How did your passion for music start?
I’ve always had a great urge to express myself. As a kid I was always inventing stuff, creating different ways to express who I was and what I think. When we grow up we sometimes lose these natural ways of expressing ourselves. I found my own instrument at the age of fifteen, when I started to play the piano. You could say it was then that my passion for music started. And when we started Zebra and Snake about three years ago, I discovered so many new things about making music.

Why are you called Zebra and Snake?
We got the name from an old t-shirt with a print of these animals. We felt it was a perfectly dadaistic name for a band without limits.

What are you listening to these days?
I like melodramatic artists, such as Antony Hegarty, Scott Walker and David Bowie. I also listen to classical music a lot, since I play classical piano. We also have a few power songs we listen to when we’re touring, like Michael Rothers “Sonnenrad,” Anna Calvis “Desire” and, of course, all the hits from Bruce Springsteen.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?
This is a tricky one. I can’t help listening to Britney Spears’ Blackout album every once in a while. A couple of songs in that album just stick in your head. And Britney, she was in such a weird state making that album. There’s a weird appeal, you could say. And I know that Matti [bassist and backing vocalist] likes this album too, so I’m not the only one. Oh yeah, and there’s one song I feel bad for liking so much. It’s Desiree’s “Kissing You.”

What is the best gig you’ve done?
There are many gigs that have been great in different ways. For instance, our gig in a sky-scraper in Tokyo, last year. Or the gig in a small club in Oslo with one of our idols, Jonsi from Sigur Ros, standing in the audience. And of course, every gig with a noisy and dancing crowd is great.

What can we expect to see at your upcoming gig in Bangkok at Popscene?
We can give you intense and comforting music from the North that is easy to dance to and hopefully easy to fall in love with as well.

What are you most excited about?
The temperature! The winter is really arriving in Finland. I’m typing this with freezing fingers.

How do you see yourself in 20 years? What would you like to be remembered as?
I’d like to see Zebra and Snake still making music as intuitively as we do now. We really value our honest way of making our music, our small town background and the healing aspect as well. Hopefully those things will be remembered.