Sometimes, in this strange beast we call 'the music biz', we interview people. Generally, these fine folk know a thing or two about music—but often, they also know a thing or two about something else they'd rather talk about. In 2015, that 'something else' covered areas like the problems with Feminism in Norway; how to screenprint your face onto a condom; and how to piss off journalists in record timing. Safe to say it was a pretty good year for interviewing an intriguing/talented/bizarre clump of people—so check out our highlights for yourself below.
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EMIL STABIL EXPLAINING WHAT HE'LL DO TO US IF WE JEOPARDIZE HIS MUSICAL INTEGRITY:
Photo by Sarah Buthmann"I know and grew up with people who play in bands. They’re better at music than I am—the theoretical music. Fuck that, let’s cross that out. If you write that, I’ll find you and strangle you with a cable somewhere."Read the rest here.
APIERON CREW ON PEOPLE GIVING SEXIST COMPLIMENTS:
Photo by Emil Jupin"A lot of people will approach us and say 'I really feel like women have a more essential way of picking techno tunes.' They will say it as a compliment as if that is some sort of borne skill… It’s hard for people who don’t know music to compliment us without making it about our gender. If people know music, they don’t usually say stuff like that."Read the rest here.
TOMMY CASH ON GROWING UP IN THE 'HOOD IN TALLINN, ESTONIA
Photo by Sohvi Viik“If you have a pink sweater on people will say you’re gay, but I don’t care about that. I was always the weird guy growing up in the 'hood. At some point, I was walking around where I live in a kilt in the middle of the summer and no one said anything. It’s because they recognized me—it would’ve been a different story if I wasn’t from round there.”Read the rest here.
KOSO EXPLAINING WHY NORWEGIAN MUSIC PRODUCTION IS SUCH A BOYS' CLUB
"There's a lack of role models in older women [in Norwegian music production], especially in the DJ scene. You see a lot of men in their 40s or older DJing in clubs, but it’s a rare sight to meet older women. Why is that? We would love for women to quit putting on a expiry date on themselves and start thinking they could age along with the music."
YOUNG BONG ON HIS INGENIUS ENTREPRENEURIAL CONCEPT
Photo by Sarah Buthmann"You can make prints [of your face] small enough so they fit the condom. You just have to roll out the condom and then print it—that’s why it’s still unusable and in prototype phase. If I nail that printed condom, it’s like, damn—Young Bong is getting up in a lot of girls."Read the rest here.
ERIK DANIELSSON OF WATAIN GETTING A BIT SENSITIVE WHEN WE ASKED ABOUT THE RECENT DOC MADE ABOUT HIM
Photo by Jamie Hunter, via flickr"In accusing me of being a charlatan on stage you place yourself among the vast herd of shallow-minded children that has no insight whatsoever in the sizzling furnace that animate artists such as myself and many before me… This is Claudio’s film and I was being interviewed and filmed without a specific, personal agenda. I did this because I like Claudio’s work and he asked me to participate, not because I felt the need to “connecting” with anyone. Least of all you."Read the rest here.
KÖNSFÖRRÄDARE ON WHY GENDER NORMS MATTER NOW MORE THAN EVER
"It’s like a cultural zeitgeist—it’s now way more common to talk about defining your own gender and gender issues than in the past. We’ve always been limited by the genders we were designated at birth. We don’t want to be linked to ideas of how we should be according to the main dialogue in society. We want to be as free as possible."
A PSYCHIC 'LOOKING INTO HER PSYCHE' AND PREPARING US FOR ROSKILDE 2016:
"It's literally going to be the equivalent of Burning Man."Read the rest here.
LAU PEDERSEN OF FRIBYTTERDRØMME TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS PSYCH MUSIC, ANYWAY
"My guitar player, Tor, said something really cool recently: the psych music scene is not so much about genre but more about sensibility—that you might feel connected to this kind of music or experience, the drawn-out parts, the freak outs, the free spirit, whichever area of psych rock you wanna identify with. It has to do with how you connect with the lyrics and the music."Read the rest here.
GKR ON THE SHITTY SIDE OF THE MUSIC BIZ:
Photo by Kjartan Hreinsson"The thing I hate about this music stuff is the other side—the business side of things. All of this 'don’t talk to me unless you're talking money' crap— I really fucking hate it. Of course we're trying to get paid, but in the past people have promised they’d do something for me—then they’d take my money but never do anything about it. That’s just being mean, and it can make music lose its fun."Read the rest here.
HALSHUG FROM COPENHAGEN'S UNDERGROUND SCENE ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS
Photo by Hans Jørgensen"Last year we spoke with a Swedish magazine where we proclaimed that everybody who didn't do anything regarding the refugees was a fascist pig. We still think that! If you have the opportunity to do something and you don't, then you're downright stupid."Read the rest here.
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