Interview Thu Mar 01 2012

Talking with Korallreven

By James Ziegenfus

Korallreven's simply titled debut album An Album by Korallreven is an exploration through Balearic pop and southern Pacific sounds in a dense yet ethereal electronic aesthetic that features Julianna Barwick and Victoria Bergsman (formerly of the Concretes, currently performing as Taken By Trees) guesting on vocals. The Swedish duo of Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder (also of the Radio Dept.) begin their first US tour that puts them at Schubas on Tuesday, the 6th. New York's Young Magic opens. Tom Krell (How To Dress Well) spins music before and after sets. The show starts at 8PM, is 18+ and $14. Gapers Block had a chance to chat with the gentlemen before they headed out on the road.

Gapers Block: This record sounds like it was very carefully constructed and details were meticulously pored over. Is it important to you if a listener gets a sense of how much work goes into making a record?

Marcus Joons: Thank you. Nah, I don't think it's about that, about showing off, it's more about how restless and easily bored we are and how we always seem to end up with ideas enough for at least two or three tracks in one track.

GB: On the other hand, the record is very easy to listen to. In my home, it's often played late in the evenings. How do you envision people listening to your music? Does it even matter, as long as they are?

MJ: It does not matter and I guess that all this has to do on which volume you play the record. If it's low I guess that it might feel like ten lullabies and if you play it louder, like when we play live, I hope that it will make you move or fall into trance.

GB: Daniel, what do you get out of playing in Korallreven that you don't get from the Radio Dept.?

Daniel Tjäder: It's hard to say because they are two quite different bands but let me put it like this: With The Radio Dept the goal has always been to make the best indie music ever, whereas for Korallreven we have settled for nothing less than making the best music.

GB: How did the collaborations with Victoria and Julianna come about?

MJ: Victoria is one of my dearest friends with one of the most beautiful voices this side of the universe. She really digged the tracks when I played them for her and it just felt natural that she should sing on them. And Julianna. I had a real dark summer last summer and the only thing that I could listen to to get rid of my black feelings was Julianna's vocal loops. It really calmed my fucked up thoughts. Then I went to see her live at a small place in Brooklyn and talked a bit with her afterwards. She seemed to be super lovely so I sent her a demo with "Sa Sa Samoa" and asked if she wanted to sing on it and she said yeah. Easy.

GB: This is Korallreven's first US tour. How do you approach touring? Are there different mindsets for different countries?

MJ: It's pretty much the same as when we go to our studio. We kinda hate to do things twice, to repeat ourselves - apart from our songs where we sometimes repeat and loop ourselves til we fall into trance with them. So, we see it as a playground for our world, where the songs develop into slightly new versions and where we will play our new stuff for the first time. It has, as everything else you do in life, to be inspiring, a couple of moves forward.

GB: Where do you go from here? What do you have planned for the followup to An Album by Korallreven?

MJ: It's gonna be faster, more trance-y and dance-y and at the same time more mantra-like. We're aways striving for the highest heights, not even sure the sky is the limit. Haha! Guess that it will see the light of day sometime in 2013.