Video Interview: Martin Wegeland of Domkraft Talks Seeds, New Recordings, Crazy-Ass Cover Art and More
Posted in Bootleg Theater, Features on April 2nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Swedish trio Domkraft release their third long-player, Seeds, on April 30 through Magnetic Eye Records. Delivered with striking 3-D artwork by longtime associate Björn Atldax, it sees the band — bassist/vocalist Martin Wegeland, guitarist Martin Widholm, drummer Anders Dahlgren — actively working to grow their sound in new directions, building on impulses shown on their past LPs, 2018’s Flood (review here) and 2016’s The End of Electricity (review here), while giving light to new spaces and atmospheres. They still crunch, and hard, with noise-born purposes, but in from the formidable opening salvo of “Seeds” and “Perpetuator” onward, the band find escape and consolation alike in daring to take their material somewhere it hasn’t gone before. Those familiar with Domkraft will find it a natural shift, but it’s purposeful as well as a reaction to global pandemic and chaos beyond, as Wegeland explains in the interview that follows.
At the time I spoke to Wegeland, the three-piece had absconded from Stockholm to Gothenburg, returning to Welfare Sounds Studio for three days of tracking — that matched the amount of time they were there for the album — working 
with producers Kalle Lilja (also Långfinger) and Per Stålberg (Division of Laura Lee) to capture their sound in a manner both organic and true to the richer nature of the material itself. The new tracks — four of them, as he says in the video — are to be divided between short releases, and hey, the more the merrier. In a time when a band can’t even get on stage and do a release show — that’s not questioning the validity of the reasons why not, mind you — more recording is pretty much what’s left as regards options, apart from some kind of livestream, which plenty of acts have done, plenty more will do, and is universally agreed to be a paltry substitute for the live experience. Not telling you anything you don’t already know.
But the point here was to talk about Seeds — also about how Karl Daniel Lidén is a genius mixer — and the concept of hope and new growth as related to having come through the trauma of 2020. I’ve been fortunate enough to see Domkraft live more than once, and they’re an act who deserve to be seen, even more as they enter this bizarre album cycle for what is their finest work to-date. Wegeland was kind enough to oblige the conversation, and you’ll find the uncut footage of the results below.
Thanks for reading and watching if you do:
Domkraft, Seeds Interview with Martin Wegeland, March 25, 2021
Seeds is available to preorder now ahead of the April 30 release. More info at the Bandcamp and other links below.
