Trentemoller Chats about Process and Motiviations Prior to His DC Debut
We've been fans of Trentemoller and his emotive, evocative work for a solid decade now. To be a part of his DC debut at the historic Howard Theatre on Thursday Nov. 6th is a real treat, and proper setting for what should be a musical highlight for 2014.
We got the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the inspiration and process behind his current work, and he was kind enough to provide some wonderful answers. Enjoy!
FWD: First, can you tell us a bit about your show?
TM: Yeah, we are so thrilled to play in DC. It's the first time for us! We will be performing music from my 3 studio albums in a pretty cinematic and dynamic format.
Playing live, allows me to play versions that are sometimes quite different from how they sound on my albums. The possibility to improvise and take the songs even further is really excited for us and hopefully the audience.
FWD: You're touring with a 5 piece band, predominantly performing live, your album "Lost". You spent nearly 14 months in your studio composing the album. Can you speak a bit to that moment in time in your life and some of the aspects that inspired the work?
TM: It's a very lonley process for me working on a studio album. But I like the solitude a lot. It's very important that there is nothing from outside to disturb me, to distract me so I can focus and get totally lost in the music. It can also sometimes be quite hard mentally. I'm actually pretty shy about my music during the writing phase. I never play it for anyone, not even my girlfriend or closest friends. I think I want it to be more finished before I dare play it for anyone.
I have a nice studio in Copenhagen with a recording room for drums, guitars, piano, amps and other stuff. Then a working/producing room next door, where most of the time is spent. This time I often began writing the tunes at my upright piano. I focused on the melodies and chord progressions first and actually thought that this album should be an instrumental album. But quite quickly the songs I wrote, somehow ‘demanded’ vocals so to speak. So I actually started to write the songs for the vocalists that are on the album, but without them knowing! So it was quite nerve wracking :) Finally after the songs were kind of finished from my side, I began to contact these vocalist and hope that they would work with me on the songs. Luckily everyone said yes! I did not want this album to be a ‘feature-album’ but it should work with these vocal tracks mixed with the instrumental tracks all together in a natural way and with a natural flow.
What inspires me is hard to say. It's not something I can point out specifically. It might be a ride on my bike through the rain in Copenhagen or a conversation with one of my friends or simply music from other artists that inspires me.
FWD: When writing and recording music in your studio are you thinking about how to transition it to the live band format or is that something you approach only after the original composition is finished?
TM: No, it's not something I think of at that point. I don't think of that or any target groups that might listen to my music or my record label or anything... That will only confuse me I think.
FWD: Can you tell us a bit about your band mates? You composed the entire album, how did you select them and the vocalist (considering the album has multiple vocalists)?
TM: As earlier mentioned, the band mates are only playing with me live, it’s me playing nearly all the instruments on my albums. And live wise, I like that we really feel and play like a band. Not Trentemoller with a backing band. And that comes quite natural, I think, when we play as many shows as we have. Beeing good friends is quite important when you tour in a bus and are living side by side for months. It's also with good friends you can relax and that's important if you want to have a great show….we are also good , in the band, to give each member space…and not always being social…it's ok if you sometimes just take a walk on your own when we arrive in a new city. You need that, other wise you are getting crazy because you are always surrounded by people.
Regarding the vocalists on the album they are all my 'heroes'. I knew exactly what they were capable of. But of course they also contributed to the process by writing additional melody lines and of course all the lyrics. I always tell the vocalists to write their own lyrics. That way it becomes much more honest and personal and I'm also quite bad at writing lyrics, music and sound is my strong side (-:
FWD: You've worked with quite a few incredible visualists over the years. Does your show incorporate moving images, if so by whom?
TM: No, I don’t think moving visuals works that well for a band live. You tend to focus on that too much. I like to have a strong visual ‘analogue’ feel to my stage design. I worked very closely with the danish artist and fashion designer Henrik Vibskov on the visually side of the show. Henrik actually used to play drums in the band too but these days he's too busy for that because he's using all his time on his own stuff. But Henrik designs and builds the whole stage set-design that we always bring with us when we play live. There is no video projections because I simply think it’s over used. People tend to stare more at the visuals rather than seeing the musicians playing on stage, so we have our visual stage design all built up on stage, these kind of ‘machines’ …it’s hard to explain…you have to see it … then we use a lot of light and smoke and other stage effects to enhance the set up even more.
FWD: You really broke out with techno hits, like Sunstroke and Moan. I've seen quotes where you say that you don't feel like your latest stretch of albums is drastically different than anything you have ever done in the past. While that may be true, what do you think may have influenced you, artistically, to shift towards less of, for lack of a better term, a 'DJ' friendly sound?
TM: It’s true if you talk about the music I released more than 10 years ago, but all my studio albums did not have a techno sound. I just make the music that I want to . And don't think too much about what genre it is to be honest. When I made the more techno kind of stuff, before my debut album The Last Resort, I was also doing the kind of music I do now. Blending inspirations from a lot of different music...krautrock, electronica, indie, surf, classical .... But back then I could not get it released ... It was like the focus was only on my clubby stuff and that frustrated me indeed! But with my debut album I had the chance to make music that had a quite different feel and sound and that opened up a lot of new doors for me . I never plan in which direction I will go, I simply let the music decide that .
FWD: You do the majority of songwriting on your album, only collaborating with others when it comes to the lyrics on your songs. Is there anyone that you can think of that you would like to work with in order to develop new sounds and actually compose the music with?
TM: Me and the vocalists that I worked with often came up with the vocal melodies together too actually. As I mentioned earlier I prefer to work alone, developing my sound myself so I could not see myself working together with someone else on that specific thing. For me it's actually not the main thing to collaborate with vocalists! But since I really sing quite awful myself ... ha ha ... I need someone to sing my songs! But I did not really want the album to be a 'feature' album! That was very important for me. So I hope the album works as a whole album even if there are several different vocalists on it. But there are also several instrumental tracks and that is something that I still really love to do. Next album could maybe be a pure instrumental album…I don't know…But if I should choose one artist that I really respect and love it would be Nick Cave. To work with him on a song would be out of this world I think! Nick Cave and the bad seeds played just before us on a festival and me and the band watched the whole concert from the back of the stage. It was mind blowing…nearly a bit scary how well they played and how good Nick Cave was on stage
FWD: Each of your albums has featured the latest evolution of your changing sound, and yet still drew from some familiar territory. Can you share some of your current favorite pieces of studio gear and of the changes that are in store for the listener on your next album?
TM: I have not started working on my next album yet. It’s really hard for me to focus on writing new music while we are touring. And we have been touring crazy for the last 1 and a half year. So when this US tour is finished I will go back to my studio for a year or more and start working on the next studio album. I really love my tape recorder which I use on almost every track. I also have a lot of vintage tube outboard gear. I like the analogue sound .Then I just recently bought a nice spring reverb, an old Roland tape echo and 2 pairs of Stanard Audio Level-oh…they can distort in a very evil way, I love that! (-:
Catch Trentemoller and his 5 piece live band At The Howard Theatre on Thursday Nov. 6th!
