppilampi.

An ape pond is known as a creator and performer of spiritual music, and has been awarded, among other things, the Church’s cultural award. However, he rejects the label as a gospel artist.

He feels that his songs are born from within and does not think about what style they represent. Many of them may have a biblical undertone, but that is due to Leppilammi’s own worldview. He has been in the faith since the late 1970s.

This year, Leppilampi also celebrates its 50th anniversary as an artist. Music has always been a part of life, and the first gigs were as the singer of the band Finnforest from Kuopio, which performed progressive rock.

“When I was young I listened to records, I always imagined myself on stage making music. Being on stage is nothing special to me, but that’s how I experience music.”

Immediately After graduation, Leppilampi went to Tampere as a soloist in a dance band. The work paid well, but the music didn’t feel like it. When Leppilampi was introduced to the members of the prog band Tabula Rasa, dreams began to come true.

“I wanted to sing, make music and live like that, so I threw myself into it. Tabula Rasa was more than a band, as it was its own community. We had our own wasteland where we trained, and a summer house on the island where we could live. I thought that this is how life should be, and at the same time that music was born.”

Tabula Rasa recorded two albums for Love Records between 1975 and 1976, which were recorded in Stockholm. From the group of musicians in their twenties, especially the guitarist Heikki Silvennoinen was close to Leppilamme.

“Music, living together and sharing was natural for us. We didn’t have any particular philosophy, we were more naive naturalists.”

Soon after the first album Tabula Rasa’s flutist Jarmo Sormunen came to believe. Leppilampi also became interested in research Bibleand after the search period, the same thing happened to him. Rock culture as an environment of life did not fit the worldview of that moment.

However, he wanted to continue making music, and leaving Tabula Rasa was not controversial. When Leppilampi got his first guitar, Heikki Silvennoinen taught him the basics of playing.

“I started performing alone with a nylon string Landola guitar because I didn’t feel that I should have something big and awesome. It was some kind of change when I first sang at tent meetings in the provinces, but I thought of them as opportunities. There were people in them that I wouldn’t have been able to meet before.”

Soolouran from the beginning, Leppilampi wanted to search and experiment. A spiritual LP made with a rock band Me, the human raised opposition, as did the integration of modern dance with music.

“I didn’t agree to spiritual music being a certain type. But even though there was criticism, I have not agreed to martyrdom or bitterness. I have nothing to fear.”

In the 1990s, he became interested in sound resonance in the body and sound poetry, where singing is done without words. It brought an opportunity to connect with the audience, even if there was no common language.

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“I am aware of my differences and I have sometimes cried about it.”

Some considered sound poetry to be a sign of false belief, but Leppilammi has always had its own connoisseurs. He has also been able to perform around the world, and it has been particularly pleasant to represent Finland at festivals in different cultures.

“It has always been very important for me to be able to move forward. I am aware of my difference and I have sometimes cried about it, but I have felt even then that I am valuable at least to Jesus”, Leppilampi ponders.

“Then I get to give myself like this, and I think it gives people encouragement that they too can be different. I don’t agree to any kind of confrontation, because for me life is an encounter.”

Internal the fire has been made to continue, and the future is full of plans. Leppilampi is still excited about his work and its versatility.

“When performing alone, with different duos or groups, there is no occasion too small or too big. I don’t need pop to make my life meaningful. Life is meaningful, and that’s why I have something to take to the stage.”

The purpose of creative work comes from something other than being on display. Every appearance brings an opportunity to meet a person.

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“The right to fail is a state of creativity. Exercise your intuition and learn.”