We’re taking a breather during the holidays. I hope you’ve been enjoying revisiting (or visiting for the first time) some of our best stories and photo galleries of 2013. Andrea E. Janda has been a spectacular edition to our staff. This originally ran on March 12 — TomD
OMN spoke with vocalist and songwriter Casper Clausen of Efterklang on the road in California as the band made their way to Joshua Tree National Park. Casper spoke about the new lineup of musicians for this tour, the filmmaking projects that accompany their albums, working with local Portland musicians and other collaborators from all over the world, the recording and songwriting process on their latest, Piramida, and other releases, some of the Efterklang’s favorite places in Portland, and what the band would do if music wasn’t their livelihoods.
Efterklang is a trio from Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of childhood friends Mads Brauer (electronics), Casper Clausen (vocals) and Rasmus Stolberg (bass). They have three previously acclaimed albums, Tripper (2004), Parades (2007) and Magic Chairs (2010). They were signed to the indie British label 4AD, and in September of 2012, they released their fourth studio album, Piramida. They also run a small, but prolific label Rumraket.
Piramida was the “conceptual catalyst” for the band to record a place album. It was drawn from sound samples recorded on Spitsbergen, an island and former Russian mining settlement of the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway and close to the North Pole. In August 2011, the trio visited this ghost town, which gave their fourth album its title, and recorded a collection of more than 1,000 sounds over a period of nine days.
With these manipulated sounds serving as the backbone, the band began writing the songs, incorporating traditional sonic and musical components, with contributions from Peter Broderick (violin), Earl Harvin (drums), Nils Frahm (piano), brass from the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, and a 70-piece girls’ choir.
Efterklang have become known for delivering amazing live performances, so don’t miss them this Wednesday, March 13th at the Doug Fir Lounge with openers Nightlands.
Besides your core trio of yourself, Mads Brauer and Rasmus Stolberg, can you tell me about the other three musicians accompanying you for these tour dates that are not the full orchestral performances?
Absolutely. On this tour we’re bringing an opera singer called Katinka Fogh Vindelev. She’s a Danish girl who joined the band half a year ago during the Sydney Opera concert we did there with the symphony orchestra. Then we have a Finnish drummer, Tatu Rönkkö that just joined in December—he’s amazing with a jazz background but was beating the drums too hard, so he ended up in our band. [Laughs] Then there’s a German guitar player, Martyn Heyne, who’s both singing and playing guitar. We’ve been collaborating with him occasionally in Berlin, where we met him, so he just joined in January. So it’s quite a fresh band.
Watch “The Ghost” performed by Efterklang and the Sydney Symphony in the Sydney Opera House:
Click here to view the embedded video.
How do you choose these American, or otherwise local, collaborators and performers from where ever you may be rather than say, selecting other Danes to play and tour with? I am thinking specifically of our own two Portland natives and siblings, Peter Broderick and Heather Woods Broderick. How do go about selecting these musicians?
I mean, we’ve been, over the years, traveling around the world and meeting a lot of people and also, moving. Mads and I moved to Berlin two years ago, so in all this kind of going around we meet not only musicians, but technicians. We met wonderful sound and light engineers while on this tour from Holland. We just kind of choose the people we like to work with and [people that] have the sort of same ideas of music and art as we do.
In the case of Peter and Heather, that happened quite randomly. It started with Peter. It was in the old MySpace days [chuckles] and Peter was writing us, that he liked our music, and I listened to his music and also was very much in love with what he did. And then at some point we needed a violin player. We were living in Copenhagen, and we thought: “Why don’t we just ask if he feels like moving?” He was very young at that time, and then he moved and joined the band and afterwards, we learned about Heather. I think that’s been sort of the story for many collaborations in Efterklang: One person leads to the next one.
On the new record, we’ve been collaborating with Nils Frahm, which is a friend of Peter’s, in Italy. People think it’s a global thing, and that’s the nice thing about music, it is a global thing. It doesn’t need to be Danes, or from a specific country—it can be anyone.
With your previous release, Magic Chairs, you worked with Vincent Moon on the film An Island, and now your latest, Piramida, has an accompanying film, Ghosts of Piramida by Andreas Koefoed. Are you planning on continuing these filmmaking projects as a way of looking behind the scenes into the inspiration of the music?
I think it’s a nice way for us to distract ourselves a bit, and also to look at the music through a different lens—as an object in a way. Seeing the music react with people and also the other way around, being involved with film allows us to look at music in a different way. We’ve been heavily inspired every time with both of the projects; it really inspires us quite a bit.
The An Island film was pretty much the biggest inspiration to go to Piramida. There’s one of the first scenes in the movie where we go to an abandoned barn. That whole experiment led us to come up with the idea to go to a place and make an album, which ended up being Piramida. So these projects, I can definitely see us doing more of these things, maybe even more tied together. It’s very inspiring to work within this playground of pictures and music. It becomes a completely different thing in the end. None of us are filmmakers so we really have to collaborate with people and that’s great. We always like collaborating and we always like to see the challenge turning into something we could not have come up with ourselves.
Watch the trailer for Ghosts of Piramida:
Click here to view the embedded video.
I really like the idea of releasing these films as private or public screenings that your fans essentially sign up for and play in local venues or in their home with friends gathered. What was the thought behind distributing your films this way?
Well, I think it started with An Island. Rasmus was sitting and trying to figure out how to release this film and wasn’t really sure. We had no experience with how to release a film—we knew that most films were going to festivals, but how to get them on festivals? So, [the idea grew] out of being a little puzzled about the whole thing. We were also not so keen about releasing it online as a free thing because it sometimes gets lost in the big ocean of amazing stuff. But because there’s so much, sometimes, when you just make things available right away, it gets lost, basically.
Rasmus was thinking and thinking and he came up with this idea of making people screen the movie in their home and connecting an event to the whole thing, which, suddenly, with An Island, people really loved that idea. We ended up having 1,300 or 1,400 screenings around the world and we got all these amazing photos from people screening it.
So, we continued that with Piramida and the same thing is happening this time. People really seem to love the idea of not only just watching a film by us, but also for the host to be involved with their favorite band, or with a band they like. And that’s just really wonderful to see that kind of collaboration between us and the fans coming about.
I wanted to ask you about the selection of samples from your trip to Piramida. There are a lot of amazing layers on Piramida; the sound of metal spikes being struck on the first track, “Hollow Mountain”; the quavering piano note on “Apples”; the percussion of Rasmus running on the boardwalk opening “Dreams Today”; the fuel tank and grand piano melding on “Sedna”; the glass lamp tones on “Told To Be Fine.”
And then there’s this part at the end of “The Ghost” where the vocals bounce off each other in high and low tones and some electronics that begin to sound like the call ofseagulls from the abandoned island.
I think what you were referring to there at the end of “The Ghost” is actually more like an imitation—it’s not actually sounds from the seagulls but you could say, sounds that have been emulated from the sound of seagulls. So, that’s very well put.
Yeah, they kind of creep in there! I just noticed that there’s a lot besides the actual sounds that you’ve recorded. Vocally, I hear a lot of these intonations that sound like the island. Did you set out each day to discover these sounds, or was it random and organic? It all looks very playful and less planned in the film. What were your days like doing that?
We did kind of started off with a blank sheet—we had no idea what would grow out of it. We had no songs written. We knew about Piramida from seeing pictures of the place and had a few descriptions of the whole thing, but didn’t know too much about it. So, we actually just went up there with microphones, Gore-Tex clothes, and a Russian guard to protect us against polar bears.
[Laughs]
It’s actually funny to go back—we just had a project in Copenhagen where we were asked to do a concert with sort of the real, raw material of what we picked up, up there.
We found some quite funny clips of us on the first days, really not exactly knowing what to do, where to start, how to record a sound—all the logistics around how to have an agenda. You can collect a lot of sounds, so how do you make a system while recording it, to archive the sounds and remember where they went, different kinds of ways of getting the same thing at different volumes and so on? It was a lot of trial and error and figuring things out. We started out one way and we figured out after a while it would be nice with a different microphone setup, one that has a little more closed and dry sound than one that will record more ambient sounds.
Watch “Hollow Mountain,” the opening song of Efterklang’s fourth album, Piramida:
Click here to view the embedded video.
What was interesting to do… I think in the beginning we just hit things, basically—record things by hitting them with the idea of making more. We also had an iPhone with us where we could have a tempo, a click, so we could play small sequences, that we could loop when we got back. The first song, “Hollow Mountain,” has this beginning which is purely played from a click. [See the “instrument” Casper is referring to on Efterklang’s blog.] Then you have the running on the bridge—I would have the same click in my ear and a microphone.
Again, you would have not really a song, but an indication of something that could become something. We didn’t exactly know what to put on top, but we would make and put these small seeds in the ground so that when we got back we would try and figure out by memory, which of them we remembered the best, the ones that, in a way, were speaking to us afterwards and then trying to find those recordings instead of trying to archive the whole thing.
Sounds like you’ll have to do some outtakes from Ghosts of Piramida with all that material!
Yeah. No, we did actually! We did a concert during the Frost Festival in Copenhagen where we performed on this huge diesel motor, one of the biggest in the world at some point, and we were airing new material.
Efterklang performing at DieselHouse on a 1,400-ton diesel engine in Copenhagen:
Click here to view the embedded video.
Tell me about some of the songs that didn’t make the new album, the ones you played at DieselHouse in Copenhagen. Are you planning to release them on an EP and are you performing any of them on this tour?
It’s interesting with these songs, because in the fall, we decided that we wanted to work on them in January and turn them into an EP, but somehow a lot of things got in the way. We initially started working on them as songs for the concert, and then we did the concert and it seemed like those songs had just been turned into a nice collection. We’ve been playing a few on this US tour, just trying it out, throwing them in the set once in a while, because they’re three-piece songs so it’s only the three of us playing them and adds a nice dynamic.
But, it’s also nice to have some songs that are not necessarily documented and put out. We can bounce them around a bit and see. At some point, it would be nice to get them on some kind of release. Also, Mads at the the beginning of this concert in Copenhagen, he would do 10 or 15 minutes with only him taking sounds from up there and turning them into an audio piece. It was just wonderful. Really different from what people expect from an Efterklang concert.
I think it adds a new chapter to Efterklang and also something that definitely points forward in many ways.
I wanted to ask you about how you collaborate as a trio. Not that I expect you to speak for them, but as childhood friends and band members, Mads seems like a quiet, sonic scientist of soundscapes and songcraft—he does a lot of writing, as you do yourself. It feels like your melodies, singing and narratives are more prominent and pop-structured here on Piramida than on previous recordings. I’ve seen where Rasmus kind of shies away from questions about lyrics and songwriting, since that appears to be you and Mads domain, but I wonder if you would talk about how you all work together while creating music. Is there a starting point, a melody, some words, an image, a theme, a sample? How does it all come together with the three of you working?
Usually it starts, even before we did the Piramida album, with sounds and small sequences—maybe a chord structure on the piano, or a beat on drums, or a little electronic thing that Mads would come up with. And that would kind of grow. We’d add a piece, a few things to it, develop it along the way, sort of build upon it until we had something that we would acknowledge: “This sounds like a song.” I usually sing on top of it as an element in the music. I don’t really sing any lyrics; I’m more trying to figure out what phrasing I like. Sometimes, there would be this subconscious thing coming out of the mouth. This recording would then go on through the whole process of the album making or song making. It usually takes a long time.
So, even half a year later, I would sit and listen back to the first recording and I’m trying to figure out what I’m saying in a way: Are there some words that speak to me? Are there some phrases? Usually there is something to hang onto. Sometimes it can be really hard. But usually I think the songs that come out feeling best, that most of us feel best with, have some kind of direction already in them. And then we try to figure out, feel them out, and find a theme—something to work around. It’s quite an abstract way of working but I kind of like it that way. It allows the freedom to drift away.
At the same time, you can really break through and add something we’ve been working on lately and try to be a little bit more clear at points. It has a great effect and is something we’ve been trying to voice for a long time. Now, I find it interesting that sometimes out of abstraction there’s a lyrical line that cuts through and we’ll hang onto, maybe, and use in our way.
It’s definitely still not a “verse, chorus, verse,” the way you all write. It’s more like a movement, with this symphonic kind of thing about it, while still being from that abstract place. Maybe it’s taken a little more shape here on Piramida, but it moves different than your average song.
Yeah, I think structure wise, a lot of things are definitely becoming… much more in the direction of a conventional kind of songwriting. I still think it’s one thing that struck me every time we try to make music. On Magic Chairs, we were really trying as an experiment to see what happens if we put it into this classic song structure—a verse and three choruses and so on, which was an interesting take, but it’s not a natural thing inside us, that’s for sure.
Every time we hit that third chorus, there’s something that… [laughs] that is inside us that doesn’t really want to go into it or wants us to go somewhere else. For us, it’s interesting to challenge ourselves in the way of writing music. That can mean getting inspiration or actually copying structures from other people’s music and trying it for ourselves.
I think we believe quite strongly that however we’re going to put this music in any kind of frame, it’s still going to contain a good bit of ourselves. It’s interesting to challenge and to see what is left of ourselves each time.
Now for the random life question: It seems like music has been something you’ve done since grade school. What other work—good or bad, boring or exciting—have you done in the past before music became your career? What path do you imagine you would have taken if music wasn’t what you did full time?
Oh, we could have been loads of stuff. I imagine Mads would be amazing—teach computer science or something like that. I know the kind of guy Rasmus is, working with music has been his passion. He has so many skills, of course, practically, managing, being able to conduct projects—I can see him in many different directions. For myself, I think I grew up, first of all, wanting to be like a sports star [laughs] playing football.
Really?! [Laughs]
Yeah. [Laughs] I also had an idea of being a cook at some point. That’s something I can definitely cross off the board. I’ll never be a cook. I like eating—I love eating great food, but cooking is not my calling or my special skill.
You know, sometimes you stumble upon a shop, like you walk into a music shop or a café, and I realize that music is such a special profession. I have these nightmares once in awhile, where, [I think]: What would happen if tomorrow, nobody wants to listen to our music anymore? What would I do? [Laughs] So, you sometimes ask yourself the question: What could I do?
I think, now, sitting here visiting California, looking out the window… maybe I’d open a café or bar selling microwave dinners, having some instruments on the wall that people could buy, maybe make some wine on the side.
Perfect! So, you’ve been to Portland a few times and to the Doug Fir Lounge. Are they any places here you like to go to or plan to revisit?
Well, we’ve been buying quite a few things from Trade Up Music. I think ever since the very first time we came to Portland, we’ve always paid that music shop a visit, so we’ll probably go there again. It’s quite easy for us to relate. We spent about a week in Portland three or four years ago as we were starting off a US tour. It’s probably the city where we’ve been spending the most time. Rasmus and his wife spent three months there about two years ago.
And it’s quite an easy town for us to relate to—it has all the stuff that we like. Good quality food and drinks, a lot of musicians, and people doing interesting things. Having lived in Copenhagen, it has a lot of similar values and ideas.
But maybe this time I’d love to visit The Farm Café restaurant. I’ve wanted to go there many times, but it’s always been completely full, so maybe this time will be my chance.
Piramida feels like a culmination of the Efterklang trio in ambition, in visuals, in recording, and in remembrance and reverberation of a place. Where do you suppose you will go next musically? Are there any new ideas or compositions forming out of the leftovers or a new direction completely?
It’s really quite an open field for us, which is exciting and at the same time, also a little confusing at the moment. As we were speaking at the beginning of the interview, there’s the whole film direction that seems intriguing to us. Maybe trying to integrate the music even more. There’s talk of an opera, more as a sidekick to a classical composer, which is also exciting.
And then I don’t know how many people we haven’t met that have been sending us suggestions for abandoned places around the world to make an album. [Laughs] Our parents even got into it—they tell us every time we’re home, “Oh we found this amazing old house, you should go there and make some music!” So, there’s plenty of options.
Also, we have an idea of going onto boats. We also have an interest in a brain project. We have a friend who is a scientist and is into the studies of the creative brain and how it works with ideas. It’s something that is completely new to us.
We have a lot of projects and exciting things to get involved in, and I have a feeling we’re looking for the real big fish, as David Lynch would say. So we’ll try a few things and see if the big idea is coming up—which will hopefully lead us somewhere exciting.
Efterklang plays the Doug Fir Lounge on Wednesday, March 13th with openers Nightlands. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
The post OMN’S Best of 2013: Echoes and reverberations of ‘Piramida’: A Q/A with Casper Clausen of Efterklang appeared first on Oregon Music News.