Johnny Spunky (November 16, 1958 in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

), real name Juha Kaarsalo, is a Finnish

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. His early

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

works were published by the Finnish record label ''Hiljaiset Levyt'' ("silent records") in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, Finland, and brought to an international audience by

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

. His trio's full name was ''Johnny Spunky's Guts'' but they performed under ''Johnny Spunky'' mainly. Later he started a solo career. Kaarsalo finished his studies in late 1988 at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

and

mastered Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be ...

in Finnish literature in 1989. His thesis dealt with the meaning of music in the

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s of ''Pirkko Jaakola''. Kaarsalo published several books of poetry in Finnish. He also wrote about

ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

s by the publisher ''Von Wrigh''t from 1994 to 2001. His essays about architecture, literature and especially music were published primarily in three magazines and periodicals: Rytmi, musa.fi and Selvis. Kaarsalo is a member of the Finnish Composers organisation ''Säveltäjät ja Sanoittajat ELVIS ry''. In winter 2006 he suffered a serious pneumonia. Kaarsalo is unmarried and lives in

Loimaa Loimaa (; historical ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland regions of Finland, region. Th ...

. The early works from 1987 to 1988 are being digimastered and will be released on CD in 2009.

Discography

Own editions * Sonic Psychobody, Cassette, 1986 * Lunar Power, EP, Hiljaiset Levyt HIKS-006, 1987 * My Second Coming, EP, Hiljaiset Levyt HIKS-012, 1989 * Mutatio vitalis, EP, Hiljaiset Levyt HIKS-022, 1990 * Shades of Things to Come, CD, Pinke 1, 1995 Compilations * Avzaltti (LP, 1987) * Maanalainen vuosikerta (LP, Stigma 1989) * Sivulliset (4 CD, Poko/EMI 2005)

Bibliography

* Ajan kuristus (Hiljainen Kulttuuriyhdistys 1988) * Perillä ennen lähtöä (1988) * Legenda German Elsassilaisesta (long poem in the anthology "Loivan Maan Saga", Ooli 1999) * Ajatusten maisemissa (Ooli 2000) * Apollon valo (Kustannus HD, 2006) * Sampsan alueen historia (Kustannus HD, 2007) * Kohti outoa totuutta (Kustannus HD, 2008) * Tapio Laurila ja iloinen peli - musiikkimiehen muotokuva (Kustannus HD, 2008)

External links

Juha Kaarsalo

Juha Kaarsalo in the Finnish Music Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spunky, Johnny 1958 births Living people Finnish male songwriters Finnish male writers Musicians from Turku