Interview with The Swede Beat.

Lydia Kellam, grundare och chefredaktör samt projektledare för events och projekt på The Swede Beat, flyttade till New York för tre år sedan. Väl där upptäckte hon att intresset för svensk musik var väldigt stort, speciellt för svensk indiepop.

- Men många visste inte att till exempel Jens Lekman och Lykke Li faktiskt kommer från Sverige. Så jag såg det som mitt mål att uppmärksamma människor omkring mig om det. Så växte The Swede Beat fram, en plattform för ny svensk samtidskultur. Det som började som ett nyhetsbrev blev snabbt en webtidning och idag står teamet bakom The Swede Beat även för en månadsklubb på Trophy Bar i Williamsburg dit svenskar som tillfälligt bor i eller besöker New York bjuds in för att DJa.

Från början var målgruppen amerikaner med intresse för svensk kultur.

- Här i New York har svensk kultur väldigt bra rykte och det finns många så kallade "swedophiles" som gillar allt som är svenskt, från kläder och konst till musik.

Lydia passade på att ge oss lite tips om band att kolla in från Brooklyn där hon bor och jobbar:

- Machine drum, Midnight Magic, The Hands in the Hundred Hands, High Highs och Body Language är band jag lyssnar på just nu.

Och när vi ändå håller på med årsbästalistor...

2010 års bästa svenska skiva enligt Lydia Kellam

- Som vanligt kan jag inte välja, men här är tre favoriter:

Korallreven - The Truest Faith EP

First Aid Kit - The Big Black & The Blue

This Is Head - 0001

// Lydia Kellam, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Swede Beat moved to New York three years ago. She noticed the huge interest in Swedish music, especially indie music. But nobody seemed to know that popular musicians like Jens Lekman and Lykke Li actually come from Sweden. So she started The Swede Beat, a platform for Swedish contemporary culture and what began as a newsletter is today a web page with readers and writers worldwide. The team behind The Swede Beat are also responsible for a monthly club at Trophy Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where Swedes living or visiting NY are DJing. Lydia named a few Brooklyn-bands worth listening to: Machine drum, Midnight Magic, The Hands in the Hundred Hands, High Highs and Body Language. And while we're at it she listed her top three Swedish albums of 2010: Korallreven - The Truest Faith EP, First Aid Kit - The Big Black & The Blue and This Is Head - 0001

Foto: Katharina Poblotzki

Intervju med: Froggi Records (svensk version)

(for the english version, click here)

Nostalgi eller nytänkande? Det kan vara lite svårt att bestämma sig när det kommer till Berlinbaserade Froggi Records. Conrad, grundaren till skivbolaget menar att Froggi snarare är en idé än ett koncept. Som Conrad säger:

- Froggi försöker ge lyssnarna vad de inte behöver. Eller snarare, ge dem vad de absolut behöver men inte kan lyssna på.

Och ja, Froggi är inget skivbolag, det är ett kassettbolag.

Froggi Records är Conrad och Johannes som sätter ihop musik de gillar på kassetter tillsammans med vänner som hjälper till med art work och annat. Från början var det ett sätt för Conrad att nå ut med sin musik. Det var i mitten av 90-talet. Idag är det mest berlinare som är signade på Froggi: Jn Fischer Erf (”postrock diamond”), Ampl:tude (”live analog elektro”), Sometree (”melankolisk förädling” (Conrads ord, inte mina)), mOck (”minimalistisk vs matematisk”) Kid Ikarus (”enmans-någonting”) och Stephane Leonard (”soundscape-experiment”). Bland de internationella signade finns svenska Björn Kleinhenz (”writer songsinger”), schweiziska The Rabbit Theory (”stop’n’go postpunk”), franska Jordan (”punk/disco, men på ett coolt sätt”, som Conrad beskriver det), Ava (”new age chanteuse”) och Tidy Kid (”galen idm snubbe” från Australien). Ett ganska brett spektrum av genrer alltså, och för att bli signad på Froggi finns det inte många restriktioner:

- Bara personkemin stämmer, säger Conrad.

Jag frågar vad ambitionen är. En nostalgisk resa till barndomens musikformat, en protest mot dagens slit-och-släng mentalitet, eller rentav ett sätt att hålla koll på sin musik på ett snyggare sätt än bilderna på mapparna i Itunes bibliotek? Conrad menar att det är en blandning:

- Självklart är ambitionen att stödja människorna vars musik vi ger ut. Att få vara en del av deras process att ge ut sin musik. Dessutom tycker vi som växte upp med kassetter, vinyler och CD-skivor att det är viktigt att påminna folk om att musik som går att ta på är roligare. Att skivor eller EPs skall vara artefakter med ett omslag och inte bara anonym data på din hårddisk.

Däremot handlar det inte om att digital musik skulle fördärva branschen säger Conrad:

- Jag fördömer inte nedladdning därför att det skulle sänka min försäljning. Men om jag har flera hundra gigabyte med musik på min dator kan jag inte riktigt hantera det längre. Så vi försöker hålla kassetten vid liv och erbjuda ett alternativ till vad musikindustrin ger oss. Den tekniska utvecklingen ger oss konsumenter inget annat val än att köpa ny utrustning och slänga våra gamla. Man skulle kunna kalla det en fight för de anakronistiska.

Nytt år och nya förväntningar. Jag frågade Froggi vad de ser mest fram emot under 2010:

- Vi ser fram emot att släppa nytt material såklart. Nästa är en delad EP med Wool In the Water som är den första från Berlinbaserade producenten pOnk, och The Split Shot EP av Daisuke Tanabe från Japan som jag ser mycket fram emot! pOnk blandar trippande grooves med hiphip-influenser, post-rock melodier och ett skönt sound. Tanken var att skapa en EP med enbart analoga trumbeat, bas, grundläggande sounds och celesta (tangentinstrument med stålstavar i stället för strängar). Daisuke Tanabe gör lekfulla kollage av elektronisk musik. Jag tror att de två kommer funka bra tillsammans på kassetten, även om de är ganska olika så delar de samma specifika atmosfär.

Till sist, vad kommer du själv att lyssna på i år?

- Jag är mycket för Chicago-scenen nu med Joan Of Arc-kollektivet. Jag älskar det! Sedan är det pOnks och Tidy Kids kommande album som jag ser fram emot. Debutskivan till Oy, som gör fantastisk musik med hennes samplade röst är också efterlängtad. Annars håller jag mig mest till klassiker… som är för många för att nämna.

En annan rolig grej som Conrad har på gång är nya sub-labeln Floppi Records som ger ut musik på disketter. Så helt främmande är inte killarna bakom Froggi Records för musik på datorn.

http://www.froggirecords.de/

Interview with: Froggi Records (english version)

(for the swedish version, click here)

Nostalgia or innovation? It is hard to decide when it comes to Froggi Records. Condrad, the founder of the record label explains that there isn’t a written concept behind Froggi but there is definitely an idea behind it.

- Froggi is trying to give listeners what they don’t need. Or maybe give them what they need badly but can’t listen to.

And yes, Froggi is not a record label. It’s a tape label.

Froggi Records is Conrad and Johannes who put together music they like on audio cassettes, and some friends who contributes with art work. At first it started out as a place for the output of Conrad’s own projects in the mid 1990’s. Today their catalogue consist mostly of artists from Berlin like Jn Fischer Erf (“postrock diamond”), Ampl:tude (“live analogue electro”), Sometree (“melancholic refinedness” (and these lovely descriptions is Conrad’s own words, not mine)), mOck (“minimalistic vs mathy”), Kid Ikarus (“one man whatever”) and Stephane Leonard (“soundscape experiments”). Among the international musicians on Froggi we find Björn Kleinhenz (“writer songsinger” from Sweden), The Rabbit Theory (“stop’n’go postpunk” from Switzerland, Jordan (“punk/disco but in a cool way” from France), Ava (“New Age Chanteuse”) and Tidy Kid (“mad idm dude” from Australia). It is a pretty broad spectra of genres and to get signed on Froggi there are not many restrictions.

- It just has to be some spark lightning up on a personal level.

I ask him what their ambition is: A nostalgic trip to the music format of their childhood, a protest to the wear and tear of today’s society, or purely a way to keep track of your music in a more aesthetic way than behind the pictures on the maps in the library of Itunes?

- Of course the ambition is to support the people whose music we put out and to contribute to their output. We want to remind people that recorded music that you can touch is much more fun. Good albums and EPs should be artefacts with a cover and a package. Not just some anonymous data on your hard drive, at least that is my standpoint as someone who grew up with cassettes, vinyl and CDs.

However, it is not about digital music harming the business at all:

- For me it’s not about condemning downloadable music because it lowers the sales. If I have several hundred gigabytes of music files on my computer I can’t really handle it. Our ambition is to keep audio cassettes alive and to offer an alternative format to what the music industry is giving us. Technical so called progress hardly leave us consumers a choice but to buy new devices and throw away our old stuff. So yeah, you could call it a fight for the anachronistic.

Since it’s a new year I’m asking people in the music business what they are looking forward to in 2010. What do Froggi Records wish for in 2010?

- Froggi is looking forward to releasing new stuff of course. Next up is a split EP with Wool and Water, the first EP of Berlin based producer pOnk and the Split Shot Ep by Daisuke Tanabe from Japan. I’m pretty excited about this one. pOnk is combining tripping grooves with hip hop influences, post-rockish melodies and found sounds. The concept behind the EP was to only use analogue drum computer beats, bass guitar, found sounds and celesta (a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard). Daisuke Tanabe creates spherical yet very playful collages of electronic and organic sounds. I think that the two sides of the EP come together very well: although they sound pretty different they share this specific atmosphere.

At last, what are you going to listen this year?

- I guess I will be listening to a lot of stuff from the Chicago scene around the Joan of Arc collective. I love that stuff! And I’m definitely going bananas over the albums of pOnk and Tidy Kid when those are out. First Box Then Walk, the debut of Oy who does great stuff with her sampled voice is out soon and on my list too. Otherwise I often stick to classics… too many to name them.

Another exciting thing Conrad has going on is Floppi Records, a sub label with music on floppy discs. Froggi stays strictly tape, but Floppi also serves people who want to listen to their computer.

http://www.froggirecords.de/

Interview with: Naivsuper

(För den svenska versionen: Klicka här)

Many years ago I read the book Naiv.Super by Erlend Loe. Still I talk warmly about it and lend my tired pocket version to all of my friends who have not already read the book about a twenty five-year-old man whose life fell apart when he lost a croquet game to his brother. He leaves school and moves in to his brother's apartment. And so he starts to ponder over the big questions in life. Search for a meaning of life. Meanwhile he buys a ball and a hammer bench. And gradually he finds proof of things to believe in in life. Just like the title reveals, it's all written with a fairly naïve tone.

Not just having a great impact on me, the book made a deep impression on Stephane Leonard and Claudio Pfeifer as well. Together they started the record label Naivsuper seven years ago. Today Naivsuper offers exciting releases both from the artist collective (which Stephane prefers to call it) as well as the book publishing part of the company and the film part.

Stephane and Claudio met at the University of Arts in Bremen in 2002 and immediately understood that they shared a passion for diy and collectables. Experimental music was another interest of the boys who started to dream about an artist collective jus like in "the old days" says Stephane. The idea of Naivsuper was born. And the rules were simple: The essential thing was make something out of the ordinary with the releases. Stephane and Claudio wanted to work with musicians who believed in the concept of Naivsuper. Sharing art, and who shared their love to art aswell as music. Stephane talks about a desire to become friends with their releases, that it is important:

-          Real friendship is hard to find in a competitive business like this. Especially here in Berlin were everyone is poor, always in need of contacts, references and an opportunities to show their work.

But with Naivsuper it's about talking new ideas, exchanging experiences:

-          At Naivsuper it is more about getting together, sharing a drink together, and talking about paper or how to save the Amazonas.

They have a respectful approach towards music. Stephane tells me that if anyone asks them to distribute their music but Naivsuper doesn't believe a 100 % in it nor has the money to release it, they recommend the artist to release it themselves, at the same time offering their knowledge and resources.

-          Fortunately you can always give these things for free. Even if you can't afford rent for the moment, says Stephane.

So what about the name then? It was right in the beginning when Claudio and Stephane was looking for a name to their baby that a friend gave them Naiv. Super. The attitude of the main character and how he approaches life corresponded well to what they wanted to achieve. When Loe himself approved the name it was settled: Naivsuper was the name of their new record label! And still when Stephane and Claudio visits Norway people are quick to point out the choice of name and their namesake.

The history of Naivsuper demonstrates that it is possible to be passionate about something and still make it work financially. What started out with three releases with exclusive covers hand made with silk screen printing by Stephane and Claudio themselves grew to a separate vinyl only-company called Happy Zloty. Today there is Naivsuper Books and Naivsuper Films as well, both as a result of Claudio and Stephanes latest passions.

And that is what is so fascinating about Naivsuper. The passion for music, art and even printing on fabric! Besides, they share my love to one of the last decade's best book.

Furthermore, Stephane tells me that the fourth album was the most expensive they ever did:

-          It almost ruined us. he says, still with a hint of pride in his voice.

-          The cover was incredibly nice and I still believe it's the best thing we ever released.

Despite the fact that it was released almost five years ago. The band is called dis.playce and you can listen to them by clicking here. Like Naivsuper they come from Berlin. And like most music from Berlin right now it is electronic and all of you who are fond of experimental music will love them!

http://www.naivsuper.de/

http://www.myspace.com/naivsuper