To start, how many people play in Pluxus?
Three people. Itıs me and Björn and itıs Adam.
When did you guys start playing together?
Thatıs a question weıve argued about a bit. Me and Adam played together, I think we started like 95, but Björn joined about 96.
Was it always Pluxus, or did you play different music then?
No, we had like a crappy pop band or something. We had like guitars, but we were too crappy so we couldnıt play. We never did any songs or anything, a lot of plans, but nothing worked at all. Then I bought a synthesizer. We started like, okay this is much greater. Then someone bought another synthesizer and something went wrong. Now we have lots of synthesizers and no guitars.
Whatıs your favorite synth then?
I donıt know. We have many favorites, like the animal synthesizer. Thatıs our favorite. Itıs an old Yamaha with animal sounds. Itıs basically an old solo synthesizer from the seventies, but itıs great because the only sounds are like, ³baaa² and ³meow². It sounds a bit like that, ³meeoow.² So we use like a solo synth, but itıs great because it has banging and meowing inside of it. They built some kind of farm inside of it.
Do you have any drum machines or samplers?
We have live drumming too sometimes. Not with drums, but with electronic percussion. We make drums out of synthesizers. Weıd like to have live drumming with real drums, but we have a studio in an ordinary building. So we canıt because the neighbors would be quite angry if we started at 11:00 or something. We always like the drum sounds of all the 70ıs moog albums. Those records where it sounds like someone put a microphone under pillow or something and then recorded the drums.
Like those Kinglsey records?
Yeah, exactly. They have very strange drum sounds on like Perry and Kingsley records. It sounds like someone playing drums under water, or recorded it through a pillow or something. Strange drum sounds. They didnıt really care about the drums. It was like, okay we have a beat, now lets find the perfect synthesizer sound. They put all the effort into finding the right synthesizer sound and the drums is just the pulse.
Is your studio at home?
No, when we started we recorded in my apartment, so basically the whole record Fas 2 is recorded in my apartment, with head phones, on a basic four-track. That one is not really recorded in the studio at all, but we have tried to make our own studio. We bought a sixteen track and a new mixer because the old one was like eight channels. When we play live, we play live for real, with drum machines and stuff, no sampling and sequencing. And that makes it quite hard when you have an eight channel mixer. We had like twelve synthesizers with us, so we had to pull out the plugs and put a new one in. Thatıs not very good. It doesnıt look so professional. Then someone always forgets to pull their plug, so you start playing without having any sound. We had a few chaotic live gigs where nothing really worked at all. Itıs quite strange because when you drink three beers or more then you donıt remember anything at all. You think you will be like, well now Iım sharp. But then you come on stage and itıs just like, ³Well Sebastian didnıt you promise to pull that plug?² I donıt know. I didnıt remember that. ³Did you tune your synthesizer? It sounded like crap.² Oh, I didnıt do that.
So do you guys play out live much?
No. Last year, or this summer we had a few live gigs, but we released our full length album (this is also very strange) and suddenly no one wanted us to play live at all. I donıt know why. Sweden is a quite strange country, especially Stockholm. We donıt have many places to play live, not many small stages. Itıs quite a small city anyway. This makes it quite hard, especially for a band playing electronic music. Stockholm is still a rock and roll town. So like, MC5 and The Stooges, ³Yeah! Wow!² [in rock voice] with a lot of distortion. Or itıs like crappy techno and house, but they donıt play live. Theyıre just playing records or something. I think the interest for Pluxus is quite small in Stockholm.
Yeah, I think thatıs a common problem. Portland is a rock town too, but weıre trying to change that.
Itıs very strange, but still weıre quite happy because I think weıve conquered a bit of the rock and roll land. When we play live we have a small viscous plan. All the rock and roll bands have so much energy live. You should have no T-shirt at all and just some leather pants and then scream and be so energetic. So we have the same plan. We always have one small thing that should be the rock and roll thing. So we have maybe some percussion thing that you can smash on someoneıs head or something. It never works because weıre not rock and roll at all anyway. It just looks extremely silly. It looks like Kraftwerk trying o be hard or something. You can never be rock and roll with synthesizers, itıs very strange. But I think the rock and roll people donıt like us anyway.
So you find yourself falling between the cracks of techno and rock, and donıt fit into any scene out there?
We have a few good bands. We also have a very strange climate when it comes to record companies and stuff. We have big exports like Roxette and Cardigans. Everybody knows Cardigans and all the Japanese people come here. The record companies in Sweden are not interested in any small groups at all because they just want to make as much money as possible. We have one ministry in Sweden giving money to bands being like Swedenıs greatest exports. They treat music like a commodity. Itıs very strange, we donıt have many good small indie labels, or big labels at all. Iım sorry, did I answer your question at all? Iım starting to be a bit more clear in the head. I was up playing Playstation all night yesterday. I feel very strange.
Did you get a new game?
No, Iım playing an old one that I stole from my work. I hate my work so much I started stealing. Iım very honest, if I find a wallet with like 200 Swedish crowns and a bus ticket I just go, ³Oh, whoıs wallet is this?² But this work is so horrible that I started stealing. It turned me into a very mean and viscous person.
Whatıs your job?
Iıve always worked at... I donıt know the English word, but I work in the warehouse basically in a big shopping mall in Sweden. People that work at warehouse in Sweden are either Finnish or theyıre stupid. You can be both Finnish and stupid and alcoholic. Iıve worked at warehouses my whole life, from when I was fifteen until now. Now Iım studying, thank god. I think warehouses are probably the crappiest job you can ever have.
What are you studying?
Iım going to be a teacher. Iıve studied a lot of different things, then I realized I wonıt get an education at all if I just keep doing this. Like studying art, then you study ancient Greece, then something else, and I realized that I canıt keep on doing this forever. I would be 45 and still work around that. We have a few guys at the University, 50 year old men still studying since the 60ıs until now. So I realized, whatıs the thing I could do? I decided to be a teacher. People find that quite hard to believe. ³What a teacher? Are you sure? No, youıre kidding.² Yes. In Sweden teachers have bad payment, so Iım back again at a job with bad payment, but not as bad as a warehouse. How old are you? I sound like an old man talking, but Iım twenty two.
Who drew the cover of the cover on the CD?
Itıs Björnıs, motherıs brother or something. Itıs an old man. He made music or sound effects for a Swedish cartoon called Bamse. (Do you know Bamse? Itıs like the worldıs strongest bear. He has honey, like dunder honey and he gets extremely strong. Itıs like Pippy [Longstocking]. You know the character? Sheıs the worldıs strongest girl, she lifts her horse and stuff. I donıt know, we have some kind of hang up in Sweden for extremely strong, strange characters. Bamse is also one of them, a strong bear.) He recorded sound effects for that cartoon. Itıs old, I think itıs 70ıs stuff. He had a special style because he also drew the cover of the 7² single. That 7² is out of print now. We thought it would fit quite well into the Pluxus thing. I usually say the Pluxus thingı because itıs very hard to explain in an interview, especially in English if youıre crappy. Anyway, we have like a special Pluxus feeling, because when weıre together, me Adam and Björn we make special jokes and talk about special things. We have a few things that we three think is extremely funny and no one thinks is funny at all. People go, ³Uh huh, whatıs so funny about that?² but we could laugh for an hour because we have discussed so much these things in the studio when weıre not recording. We have all our names in Swedish but quite often itıs things we have discussed, laughed about and talked about, phenomena and stuff. So thatıs why itıs easier for us to use Swedish words. Theyıre a lot of nonsense words too that we make up.
Is Pluxus a word that you made up too?
No, I donıt know. Like I said before, when I was [around twenty] I was interested in art, but I think probably I sat around and read about the Fluxus movement, and was quite into that kind of thing before. I liked how you pronounced the word Fluxus, but you canıt name a band Fluxus, so we put a P instead. Itıs nothing to do with Fluxus. Itıs just a word with a P, but it doesnıt have any meaning at all.
Do you write your songs together in the studio or do you sometimes bring parts separately?
Maybe Adam sometimes comes up with a thing at home and then brings a song, like a chord, but no one else owns a synthesizer at home. I live near the studio, but itıs basically an old bicycle garage. It sounds so flashy. We go there and start talking and laughing, because we donıt see each other so often. Then we start trying to play something until someone comes up with a good thing, or Adam has a good thing already and we start to make something out of it. Itıs basically improvisation the whole time. We just sit around, do things and feel, ³okay,² and then suddenly, ³Oh man this is great!² and we record. Sometimes we record even though itıs scrappy or not so great. Before we had the sixteen track we didnıt care at all, we just recorded everything. You can imagine, when you try to improvise, because we also had one rule that we should play everything together. Many of the songs on the Fas2 album is two or three channels. When we had a four-track we just recorded everything on one channel, then we put maybe one overdub or two overdubs.
You record this way so that it has more of a live feel?
Yeah, exactly. Now we have sixteen tracks and we record everything live, but into different channels. Thatıs easier. I think we have like 100 of those four track tapes with recordings that we couldnıt use. We have at least 50 tapes with music and probably 15 songs which are extremely great, but we canıt use them because thereıs always some bastard doing something wrong. We canıt re-record them because maybe we have done some extremely nice drum pattern and no one knows how we did it. Or we have the Doppler playing something, the new German modular synthesizer. Itıs just like hell... If you have a nice sound you record it immediately because you will never find it again.
Is it easy to find old synthesizers there?
Weıve been lucky. Back in the 70ıs and 60ıs I think Sweden was a quite wealthy country and it made people wealthy and people could buy synthesizers. So thereıs a lot of synthesizers around. But then the techno boom was quite hard here too. I think when we werenıt into synthesizers, like when I bought my first one, we were like, ³Oh my god, Iıll never have that cool synthesizer!² But after a while you realize that you will always find one. You will always find a new cool synthesizer, when you least expect it. Youıre just, ³I have no money today. Iım so broke and I will be broke for two months.² And then you walk into the local music store and hello, there it is. You think oh my god, I gotta have that synthesizer! We have a special paper called the Yellow Paper, where thereıs all the private ads and thereıs a synthesizer section. You can find things there. Weıve been quite lucky. Sometimes weıve bought stuff that we donıt know what it is. But you buy it anyway and then you realize after a year that itıs the greatest thing you ever bought. You didnıt realize it then, you come home and start regretting yourself. ³Oh no, why did I buy this, itıs too expensive.² I have one thing I regret a little bit. Not because itıs a crap thing because itıs the coolest thing I ever bought, but I will never use it probably. Itıs my Casio midi-saxophone. Thatıs probably the most un-sexy thing you can have live. Itıs great. Imagine yourself, you walk out and then you pick up your midi saxophone and you start playing like elf sounds. Itıs only Casio sounds too, so it sounds extremely crappy. Itıs silver and they really tried to make it look like a real saxophone. I think I regret that because I payed 1000 crowns for it or something. Thatıs a bit too much. Iıve done many stupid things. I regret that we started playing electronic music at all. Because if you play guitar music you can buy like five guitars, but you cannot buy like 1000 guitars. When you play synthesizer music, especially if youıre interested in old stuff and analog, then you can buy one million things. I can get depressed sometimes when I think about stupid people in Sweden owning great things and they donıt use it at all. We used to discuss that you can probably make something good out of a 303-2 even though itıs the most boring synthesizer ever, and puking over all the crappy studios in Sweden having great things and not using them right.
Every time you get something new you have to discover all the nuances of what it does, so that takes time too.
Yeah, exactly. We have a lot of synthesizers so I donıt think weıve learned anyway. Itıs not so much learning everything about the synthesizers, but using it in a proper way. Itıs like your brotherıs record [E*Vax Glacial Sports 7²]. He had very nice sounds. We talked about that, me and Björn. I donıt know what kind of synthesizer he used, but I thought it was like an ARP Odyssey or something. I donıt know, I got that feeling because we have one too. I listen to the record and in the ending of the song thereıs a very strange sound and it plays a nice melody. I like that melody a lot and it sounds a bit like an ARP Odyssey. I canıt remember what it is right now.
Iıve never seen it in person.
Okay, how come?
Because he lives on the other side of the country.
Oh yeah, thatıs America. Itıs huge. Iıve never been to America. We had a guy from Switzerland that came because we had a Swedish synthesizer. I think there only exists like two of them in the whole world, itıs like an old modular system. Itıs hard to explain how it looked, on the floor like bricks or something. Itıs very strange, looked quite nice, but it was broken and we couldnıt fix it. So he came from Switzerland because he had a synthesizer museum. He came to us with an EML-101. So we traded the broken synthesizer for an EML. I think in the U.S. the EML is more common than in Sweden. But he flew from Switzerland with a synthesizer and when he flew back he had five synthesizers. Donıt ask me, because heıs as thin as I am and probably 190 long. I donıt know how could he carry five synthesizers. He emailed me afterwards and said he had 60 kilos. Thatıs a strange guy, he was into skateboarding too and he was in the forest. So you meet kind of strange people when youıre into that kind of business. I think itıs something sexual too, you know with synthesizers, something perverse.
Isnıt the Nord made in Sweden too?
Yeah, but is it good? Iıve havenıt played the Nord. Weıre so bitter about the new synthesizers trying to sound like analog synthesizers, then we think on paper it sounds great. But if it is as great as an ordinary modular system then I donıt want to play music any more because you lose the effort. It takes effort to find the modular system. Itıs a bit like record collectors. In Sweden itıs called ³unken². (A word you normally use about something that has a rotten smell). I smell bad when I say it, that kind of thing. Itıs like a record collector telling everyone itıs a good record because itıs hard to find. You work in a record store so you know because youıve met those people. Yes, if itıs limited to 300 theyıll buy two. But if they pressed 2000 they wonıt buy it. Is 2000 a lot? The Pluxus is 1000, but itıs not limited. 1000 is pretty normal for an independent release. Yeah, weıve sold almost all of it, so Iım very surprised. We never realized it could be big, for us itıs huge. Itıs huge that you called me or gave us an email. Itıs like, ³Oh my god, I got an email from the U.S.!² And I come to the studio and I show the email, ³He wants to release a 7², like a real record?² Yeah! Itıs very strange, I donıt think anyone has realized how big it is for us. Weıre not so big in Sweden at all, but we have reviews in almost every newspaper. They only have a few reviews every friday, so weıve had our reviews in one of the biggest morning papers in Sweden and then a few other bigger evening papers. Still no one comes to the shows. We have got nice reviews too, but no one cares. I think itıs like that everywhere. In Rough Trade in England, our first 7² single (which is more lo-fi-ish than this one, stranger sounds and stuff), but they love that record and our full length.
I saw a good review of the Fas 2 CD in Alternative Press this week.
Someone told me that they sent that, but itıs so slow for that to get to Sweden. Good, did he say anything special, because we have a collection with clips if they say something funny. People have said a lot of funny things in the reviews. The best is Jonas at Slowball, heıs got a grandmother and she sponsors him with money. She wants to hear all the things he releases on his label and she likes Pluxus because she said it sounds like someone yawning. Itıs very strange. When youıre older you have never heard synthesizers and you think, oh someoneıs yawning here. Thatıs good, sheıs said the best things about us and my grandmother is quite cool too. She says, oh you can meditate to this music. She thinks like Tai Chi and stuff. Thatıs the bit I was fishing after before, like when I said the Pluxus thingı, thatıs one of the things we like when old people say something. Itıs hard to explain. I have a great interview in a Swedish newspaper. Many interviews we do itıs just like technical stuff, we try not to talk about synthesizers and stuff because it tends to be very boring for people to read who donıt know synthesizers. The most boring thing is like hearing the guy in Tortoise talking about his English synthesizer or something and he talks the whole interview about it. And if youıre not into synthesizers thatıs boring. If you do an interview for Keyboard Player then have only technical stuff, but in this Swedish newspaper he captured the Pluxus thing very nicely. I donıt know how he did it, but in the interview it sounds like we are high or something. We only talk about crap things, but this is Pluxus. The interview doesnıt say anything at all, but we talk about the strange stuff we talk about when we record.
Itıs good to have both sides. Thatıs whatıs fun about doing your own zine because you can talk to bands you like and then print whatever you like.
I got really depressed when I read the last issue of Thumb [#10 the inventor issue] because I read about all the creative people out there doing stuff and we have talked about building stuff so many times. You can build very nice stuff just knowing a little bit about electronics, but no one does. We build our drum triggers, but how hard is that? Itıs like taking a toy telephone apart and taking the microphone and putting a plug on it so you can plug it into your synthesizer. Thatıs basically the only thing weıve built.
Itıs hard to finish things because it takes a lot of time and you run out of parts, so I never finish anything. But itıs cool too see what other people have come up with.
Yeah, itıs great, but Iım not that great in English. So I didnıt understand, some guy there had a major project with something triggering something with samplings.
...like Octantıs robotic drum kit?
Yeah, I didnıt understand that at all! I just try to picture it in my mind, but I couldnıt. Youıve got a picture of some sci-fi robot playing music. Oh my god, what is this? I realize he had built something great, but what itıs like I donıt know. Swedenıs such a small country, we have like eight million people living here. You donıt have any of these kind of strange people at all. Itıs only rock and roll bands. Then you count like Norland. Itıs a huge mass of land, then you have a small village with like 200 people. Then you have the iron mines, those cities you have maybe ten thousand people. You never go to Norland because you only have like skate-core bands there. Theyıre like veganism, donıt eat meat, extremely political.
Oh yeah, like Refused?
Exactly. North of Stokholm is like Refused country where everybody plays skate-core or extremely political stuff. The south has rock and roll cities and then crappy pop bands playing AC/DC songs. So if you take away all the cool people and just leave the rock crap then you have Sweden. There are wimp pop bands too, or ordinary pop bands like The Cardigans. Then we have a few bands with Swedish lyrics and theyıre quite nice. But if you compare it to what it used to be in the 70ıs we did a lot of great things. Iım into Swedish progressive, there are very strange bands mixing Swedish folk music with rock. Are those bands influential to the Pluxus sound? No, I donıt think so. Iım the only one in the band listening to that kind of stuff. The other guys like it, but they donıt listen to it that much. One of the basic things that made us switch from guitars to synthesizers, when we were into pop music, was Stereolab. They had synthesizers and guitars and they sounded so cool. But you canıt listen to Stereolab and try to sound like Stereolab, that would be extremely boring. Then we realized guitars suck for us. We canıt play guitars. So we started buying more synthesizers and listening to electronica. You know, Autechre, Aphex Twin and stuff, all the Warp bands, but we donıt listen to electronica that much any more. Now we listen to everything from rock and roll to electronic music. Adam and Björn are more into Jean-Jaque Perry, Kingsley, all the Moog records where they do strange versions of ³Yellow Submarine². I like them too, they have great stuff. Synthesizers were brand new so they could use any sound. Thatıs something weıre missing today I think. People donıt take that extremely annoying sound and play, they have nice sounds. On the old Moog records they could take any sound and play ³Yellow Submarine² melodies. We used to say that thatıs the major difference between Pluxus and other major Swedish electronic bands, mostly when it comes to techno and house... Letıs say youıre a house guy, you listen to the jazz guy with all the Moogs, Herbie Hancock. They have special artists that everybody likes, but they donıt like rock and roll. If you say Bruce Springsteen (Iım not saying like Iım a big fan) but they will go, ³What?² I bet you canıt find any house guy that listens to Bruce Springsteen. Then they all like the electro style and Chicago house... Thatıs something I donıt like. You canıt just listen to some jazz guy thatıs cool for house people. If you just listen to electronica and youıre playing music you would be very stiff I think.
Anything else coming up?
We have a live gig coming up, but we havenıt played live for a long time, so we have to find some songs to play. Itıs hard when youıve improvised like fifteen songs and then someone suddenly asks if you want to play live. You say ³yeah sure² because youıre drunk, then afterwards you regret yourself. Usually people donıt listen to bands that donıt play live, so we try to play live. If you donıt play live people donıt know about you because no one buys records here. They go out to rock and roll clubs, which can be crappy. Add N to X were playing here a few months ago. One of the guys wanted to have another free beer, but the guy at the bar said no, blah blah. Theyıre even crappier at English than I am, so they had an argument with the guy at the bar because they didnıt understand each other. Suddenly the bouncer came down and beat the hell out of the guy in Add N to X. Björn and I were standing there like, ³Oh my god, heıs beating the guy in Add N to X!² So they didnıt play. ³No weıre not going to play here. This place sucks. Weıre never going to play here where I got beaten up.² So they took down their stuff, put it in their van and drove off. We really wanted to see Add N to X. We talked with friends whoıd seen them in Sweden and they said it was the greatest band heıs ever seen live for like two years. So we were drinking a lot of beer, being happy, and thinking ³This is going to be great! Iım going to get some kicks out of this!² The only one who got any kicks was probably the bouncer beating him up.
[end]
more:
www.slowballrec.com
www.suctionrec.com