Where did you find those swell Legowelt Studio Sound Pack sounds? What equipment did you use?

These sounds are all from my personal library of samples that I've collected over the past 20 years. They're all samples, made by myself, ranging from the 90's when I used a Commodore Amiga, some really compressed bass drums and snare drums, and also some other samplers, like the Emax from E-mu, from the Emulator II, and from my AKAI collection. I just went through all the disks that I could find, cleaned them up a bit, and sent them to Elektron. I wanted the samples to sound kind of really crunchy. Old school. Yeah.

Elektron recently met Jesper Kyd (featured in this Talk), who talked about the musical influence of the C64 and Amiga demo scenes. Are these your roots as well?

Well, I wasn't part of any demo crew, I know some kids that were, but I was of course heavily into the Amiga, programming it, and also the Commodore 64. The Amiga was really the more amazing computer for me. I started making music on the Amiga, with the OctaMED software from Finland, like a lot of other producers did, I think. I still use the Amiga sometimes, for sequencing, or for using the internal 8-bit sampler.

Is that the OctaMED I see you using in the Sound Pack footage?

Yes. The OctaMED sequencer. It's my favorite music tracker. From 1992. You got it free with a magazine, back then. An Amiga magazine. A lot of artists started that way. That kickstarted a lot of careers, I think.

Do you think that had an impact on your way of making music? Is there a tracker mentality?

Certainly. I think the music will definitely be very different if you use, for example, Ableton. I use Ableton too, and other hardware sequencers, but the OctaMED is kind of blocky. You really have to program it. If you want to add a filter change or vibrato or pitch bend, you have to program it in hexadecimal code using the keys. Also, the way it cuts off the samples, because it has four channels, and they are basically monophonic, so you can do some weird stuff with the stops and starts and things like that. Then you have the classic tricks you can do, that were used by the Commodore 64 musicians, for example, using really fast arpeggios as the note changes to emulate chords. You guys made the Sidstation, so you know what I'm talking about! You can do that with OctaMED, too. And the 8-bit sound of the Amiga, not like chiptune 8-bit, but the samples were 8-bit so it's really crunchy and really well compressed. Even more so than an SB-12 from E-mu or anything like that.

I think the Amiga music scene also gave a fresh injection to the C64 music scene, which also started using samples a lot in the early nineties. Those were interesting times! When you compose using a tracker, does it mean you need to construct the whole track in your mind before you get cracking, as opposed to using Ableton, for example?

No, not really. It works in a linear way so you can just start jamming. Maybe even more on OctaMED. You can just start randomly jamming, because you just hit the keys and load up some samples and - of course you always have to think about how the track will be a little bit, I guess - no, on the contrary, you really don't have to think too much, because it works in patterns. It's basically the same as an old school hardware sequencer. You have to type in everything, but you still hear it when you type it in, and if you press record and play and just hit the keys, it will record that as well. It's not like it's extreme coding or anything.

I'm sure you've heard of the Overbridge technology that Elektron will be releasing? That means you will have a hardware sequencer that you can use in combination with your software sequencer for micro- as well as macro composition.

I've just heard the rumours. At first, I thought it would be just an editor or something. It's apparently much more!

Getting a sneak peek inside your studio, it's evident that it is very organic. It looks like you have living, breathing plants and living, breathing gear, interleaved, surrounding you. Can you describe the feeling you get when you enter your studio?

It's important for me, because I have to be there every day to make music. I don't really like clinical studios. I don't really get inspired by just a room with some synthesizers and a big screen. I'm in this position where I can have my whole house filled with synthesizers, and just turn to the living room and record there, on the couch. It's my life making music. It intervenes with my normal living room things like plants, paintings and furniture.

Who do you make music for? Do you make music primarily for your own sake, for the Man or for someone else entirely?

I make music for myself, to stay mentally healthy. I cannot do anything else. It's a living for me. It's my job. I also make music for the people who want to buy it. I's a question that really cannot be answered, because it's both ways. In the end, I make music for people who like it, but it's not like I will start making more commercial sounds just to sell more records or anything. I still have to like it myself. Yeah.

You're like the Pasolini of electronica. Or perhaps the Romero? Your work is bouncy, catchy and draws you in yet is also weird, eerie and haunting. Frankly, it's a weird mix. Alien and irresistible at the same time. Like the buxom Martian bombshell in Mars Attacks, if you've seen that scene. Do you believe in aliens?

I don't recall that scene. Regarding aliens, it's more like I hope they exist. It would be very depressing if humans were the only life form in the universe, it would be kind of sad, because we're pretty stupid. We don't have a clue yet how things really are. Yet, we make synthesizers. That's a positive thing.

According to the Pythagorean train of thought, the question itself is upside down. Where in the universe can we ever expect to find non-life? Who's to say that a growing mineral, a radio bursting planet like Jupiter or the seemingly free will of a spinning electron is not, in a sense, life?

The implications of quantum mechanics can also be regarded as life, perhaps? I have no conclusive answer to that, but it's an interesting thought!

If you could choose one piece of gear to send off with a transiting UFO, to show of the fun, excitement and creativity of humankind, what would it be?

Probably the Commodore Amiga. You can do so much with it. Paint, video, programming, music. It's such an interesting machine. Really one of the first, big, creative computers. I'd send that off with an UFO.

Please share one of your perfect moments as an artist on planet Earth.

I'm still waiting for that moment to happen.

You host a weekly show on Intergalactic FM. How far away off into interstellar space do you think your music has travelled since you began?

It is only transmitted on the Internet, so it hasn't really traveled far off into the universe at all.

Well, if it had been, it would have reached half way to the Oort cloud by now. Almost exactly a light year!

The nearest star system is four light years away.

You obviously have a keen interest in astronomy!

Of course! I'm going to Tenerife to do some stargazing this Friday. Apparently, it's the best view of the stars there is, up there on the mountain. It will be my first holiday in two years, actually.

Tell me a little bit about scoring the Skunk Ape film. Scoring seems particularly apt for you, your music evokes a lot of strange and fascinating imagery. Any more scoring on the horizon?

I was just working on it, when you called. What can I tell you about it? I'm using Ableton, because you can load video into it, and I use a bunch of synthesizers. I look at the images and improvise a little bit, using keys, scales and certain types of sounds, and colors of sound, that are eerie. First i do a rough sketch with the right mood, synch and tempo, then I fine-tune it and start working on the details. It's pretty cool! As for future scoring projects, there's a Scottish film, some more documentaries and a few other things. There's certainly going to be more work in that field, yeah.

Do you feel the time passed when a sound is percieved as exotic gets ever narrower? In that case, is it because new sounds are born at such an astonishing pace, or is our collective memory getting shorter?

Everything goes in cycles, and communications media go ever faster, so revivals of bygone eras also go faster in- and out of fashion again. But I think that in the end there will always be a scene for some new sounds. People have more freedom nowadays, what they can watch and listen to. With the Internet, everyone can listen to their own preferred music. They're going to choose what they want to listen to. It's all very positive, I think.

I'd like to discuss the track Norwegian Crack Dealer. Are you highlighting a social problem on the rise in the land of the fjords? Is it a tragic tale of the fruitless struggle of a traveling salesman, stuck in the wrong country?

There's nothing to tell about it, except that it sounded like a funny title! It's not based on any real-life event or anything. Most people won't think of crack dealers when they think of Norway.

Where do you like to dwell and draw inspiration from - the high and far-off past, the verity of the present or the vanishingly elusive future?

You always get inspiration from the past, of course. It's the luggage in your brain. Also, I'm inspired by what's happening now, when I look into my garden, when I listen to other music, when I read a book, when I travel somewhere, what the weather is like, the environment or other people. The whole thing.

Is it possible to eat an oliebol and use synths, software and samplers at the same time?

It would be a bad idea, unless you use a napkin or a fork. If you do, it's certainly possible. I've done that many times, especially around New Year's when the oliebols are in fashion.

Any words of advice to the people who will use the Legowelt Studio Sound Pack?

Do some weird shit with it!

Check out the Legowelt Studio Sound Pack here.

Interview by Daniel Sterner