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Blade runners

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11/14/2006 4:52:49 PM

You both seem to have a very strong connection to your Swedish heritage. How would you say that Swedish culture or natural enviornemt in Sweden has influenced your sound?
I think in our music we have kind of an exotic relationship with nature. I used to live in Stockholm and I would "exoticise" over nature, and created this image of the environment that can be found in Sweden, I guess with lots of forests, and mountains in the north. I often think about images like that in the music, it's quite New Age (laughs). One feeling that we often come back to is sort of a deserted feeling, a sound that’s very empty with no people, and that’s a feeling that you rarely find in pop music. Its more of a feeling you get from a lot of ambient techno music, very soundscape-ish. And a lot of this music comes from Canada, which, looks a lot like Sweden, so I don't know if they're a link but you could think of it like that. 

You seem somewhat uncomfortable with all the attention your music has brought. How have you dealt with that?
It has just grown with us becoming more successful, I think. In the beginning we never had a conscious plan or a thought-through image or anything. All the creative decisions and all the masks have just developed along with our work. For the first two albums we showed our faces in magazines, and then at the time we never thought we'd be successful. When we were releasing Deep Cuts in Sweden we just manufactured 1000 copies, which is pretty standard for an independent release there. And then we did these gymnastic pictures [press shots of the group in gymnasts’ clothes], and we didn’t think so much about the consequences. Then I started to be recognized in town, and I really didn’t like that. I felt really uncomfortable. And then we began to become a part of popular music in Sweden and work in that context, which is very different from where I come from. It's not so innovative and not so progressive. So we had to do something to make a stand from that. And also since Sweden is so small it think it’s really possible to change things.

So it began from your basic desire to not be in the spotlight.
Yes, and also politically, it feels very commercial to have a complete exploitation of yourself. I think everything is too much focused on personalities in the media rather than what someone actually does. I want to hear about their film, or their personality, or their book, not what they like to wear or whatever.

Do you find it amusing to have gotten so much attention for the fact that you don’t want any attention?
It has become so common to be in the spotlight and be completely exploited with no integrity, it's like what people think is normal. And I find that very weird. It seems like that's one of the reasons why people who get famous often get so bad at doing music. If you want to build a good society I don’t think the first thing you'd do is create celebrities. It seems politically strange.

So despite all this have you enjoyed the tour thus far.
Yeah, it's been very easy. We have a great artist that we really believe in, and he's with us all the time, we have a great crew, the tour company put together the best people, and they are great, its a very nice experience. Even though for us, we don't see the audience or hear the audience because we have this in-ear system. And I really like because otherwise I would get nervous. So it's kind of the same thing for us every time. But I like it, I have become an actor.


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