Posted in Whathaveyou on November 15th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Usually for a fest lineup, I post one band’s player at the bottom of the post. Usually it’s a headliner, sometimes it’s a newer band on purpose, sometimes it’s just someone I check out who I haven’t heard before, etc. There are three players at the bottom of this post, and that’s probably too few. Take it as a sign of the uncommonly packed bill of Majestic Mountain Fest Oslo and the quality both of the work the imprint has been doing and its taste in general. Over the last two years, Majestic Mountain has emerged as a significant contributor to the underground sphere in Europe, especially Northern Europe, with a roster of talent varied in much but united in their ability to connect with their audience. One imagines it will be no different when so many of the label’s acts take the stage at the upcoming three-day festival next month.
This was originally supposed to happen in June, which, hey, sometimes a thing gets pushed back. Cool it’s coming together at all, given the scope of the lineup and the sheer logistics of getting so many schedules to align for three days (plus a pre-show) without the infrastructure of having already done so in the past. That is to say, I expect that if they do another fest like this, it’ll be easier the second time around.
Oh, and if you haven’t actually heard any of those records at the bottom of this post, you’re gonna want to do that.
The time has come, Majestic Crew- After what seems like an eternity of delays and silence, we are finally able to announce the rescheduled details and final lineup for Majestic Mountain Fest // Oslo 2022.
The festival will take place on December 1-3rd at the (in)famous Blitz Hus.
We will have a killer kick-off party on Wednesday 30th of November at our favourite chill spot Brewgata with a live gig and a rad tap takeover from the mighty Nøgne Ø
We will also have a beautiful appearance from a very special guest, Mika Häkki. More details on that to come!
Visit the event page for ticket links! There has been a bit of shifting to the lineup due to the new logistics so any previously scheduled bands you do not see on this year’s roster will appear in the next edition.
Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support and excitement for this event.
Despite the challenges presented to us, we keep charging forward. This festival is truly a labour of love and will be one for the books.
We are absolutely psyched to see you all in Oslo next month and can’t wait to celebrate our incredible roster and you, our fantastic fans!
Majestic Mountain Records is psyched to invite you to the first edition of Majestic Fest Oslo 2022!
When & Where:
Pre-Party Gig & Nøgne-Ø Tap Takeover at Brewgata Oslo 30 November
Festival at Blitz, Oslo 1-3 Decmber
After a challenging year of what seemed like endless delays, we are finally able to let loose and run full steam ahead on a three-day riff fest of gargantuan proportions to commence the 1-3 December at Blitz.
PLUS a killer pre-party gig and tap takeover with the mighty Nøgne-Ø on Wednesday the 30th of November at Brewgata!
This is going to be a very special event with the best community vibes and killer performances by Majestic Mountain Records Roster bands.
We’re also proud to welcome a very special guest, Mika Häkki.
Join us in on the last day of November and the first weekend of December for heavy riffs, mega fuzz and all of the good times!
The MMR crew cannot wait to bang our heads and hang with you in Oslo!
Posted in Radio on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
As will happen during a Quarterly Review, I’ve sort of found myself thinking there’s a ton of stuff that I don’t want to see get lost in the shuffle, and I’ve decided to focus this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal on making sure that doesn’t happen.
‘Selections from the QR’ may be the theme here, but what it rounds out to is a cool mix of mostly new music either way. Goes without saying that with 100 releases covered, there was plenty to choose from, and indeed I might end up doing a second of these — it was a two-week Quarterly Review after all, ending today — but if you’ve kept up with that or not, this is a summary of some of what was included. Like the Quarterly Review itself, it’s pretty heavy on vibe and atmosphere, but there are a couple bangers in there too that, along with the rest, I most certainly hope you enjoy.
Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 09.30.22 (VT = voice track)
Mezzoa
Moya
Dunes of Mars
Lightrain
Hyd
AER
Spirit Adrift
Mass Formation Psychosis
20 Centuries Gone
VT
Cachemira
Ambos Mundos
Ambos Mundos
Goatriders
The Garden
Traveler
Garden of Worm
In the Absence of Memory
Endless Garden
Church of the Cosmic Skull
Now’s the Time
There is No Time
Voidward
Chemicals
Voidward
Early Moods
Curse the Light
Early Moods
Maunra
Lightbreather
Monarch
Obiat
Ulysses
Indian Ocean
Reverend Mother
Locomotive
Damned Blessing
Deer Creek
A Dark, Heartless Machine
Menticide
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships
Mystical Consumer
Consensus Trance
Blacklab
Abyss Woods
In a Bizarre Dream
VT
The Gray Goo
Bicycle Day
1943
Les Lekin
Ascent
Limbus
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 14 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Reviews on September 19th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Oh hello. I didn’t see you there. What, this? Oh, this is just me hanging out about to review 100 records in 10 days’ time. Yup, it’s another double-wide Quarterly Review, and I’m telling myself that no, this isn’t just how life is now, that two full weeks of 10 reviews per day isn’t business as usual, but there’s an exceptional amount of music out there right now, and no, this isn’t even close to all of it. But I’m doing my best to keep up and this is what that looks like.
The bottom line is the same as always and I’ll give it to you up front and waste no more time: I hope you enjoy the music here and find something to love.
So let’s go.
Quarterly Review #01-10:
Yatra, Born into Chaos
The partnership between Chesapeake extremists Yatra and producer Noel Mueller continues to bear fruit on the band’s fourth album and first for Prosthetic Records. Their descent from thick, nasty sludge into death metal is complete, and songs like “Terminate by the Sword” and “Terrorizer” have enough force behind them to become signature pieces. The trio of Dana Helmuth (guitar/vocals), Maria Geisbert (bass) and Sean Lafferty (drums, also Grave Bathers) have yet to sound so utterly ferocious, and as each of their offerings has pushed further into the tearing-flesh-like-paper and rot-stenched realms of metal, Born into Chaos brings the maddening intensity of “Wrath of the Warmaster” and the Incantation-worthy chug of closer “Tormentation,” with massive chug, twisting angularity and brain-melting blasts amid the unipolar throatripper screams from Helmuth (reminds at times of Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved), by now a familiar rasp that underscores the various violences taking place within the eight included tracks. I bet they get even meaner next time,. That’s just how Yatra do. But it’ll be a challenge.
Part of the fun of a new Sula Bassana release is not knowing what you’re going to get, and Nostalgia, which is built from material recorded between 2013-’18 and finished between 2019-’21, is full of surprises. The heavy space grunge of lead cut “Real Life,” which along with its side A companion “We Will Make It” actually features vocals from Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt himself (!), is the first here but not the last. That song beefs up early Radiohead drudgery, and “We Will Make It” is like what happens when space rock actually gets to space, dark in a way but expansive and gorgeous. Side B is instrumental, but the mellotron in “Nostalgia” — how could a track called “Nostalgia” not have mellotron? — goes a long way in terms of atmosphere, and the 10-minute “Wurmloch” puts its well-schooled krautrockism to use amid melodic drone before the one-man-jam turns into a freakout rager (again: !), and the outright beautiful finisher “Mellotraum” turns modern heavy post-rock on its head, stays cohesive despite all the noise and haze and underscores the mastery Schmidt has developed in his last two decades of aural exploration. One wonders to what this sonic turn might lead timed so close to his departure from Electric Moon and building a Sula live band, but either way, more of this, please. Please.
Continuing a streak of working with highly-respected imprints, Finland’s Garden of Worm release their third album, the eight-song/43-minute Endless Garden, through Nasoni Records after two prior LPs through Shadow Kingdom and Svart, respectively. There have been lineup changes since 2015’s Idle Stones (review here), but the band’s classically progressive aspects have never shone through more. The patient unfolding of “White Ship” alone is evidence for this, never mind everything else that surrounds, and though the earlier “Name of Lost Love” and the closer “In the Absence of Memory” nod to vintage doom and the nine-minute penultimate “Sleepy Trees” basks in a raw, mellow Floydian melody, the core of the Tampere outfit remains their unpredictability and the fact that you never quite know where you’re going until you’re there. Looking at you, “Autumn Song,” with that extended flute-or-what-ever-it-is intro before the multi-layered folk-doom vocal kicks in. For over a decade now, Garden of Worm have been a well kept secret, and honestly, that kind of works for the vibe they cast here; like you were walking through the forest and stumbled into another world. Good luck getting back.
Untethered by genre and as unorthodox as ever, Sevilla, Spain, weirdo doom heroes Orthodox return with Proceed after four years in the ether, and the output is duly dug into its own reality of ritualism born more of creation than horror-worship across the six included songs. “Arendrot” carries some shade from past dronings, and certainly the opener before it is oddball enough, with its angular riffing and later, Iberian-folk-derived solo, but there’s a straigter-forward aspect to Proceed as well, the vocals lending a character of noise rock and less outwardly experimentalist fare. “Rabid God” brings that forward with due intensity before the hi-hat-shimmy-meets-cave-lumber-doom “Starve” and the lurching/ambient doomjazz “The Son, the Sword, the Bread” set up the 10-minute closer “The Long Defeat,” which assures the discomforted that at least at some point when they were kids Orthodox listened to metal. Righteously individual, their work isn’t for everyone, and it’s by no means free of indulgence, but in 42 minutes, Orthodox once again stretch the limits of what doom means in a way that most bands wouldn’t dare even if they wanted to, and if you can’t respect that, then I’ve got nothing for you.
Fifty years from now, some brave archivalist soul is going to reissue the entire catalog of Lima, Peru’s Matus and blow minds far and wide. A follow-up to 2013’s Espejismos (review here), Espejismos II brings theremin-laced vintage Sabbath rock vibes across its early movements, going so far as to present “Umbral / Niebla de Neón” in mono, while the minute-and-a-half-long “Los Ojos de Vermargar (Early Version)” is pure fuzz and the organ-laced “Hada Morgana (Early Instrumental Mix)” — that and “Umbra; / Niebla de Neón” appeared in ‘finished versions on 2015’s Claroscuro (review here); “Summerland” dates back to 2010’s Más Allá Del Sol Poniente (review here), so yes, time has lost all meaning — moves into the handclap-and-maybe-farfisa-organ “Canción para Nuada,” one of several remixes with rerecorded drums. “Rocky Black” is an experiment in sound collage, and “Misquamacus” blends acoustic intricacy and distorted threat, while capper “Adiós Afallenau (Version)” returns the theremin for a two-minute walk before letting go to a long stretch of silence and some secret-track-style closing cymbals. The best thing you can do with Matus is just listen. It’s its own thing, it always has been, and the experimental edge brought to classic heavy rock is best taken on with as open a mind as possible. Let it go where it wants to go and the rewards will be plenty. And maybe in another five decades everyone will get it.
Offset by interludes like the classical-minded “Aversion” or the bass-led “Reprobation,” or even the build-up intro “S.Z.,” the ritual doom nod of Swiss five-piece Shrooms Circle‘s The Constant Descent is made all the more vital through the various keys at work across its span, whether it’s organ or mellotron amid the lumbering weight of the riffs. “Perpetual Decay” and its companion interlude “Amorphous” dare a bit of beauty, and that goes far in adding context and scope to the already massive sounding “The Unreachable Spiral” and the subtle vocal layering in “The Constant Descent.” Someone in this band likes early Type O Negative, and that’s just fine. Perhaps most of all, the 11-song/48-minute The Constant Descent is dynamic enough so that no matter where a given song starts, the listener doesn’t immediately know where it’s going to end up, and taking that in combination with the command shown throughout “Demotion,” “Perpetual Decay,” the eight-minute “Core Breakdown” and the another-step-huger finale “Stagnant Tide,” Shrooms Circle‘s second album offers atmosphere and craft not geared toward hooking the audience with catchy songwriting so much as immersing them in the mood and murk in which the band seem to reside. If Coven happened for the first time today, they might sound like this.
I’m gonna tell you straight out: Don’t write this shit off because Goatriders is a goofy band name or because the cover art for their second album, Traveler, is #vanlife carrot gnomes listening to a tape player on a hillside (which is awesome, by the way). There’s more going on with the Linköping four-piece than the superficialities make it seem. “Unscathed” imagines what might have happened if Stubb and Hexvssel crossed paths on that same hill, and the album careens back and forth smoothly between longer and shorter pieces across 50 engrossing minutes; nature-worshiping, low-key dooming and subtly genre-melding all the while. Then they go garage on “The Garden,” the album seeming to get rawer in tone as it proceeds toward “Witches Walk” and the a capella finish in “Coven,” which even that they can’t resist blowing out at the end. With the hypnotic tom work and repeat riffing of the instrumental “Elephant Bird” at its center and the shouted culminations of “Goat Head Nebula” and “Unscathed,” the urgent ritualizing of “Snakemother” and the deceptive poise at the outset with “Atomic Sunlight,” Traveler finds truth in its off-kilter presentation. You don’t get Ozium, Majestic Mountain and Evil Noise on board by accident. Familiar as it is and drawing from multiple sides, I’m hard-pressed to think of someone doing exactly what Goatriders do, and that should be taken as a compliment.
At the tender age of 80, bizarrist legend Arthur Brown — the god of hellfire, as the cover art immediately reminds — presents Long Long Road to a new generation of listeners. His first album under his own name in a decade — The Crazy World of Arthur Brown released Gypsy Voodoo (can you still say that?) in 2019 — and written and performed in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Rik Patten, songs like “Going Down” revisit classic pageantry in organ and horns and the righteous lyrical proclamations of the man himself, while “I Like Games” toys with blues vibes in slide acoustic, kick drum thud and harmonica sleazenanigans, while the organ-and-electric “The Blues and Messing Round” studs with class and “Long Long Road” reminds that “The future’s open/The past is due/In this moment/Where everything that comes is new,” a hopeful message before “Once I Had Illusions (Part 2)” picks up where its earlier companion-piece left off in a manner that’s both lush and contemplative, more than a showpiece for Brown‘s storytelling and still somehow that. His legacy will forever be tied to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown‘s late-1960s freakery, but Long Long Road is the work of an undimmed creative spirit and still bolder than 90 percent of rock bands will ever dare to be.
Ultimately, whether one ends up calling Green Sky Accident‘s Daytime TV progressive psychedelia, heavier post-rock or some other carved-out microgenre, the reality of the 10-song/50-minute Apollon Records release is intricate enough to justify the designation. Richly melodic and unafraid to shimmer brightly, cuts like “Point of No Return” and the later dancer “Finding Failure” are sweet in mood and free largely of the pretense of indie rock, though “Insert Coin” and the penultimate piano interlude “Lid” are certainly well dug-in, but “Sensible Scenes,” opener “Faded Memories,” closer “While We Lasted” and the ending of “Screams at Night” aren’t lacking either for movement or tonal presence, and that results in an impression more about range underscored by songwriting and melody than any kind of tonal or stylistic showcase. The Bergen, Norway, four-piece are, in other words, on their own trip. And as much float as they bring forth, “In Vain” reimagines heavy metal as a brightly expressive terrestrial entity, a thing to be made and remade according to the band’s own purpose for it, and the title-track similarly balances intensity with a soothing affect. I guess this is what alt rock sounds like in 2022. Could be far worse, and indeed, it presents an ‘other’ vision from the bulk of what surrounds it even in an underground milieu. On a personal level, I can’t decide if I like it, and I kind of like that about it.
Pure Land Stars, Trembling Under the Spectral Bodies
With members of Cali psych-of-all explorers White Manna at their core, Pure Land Stars begin a series called ‘Altered States’ that’s a collaboration between Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz Records, and if you’re thinking that that’s going to mean it’s way far out there, you’re probably not thinking far enough. Kosmiche drones and ambient foreboding in “Flotsam” and “3rd Grace” make the acoustic strum of “Mountains are Mountains” seem like a terrestrial touch-down, while “Chime the Kettle” portrays a semi-industrial nature-worship jazz, and “Jetsam” unfolds like a sunrise but if the sun suddenly came up one day and was blue. “Lavendar Crowd” (sic) turns the experimentalism percussive, but it’s that experimentalism at the project’s core, whether that’s manifest in the nigh-on-cinematic “Dr. Hillarious” (sic) or the engulf-you-now eight-minute closer “Eyes Like a Green Ceiling,” which is about as far from the keyboardy kratrock of “Flotsam” as the guitar effects and improvised sounding soloing of “Jetsam” a few tracks earlier. Cohesive? Sure. But in its own dimension. I don’t know if Pure Land Stars is a ‘band’ or a one-off, but they give ‘Altered States’ a rousing start that more than lives up to the name. Take a breath first. Maybe a drink of water. Then dive in.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
This post started out as a pretty standard band-signs-to-label thing, and nothing wrong with that at all. Majestic Mountain Records put out work that it had picked up Sweden’s Goatriders to release their upcoming second album, Traveler — something announced on its own before a single premiere and preorders go live, in much the same way Heavy Psych Sounds handles these things; an announcement of the coming announcement — and I’m perfectly happy to get that together as news. Easy peasy, especially as they’re relatively fresh in mind since Stoffe recently took The Obelisk Questionnaire.
The plot thickens, however, as Majestic Mountain Records will handle the vinyl along with Ozium Records, also doing the CD, and Evil Noise Recordings the cassette, making the impending release triply-backed and available on any format save for that one T-Bone Burnett claims to have invented, though I’m sure if it comes to it they’ll do a reissue should that actually become a thing. Point? Album happening, and not one, not two, but three imprints are willing to back it. Most bands are lucky if they can get one.
First single later this week, as MMR told it on social media:
Majestic Mountain Records – Goatriders
In 2020, a motley group of fuzz laden, distortion drenched goats magically appeared from the blues-rock, desert jam pastures of Linköping Sweden, capturing our hearts and minds with their debut album ‘The Magician’s Keep.’
The album garnered massive praise from notable review platforms reaching repeat play status at HQ and beyond. Ranked amongst the top 100 albums of 2020 from The Doom Charts, ‘The Magician’s Keep’ promptly sold out and the rumblings for a follow up have been rowdy.
We are pleased to answer those raucous calls for more and announce that in cooperation with Ozium Records, MMR will be giving Goatriders sophomore release, ‘Traveler’ the full Majestic Treatment this spring.
Presale information to come very soon and look out for their first video and single ‘Witches’ Walk’ next week on Friday the 13th!
Stoffe (Christofer Johansen/Vox) explains that “‘Traveler’ is the continuation of the journey started on our debut into the vast deserts of space; a deep dive into both the infinity of the universe and the shallowness of man. It’s a paradox of metaphor with inspirations split between interstellar space travel and witches gathering for black mass. The result being an explorative sonic experience drawing from the jam-rock vibes of 70’s prog and the harder riffs of modern stoner. To do this part of the journey with our friends at Majestic Mountain record feels great. MMR has grown to be a real powerhouse within the stoner and doom community, and to be picked up into their roster for this release means a lot. With Majestic on the road ahead, we hope to lure more souls into damnation trough our noisy jam-rock. Long story short- Grab your coven, let’s ride.
“After all this time Traveler is finally happening. And to be doing this together with not one, not two but three great friends is truly humbling. With a vinyl release by Majestic Mountain and Ozium, a Cd release by Ozium and a cassette release by Evil Noise. A lot more news, release dates and fun stuff will come in the coming weeks. It will be one hell of a trip.”
We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Ozium on this stellar release and to have Goatriders amongst the MMR crew. Unapologetically serving up their very own, special tincture of desert rock and space worship with a fierce DIY spirit and noisy jam-rock energy, the bluesy, desert fuzz vibe is strong with these guys and we’re pleased to announce the second coming of Goatriders with ‘Traveler.’
Posted in Questionnaire on March 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Stoffe from Goatriders
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I sing in a band called Goatriders and have been doing that since, well around 2018, I guess.
Goatriders have been around for quite some time, in a few different variations. I think Jimi, who plays bass, and Daniel, who plays drums, have been in the band since around 2015. Robin, who is actually Jimi’s brother, joined the band in 2019 to play guitar.
I come from a background of hardcore/punk and I have been in a few different bands either playing guitar or shouting but had been without a band for some time. I saw an ad on Facebook that a psychedelic, stoner jam-band was looking for a singer and was like “I hardly know anything about stoner-rock. I better throw them a dm!” After a few rehearsals I was asked to join and figured out a way that my singing-style would fit in what we tried to accomplish musically.
And then when Robin joined and took over on guitar we really had to start over and find a new way of writing songs. So ever since then the “jamming” has become a real essential part of our music. A lot of the songs we write we hardly know how they go. They can be constructed of one or maybe two riffs and then play around with the vibe and feeling of the riffs rather than counting how many times a verse goes. It is a real fun way of playing music together, but it can get really infuriating when you are recording or if someone in the band have really set idea of what should happen next in a song.
Describe your first musical memory.
Wow. My first musical memory… would probably be singing Christmas songs with my mom by the piano. When I was a kid me and her used to put on a mini Christmas-concert every Christmas. I hardly remember anything from my days as a young kid, but I do have a distinct memory of me and her singing “I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus”.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Without a doubt seeing The Chariot playing live at some random festival in Örebro, Sweden. The Chariot plays some kind of chaos-hardcore-metal-thing and I can hardly stand them on tape and really didn’t have that much interest going to that festival to begin with. But the guitarist in the band I played in was a huge fan and pretty much made everyone come along.
But they (The Chariot) killed it on stage. It was such a good vibe, good mosh, stagedives and the band was playing so tight it was almost humorous. But at the end of the concert their drummer stood up and pushed all his drums off stage into the crowd. And in a heartbeat, he had pulled them together again and finished the set sitting in the middle of the mosh pit beating his heart out on those drums.
After the set everyone in the band sat down on the edge of the stage and was talking with everyone in the crowd and was being super humble. It really set the tone of how I want to be and act as a live performer whenever I play my music.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Well, I’ve been Straight Edge for about 16 years. I know being SXE in the doom and stoner-community is not exactly kosher… But doing my military-service there was a lot of drinking and bullshit whenever we were on leave. So just that feeling of being a part of this really tightly knit crew and everyone, and I mean everyone was on my back about drinking a beer or tasting a shot. “Just one little beer won’t hurt”. But that whole experience being in my early twenties and standing by that promise. It really set the tone and cemented that this whole being sober thing is something that will last.
And just to make it clear, I don’t give a shit about other people’s personal choices, as long as they don’t hurt others, or they are made solely on the base of standing on others. So, if you want to smoke or drink or skip around the garden dressed as a goblin? You do you and I’ll do me.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Well hopefully to something more interesting… Since I’m a big fan of punk and hardcore I live by the creed that “the demo and the first 7inch is still be best thing they ever did”. So, I am a big fan of simplicity and “underproduction”. But that being said playing the same seven songs over and over takes its toll. I guess artistic progression makes it more fun to play together as a band and it makes it more interesting and challenging.
How do you define success?
Probably by happiness. I have no interest in working as a musician. Music for me is tightly knit with the feeling of joy and acting as a way to explore and express feelings and thoughts that otherwise would be hard to get in touch with. So, success would be the middle way of keeping music equally joyful for me and listenable for others.
If people are interested in what we do and want us to play music for them, maybe even asking us to come and play for them, I guess that would be success.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I’ve always worked with people, a long time, almost 17 years, I worked with people with mental illness or disabilities. Not going into any details I’ve seen my share of people not wanting to live. And that is without a doubt something I could be without.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Hard question… probably I would like to record something real that I’ve done completely on my own. With the help of some friends of course, since I can’t play drums for shit and don’t own any recording equipment. But I’d really like to do something on my own musically, just for the hell of it and to challenge myself in a way.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To be an outlet for the things this bullshit world throws at us. We walk around life being told what to feel and how to act. Art should question that… Art should make us look at ourselves and feel. It opens a gate to a lot of thing we otherwise would get in touch with.
Not all art of course. But sometimes you don’t need to get in touch with yourself, you just need to hear someone talk shit over a beat or something to keep you from falling asleep on a long drive home.
But the most essential function should be to open that gate and let us feel and explore thing that the world tells us not to.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Since I live in Sweden and it’s like the fucking artic right now. I’m looking forward to spring. I’m so over this snow and cold and wet socks every time you come inside and the fucking electrical bill going through the roof. No! Give me spring and nice weather so you can go outside and not freeze your ears off. I want to sit outside and drink coffee. I want the sun to stay up after five o’clock. Give. Me. SPRING!
