Fever Ray - Karin Dreijer Andersson - is one of my favourite musicians; her music pretty much incorporates everything I love about music and jumbled it all up in one big witchy cauldron and then gave birth to her self-titled album. I was lucky enough to catch a few minutes in heaven to interview her before her show at Shepherds Bush Empire.
If you haven't heard of her yet, you'll have heard of The Knife, her previous band with her brother, Olof. You'll soon hear her name mentioned on the airwaves however, as her self-titled debut solo album has already been nominated album of the year by N.P.R., even though it had only been released for 20 days when the nomination was announced. Beside from that, she's brilliant - think of the Knife at an african fire ritual crossed with a seance and you wouldn't be too far off. From the bottom of my little heart, I recommend her.
I saw you on the weekend at Loop Festival, you were brilliant! I loved your costumes
Oh really? Thank you. Yeah, they're fun. We had to get them washed a couple of days ago though, they were all horrible and stinky.
What are your 10 favourite songs at the moment?
Errrr I’m terrible at making lists… I don’t really listen to music much, a lot of the time I’m working. But I do really like Bat For Lashes, her new album is really good, I’ve listened to that a lot. I'm really looking forward to hopefully seeing her at Latitude. I also really like this other band called Journey To Ixtlan. they play metal, like, slow metal. Really slow and droney.
Who’s your favourite political figure, anyone from whenever in time…
Back in Sweden we have a feminist party. In English I think they’re name would be the Feminist Initiative, I really like their founder Gudrun Schyman.
Which format of releasing music do you prefer – analogue or digital?
I really like vinyl, but it’s good to be able to play stuff on your mp3 player so mp3’s are good, and it’s really hard to find a decent tape player nowadays. But I do really like the physical formats.
What was the last instrument you bought?
A guitar.
In your music you mix both electronical and traditional instruments – why?
I think it was mainly because of the tools – when I started using a computer. You have all that software and everything, all the drum machines, and then when you use traditional music too something happens, when the two start mixing and communicating, it creates a sort of dynamic… thing.
Yeah, I suppose it gives the music more depth.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
How did you first get into the whole mixing idea? Was it an accident, did you just think of it one day…
No, I started doing it when I first started on computers, back when the Knife started in ‘99.
A lot of your videos are quite dark, sort of like ‘witchcrafty’ I suppose, quite voodooish. Where does all the inspiration for this come from?
I’ve worked closely with this one director, Andreas Nilsson, for a long time and he does all my videos. I suppose we’ve worked together so long that we just have the same interests, we share the same fears. Today, in the world, there are barely any ritual habits around – Sweden isn’t a very religious country so we don’t really have any of that. I find it very interesting though, I think maybe the world is missing out on it. That's why a lot of the videos have a weird side to them, almost like folk.
What’s your favourite holiday destination?
Ooh, (laughs nervously) well most of the time I’m working so I don’t really have time for holidays… going home is my holiday. I travel a lot with work though. I think my favourite place to be is anywhere around the Mediterranean Sea.
What do you think about all this Swine Flu nonsense?
I haven’t really thought about it, but I think back in Sweden we’re all going to get that injection at the end of the summer so that’s good. I don't really want to catch it, maybe I'll just stay at home in one place for a while.
another one which maybeeee miight go up on the internet hopefully.. it's called 'twitter goes xxx' but i'm not sure about that title
As a society, we’re pretty obsessed with all things bedroom. So it’s no surprise that Twitter has gone over to the dark side and joined the forces of all things 18+.
In these modern times, you can’t walk down a busy street safe in the knowledge that you’re stroll would be certified PG. Advertising is using physical attraction more and more to rope in potential customers, and the more shaggable an artist the more likely they are to sell – why else would mums buy Enrique Iglesias’ albums? In a global community where sex sells so well, is it surprising that the website based on people’s half-thoughts has now descended into the dirtiest bowls of the dot-com?
Myspace fell to the wrong side of the fence ages ago (though the only reason to go on there is the music, so this doesn’t really matter), and now Twitter’s gone, so will Facebook be next? Sure, people already use the networking site as the new match.com, but how long is it until it starts shoving naked babes in your face when all you really want is to find you’re best friend from primary school?
There are probably already hundreds of Facebook groups based around triple-x content, but at least at the moment it’s possible to live an innocent online networking life, where Facebook’s concerned anyway. But maybe this is a good thing; never has it been more obvious that we’ve grown up from the ‘showing your ankle is unseemly’ ideal that our grandparents grew up on. It’s the 21st century, and sex is commercial now. For better or worse, the horizontal tango isn’t just confined to behind doors anymore, so get up close and (far too) personal with this idea or lock yourself in your nun-habit filled wardrobe, because it’s here to stay.
CDs are, like, so last generation. Mp3s are just so outdated. So what musical releasing format has suddenly hit the mainstream like shit hitting a fan? Cassette releases, that’s what. Everyone from fanzines to the DIY masters that are the latest wave of up-and-coming bands are into it. Releasing your latest single on one of those plastic rectangular babies is like the new nu-rave, only in more colours and with much better music.
So who’s actually into this reversal back to the ‘good old days’ when a brick-sized Walkman was the latest in music-streaming technology, and why? What has drawn so many bands back to the crackly, low-quality punch that tapes throw? We caught up with cassette label/enthusiasts Maximus Extreme to get to the root of the underground music scene’s new obsession. Philip St Clair-Burke is one half of the small-time cassette record label Maximus Extreme, who release split cassettes. John Webb once told him he loved him (he’s now obsessed) and he claims to have played b-ball with Obama.
Why did you choose cassettes to release on? Are you just too cool for mainstream release or is there actually any audio benefit?
I guess that pretty much sums it up. Selling CD's seems like a rip off, I mean, one CD is nothing. CD's aint worth shit, plus I saw Will Smith on the fresh prince with a cassette (I probably dreamt it) so there was no going back. Cassettes sound nice, lo-fi or whatever it is and I wanted people to dance like it's 1985, shoulder pads and everything.
Very true, I suppose tapes seem much less disposable. It's like vinyl - they're not just there for playing the music but also they're nice to look at. They're value for the money you spend on them. Maybe you'd spend £2 on a CD then scratch it after a week, but tapes have got the novelty value as well as generally pretty sick music.
Oh for real, some people do look at it as a novelty though, the seriousness of the whole record label thing goes, which is nice. tapes are for party. Noone wants to pull out their favourite tape and listen to it every day, everyone’s way too lazy for that, me included. The only prize you'll want at a fun fair is a dead goldfish or a tape.
But maybe the whole idea of tapes being less disposable or like a retro thing you'd have from when you were a kid lends more value to the music itself.
True dat, against all the effort of not opening iTunes, listening to tape has some sweet benefits - piss poor audio quality, crackly tracks, the music sounding more and more like a Wavves album each time it's copied, no one can not like that. Have you got a Will Smith tape? The ultimate cassette - Will Smith in the summer time, what do you think?
I think you should do one. Get bands to do a Will Smith cover each then bang them all together on the most pro cassette ever made
That'll be my John bait
Hahahahaha
Paradise vendors inc. 006. I could sell the idea, win his heart.
But a lot of the bands who choose tapes to release on are pretty similar to Wavves - all guitars and bad microphones. Do you think cassettes maybe appeal to them because they're like analogue's answer to distortion pedals?
It's either one or the other really - record with some fucked up microphones, or put it onto cassette. Unless you're totally radical and do both, the whole analogue's distortion is exactly how it is. You know when you're shit at guitar when you have to have the distortion pedal on the whole time, unless you're an angry punx - then it's just a given. But it's not always the best idea to go straight to the broken mic and out-of-date technology, I'd rather listen to music recorded with a reel-to-reel and released on vinyl. I think the whole lo-fi thing can only work so much. Don't get me wrong, it can sound good, but some douches just don’t know when to stop
Yeahhhh, I suppose there's a point when the novelty wares off, when it's no longer ''omg they're so retro, how ace'' but more ''I just want to hear what they're actually playing"
Only when you're angry and punk can you get away with it
Once you can afford to record properly and use working mics using cassettes seems pretty pretentious
Unless you're Will Smith, then you can do whatever the fuck you want.
Offset festival is one of the latest and greatest additions to the festival circuit, boasting more from the underground scene than the Central Line on a Monday morning (coincidentally how you’d get there in the first place). We check out why it was so good last year and what’s made the second event impossible to miss.
These days a decent line-up usually comes hand in hand with a bank balance crushing ticket price, and even when you splash out the hundred pounds on camping in a mud bath you’re still a good hike away from any bands that may be thrashing it out on stage. Offset gives you the cheap camping (in tepees!) and an unparalleled line-up that includes The Horrors, Kap Bambino and Good Shoes, minus the Duke of Edinburgh trek, debt-inducing prices and risk of drowning.
Since it’s only half an hour outside of the capital on the tube, Londoners can even go home instead of camping at all, making it the ultimate Ocean Village of festivals. But should you decide to rough it overnight, instead of waking up to any other weekender’s ‘picturesque’ views of collapsing tents and mud-covered festival-goers, you’ll be camping in a gorgeous forest, home to rare wildlife and amazing views. But if Spring watch isn’t exactly your cup of tea, there’s art presentations and a funfair to keep you busy between bands.
Keep up with us to find out how it goes.
Everyone has a seriously crap day once in a while. Maybe you got molested by a taxi driver, or you got hit in the face by a brick. But there’s no longer any need to grit your teeth and ‘just deal’.
It’s not surprising that in a world where we feel that everyone needs to know that you’re toilets clogged up, or that you’ve suddenly decided oral sex just isn’t what you’re into (a la Twitter), that now there are plenty of places to offload when punching your pillow in angsty tears just isn’t enough
Fmylife.com is a website on which anyone can dump there less-than-desirable daytime trials. From your boyfriend looking deep into your eyes and instead of proposing telling you he’s marrying someone he met on craigslist to realizing you left the intercom on your walky-talky on while in the toilets to finding out your boyfriend is cheating on you with the same man you were cheating on him with, if it’s embarrassing, depressing or downright disgusting chances are it’ll be on there somewhere.
Or, if you live in Detroit, there’s a whole other spectrum on which to share your crap-ennings. Their newspaper, The Stranger, has an online forum called I, Anonymous, on which any resident can post any complaints they may have. Unlike fmylife however this isn’t just confined to the w-w-w-dot, with the best, or worst, complaint selected and printed in an issue of the newspaper itself.
