Touching Bass: Monitor 66

Hannes and Hannes AKA Monitor 66. Photo by Lukas Lindgren.

Hannes and Hannes produce music as

Monitor 66

. As teens, they listened to the likes of the Magician and Aeroplane. And then one day a couple of years ago – in proper dreams come true style – the Magician featured a Monitor 66 track in a

mixtape

that he released. Suddenly Hannes and Hannes gained huge following and became hyped above expectations. Aeroplane joined the fan base, and the two humble Swedes found themselves playing in England, Finland and at a rooftop in Azerbaijan. This Saturday, Monitor 66 will go full circle with the Magician at

Debaser Medis

in Stockholm. In timely manor, we caught up on Skype and asked them to make a mixtape for us in case you don't get the chance to attend their set.

Noisey: Hey Hannes and Hannes. Can I call you something else? This is confusing.

Hannes Forsman:

I'm Forsman and you can call the other Hannes for Rehnström.

Great. How are you?

Hannes Rehnström:

It's all good.

Forsman:

Very good. I got to finish work earlier to do this, so it's nice.

Where are you guys?

Forsman:

I'm at my place in Hässelby.

Rehnström:

I'm in Skövde.

Wow. That's pretty far from each other. How does that work when you produce?

Forsman:

We skype a lot and share a Dropbox where we put our project files so the other one can continue working on it and send it back.

Gosh. So basically the Internet is pretty key in your work?

Rehnström:

Definitely. The stuff we do wouldn't work without the Internet.

That's pretty interesting. For how long have you been working like that?

Forsman:

It's been like this since the start. Hannes lived in Skåne and I lived in [Stockholm] and then he lived here for a while, which was a bit of a luxury since we didn't have to be online. But I'd say that 80 percent of our songs have been produced over the Internet.

So how come you started making music together?

Forsman:

We met through mutual friends.

Rehnström:

Exactly. A few mutual friends. We used to make music together with this other guy, Calle, who we made our first song together with. We continued when Calle left us, but that's how we got to know each other.

Forsman:

Yeah we just sat down and experimented a bit and figured it sounded pretty good actually.

Do you listen to the same kind of music?

Forsman:

Both of us listen to a really wide spectrum of music. And we both like house and electronic music and stuff like that. But then again, there are some stuff that we don't agree on at all. Hannes likes trance and I'm not a big fan at all of that kind of stuff. But he manages to squeeze that into our music anyway. And I like 70s rock, Fleetwood Mac and stuff that I manage to squeeze in. So even if don't always agree, we manage to make it work anyway.

Tell me about your manifesto.

Forsman:

That's just something we said once – that "music for sunsets…" thing. I made it up I guess.

Rehnström:

We thought it sounded nice and cheesy…

Forsman:

It was when we met at this place called Viken in Skåne. It's like this beach village so basically the only thing you do there is to hang by the beach in the evenings by the sunset and drink beer together. That's such an amazing feeling. So we wanted to make music that reflects that same feeling.

What about the funky basslines?

Forsman:

Disco! We like that. You know good bossy basslines, those are the best.

So your manifesto is like that typical drunken summer night?

Forsman:

Definitely. It's about experiencing that same thing all year round. In the winter too.

Sweden doesn't really have sunsets in the winter.

Forsman:

The sun doesn't even rise.

So when you produce over the Internet, how does that work? Are you working after deadlines, or…?

Rehnström:

We're pretty bad at [deadlines].

Forsman:

One of us think of a good thing and send it over to the other one. He listens to it, changes it, and then we send it back and forth like that. We’re working after deadlines only when we're doing remixes and stuff like that. We discuss our ideas and when it's like one or two weeks left, we finish it together on Skype.

Rehnström:

When something is pretty much ready to go in our Dropbox, we try to meet and sit down in a studio. It's obviously a lot easier to sit next to each other than to skype.

Do you always work in the same studio?

Rehnstörm:

It's through school.

Forsman:

Yeah we can sit down in a real studio in Skövde. Otherwise we've been sitting with our laptops.

Rehsntröm:

We're proper laptop producers. It sounds embarrassing, but that's just the way it is.

Most people are these days, huh.

Rehnström:

Yeah, maybe that’s the way it is.

So tell me about what you're working on right now.

Forsman:

We have one EP that should be ready soon. There are a few songs on their way to be finished in our Dropbox.

Rehnström:

We also have a remixed version of our old EP that will be released some time this summer, hopefully.

How many funky basslines will this be made up of?

Forsman:

Plenty!

Rehnström:

There will probably be an EP with three of four songs and maybe one remix.

Forsman:

I think it will work out fine.

So what are your thoughts on your mixtape?

Forsman:

Our previous mixtapes have been for people to listen to at home. So now we wanted to make something for a dance floor. So we squeezed in as many house tunes we could.

Rehnström:

It represents how we play when we're out. It's how we typically build a set. This is probably a bit more compressed, but it's basically how we play.

And how do you guys listen to music at home?

Forsman:

I have studio monitors and some DJ gear, but Rehnström doesn't.

Rehnström:

No, I listen in my laptop speakers.

Really?

Forsman:

He's a poor student.

Rehnström:

I'm trying to get myself a pair.

But do you even hear everything that Forsman sends over to you?

Rehnström:

I have headphones, so I usually hear most of it.

Forsman:

We make our tracks on headphones, and in the end when we mix the stuff we're in a studio so we hear that everything sounds good. Maybe it's considered bad to do things that way, but it works out pretty well for us.

So it seems. Thanks, guys!

Monitor 66 will play alongside the Magician on Saturday, May 17 at Debaser Medis in Stockholm, Sweden. Find more details here.

TRACKLIST
01. Saine - "Forgotten Notes" (Hackman Edit)
02. Ian Pooley - "Kids Play" (Stimming Remix)
03. Leon Vynehall - "Sister" (Original Mix)
04. Awol - "The Ramp" (Original Mix)
05. Dorsia - "Ghana" (Roberto Rodriguez Remix)
06. Romanthony - "Ministry Of Love" (Andrés Remix)
07. Justin Timberlake - "Like I Love You" (Kinky Movements Remix)
08. Kornél Kovács - "Szikra" (Original Mix)
09. Outboxx - "Planet Love" (Original Mix)
10. Bodhi - "Wuh" (Original Mix)
11. Fries & Bridges - "Forever This" (Original Mix)
12. La Fleur - "Kattflickan" (Art Of Tones Remix)
13. Dj Mujava - "Township Funk" (Crazy P Remix)
14. Monitor 66 - "Vitae" (Original Mix)
15. Paji - "Lacerta" (Original Mix)
16. David August - "Epikur" (Original Mix)
17. Monitor 66 - "Triscuits" (Sixth Avenue Express Remix)