Do you remember the moment you knew you wanted to be a musician?

The funny thing about my love for Elektron is that it sort of sums up my childhood musical longings. When I was about five years old, I made a synthesizer of my own, in junior shop class. It was made of wood, and you couldn't play it of course, but I have very fond memories of that instrument. Very DX7-ish. Looking back, synths and computers obviously occupied my imagination at an early age, and I like to think that's when my synth-based music began to form. I started making multi-track, musical collage, sequencer-based compositions much later when I finally got my first PC, with some wonderful time in-between with an Atari 1040 and a GEM keyboard. Today, each time I make a sixteen-note-grid pattern, I know it's something I longed for having the tools for. Now it's old news, from a tech point of view but really close to how I enjoy making music. I really took the long way around. I'm happy to be back in a simple, joyous place where I can do this. A song of mine usually has a lot of things happening, and a good few twists and turns, but I've started to move toward the tomato salad principle when composing.

Tomato salad?

You know, just tomato, olive oil, and salt. Perhaps some basil. It's different from the multitude of ingredients, the curry that I have been used to making so far. It's a completely new approach for me.

I've heard you say the Analog Keys is just like an acoustic guitar. What do you mean by that?

Well, I try to avoid acoustic guitars when I can, since my history with them, and that I often get mistaken for being a singer-songwriter. I do something different, and I most often label it jazz. I think what I meant was I consider it my campfire guitar if you will. The way I perform, the freedom of expression, just picking up an instrument and playing, those are all things I associate with my journey. My teenage idols were Esbjörn and Per Texas Johansson (I’m frequently playing with the latter these days, arm pinch!). Esbjörn never had set lists, and it wasn’t until quite recently I realized I should break that fan habit, in order to make my fellow musicians know the curve or parable of the concert, where to build and where to hold back. When it comes to approaching synthesizers, I'd say I prefer tweaking things live rather than preparing patches in advance. I save some of the more complex sounds I come up with, though. The Analog Keys is so much fun to use. Very quirky interface, but so rewarding.

You use the Octatrack a lot too, right?

Since last spring, I use the pickup machines extensively. It's such a joy to use live, and it's the mother of the umbilical cord that MIDI-connects me and Klabbe (from Klabbes Bank) whenever we play together. It's the centerpiece of almost all shows we play now.

Did you use the Elektrons a lot on your last album?

Let's see, I think I used the Analog Keys on Lilies, and there are these really lush, daft, fungal sounds on the second verse of Little Jacket, and there's that lovely Dark Light hidden bass sound, among others. Just the Keys, though. The Octatrack is such a new acquaintance, and I've so far only used it live, as a looper.

When did you first hear of Elektron?

I'm a child of the Commodore 64 age, and I remember reading about the Sidstation when that came out. I wish I had bought one right there and then, but I was into totally acoustic music in that era. I hear they're pretty much impossible to get, now. So I like to think the Analog Keys is my Sidstation! You know, just a few voices, analog and digital, warm noise generation, small screen, and things like that. I know the Keys is so much more, but just imagining it may have been inspired by the SID chip synthesizer warms my heart!

What's your favorite c64 tune?

The Delta title screen music. It had a profound impact on me. I’ve even used it as intro music before a show. Rob Hubbard did that, right?

Yeah. He was pretty inspired by the Philip Glass soundtrack to the experimental film called Koyaanisqatsi.

Really? I've collaborated with Nico Muhly, the protegé of Philip Glass.

Allegedly, you made your first album in a basement using just a MiniDisc recorder and a computer?

My first four and a half albums, actually! I was a traveling recording nomad in that era. With a bulky PC and super home-made peripherals. Those albums were recorded in about four different locations. I actually realize that goes for the new album too. Listening to them today, there are some sound issues, and there wasn't a lot of dynamics, but it was a very personal way of working that I profoundly enjoyed. I recorded everything in stereo with very little panning, the recorder had a nice normalization curve for the treble range and there was quite a bit of static. Back then, I liked to use Native Instruments FM7 soft synth, and I made good use of a Roland library that was called HQ, if I remember correctly, a whopping 300 megabytes of orchestral sounds! That was the deal, and I chucked everything into a cracked, early version of Cubase on my PC. Like everyone else did at the time. I think the companies making the software were very aware of the piracy situation, and perhaps even unofficially welcomed it. You know, it means people use it, like it, and eventually they will buy it.

You scored an art house film a few years back. Is that something you plan to return to?

Although my music may have some apparent cinematic qualities, I think it's a little bit too engaging, perhaps grabs your attention too much, in order to work as a background score. It works better accompanying end credits or on its own. Maybe the new tomato salad recipe will change that!

You're on a new label, Real World Records. Did you meet Peter Gabriel yet?

Sometimes the things that don't happen strike me as powerful in their own right. I was supposed to meet Peter the morning the same day as when I had my first meeting with Real World, but due to dire personal reasons he couldn’t be there. We've had some great conversations after that though.

Were you part of the c64 demo scene at all?

No, if I had had internet or if my local Jönköping library had Assembler guides I guess that would have happened. But I was greeted in a German Atari STE demo a couple of decades ago. That demo greet makes me just as proud as when Mr. Gabriel picked me up for his label. Maybe, at that point and age, and how it felt at that moment, that demo greet might have been an even greater high (laughs)!

Interview by Daniel Sterner
Photo by Daniel Grizelj