BOUNCE CAMP

Sampo is an audio-visual perfectionist. Evidence for this bold opening of the feature is his music project BOUNCE CAMP where he carefully handpicks slightly forgotten aesthetics of music genres that have degraded into minimal umtsa-tumpsa and left the beauty of music behind. Sampo Hänninen comes to pick up disco music where it left in the 80s. His BOUNCE CAMP alter ego incorporates the groove and visuals of “honest disco” – that’s how he self-defines his genre of choice. Sampo is born and raised in Helsinki, Finland; graduated Graphic Design at Alto University in 2004 and already has over a decade-long career in advertising in diverse agencies in Helsinki and Berlin where he moved in 2007. We sat down for an online chat and drank coffee together in front of our monitors.

Hey Sampo, where am I finding you right now?

Sitting in a backyard office in Kreuzberg, drinking filter coffee.

You call your music honest disco – how is it different from other disco genres which are popular among homes right now like e.g. Italo disco?

Let’s say that what I’m trying to do is to stay in a classic song format – with choruses and verses, bridges, intros and outros… I’m influenced a lot of the era when the disco sound died, or actually merged into contemporary (black) music. At the moment the disco aesthetic is popular as a sound, but a lot of producers use it to make tools for the dancefloor, wich means everything is repetive and reduced. That is nice too, but for me it’s difficult to stay minimal, when making music.

Where can people hear your music except on Soundcloud? Do you do live sets?

At the moment it’s quite limited – I’m working on my first complete album wich is an ambitious project and takes a lot of time. Hopefully when it finally gets released, my tracks will spread more. I haven’t got a PR plan yet, but it would be a shame to first put so much effort on the music itself and then just let it be buried deep into the Internet. Therefore, I think the promotion has nowadays become more important: how to get your stuff out there in the right channels so that people can actually hear it.

Is it true what they say about DJs?

What? That DJs get laid more? That’s an urban legend. Besides, isn’t everyone in Berlin a DJ-blogger-designer? Personally, I think DJing is overrated. It’s on the same level of craft as washing dishes, but still everyone wants do do it, just because they think its cool… The DJs that impress me the most are the ones that have the taste, and that are brave enough to introduce surprising things. Otherwise it’s just boring: everyone can copy the “hot right now” playlist and play it.

What’s your day job?

I work in advertising as an Art Director.

Which record are you most excited about in 2013?

Dunno yet, I hope this year brings a lot of fresh things!