Interview with Elina Johansson (Dear Euphoria)

Me and Elina Johansson got to know each other a couple of years ago and we've done some stuff together since then. We've guested on some of each other's shows and Elina sung on two songs on my latest album "The Lake Acts Like An Ocean". Elina's solo project Dear Euphoria has been going on for some time now in different constellations, last year Stereo Test Kit re-released her 2005 debut album, this time eponymous (originally For Everything of Worth) and with new sleeve and bonus tracks (such as the lovely Falling Behind). Later this year they will also release a brand new album. Last autumn, she did a show at The Luminaire in London and now she has just finished a three week's tour (which I wrote about here) in Europe. I took the opportunity to ask her how it went.


* Elina, you just came back after a 3-weeks European tour, what was the weirdest thing happening on the trip? I read you performed in Hamburg television, what did they make you do? Did you notice any differences between touring abroad compared to doing shows in Sweden?

Many weird things happened. How to tell without anybody being exposed..? Mmm.. Maybe taking care of a half-unconcious bandmember in Amsterdam. Or sleeping in a sunchair after a soldout show in Leipzig. Or when the guy who we were the support-act for in Giessen (with whom which we shared a hotel-flat that night) entered our room and I was alone, unaware that somebody had put on porn on mute on the tv and left the room..

We performed 3 songs on a balcony on local tv in Hamburg.

One of the differences is that there is a bigger interest abroad. You get to do silly things such as sign autographs on the albumsleeve, posters etc. Fortunately Swedish music has a good reputation and the fact alone that you are a Swedish band gives you a head start. Other differences is that for example the Germans wants you to play really long sets and after that almost always wants two or three encores.


* I've understood that you're up to releasing an album later this year on the UK-label Stereo Test Kit, what's the news about it?

I guess the only thing I really know about it myself is that it will be released in September, latest October. Will have 11-12 songs on it. Maybe be followed by a new tour in Germany and UK.


* Your music in Dear Euphoria to me feels like a mixture of all kind of things, indie, pop, cabaret, avantgarde, electronica, jazz etc.. How do you label your own music, what bands or artists have been most important to DE and if you would record a cover version of a song, which one would that be?

Funny that you hear so many styles in the music. Hate labelling. Especially since maybe then I really have to accept the gap between what I would want it to be and what it is. But I think I would say it is a mix between Lowfi indie and athmospheric pop. Sigur Rós, Stina Nordenstam, Radiohead and Björk has been dear to my heart for a very long time. Oh covers.. Sensitive topic. According to me, If one do a cover it should be really great and personal.. Otherwise I don’t think one should bother.. So I don’t know if I would.. Can I get back to you on that one?..


* Thanks for singing on my album, you're the best! You have such a special voice, exactly how does it feel to be able to hit those high notes?

Thank you Thomas! It was my pleasure.
They are not really that high.. The trick is to make it look difficult.

A cheery wave from stranded youngsters - A talk with Hans Bally

2001, I studied philosophy in Gothenburg. I met Hans Bally there, a multi-instrumentalist who earlier played in bands like The Mole Session, but last 5-6 years has made wonderful and complex music in his solo projects Bally and Po' Lazarus. His music consists of strange tunings and harmonies with twisted themes (such as the arctic and angel moth) that makes one think of giants like John Fahey and Nick Drake added with an indie pop twist. Definitely someone I want to work with, Btw probably the main reason for my blog in the end, to give my favorite musicians the feeling that they owe me something - something that will benefit my next album A LOT harharhar (evil laugh). Seriously though, most of Bally's catalog such as the magnificent two Lazarus-albums In Memoriam and Angel Moth, as well as the lastest Bally-offering From Discard to Derivation can be downloaded here. All of them are big favorites to me and deserve wider spreading.

* You have a collaboration project with Raymond Bally. Can you tell a little about that story? Could you consider collaborating with someone that doesn't have the same name as you?

B: We discovered each other on MySpace and liked what the other Bally was up to. We're not related even if we share the same rare surname. He send me a cd with him playing acoustic guitar and singing and asked if I liked to add a little something to his music. I gave it a try and thought that I could add a guitar or two, but when I got started on recording I ended up with recording everything from drums, bass guitar, electric guitars, backing vocals, organs, mallets and all other kinds of percussions. He liked what I did to his songs and asked me to produce his coming record. So that's what I'm up to right now. Recording more of his songs and having a great time. I love to be able to experiment as much as I like and he really inspires me to do that. The first result can be heard on his MySpace site www.myspace.com/raymondbally. He's releasing a single in the US now and an album later this year.

And, YES, I would love to collaborate more with other musicians, if I like their music!


* I think I've got all the cds with your solo projects Bally and Po' Lazarus and I think you're getting greater and greater all the time (and I really loved it from the beginning). You recently presented a piano piece about angel moth, could you tell a little about your two solo projects and what the plans are for the future?

B: I will release a new Bally album this spring. It will be less folk oriented than my last one. More electric guitars, piano and organs. I'm deeply in love with old 60's organs right now, building up a small collection of cheap organs. My new love is a Philips Philicorda GM752 that I bought last week. Nice! I don't know when I will record some new Po' Lazarus stuff. Everything I record under that name are always improvisations over musical and figurative themes and the recordings are made when I'm in a mood for longer instrumental improvisation. I have an obsession about nature's micro cosmos and arctic life. Moths are really interesting creatures. There are some lovely looking species that we rarely see due to their night activity. The music on Angel Moth was recorded during four or five rainy days and started out as a 17 minute improvisation on piano. That piece became the cornerstone for Angel Moth. Soldier bug, that is the second part of the album, started with a improvisation on acoustic guitar.


* You have a very unique guitar technique, I want to be that good myself, how did you do to learn that?

B: I don't think that I'm so good really. My guitar technique is all made up by myself. I have never taken any guitar lessons, but I had a history of music lessons in flute, violin, trombone and mandolin before I started playing guitar. The sound I create is basically build on me never using plectrums, always finger picking, and experimenting with all kind of odd tunings of my guitar. I'm always looking for new ways to play guitar and love to experiment on ways to play all kind of instruments.


* Which leads me to the last question. I'm currently working on an album about the arctic. I've come to that idea after listening to your cd "in memoriam", which in many ways makes me an idea stealer. Can we still be friends?

B: Ha, ha, I love your idea of recording an album build on the arctic. The world needs more arctic related music! The arctic life and the history of it's explorers are amazing. We will continue to be friends of course and I would love to be a part of your arctic adventure!

* (Hmmm, note to self: must write songs about angel moth)

C-J Larsgården (article + interview)

CJ and me met for the first time back in 1998 when we studied together. He did an interview with me some years later for his fanzine Salvador where he told that he hated my music back then.

Now we have a band together, A Perfect Friend. We formed it early 2006 and have released one selftitled album (STILLL, 2007) the EP Graduation Day (self released, 2008) and we've almost finished our second forthcoming album Timber and Modern Ways which is going to be released later this year.

He runs and/or is part of a number of projects, currently he's most active as the moniker Ondo, with music best placed in the drone/doom-genre with elements of electronica and indie. The British label Paradigms is just about to release the excellent debut album Mahavishnu. But that's not all, as Ondo he also recently released the split-3" with Austrasian Goat (Burning Emptiness, 2007), The Mini album Alliansen (200mg records, 2008), a split cd with The Machinist (self released, 2008) and soon a new 3" Shields (Tuguska, 2008). More info about his songs, and excerpts from his still unreleased second Ondo album, This is the new era, are available at his myspace profile. CJs other solo project Pacta can be found here.


Thomas: First, could you briefly describe your recent and current projects (solo and collaborations).

CJ: I have a lot of projects and collaborations going on. My solo project Pacta can be described as some kind of electro acoustic music mixed with “post rock” and folk influences. Pacta is my pet project and I have a lot of material recorded. Time will tell if it will be released in some form. My other solo project is called Ondo. It is about distortion and drones. A Perfect Friend is an ongoing collaboration with a Swedish artist called Thomas Jonsson (a.k.a. Dödsboet, maybe you have heard of him?). I have collaborated with German audio maestro Frank Rowenta. I also play guitar in a yet to be named band who play more “traditional” rock….


T: About the end of February you have released 4 single releases this year with your doom/drone-project ONDO plus one with APF. With this pace you will have out 30 cds at the end of the year. What are your creative plans for the nearest future?

C: Yeah, February has been a quite hectic month for Ondo. But, I must say it wasn’t planned. The debut album has been rescheduled a few times and now it finally will be available. I think Paradigms Recordings who will release it has put out some great artists (like Gnaw their Tongues, Jarboe and Angelic Process) so I’m very excited about working with them.

After all the upcoming Ondo releases I don’t have any planned releases. Me and Frank Rowenta will try to release the recordings we did during 2006. We have material for a fullength album but have not found a label yet. I’m very pleased with our recordings and I really hope we can make them public in some form soon.

I have started a micro label called Tuguska Label who will release 3” CDs in limited editions. The first release is Ondo now in February and I have some future releases planned in mind. I don’t have any clear musical profile set for the label but I guess it most likely will set focus on any sort of “experimental” music. Next release will be a 3” with Frank Rowenta.

And, of course, A Perfect Friend has recorded its second album. I hope itwill be released during 2008.


T: I've understanded that you were somewhat of a "mute" artist earlier, very hard or impossible to lure to the microphone. Now, you're a credited vocalist on all 3 APF-cds (The album, the EP and the forthcoming second album) we've made and you're also often doing your voice heard on the ONDO-cds. What happened and what is to expect next?

C: My vocal contribution in APF is very, very limited so I don’t really think it counts. I think I will continue to do some vocals on the Ondo stuff but it will never be structured lyrics or something like that. In Ondo I use my vocals as an instrument.


T: In A Perfect Friend, you're producer, engineer, sampler, beat programmer, musician, vocalist, back projection maker and responsible for our graphic profile. What's my part of it?

C: I think we equally contribute as musicians and producers in APF. And I don’t think I am a vocalist in APF (that’s your job). In APF you are a producer, musician, vocalist, lyricist etc. I guess you work more with promotion than I do which is a good thing since you are “godo” and I am “ondo”…






Ondo - Mahavishnu (2008)




Ondo - Alliansen (2008)




Ondo - Shields (2008)




Machinist / Ondo - s/t (2008)




Ondo / Austrasian Goat - s/t (2007)




A Perfect Friend - s/t (2007)




A Perfect Friend - Graduation Day (demos and outtakes) (2008)

Dear Euphoria Hits Europe

Elina Johansson (who contributed vocals on the songs Possession and You Were The Holiday to my newest album The Lake Acts Like An Ocean) is doing her first tour in Europe in February with her project Dear Euphoria. Over 10 shows in Germany and Netherlands.

A much awaited album will be released later this year on Stereo Test Kit Records. In October last year, they also re-released Dear Euphoria's since long out of print debut album with a new sleeve and bonus tracks.

More info about this over at:
http://www.myspace.com/deareuphoria