IPO Interview: Slim Loris

Posted on 22 June 2015

Slim_Loris

PGH is all about helping artists highlight their most recent projects, so let us all know what your latest project is – and tell us about how it come into the world. What has the initial feedback on it been like?

Mattias Cederstam – Vocals/Bass (MC): We have a brand new album out called “Love and Fear”. We´ve put every available minute into the recording of it since autumn last year and it was finally released on May 19th Fortunately the work seems to have payed of judging from some of the reviews we´ve received. It was called “A perfect album” by ranthollywood.com and “one of best indie records of 2015” by popdose.com which feels fantastic.

The Recording Process:  There are so many interesting ways that music projects come into the world these days compared with what artists had to struggle through years ago.  Take us on the creative arc of how this project came into being and any wisdom that you learned along the way.  Also, what were some of the obstacles or struggles that you encountered when you were working on the project?

MC: “Love and Fear” is our third album and after producing the first two our selves we wanted to get a new pair of ears in and try working with a producer for this album. When moonlighting as a bass player with another band I found a producer named Pecka Hammarstedt who had just the right vision for us and he ended up producing four of the songs and mixing the whole album.

The biggest struggle by far was time management, with all four band members working full time jobs and a producer with a busy schedule and a spring deadline when both guitar players where having babies a couple of months apart. It took some planning and there wasn’t many times when we were all four together at the same time recording but it worked out in the end.

Slim_Loris_Love_and_Fear

Are there any particular songs on this project that are special to you or communicate a message that you’d like to share here?

MC: The opening track “Never Danced Sober” was the first song we started working on with our producer Pecka and the first time we heard what big improvement he would bring to our sound so that’s a special one. The lyrics are a reflection from a tour we did in the UK last year about how us Swedes act when out among other people.  

As we all know, the music industry has been devastated for many reasons over the past 10 years, what are your thoughts on these changes and are you finding some of the changes helpful to you with getting more people to hear your music?

MC: What is brilliant is the all the ways now days of reaching out to a lot of people with your music through Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud etc. The fact that almost anyone can listen to your song with the push of a button makes all the difference. The tricky part is making people aware of you existence to get them to push that button. An interview like this can be a lot of help to do that though.

We would love to hear what your plans on with your next project – Are you going to a full CD, an EP or just release songs as you finish them?  Release them digital only or combine physical with the digital or what?

MC: Our next step is playing live as much as possible to support our new album. We always bring CDs with us to the gigs as long as there´s still people who like physical copies but its not as many as a few years back so our main focus is the digital release now days.

We might be a bit old school but we still like the album format so we will probably keep making whole albums in the future. To really get our heads into recording mode we need a big project to bite in to and an album provides just that.

What are you finding that is working well for your music right now that others may find interesting to hear about?

MC: We’ve always mixed genres a lot and gone with whatever idea that have felt right at the minute. Now that the album is released we get a lot of positive feedback for the fact that it’s a varied and interesting album to listen to so just going with what feels right and not bothering about fitting in to a genre or category would be my advice to any musician.

Okay – time for some light humor!  Spinal Tap Moment: dig deep. Locate. Relive. Share that special ‘trauma’ with all of us!

MC: Last year we played a gig at a festival. We were the last act of the day and there had been about 10 bands playing before us when we went on stage at half past midnight. There was no time for sound check so we just plugged our instruments in and started playing. As I was going to start singing, I went up to the microphone and stuck my lips to it and it was like kissing an oyster. The microphone had a very flat front part and it had very efficiently collected an ocean of spit from ten different singers throughout the day. Closest I’ve ever been to throwing up on stage and since that gig I always check the microphone before we start playing.

Is there a particular musician(s) you’d love to collaborate with – and why?

MC: I would love to work with Damon Albarn. I love mixing genres and sounds and he´s the king of it so I would love to see what is going on in his mind.  

Advance apologies: the so-called ‘classic’ questions.  What other artists and bands have influenced your music and any particular reason why? Also, push come to shove: “Your Top 5 Albums Of All Time”?  (Pop Geeks really are interested in this, trust us!)

MC: I would consider myself a bit of a pop geek to so I know what you mean. Don’t think I could name top 5 albums of all time though cause it changes constantly so I will instead give you the top 5 albums that inspired my writing for our latest album, in no particular order:

The Beatles – White album Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots The Specials – The Specials Massive Attack – Blue Lines Die Antword – Donker Mag

We’re always trying to find new music discover here at PGH – what are some of your favorite music releases of the last few years?

MC: Damon Albarn and Die Antword that I mentioned above are great albums. Also “Channel Orange” by Frank Ocean and “48:13” by Kasabian are some of my favorites from the last few years. To give you something you probably haven’t heard before though I will recommend Anna Stadling “Av timmarna som gick utan dig minns jag nästan ingenting”. Produced by same producer we worked with and even though the lyrics are in Swedish it´s an album worth listening to. Especially the opening track is brilliant.  

Yes, it would be great if most indie musicians could work on music full-time but the reality rarely the case for most of them.  I am always asked by music fans, what are the careers or full-time jobs that the musicians of the music they are listening to do…so ‘what’s your main gig?!’

MC: I’m an audiologist so I work with hearing aids, custom made earplugs and doing hearing tests. Not too big a step from working with music and being a musician can be of help in my job. The rest of our band is made up by a builder, a lawyer and a tree surgeon.

Okay, last question:  Where can we hear more of your music and any other releases you have?

http://www.slimloris.com/

http://slimloris.bandcamp.com/album/love-and-fear

https://soundcloud.com/slimloris

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4i1M26n7NN5vINKv3VfuHu

Slim_Loris_2

Comments are closed.