Fever Ray – Interview – July 2009
By: Dickon Stone
I meet Karin Dreijer Andersson in a room adjacent to her dressing room. It feels a bit like a cell; a mirror, a desk, a sofa [on which she is seated] and a hard office chair [where I am sitting]. Nothing else. Stark grey walls; I think of her track ‘Concrete Walls’ and the harrowing atmospheric brain-fog it creates.
DS: Hello there, I’m just going to dive straight in, I hope you don’t mind.
FR: “No, not at all…”
Karin seems at ease, but gives of an air of precaution; she appears to have put on her ‘business face’.
DS: Cool, okay. Sweden is famous for a lot of things, but percussion wouldn’t necessarily be found anywhere near that list. What influenced your use of so much experimental beat orchestration on the record?
She takes a long contemplative moment before answering. And from here on end you can assume that the same thing happens each time I ask a question.
FR: “I was brought up with a lot of African pop music, a lot of jazz, and what you would call World music; its stuff I’ve been listening to since I was little. I think this was the first time I really programmed beats myself, for the full duration [of the album].”
DS: So they were programmed, rather than recorded in the studio?
FR: “Yes, they were from sample bank, not live.”
DS: You seem to tell fairytales through your lyrics, imaginative stories, talking about woods and moss etc. Were you exposed tomuch bizarre Swedish folklore as a child?
FR: “Oh it was everywhere in the ‘70’s; folklore, hippy stuff, flower-power; parents were into that. I think it’s very interesting as a contrast to everything else that is computerised now; nowadays. It’s so easy to forget about physical things - organic things - that we have no control of; cycles like nature, the seasons and the days of the weeks; things that go on and on by themselves… so I guess that’s interesting to explore when you work by computer.”
DS: Yes, there is a big juxtaposition of natural and processed/manufactured samples, synths, and altered vocals on the album…
FR: “That’s the good thing about working by computer, you can mix anything, and that’s the beauty of this tool; that it makes it possible to make this kind of music.”
DS: Fever Ray, as an entity, seems to be presented as this enigmatic character - a segment of your personality almost. Do you think that’s fair to say? Do you think that’s an image you want to portray on stage?
This time she takes a really nice long pause. I assume she hates me, but I think it may be more a case of classic Swedish minimalism; she finds the perfect words for the answers needed…
FR: “Well, I think of Fever Ray as a mental/emotional character that is able to develop, all the time. I work on its development, and work on the visual image with Andreas Nilsson [Director of a plethora of Fever Ray and The Knife videos]. He has also the stage show, and I discuss a lot with him about what Fever Ray really is and what it should look like. To me it’s something that is under construction, all the time; it’s something I can change very easily. It’s very fluid.”
DS: At the moment the whole thing feels quite shamanic…
FR: “Yes it has many ritual elements - especially in the live show; we have picked out nice folk elements from many different cultures, pictures we have seen, things we feel are interesting; we are trying to create something of our own.”
DS: There seems to be a great deal of Native American influence going on, and you quoted Tomahawk in several interviews as a band you have been listening to lately; they use a great deal of interesting percussion, particularly influenced by American Indian music. Would you say that this was also a big influence on Fever Ray?
FR: I think its more ritualism in general; when I was a kid I did read so many books about Native Americans, and I think it’s interesting when you start to listen to music like that; it’s very slow and monotone and repetitive, and it has many similarities with other ritualistic music if you look from culture to culture. To create that thing, that feeling, where music takes over you as a listener [as in traditional ritualistic music]; it makes it possible for you to dive into yourself, that’s something I wanted; for my music to somehow to capture myself and the listener.
DS: To be almost transcendental?
FR: [Laughs] That would be fantastic! For the live show our idea is that when you enter the room - we try to fill it with smoke, and with all the lights - we try to create some other kind of space to experience the music.
DS: So you think it goes beyond the music? To become some wholly encompassing experience?
FR: Well I think music is that anyway; it is something really BIG. And it can have those possibilities. In contrast to the organic though, I worked with lots of high tech equipment in the studio, and live there are lots of lasers; the contrast is important; it’s important to see what happens when those 2 worlds meet - the dynamics - I find it interesting to see what happens there.
DS: Listening to the album there seem to be some techno influences…
FR: “Yes of course, old Plastikman, which I really like; slow minimal techno. “
DS: Okay. Let’s talk Miami Vice, something which you frequently seem to quote as a huge influence.
FR: “I don’t find the connection between Miami Vice and my music strange..? The ‘80’s had lots of wild emotions, lots of colour; it is very exotic to us [Sweden the nation?]… warmth. [Karin looks away into space at this point. With no hint of sarcasm in her action… she genuinely seems to be daydreaming about “warmth”…] It is good that there are DVD box sets to watch in the winter…[she says without a hint of this being a joke].
DS: Did you watch it growing up?
FR: “Yes, I did, but now I watch it lots.”
[After a moment of silence, suddenly, for the first time since I arrive, Karin gets this glimmer in her eyes like a child being presented with a birthday cake].
“IT’S REALLY GOOD! It has another kind of tempo that you can’t find today; these long sections without dialogue, only with music… Really beautiful.”
DS: So do you think it’s these creative aspects of the show that had an impact on you? Miami Vice being famous for spending huge sums of money to incorporate tracks by artists such as Phil Collins and The Police into their scenes...
FR: “Yes, these very experimental sounds; strange percussion, delayed vocals etc. were a very big influence on me.”
DS: OK, we’ll stop talking about Miami Vice now! So. You’re a mum; since having kids has your approach to things changed? Fever Ray, as we have already discussed, feels so much more tied to the earth that your previous musical escapades. Mother is a key symbol in all kinds of folklore and shamanism, and you are an extremely strong female character on stage… is this a presence which has come about since having children?
FR: “It’s hard to say. It changes everything; your perspective on everything. It is big a shock, as you put someone else before yourself. Music-wise it pushes you to sort out your priorities; you want to do some things that are really meaningful… So I guess that’s the biggest thing. I do what I want to do, and I don’t do the stuff I don’t want to do.”
Far from weird, or overly kooky, Karin Dreijer Andersson just strikes me as really cool. She is delightfully normal, and obviously passionate about her music. And Miami Vice.
Artists in this article: Fever Ray, The Knife