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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Emil Niklasson of Urtidsdjur

Posted in Questionnaire on September 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Emil Niklasson of Urtidsdjur (Photo by Adam Tonér)

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: Emil Niklasson of Urtidsdjur

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I am a member of a collective known as Urtidsdjur, a gathering of music nerds and audio wizards that walk this earth in hopes of making it more beautiful by creating music. In short we play music and has than this as Urtidsdjur since 2017. I played bass at first, but quickly we realized that I shouldn’t since it didn’t sound good. I have been playing music since my early teens and have done so in various different kinds of bands, ranging from Stoner rock to jazz and probably mostly everything in between. Since 2017 my focus is Urtidsdjur. We’re influenced by a lot of different things, Swedish bands and artists from the 1970s like Bo Hansson and Träd, Gräs och Stenar, mixed with Neil Young, Den Stora Vilan and Slowgold just to name a few. Last year we released a record that we recorded in a small chapel on the countryside of Sweden.

Describe your first musical memory.

The first musical memory that I come to think of is a memory from when I was very young, perhaps about five or six years old. I was riding with my father in his old black car, unfortunately I can’t recall which kind of car it was, on a late summer night. I must have been close to fall since it was dark and the stars were shining. I can’t recall where we had been or what we had done, all I remember is that we were riding in his black car, windows rolled down, surrounded by darkness and stars above us. We listened to Rory Gallagher’s brilliant album Public Enemy No. 1 and the music mixed with the sound of insects from the nearby bushes. It must have had a pretty strong impact on me since I still listen to this record today and I still think that it’s brilliant. I think that something about this started my interest in playing music.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

It’s hard to pick one musical memory that stands above the rest of them. Seeing Hellacopters doing their last gig at Debaser 2008 (yeah, they’re playing now again) was emotional since I have been listening to them since I was 14 years old. I saw Anna von Hausswolff in 2019 and it absolutely blew my mind. Playing a gig with Urtidsdjur with one of my legs in plaster, I had broken the leg while playing soccer, stands out as one of the more odd gigs I have done. Seeing Daniel Romano on a Sunday night in October 2017 together with only 20 other people in the crowd was really nice as well. I guess I can go on for a long time on this matter so I’ll just leave it here.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

It does happen every now and then, I try to stay open minded and humble and believe that what I consider to be true does not necessarily have to be what everybody else considers to be true. I am a firm believer in that either you win or you learn and if my beliefs turn out to be false, well then I have learnt something new. At the moment I can’t think of a certain moment or time when it happened but it does happen from time to time.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think that it leads to new ideas where one can explore the creating process from a broader perspective and thus leading to more refined art whether it is music, poetry or whatever. It’s a cliché but it fits well with the question, creating is a journey where one doesn’t know what it will end in.

How do you define success?

I think that I define success in many different ways, one is personal success. For example: I finish writing the songs that I’ve been trying to finish for long, I write lyrics that I feel captures what I’m trying to say with a certain song or that Urtidsdjur plays a show where everything fits perfectly. I feel success when playing music becomes an outer body experience and the music sort of just flows through you, you are not playing the music, you just deliver the music that has been there the whole time waiting to be played. I also feel success when someone comes up to me and says: Hey, I heard your music and I really like it. This means that something that we as Urtidsdjur has created has become important for someone else except for us.

Another way of defining success is collective success. For example: When Urtidsdjur finished recording and mixing our album or when we printed the sleeves for the vinyl ourselves. These two types of definitions are closely connected, it’s hard to ignore the importance of every member in a group and it’s hard to ignore that being in a group affects every member of the group.

One easy way of saying this is that every time something is accomplished, you have reached success. Some days it’s just about getting up and other days it can be about running several miles.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

One time when I was at Skatteverket, which is the Swedish IRS, and way before me in line there was a guy that looked a little nervous and slightly baffled. He did his errand, still looking as confused as before. When he walked out of the building he put on a horse head mask and walked away, I followed him for a few blocks but then he turned around a corner and I lost him. All that time he wore that horse head mask. To this day, I’m still thinking of it every now and then and trying to understand what really happened.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’ve been thinking of writing a book, I’ve had that same thought with me for a long time but haven’t done anything in terms of trying to write a script. I love to write, I guess that’s one of the reasons I write lyrics, so eventually I think that I will have to write a book just in order to get it out of my head.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I consider art to be fundamental to living, without art life would be very dull. Art makes us see things from more than just one perspective.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I’m really looking forward to seeing friends in person instead of “meeting” them through a screen. Now that more and more people are getting their COVID-19 vaccine it is, at least in Sweden, a bigger chance to start seeing people as we did before the Coronavirus.

https://facebook.com/urtidsdjur/
https://instagram.com/urtidsdjur
https://youtube.com/channel/UCKJjQ4UWAw86O05v2gSJpkg
https://urtidsdjur.bandcamp.com/
https://urtidsdjur.se/

Urtidsdjur, Urtidsdjur (2021)

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 47

Posted in Radio on November 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk show banner

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US as I write this post. The early morning thereof, to be more specific. There’s one voice break in this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal, and I cut it yesterday afternoon. I had just put The Pecan down for his afternoon nap and was in the process of getting dinner started (slow cooking) ahead of crashing out myself for about an hour.

The point of my telling you this? Maybe I wasn’t at my best.

Maybe I was a little harried, a little distracted, a little uh-oh-um. I did my best. I didn’t talk at all last time, so it seemed like a good idea at least to jump on and say thanks for listening and offer some setup for the second half of the show, which plays out in a succession of long, increasingly far-out cuts. But it’s not my best vocal work. Not gonna put it on my audition tape for KROQ.

Does KROQ still exist?

Anyway, I know it doesn’t matter, but still. Thank you for checking the show out if you do. For what it’s worth — plenty, to me — the playlist kicks ass.

If you tune in, I hope you enjoy. Thanks again.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.27.20

Samsara Blues Experiment End of Forever End of Forever*
Onségen Ensemble Stellar Fear*
Sun Crow Quest for Oblivion Black it Out*
VT1
Lykantropi Kom ta mig ut Tales to Be Told*
Urtidsdjur Vandringssång Urtidsdjur*
Murcielago Blues for the Red Lobster Casualties*
Switchblade Jesus Red Plains Death Hymns*
DVNE Omega Severer Omega Severer*
Dark Buddha Rising Sunyaga Mathreyata*
Morpholith Monocarp Null Dimensions*
Tomorr The 1001 Windows Village Tomorr*
Phog Hillside Whole Horse Both Barrels*

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 11 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

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