How are you? Is everything ok, are you in Iceland or Istanbul now?
Hi, thank you. I'm in Iceland and we leave tomorrow.
Ok, what are the pros and cons of living there as a musician? It seems like a "country of heaven" from here.
We are a little bit far away from kind of any big melting points like Berlin, London or United States. And this is a small city so the scene is very limited. Even though it's prosperous, its very limited.
Techno scene is not very deep here. But we still have some good parties going on and have some kind of semi- clubs and raves happening during the summer. But the experience is very limited because you're also very isolated here. The bands that are coming over are mostly just pop acts.
The good thing is that it's very much relaxed, chilly and it's never a good time to be outside. It's always better to be inside working. (laughs) It's kind of fresh, the weather and the nature.. But of course, what is mostly important to me is that i'm just at home and feel comfortable here.
The music scene here is so close, it's a close circle. Everybody knows everyone. So it's really easy to work with each other for musicians. They are sharing studios, hanging out together. For example Margret Ran, who is in Gusgus, has her small studio in a small complex here, little bit further from my house. It's just 30 minutes walking distance from here. It's kind of a close family.
Your latest album "DanceOrama" released 2 weeks ago. Can you please tell us the producing process and how are the first reactions you get so far? I loved it by the way.
Yeah, we really had good response to it. The last album was called Mobile Home. And the album before called "Lias are More Flexible".. Me and Daniel, we were working on music that was really much kind of new wave influence, influence from the early 80s like Gary Numan and some of the electronic 70s punk and also some Tangerine Dream arpeggios. So the last album was really dark. Lots of arpeggios, really new wave, i was playing with strange chords. Then we had Margret Ran as the new singer just entering our path on that album. She's a friend of mine. She asked to try out some track and i sent her the instrumental for Higher and she did. And when we, me and Daniel got Higher from her the demo, we thought this is amazing. We did this Higher track with her, we recognized was a hit for us. And then she came a little bit more into doing some more on the album. But nevertheless this album was something that me and Daniel were already really deep into and we were just finishing it when she came on board. It was kind of we were closing this new wave era somehow, we had done those experiments, it was fine. Also Margret wanted to do some more party stuff and me too. And then Daniel was up for it. I was kind of aiming for some of this intelligent raving in the early 90's, like 92, 93, 94 like with played Tangerine Dream, Spooky and all the artists like that.. And there was this track with the artist Sophie called "is it cold in the water" that i really liked. It was really much this hammering, really intelligent, crazy 90s wave, but this slow pop on top of it.. I wanted to do some experiments like this too, because that was an area for me that i really loved and i had never visited in my music. With Gusgus, we have been somewhere else. I was aiming to go there but i didn't get there. And we had lots of demos, we did couple of song that they were promising. I got my 909, the 808 and my SH-101 and the Roland SH-2 that i use for filtering. And i had some mixer here in the studio. I call it the "acid corner". Its my early 90s stuff.. All of the drum notes were fed into this one, distorting them and filtering them and doing this thing. So i reinstalled those guys because they're just happening in the corner not much used. And i wanted to get some 90s vibe action somehow and we did some demos and i did this demo that is on an album called Danceorama. I did it. And i really liked it. I thought it was really arousing me and i was thinking like what the fuck is this? Nevertheless, what is this? Then i found a poster by Syd Brak called "Wired For Sound" and i kind of caught it and i thought "ok its the cover for this track, danceorama" I called the kids, they came over. I played them "danceorama", showed them this cover and demos and i said "ok kids, we have an album. I dont know exactly what it is, its some kind of 80s, 90s, nostalgic, futuristic, hybrid somehow. I dont know how to describe but it's futuristic in a nostalgic way. Not from future, from here, future scene from the past. Its weird, italo techno, dance or something. Margret said "dance-o-rama, i liked it". So that became the title of the album and this is the first album of 2. We are kind of opening this weirdness. I'm getting the response from djs that they think this album is really kind of inspiring and fresh for them.
(Syd Brak, Wired For Sound)
And the lyrics are basically the stories that can happen in "danceorama". For example "Rivals" song.. Do you remember the movie Rocky?
Sure i do.
"Rivals" is basically about Rocky.. You know the movie. Just in the morning, he's running outside, his life is shit. He's not doing too good with his girlfriend, he is poor. He was a boxer and his life is basically violent. But he has this opportunity to win the master, so he's practicing super uncomfortably early in the morning, punching air..
And then in our world, the angels come and they say to him "Rocky, no more violence. Relax, come to Danceorama and have a nice time. Have a drink, forget about this violence, thats not the way." Everybody can be all the rivals, like a message to all the violence that is going on in the world. All the rivals just stand in pride, be in your pride, recognize it, the other ones they are also in their prides, recognize it and go to the bar and have something nice! So thats basically the concept of the lyrics in the album. Kind of fun with spiritual dust, stories in this Danceorama place.
And then we're working on the next album that will follow. It will be a little bit more balanced towards vocal songs.
You've been in Istanbul many times before. Do you have any particular memory about here?
Of course i remember Babylon, both the old and then the new one. We always have really good time there. I have good memories with Istanbul. First time i came there, i fell in love with the city. Next time i came, i asked my wife to come over and we spent extra time there. I think its really a romantic, exotic and spiritual city.
And also chaotic..
Yeah chaotic. I think its perfect place to be aroused and seeing the world with different eyes. Especially for those who are maybe a little bit too tied up in western culture. Because its such a fusion of weird stuff, and you can feel how it was throughout the ages as Constantinapole and then Istanbul..How deeply rooted the city is, both general western culture and middle east and also in religion.. Both christian and muslim. So its super powerful city as i experienced.
Do you know anything about Turkish music scene?
Not really. But i like some of these melodies when i hear on the radio. It's very emotional.
You'll be at Babylon this Friday and we're very excited to see you again. will there be any surprises?
We're going to play 2-3 songs from the Mobile Home, then we're going to play the hits like Featherlight and some of the new cool stuff.
Is there anything that you are so passionate about except music?
Board games.
Which ones?
Weird ones. (laughs) There has been a lot of progress in the design of board games and its kind of much more adventure.
I dont watch much TV, when i'm seeing some movies i say "i know how it ends, i'm just wasting my time".
I think the latest "Dune" board game is really cool. I usually play with my brother and my son-in-law. We're playing this coin series thats kind of this strange fight in human history. Strange fights like the decolonization of India and the civil war of Finland. Something weird like that.
What are your plans for the near future? What's on your agenda?
After this weekend, my full focus will be finishing the next album. Because these two are like a package. We will then tour in next fall in the year 2025.
We're doing some festivals next year and some gigs.
Thanks so much, is there anything that you want to add?
Well, just remember to be nice. The world is hard enough, dont make it harder. Thats my take on it. Thats what friday is going to be about. It's just going to be about enjoying music and being aroused with music and being together, feeling maybe a little bit spiritual and high.
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