The Curator Behind Your Eenian Dreams
Where do our dreams come from? The generally accepted notion is that it’s our brain interpreting our thoughts, feelings and experiences during a day and making sense of them all in imaginary scenarios when we sleep. But what if they came from someone or something? Eenian Dreams explores this idea with their latest single ‘Dream Producer’.
Eenian Dreams are Pauliina and T.C. Newman. Image Credit: Päivi Kankare / Imagiaa Oy.
Finnish duo Eenian Dreams are made up of producer and instrumentalist T.C. Newman and vocalist Pauliina. The two began making music in 2021 and released their debut single ‘Summerland’ in August, followed up by ‘I Dreamed Of You’ in October.
In March, Eenian Dreams released a short piece entitled ‘Hiljainen tienoo’, a Finnish interpretation of a traditional Ukrainian song called ‘Krinitsa’. All their proceeds from the track will be going to The Finnish Red Cross to aid humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Back in December, Eenian Dreams put out their third single called ‘Someone Like You’.
‘I'd never met someone like you, walking, smiling with sunshine in your hair. I'd never met someone like you, sounds of awakening spring in the air.’
The first thing you’ll notice about Eenian Dreams is Pauliina’s precision-like ability to deliver her vocal, paying attention to the way each word is voiced. This goes for not only Pauliina’s lead, but her ad-libbed backing vocals and whispered interludes too. Her lead vocal follows the melody closely with T.C. Newman’s piano as he lays down pad keyboards, creating atmosphere as part of the song’s structure. He also programmes drums and loops rolling piano. The result is a smooth production, each part crucial to the song’s arrangement, a complete musical and lyrical journey.
‘My Dream Producer is one of a kind, nothing like the others. I never know what's on his mind when I go to sleep at night.’
Even in the first moments of ‘Dream Producer’, there is so much to hear. The track begins atmospherically, but with the introduction of Pauliina’s vocal, T.C. Newman also brings in a soaring string arrangement that remains throughout. There is an arpeggiated sequence beneath that suggests this will be more of a dance track, confirmed moments later by the rhythmic sizzle of programmed hi-hat.
‘I'm in the past, I'm in the future, not limited by the reality. I'm astonished, waking up to another day.’
Not only is the concept of Dream Producer an interesting lyrical subject, the melody and music that surrounds it shifts with the words. The bridge, ‘I see forgotten faces, friends from the past…’ is a good example of this. Dream Producer is the best from this duo yet.
Eenian Dreams are many things at once. Their music is the sound of adventure, as if you were to open a book and hear its accompanying soundtrack while you read. It’s music for staring at the open sea, or a clear starry night. It’s music for the dreamers who are stuck in a mundane reality.
Continue reading for our Q&A with Eenian Dreams. Pauliina tells us the origins of ‘Dream Producer’ and how the band came to be, while T.C. discusses their recording set-up and the story behind ‘Someone Like You’. All this and more below!
Image Credit: Päivi Kankare / Imagiaa Oy.
1. The fourth single from Eenian Dreams is entitled 'Dream Producer', would you tell us more about the character's lyrical origins?
Pauliina: The story behind the lyrics is quite exceptional. The very first idea came from my daughter, who was wondering about the source of her unusual dreams and came up with the concept of a dream producing company. As the idea was so insightful, I wrote it down, and with time the idea started living its own life. The final lyrics describe my real dreams combined with the original idea of a producer curating the dreams and feeding them to us every night.
2. What's the division of labour where songwriting is concerned? Is it strictly that T.C. crafts the music and Pauliina writes the lyrics?
Pauliina: TC is the composer here, and I’m the one singing. But otherwise there is nothing strict about the division of labor between us. Any ideas about lyrics, melodies, rhythms or effects are always warmly welcomed from either of us. It has been working very well, since both of us get these sudden bouts of creativity once in a while *laughter*. “Summerland” and “I Dreamed of You” were existing as instrumentals made by TC when I started to work on the lyrics and vocal melodies for them. “Someone Like You” lyrics were written by TC. “Dream Producer” on the other hand is a song for which we bounced some ideas back and forth before it got its final form, lyrics being written by me.
3. Tell us more about your recording set-up, is your music produced at home?
TC: Our setup for making music is a very simple one. We do everything with just a microphone, a laptop and a MIDI keyboard. There are several advantages in this approach. First of all, it’s very cost-effective if you want to think about it that way. In addition, you can easily stuff the setup in your backpack and continue editing in a library or a café. Fun fact is that in our case the word ‘studio’ is actually a bit misleading, unless it’s used to denote any space in a building where recording and producing is done. Our vocals are recorded in a walk-in clothes closet and the kitchen table provides a good place for composing. It is incredibly fast and straightforward to work with a laptop loaded with virtual instruments, whose quality and variety is astonishing nowadays. No cables, no hassle. Pauliina records vocals in her house and then sends them over to me for mixing. Also mastering is done in the kitchen “studio”, so our songs are written, recorded, and produced throughout at home.
4. Your last single, 'Someone Like You' was released back in December. Who is the 'you' referred to in the lyric of this song?
TC: It would be more exciting to say that ‘you’ is a real person, but he doesn’t really exist. I wrote the song after I heard the piano melody in my head and had a strong feeling of a fictitious situation, where someone’s loved one has passed away. The person knew he was going to die soon but still fully lived his life. Still smiling while holding “black flowers in his hand”.
5. In March you released a track called 'Hiljainen tienoo' in support of The Finnish Red Cross for the people of Ukraine. Where did the idea come from to use 'Krinitsa' specifically? Were there other song choices?
Pauliina: It’s a song that I had performed in a church before with another composition, and it started resonating strongly after the horrific humanitarian crisis in Ukraine took place. The lyrics in Finnish describe a dark and gloomy landscape under stars, and the character’s longing back home. Since we wanted to show our support to Ukrainian people quite fast after the crisis commenced, “Hiljainen Tienoo” was a good match to do that. Adaptation was fairly easy, since the melody is ethereal as it is, and we kept it simple with just piano chords and pads in the background. There really were no other song choices considered.
6. Eenian Dreams were formed in 2021, what led to the musical pairing?
Pauliina: Now this is a funny story! I was bored and a bit frustrated with the status of my music career last summer, when I ended up going through advertisements looking for singers on a Finnish site for musicians. I noticed an indie musician from my small town looking for a female singer, and I contacted him. As TC is using his artist name, I didn’t realize it at that point, but it turned out we had already known each other for years since our daughters go to the same school class and are close friends. What I didn’t know is that TC makes music, and he didn’t know that I sing. We noticed that our styles, visions and sounds were a good fit, and that is how Eenian Dreams was born. It was a lucky chance.
7. Have you both always been involved in electronic music? What music were you making individually prior to Eenian Dreams?
TC: Yes. My always began in 1995, after hearing Soli Deo Gloria, an album by Norwegian futurepop act Apoptygma Berzerk that was released in 1993. After listening to the two opening tracks of the album in absolute astonishment, it was crystal clear: electronic music was just what I wanted to start making. The only slight problem was that I didn’t know anything about making music. I had never played anything, didn’t own a thing that resembled an instrument even remotely, absolute zero knowledge of even notes let alone chords. But you gotta start somewhere. At the same time a high school friend of mine asked me if I wanted to start an electronic music group with him. At first my music was a joke, but years of persistent trial-and-error approach finally bore some fruit. And very soon, in 2013, I finally got something I could actually load to Bandcamp for everyone to listen to. *laughter* It was released under the name Roads To Anadyr. We made two EPs before the project ended. After that I have released music with my solo projects (T. C. Newman; Matrioshka Brain) and been in a couple of dark electro bands (Trauma Particle; Uhri). I have also done some remixing of other artists’ songs and participated in collaboration tracks and albums.
Pauliina: I have enjoyed singing and listening to music my whole life, throughout different genres, but Eenian Dreams is actually the first music project I have been involved in that makes original music. I started in a local choir and moved on to taking singing classes for many years as I wanted to work on my individual expression. I had been performing live with temporary compositions, but I wanted to find something more permanent. Diving into the indie music world and especially electronic music has been an amazing adventure so far, and it is such an honor to be working with someone as talented as TC.
8. You've been contemplating performing your music live, what would be the ideal live presentation for Eenian Dreams? Forget about a budget and go crazy!
TC: Pyrotechnics! Robots! Death Star in a scale of 1:2! No, not really. But what would be really cool is a huge video screen displaying specifically shot scenes connected with our songs. Kind of indie short films in the background. What would also be fun to experience is our songs arranged to and played with a philharmonic orchestra. Is that crazy enough? *laughter*
9. With four singles out in less than a year, can fans expect more music in 2022? Is there a possibility of a larger collection of songs?
YES! Definitely!
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Download and stream the music of Eenian Dreams on their Bandcamp page.
Follow Eenian Dreams on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @eeniandreams.
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