Jim Pembroke: London to Helsinki to Kansas City

Part 3

Work with Remu

Well you treat me like a Bushman
That can´t find no tribe
Never keep me feelin´ satisfied
I give you pearls an´ ermine
An´ diamonds by the load
But you lied
Just get me to the door…

One of the bands that continued to sing in English was the Hurriganes, who had quite a following in Scandinavia with their basic rock and roll. Their albums were sold in all of Europe.

JP: I made a lot of songs that got used by Remu and…
EJ: So you played with Remu? [The Hurriganes].
JP: Yeah, I'd been part of the back room people, for a few albums, with songs and lyrics.
EJ: Did you play live?
JP: Yeah, Remu hurt his back and he couldn't play drums around '79-'80. So we brought in Tomi Parkkonen on drums and I just joined in on keyboards.
EJ: [repeating] You played live?
JP: Yeah, mainly in Sweden.
EJ: What was it like when you went on stage with Remu? Is he sort of an overpowering personality that nobody can really overrule?
JP: Well, Remu has a very strong kind of direct way of looking at things, and especially in Sweden, Hurriganes were wildly popular and a lot of crazy things go on, so you can easily develop a blunt, direct way in dealing with it all. Some people didn't get on with Remu, but I always did. He was always OK with me. I would write lyrics and some songs for him, so...
EJ: How did that work? You wrote the lyrics and read them out to him so that he could pronounce them?
JP: Yeah, well, Cisse, Häkkinen, and Albert [Jarvinen] had…I saw a piece of a cigarette packet where they had written Blue Suede Shoes or something , in phonetics. And I cottoned on to that quickly, and it worked. When I brought the first lyrics, written like that, Remu [said] "Oh, this I can understand..".
JP: Remu said about [the song] Get On, or was it Cisse, that it was really just a mix of all the rock and hit tunes, Alabama, Sweet Carolina…but the sound, the overall sound it made worked.
EJ: [shows City-lehti recent interview. We discuss Remu slang].
JP: Well, yes, he speaks some language…like Hortto Kaalo, the gypsies.
EJ: He's a city kid and he lived in…
JP: Pasila.

I asked about the reaction to Remu's singing.

JP: Who cares what people think. People can say "you are just singing nonsense". It doesn't matter. It's the sound, the feelings, the emotion that's important. Not that the words are so clear and that they always have to say something with meaning. I write lyrics, being English, I write lyrics that have some meaning, hopefully.
JP: With Remu, when I wrote lyrics for him, the way we did it is that we had raw, rough material, from rehearsals or tape, and Remu would always sing [imitates gibberish syllables], there was always a demo vocal on the tape. I'd say "don't worry about making too much sense", you know. When I get the tape, I'll try to make sense of it. I used to try pick up phrases that I knew he'd feel comfortable with. I'd have a tape with a demo vocal somewhere in there. It's more a case of trying to shape words and sounds rather than say something of everlasting intellectual depth, you know (with Remu). It's, "rock me mamma all nite long oh yeah you put my boogie in your scoogie", which is just fine.

Jim would write out the lyrics and the final vocals would then replace Remu's demo vocals.

EJ: With Remu, I think you don't want to get too complicated with the lyrics. The listener may not hear half of them.
JP: Yeah, if you get too complicated, Remu would throw the lyrics out the window. He's a straightforward kind of guy. He'd say "tää on paskaa" (laughs) [this is garbage].

Remu has moved to Porvoo a few years ago.

JP: I haven't seen him in Porvoo, I've talked with him on the phone, when I was back for vappu ['99]. I just wanted to say "Terve [Remu]. 'Britti!', 'Luupää, sun lempi!'
[The interviewer isn't sure of the exact reply here, but in any case, it seems to be an honor to be on the familiar level with Remu where each can call the other Luupää, bone-head]

JP: Remu is very…straightforward, yeah. Last time I saw Remu must have been autumn of '94 or '93, when he'd made Spirit of Hurriganes album. We did that in Stockholm. After that I haven't seen him. It's been quite a while. I just talk to him on the phone once in a while. When I came to the States in April of 1995, I came by way of Miami. I stayed there with friends. Up from Miami there's a kind of Finnish…
EJ: Yes, Lantana [a town].
JP: In Lantana , a Finnish guy Danny, said he was going back to live in Finland. He had lived eight years in Miami, and he was going to Porvoo. I said here's Remu's number, or I said "find Remu and say terveisiä from me". He did and now works with Remu on stuff.
EJ: He was a Finn?
JP: Yes, living in Lantana. Suomi in the palm trees.
EJ: There's a lot of Finns that live there for half the year.

Kansas City

Jim and Cady explain that the local agent had contacted Finnish artist Stefan Lindfors, who had exhibits in Kansas City in 1995. It was at his parties that they met. Cady brought out an item made out of Marimekko fabric that Stefan had designed.

JP: I didn't know she was supposed to become Mrs. Pembroke. The short story is, I didn't go back to Finland [laughs]. I stayed here. I've been back to Finland since, five times. So I haven't forgotten Finland.
EJ: How did the recordings turn out?
JP: They were just fine, demos. Just demos, in the bass player's basement studio.
JP: I didn't come here to try starting a career or anything. I came here to visit again, after my first time in '83. I spent a month in New York. It wasn't my intention to stay here. I thought I had enough going, that I needed to do things in Finland.
EJ: It's hard to break into the business in a bigger country.
JP: Oh, America is totally different from Finland, yes. I've met a lot of musicians in Kansas City. A lot of them want to go to New York City. The good ones, they don't want to be where they are. It's the same almost everywhere. It always seems like the grass is greener somewhere else.

JP: Every town, every city I've been in America, where we played, there's usually a local band playing. And they are all good and most of them have no chance to break of even their local scene. Here in Kansas City there's a lot of good bands, a lot of good music. But you need to be something more than just good. You need talent, you need luck, you need people in places who have money, who can put enough money, say behind Bruce Springsteen. But a million or whatever it takes to break the name. So most bands don't find that person.

I ask about his career in Finland now.

JP: I've been, we played, Ruisrock, in '97. You know, Pedro Hietanen. I've been part of his various solo projects.
EJ: I have the one with "Where's Boris?" (A Russian flavored album)
JP: Yeah, well, Pedro liked that humorous kind of touch, always.
EJ: As we said earlier, being an immigrant is a major part of your life.
JP: I didn't realize when I left London in 1965 that I was emigrating anywhere, I didn't realize that. And I didn't realize it when I came here, either.

Jim and Cady seem to be active in the local arts circles, where she has been involved. Cady works as a nurse three days a week and Jim stays at home working on songs.
"Wherever I am, I make songs up," explained Jim at the end of the interview.

We went downstairs to look at the studio, where there is a keyboard and a studio board and a guitar on a stand. We took some pictures. Jim played random melodies, but a line from Nuclear Nightclub appeared, Jim singing a few words. Jim and Cady explain that he has played around the Kansas City clubs and also plays piano with a local blues singer. I really didn't get a good idea of what sort of tunes Jim plays these days. I know he plays a few old blues type of standards. Some of the Wigwam tunes would be very difficult for a casual listener.

It had been an interesting hour or two. I had never met Jim before, so it was difficult to ask questions much outside of music. The immigration aspect was interesting to readers of the North American magazines, where I intended to publish parts of the interview. The music scene in Finland changed quite a bit around 1980, making the market more oriented to newer bands. Yet, there is a younger group of progressive rock fans born in the seventies and later, who have come to appreciate some of the bands that worked for Love. I have discussed this era with at least a few Finns on message boards. Some of the tribute bands play the old material along with a newer progressive rock of their own.

Notes:

1. Stefan Lindfors art http://www.proartibus.fi/syner/lindfors.html
2. Comments and questions about this interview can be directed to Esa Järvi at terontorvest@yahoo.com
3. I've found it somewhat difficult to translate this material into Finnish. Jim has been involved in editing the text, but at this point I think we both realize that it is not quite in the style of magazine interviews. However, for the Wigwam fans, I wanted to include as much of the material as possible. The notes in square brackets [ ] were added by me for clarification.
4. This material is available for printed publications. Parts of it can be used after contacting me at the above e mail address.