Interview with Svein of Röyksopp
Röyksopp.de: Let’s talk about the Understanding. It probably features about a hundred times more vocals then Melody A.M. did. How did you actually pick your fantastic vocalists like Kate Havnevik and Karen Dreijer? Svein: They were chosen carefully. It was a quite time-consuming process to find vocalists because obviously, Torbjörn and I both sing on the album ourselves and for the first time ever we are doing that, but there are some things we cannot possibly do with our voices. So if we made a song and we felt it should have a woman, obviously it would be a bit strange if we were to try that. So we wanted to find vocalists who have certain strong identities, and also people that could relate to the music the same way we do, and also just to avoid any kind of legal issue and to stay clear of marketing meetings all the time, we tried to stay clear of huge, already well-known names. I had known about The Knife for a long time and really liked Karen’s voice and we wanted to do something with her and we also knew about Chelonis from a track that we had done on Get Physical Records from earlier, and Kate showed up just by accident. We met, no, we heard her voice at an afterparty in New York , and thought “That’s an interesting voice”, and when the guy who played it said “She’s from Norway ”, we got even more interested. So we found out who she was and made contact. Luckily for us, all these three people wanted to work with us.
Röyksopp.de: Did you guys write the lyrics or who did?
Svein: It’s a mix. Some of the lyrics we have written exclusively, and some with the artists. “49%” has been written by us and Chelonis. “What else is there” has been written by us and Karen Dreijer. All the other tracks have been written by us.
Röyksopp.de: Considering you wrote so many lyrics, why aren’t they in the CD cover?
Svein: Actually, they are on the regular CD and vinyl, just not in the limited edition. For this mess we can only blame the label or whoever made this mess up. The good thing about the limited edition though are the 5 extra tracks that are included.
Röyksopp.de: About the extra tracks…apparently in a last minute action, you decided to exchange “Boys” for “Sombre Detune”. Why did that happen?
Svein: It had been an intention for a very long time to have “Sombre Detune” on the album, that’s what we wanted all along. At some point in the album-making process though, we wanted to try out to have “Boys” as the second instrumental song to leave some breathing space after just having “Only This Moment” and “49%” as tracks number 2 and 3, which are quite filled with information and vocals. We wanted to have a “breathing state” on the fourth track and we thought that “Boys” could be better than “Sombre Detune”. We tried it out for a few days and at that specific period the record company really wanted to make the Promo. So the Promo became the versions with “Boys” as track number 4. If anyone the promo then that is something special obviously. But it has always been the intention to have “Sombre Detune”. It’s just a coincidence that “Boys” was on the promo.
Röyksopp.de: Did you pick “Only this Moment” as the first single or did your record company?
Svein: We wanted to have the first single to have vocals that were sung by us both me and Torbjörn and also Kate by the way which was the case for “Only this Moment”. We could have gone for one of the other songs where we both sing but this time around when it came to choosing singles because if you look back at when we released Melody A.M. we were very focused on the running order and which single to release first just to display the different type of Röyksopp we were firm on the fact that we wanted “So Easy” to be the first single. When it came to this album obviously we are now part of a bigger EMI family. There are more territories that need to be taken into consideration which made us pay more attention to the people around have said. We want to cooperate and not be difficult. The general feedback from record companies really wanted “Only this Moment” I do understand why they chose this it might have a bigger commercial pop appeal. And we don’t want to be too difficult so we said “Ok. Fine. At least it had the criteria that we were singing.
Röyksopp.de: From the many entries from the www.royksopp.de and www.royksopp.net – I don’t even really know if you read those websites every once in a while – it seems that fans would like to see “What else is there”, “Alpha Male” or “Someone like Me” as one of the next singles. Would you make those wishes come true or I have heard that you have “49 %” or “Circuit Breaker” as your favourites?
Svein: Obviously, we made all the tracks so we like them all. The tracks that people usually mention, you know the feedback we get from travelling around the world and talking to people, the track that people most of the time mention will be “What else is there”, “49 %”, “Follow my Ruin”, “Circuit Breaker” and “Beautiful Day without You”. These are the singles or candidates. “Alpha Male” might be a little bit too long and might be too complex to do as a single. It can’t be played as a radio single. It is very hard for us to adjust it to the radio because we see that it might destroy some of it. So there are a lot of things to take in consideration. I believe that it is very likely that “What else is there” is going to be a single and it is quite likely that “49 %” is going to be a single but perhaps different in different territories. As far as Germany goes, I believe “What else is there” will be the next single. Other candidates for a single would be “Beautiful Day without you” and “Follow my ruin”, but we’ll see…
Röyksopp.de: If you are going to release “49 %” do you think the original “Don’t give up” version will be a B-Side?
Svein: I have heard that people asked about that. It’s not very likely to have that, no. I think that people have picked up on “Don’t give up” as we made it some years ago. Maybe they have to sort of treasure it and hold on to what ever kind of pirated material that’s out there because it is not very likely to have that because now we made “49 %” and we are quite pleased with it.
Röyksopp.de: Speaking of tracks that fans will be having a hard time to get hold of there are a lot more tracks that you have produced over the years, I am sure, not only for the album but also in between like “A special time of the year”. Will they ever be released because you can’t find them as pirated material either?
Svein: Well, we hope to, it’s a tricky one because some people or fans find that having rare copies like remixes that we have done and so on they find that very precious. At some point we thought about releasing a double CD containing some of the remixes that we have done for other artists, you know the remixes that we have done for the likes of Beck and Coldplay, The Streets and so on. And also having that on one CD and on the other CD having unreleased Röyksopp material from the time even before Melody A.M. and stuff that we have made but has not been released yet. Stuff that we are happy with but we couldn’t really fit on the album because it didn’t work in the album context. This is an idea that we haven been playing with but then again by compiling all these remixes that we have done for other artists might ruin something for collectors. So we don’t want to upset the fans but perhaps you can in this web forum just ask people what they think, should we compile the remixes that we have done and released them or should we stay clear of it?
Röyksopp.de: I’ll gladly do so. Because personally I think a lot of people would like to see a remix album one day. Then again I think you need more material for your Greatest Hits Album in two years. But let’s talk about the remixes. Supposedly you could produce a remix for the Pet Shop Boys. Is that true and if so why didn’t they materialize it?
Svein: There are so many different sorts of channels that information comes through – we get quite a lot of information either by our management or either by our record company. And at some point during that line the information might be distorted or changed a bit. The story that we have heard at some point was that the Pet Shop Boys wanted us to produce tracks or an album for them some years ago. We have also heard the same thing with Britney Spears as well and all those kind of things. But we didn’t have the time for it although we like these artists but you never know when you are asked, what’s the real truth is, is it either the record company people talking or is it actually the artists her-/himself asking.
Röyksopp.de: What other remixes if there are any are currently in the pipeline? Is there anything going to be released soon?
Svein: At the moment, since there is such a strong quality control on our music we haven’t dared to accept any remixes because we are quite busy touring and also doing promotion and so on. We don’t want to release bad remixes. At the moment we haven’t said “Yes” to any remixes. The only remixes that we have done recently are two versions of “Only this Moment”.
Röyksopp.de: In terms of touring the only announced gig we have found in Germany is at the “SonneMondSterne” Festival in August. Are there any more concerts going to be planned with you because I think you are becoming more and more popular you are even in the Top 5 of the iTunes download charts in Germany?
Svein: Ok, I didn’t even know that. That’s a good thing. We are hoping to come for touring. The summer pretty much is the Festival period and since we have decided to release our album in the summer we do a lot of promotion which does not really allow us to do long tours in more territories. But when autumn comes there will be a lot more time and we should definitely come to Germany and I believe that’s the case as well.
Röyksopp.de: Who was the girl who has joined you for your recent performances in the UK ?
Svein: The girl that is joining us now is called Jessie.
Röyksopp.de: Is she from Norway , too?
Svein: No, she is from the UK . She is from Brighton , I think. But she lives in London .
Röyksopp.de: You are known as perfectionists when it comes to productions. Are you planning to maybe try a upper CD or DVD or Dolby Surround like Jean Michael Jarre did recently?
Svein: We are not as old as Jean Michael Jarre. So we may have to save those kind of things for when we are a bit older. It might be interesting to do so but then again at the moment we are just saving these things for when we get older.
Röyksopp.de: You work with a lot of Norwegian artists like Annie or Kate Havnevik or Erlend Øye and I think on the Beck remix with Christine of Ephemera. Is there anyone else you would really like to work with for something special like to come up with a strange idea maybe a Christmas Album with Ephemera?
Svein: In terms of Norwegian Artists? Well, it would be nice to see..well…who could we do something with? If we do a Christmas Album we should go for the less expected artists, well, perhaps Turbonegro. Or maybe a medley, A-Ha vs. Röyksopp.
Röyksopp.de: That would definitely be something very special. Three years ago you were the opening act from Moby. Today, Moby could probably be your opening act. Besides your money and your bank accounts what else has really changed for you the most?
Svein: Well, it sounds like a cliché – but we haven’t changed at all. But obviously people’s perceptions of us have changed. That’s one of our ambitions to strive for to just maintain as we have always been. And luckily that’s what friends and family keep telling us that we are still the same people. I don’t think much has changed really. We are still the same people as we always have been. We might not be running around doing so many stupid things as we did before because now people will know who you are. It’s not that we run around drunk urinating anyway. But apart from that we try to live our lives as we have always done. But we eat a lot more chocolate then.
Röyksopp.de: For some of the fans you don’t really seem to appreciate your evolution. Some seem to want their dreamy, their spherical Röyksopp guys back, not the what they call it ‘commercial electro pop artists’. I don’t think you’ll ever turn back to the evolution but can they have some hope for maybe less vocal based tracks in the future?
Svein: For those people we can say that we appreciate that and they have to take into consideration that what we did with The Understanding is something that is important for us – we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We did Melody A.M. and luckily for us people appreciated it. But it is hard for us to do Melody A.M. all over again. But then again instrumental music is where we come from. That’s what we have always been doing. Singing and having this more lyrical approach is quite new to us and we just wanted to try it out. That king of curiosity is a very natural thing in human beings – that’s what brings us forward in many ways. But having said that, it might not necessarily be the path we stay on. Instrumental music will always be a part of Röyksopp and I am quite positive that we keep on making instrumental music for as long as we make music. We just like to combine certain things where we feel to say with words and certain things we need to say with sounds.
Röyksopp.de: Do any of the songs on The Understanding have a very special meaning to you? I mean, I understand they are all like children to you, but is there any song that you are particularly fond of?
Svein: We are fond of all of them but there are different things that we are fond of in the different tracks in terms of the story that has been told in the tracks. We are just happy about every one.
Röyksopp.de: Will you ever shave yourself again?
Svein: Yes, most definitely. When we went into the studio, I don’t know a year ago or so, we went into the studio and did not take our shavers with us. When we exited the studio, there was this long beard and hair. This has been cut and trimmed a bit. There’s quite a bit remaining and I am quite positive that it will all disappear by the fall.
Röyksopp.de: Last question…Where in Bergen do you actually live if you still live there? Or are you travelling around the world so much you don’t really get home so much anymore?
Svein: I live in the very center of Bergen , just behind the theatre. Torbjörn lives on the other side of the town but then again the city center is quite small so he lives about a 15 minute walk away from me and he lives close to the train station – it doesn’t really have a name.
