{"id":68837,"date":"2016-10-05T22:29:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.aws.dancingastronaut.com\/?p=264927"},"modified":"2016-10-05T22:29:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:29:42","slug":"you-have-to-be-free-when-you-write-a-song-galantis-on-why-songwriting-still-matters-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/?p=68837","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You have to be free when you write a song\u2019: Galantis on why songwriting still matters [Interview]"},"content":{"rendered":"

As electronic music continues to ooze tirelessly through seemingly every aspect of mainstream pop culture, it leaves in its wake a glistening trail of \u201cproduction nerds.\u201d Together they clog the annuls of YouTube\u2019s bloated servers with hundreds of thousands of pluck tutorials and DIY tip vids.<\/p>The genre has long espoused amateur amnesty toward bedroom producers and it\u2019s been favorable model for those offering the best of it\u2014Flume, for one: the double platinum producer whose first real banger was built on a software freebie he shook out of a Kellogg\u2019s cereal box. <\/span><\/p>It\u2019s even harder to disparage a well warranted moment in the sun for producers like Diplo or Sia Furler who are enjoying recognition now for prolific bodies of behind the scenes work that largely serve other artists. But the worst of it has also bloomed within this vacuum of accessibility and DIY production. <\/span><\/p>It\u2019s this sort of so called \u201cbeat fetishism\u201d that Galantis producers Linus Ekl\u00f6w and Christian Karlsson have spent their entire careers combatting. <\/span><\/p>\u201c[It\u2019s] songwriting that\u2019s trying to figure out how to write a song on top of a track,” says Karlsson. “[They] force this vocal in between a thing that wanted to be without a vocal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>Over the course of his own fertile career, the producer has followed a humbler model. <\/span><\/p>

\u201cTo write a song, you have to be open to change every part while you\u2019re writing,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to be free when you write a song, to be able to let it go where it wants to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote><\/p>Of course it\u2019s easy to hear why Galantis have rocketed into the upper echelons of dance music seemingly overnight following the release of their fully formed, self-titled debut EP in 2014. Their infectious tracks–like Friday’s release with Hook & Sling<\/a>\u2014are impeccably produced. They bubble with earnest charisma and a near effortless charm.<\/span><\/p>But it\u2019s the part that\u2019s less audible that really sets the group apart. Together, the producers\u00a0\u00a0are brimming with the confidence of a collective five decades in music production. So much confidence, the two won\u2019t even crack their production playbook until they\u2019ve got a deserving track. <\/span><\/p>
\u201cAfter all these years in the studio, we know how to dress up songs. We can rely on that,\u201d says Karlsson. \u201cWe can dress them up in any way, just spend time on it, we\u2019ll get it. But the song is the important part! If that isn\u2019t the best thing ever, why keep dressing it up in beautiful clothes? We want a song that you can play on a guitar by a campfire that\u2019s out of tune, but still sounds good. Then it\u2019s a good song.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>As\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>teen, Karlsson\u2019s interest in music grew largely out of Stockholm\u2019s skateboarding culture. Punk rock, and later hip hop, pervaded that scene and by 22, he was in the studio working with oh Quincey Jones. In recent years, Karlsson has produced and written for the likes of Depeche Mode, Britney Spears, and Madonna. <\/span><\/p>For his part, Ekl\u00f6w began producing \u201cweird\u201d downtempo tracks in his bedroom and spinning drum and bass records at his school discos in Stockholm before assuming the Style of Eye moniker and tracking Chicago jackin\u2019 house releases on Derrick Carter\u2019s Classic imprint. He\u2019s since built an impressive roster of production credits including a formative role in Icona Pop\u2019s quadruple platinum \u201cI Love It\u201d.<\/span><\/p>

<\/iframe><\/p>Though their paths had collided some years before, earnest attempts to nail down the Galantis sound began in 2012 when the producers booted voguish, software-centric production styles and returned to old school songwriting. \u201cThat\u2019s really how it started, says Ekl\u00f6w. \u201cThat\u2019s what got us into like \u2018Look, no one is doing this thing.\u2019 We didn\u2019t even know exactly what that thing was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>In those two years since their debut, the thing has morphed into a Kid A<\/i>-esque approach to writing music. It all begins on a guitar or a piano. Then, the duo layer fragments of thought across a “feel good” beat and allow listeners largely to apply their own interpretations. <\/span><\/p>They aren\u2019t precious about the method either, using their freedom to gather inspiration from overheard chord progressions or to cannibalize old work\u2014like on “Runaway (U & I)”, which was actually a mash up of three separate songs. <\/span><\/p>It\u2019s a beautifully open process, but one that can still pose a challenge. <\/span><\/p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of songs where people actually misunderstand what we\u2019re trying to say,\u201d says Karlsson, who offers their single \u201cSmile\u201d as an example. Under material examination the song reads like an upbeat track, but careful scrutiny yields a darker impetus. The closing lyric, \u201cso smile\/because you know nothing at all\u201d evokes a beleaguered misanthrope longing to be more blissfully ignorant. <\/span><\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s actually a really sad song for us,\u201d he confirms. \u201cThere are some people, we just wish we could smile like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>Subversive lyrics like these pervade the Galantis catalog, attempting in earnest to chip away at capturing universal human emotions like unhappiness or the darker sides of lust and love. Ultimately, it\u2019s a song writing style closer to \u20183 synths and the truth\u2019 than the \u2018feel good pop music\u2019 label the are usually slapped with.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cRemember when Wu Tang Clan was the biggest thing on the fucking Earth?\u201d asks Karlsson. \u201cIs that pop? We were all standing outside of music stores trying to get Wu Tang Clan records because they were the biggest thing on the planet\u2014and the best thing. Pop music can be whatever\u2026 I think we just do music. If our music reaches out to a lot of people, why would that be a bad thing?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote><\/p>Explore: Galantis producers Linus Ekl\u00f6w and Christian Karlsson choose songs from great songwriters spanning from the heyday\u00a0of classic rock to modern hip hop.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

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Read the conversation in full, below.\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>Can you talk a little bit about where you\u2019re from and how you got into music? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: How far back you wanna go? <\/span><\/p>I know, you guys have a very long history in the industry. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah, we\u2019re both from Sweden. Stockholm. <\/span><\/p>I\u2019m curious about your attitudes toward what it means to make good pop music. It seems there\u2019s a general attitude that if something is popular or radio ready, it\u2019s \u2018lesser than\u2019. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Who said that? (laughs) No, I totally understand. Yeah, it\u2019s very hard to even say what\u2019s pop versus what\u2019s popular. Remember when Wu Tang Clan was the biggest thing on the fucking Earth? Is that pop? We were all standing outside of music stores trying to get Wu Tang Clan records because they were the biggest thing on the planet\u2014and the best thing. Pop music can be whatever. I mean for me, anyway. I don\u2019t really like to label what we do whether it\u2019s pop or not pop. I think we just do music. If our music reaches out to a lot of people, why would that be a bad thing? <\/span><\/p>Yeah, definitely. Another thing I\u2019m curious about is the track \u201cRunaway (U & I)\u201d. I heard that it was actually a mix of three different songs. Can you talk a bit about that evolution process when you\u2019re making a song? Are you precious about cannibalizing your own work?<\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: About \u201cRunaway\u201d? or just in general? <\/span><\/p>In general. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Well, reusing stuff is always a thing. Basically you work on music 24\/7. Your brain just keeps on going and it wakes you up when you have ideas.\/\/\/\/ You put it in your back pocket. \u201cPeanut Butter Jelly\u201d, I wrote that ten years ago. I couldn\u2019t find a vehicle for it. I couldn\u2019t find an artist that would actually do this lyric. I did a version with just a guitar and played it for LE: and he really liked it. That\u2019s when we decided to do it for ourselves. It could be any type of piece of music, it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s old or new, you just collect things. Small pieces of ideas, lyrics\u2026<\/span><\/p>LE. \u2026Chords, melodies. <\/span><\/p>CK: I also tend to come back to chord progressions that I love every three or four years. It\u2019s like okay, it\u2019s been a few years, now I\u2019m going back to this progression I love so much. Sometimes, I won\u2019t have heard it for a while and someone else comes out with something similar and it\u2019s like \u201cfuck\u201d. <\/span><\/p>LE: That\u2019s very true. Sometimes you have those ideas in your head and if you don\u2019t do them, someone else will do it. <\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah it\u2019s also\u2026 music naturally goes in so many different ways that without anyone really thinking about it, all of a sudden we are kind of steering in the same way. Music is going different ways, but sometimes brains go the same direction. <\/span><\/p>Do you guys listen to other dance music or do you try to avoid that? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: No we listen to all kinds of music, but of course we listen to dance music. That\u2019s part of our job, i feel. We listen to what other people are releasing but we also collect things for our sets. I feel like it\u2019s one part of the brain to collect beats that might work in our sets\u2014whether it\u2019s festival sets, club sets, our own headline sets\u2014and that\u2019s different from listening to music just to be inspired in listening to music. Two different things. <\/span><\/p>I\u2019d love to get your thoughts on the importance of songwriting. I know it\u2019s hugely important to you guys. I think it\u2019s nice that production is having a moment in the sun because for a long time that was sort of behind the scenes work. With artists like Sia Furler or even Diplo people are getting more interested in who is writing for whom or producing for whom, but at the same time, I think a lot of mainstream artists tend to release nonsense that\u2019s very dressed up and it seems that you guys have almost the exactly opposite approach to that process. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: I think that\u2019s because after all these years in the studio, we know how to dress up songs. We can rely on that and be confident in that area. We can dress them up in any way, just spend time on it, we\u2019ll get it. But the song is the important part! If that isn\u2019t the best thing ever, why keep dressing it up in beautiful clothes. <\/span><\/p>LE: then we\u2019ll just move on. <\/span><\/p>CK: Exactly, so we still want a song that you can play on a guitar by a campfire that\u2019s out of tune, but still sounds good. Then it\u2019s a good song. I like to believe that anyway. <\/span><\/p>Does that kind of confidence, like you\u2019re saying: \u2018we know if we spend time on it, it will get to where we want it to go\u201d\u2026. Do you feel like that\u2019s confidence that\u2019s come with spending so much time in the industry and working on the music. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah and sometimes we\u2019ll just keep hitting the wall, but we\u2019ll go there until we get it. Sometimes we might keep working back and forth on the same song for a year. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s healthy or not. Maybe we should move on, but i just want to crack the thing. <\/span><\/p>LE: We waited ten years for [\u201cPeanut Butter Jelly\u201d\u2026 take a break and come back. <\/span><\/p>CK: (laughs) yeah never give up. that\u2019s it. <\/span><\/p>That\u2019s an interesting note, I think both of you guys (with your other projects as well) have a much more long term mindset than most people in the current climate of this industry where I see a lot of young kids asking artists \u201ci\u2019m an aspiring producer, can you give me some advice to get famous tomorrow\u201d and it\u2019s like, well no, how can you actually build a career that means something and grows organically over time. Do you have any thoughts on long term thinking in that regard? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah, all the time. Never, ever, ever, follow anyone else. You have to be original and do your own music. I\u2019d rather have people hating my music than saying it sounds like someone else. <\/span><\/p>I heard in an interview a while back that this project grew out of a gap that you perceived in the dance music spectrum, do you think that\u2019s still true? <\/b><\/span><\/p>LE: That\u2019s really how it started, that\u2019s what got us into like \u201clook, no one is doing this thing.\u201d We didn\u2019t even know exactly what that thing was.<\/span><\/p>CK: It was DJs, track guys, producers who are super talented but very few songwriters. It was \u201csongwriting\u201d that was trying to figure out how to write a song on top of a track and they were trying to stumble upon all these things and like, force this vocal in between a thing that wanted to be without a vocal. Sometimes it works, most of the time it didn\u2019t work or it just sounded like a remix to me. It might be an amazing remix, but it still sounded like a remix. And to me, that\u2019s not how you write a song. to write a song you have to be open to change every part while you\u2019re writing. Okay, i want to go here. You may have to change a chord or you have to remove a part. You have to be free when you write a song to be able to let it go where it wants to go. <\/span><\/p>Another thing I really have noticed is that a lot of your songs are somewhat subversive. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: What do you mean by that. <\/span><\/p>I know that you try to make happy sounding or \u2018feel good music\u2019 without being cheesy, but it occurs to me that some of these songs\u2014like \u201cForever, Tonight\u201d really strikes me with the lyric \u201cWe\u2019ll have forever\u2026 tonight.\u201d It\u2019s almost\u2026 subversive or aware of itself in a way that a song by Katy Perry can\u2019t be. There\u2019s another lyric from that song about \u201cburning in the sky\u201d but it\u2019s actually \u201cburning evergreens.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cWait, what?\u201d In a way it strikes me like almost the album Kid A,<\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah, yes.<\/span><\/p>Where it\u2019s like just pieces of thoughts\u2026. so everyone is kind of bringing their own euphoria to your music and you aren\u2019t instructing people on how to feel their joy. I am just wondering how deliberate that is and if avoiding clich\u00e9 is an active part of your process. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: I guess so, but I also think that \u201cForever Tonight\u201d is just a feeling we kind of live by. Everyone does it, but you just kind of have to admit that you do that. You get to that place where you actually think that tonight is forever.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a very immature thought but I love that thought, it\u2019s so good. We wanted to capture it in a song. actually we have a few others coming that\u2019s kind of the same theme. <\/span><\/p>Of course, staying away from cliches, but there\u2019s been a lot of songs where people actually misunderstand what we\u2019re trying to say. <\/span><\/p>Can you give me an example?<\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Like have you listened to the lyric of \u201cSmile\u201d? <\/span><\/p>No, I don\u2019t think so. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Well, it ends \u201cSo smile, cause you know nothing at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>Charming. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: (Laughs) Yeah so people always say \u201cIt\u2019s so happy\u201d but it\u2019s actually a really sad song for us because we\u2019re kind of like\u2026 there are some people, we wish we could smile like that. <\/span><\/p>I mean even in PBJ, there are some lyrics that are like\u2026<\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Yeah it\u2019s pretty dark\u2026<\/span><\/p>Yeah, it\u2019s so weird! There\u2019s a lyric that goes\u2026<\/b><\/span><\/p>\u201cDo it like I owe you some money?\u201d<\/span><\/p>Yes! I was sitting there going \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d That is so strange! And then that dark voice goes \u201cVisualize it.\u201d and it was just so strange! I mean even in, this isn\u2019t a Galantis song, but [Miike Snow\u2019s] \u201cGenghis Khan\u201d. That is such a weird, weird, dark way to approach the subject of jealousy in a way that is also so much more honest.<\/b><\/span><\/p>Yes!<\/span><\/p>It\u2019s so much more honest than a cliched attempt to capture that feeling. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: \u201cI get a little bit Genghis Khan.\u201d <\/span><\/p>That\u2019s almost psycho. That\u2019s really dark. <\/b><\/span><\/p>Do you see the pattern here??<\/span><\/p>Yes, I mean war mongering rapists have never been as palatable as in that song. <\/b><\/span><\/p>LE: He\u2019s a sociopath.<\/span><\/p>I think it\u2019s so interesting then that people just hear what they want to hear and love it. When you made that song Runaway (U&I), did you feel that it would be so huge? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: We felt that it was the perfect for our audience. We felt that we had just released an EP and had a little bit of success and earned a few fans and we were devoted to giving those fans another song that sounded like Galantis but took one step further even. So we pushed everyone to believe in that one and we kind of felt like we\u2019d release that and then maybe release a \u201creal single\u201d which we didn\u2019t have to do because it turned into that. I don\u2019t think any one of us believed that that was going to happen, but we believed in the song in terms of being a \u201cGalantis song\u201d and being big for people that were going to listen to our music. <\/span><\/p>I think people really respect your chops as songwriters and producers. I\u2019d love to get a playlist from you of songwriters that you really respect. Not necessarily in your genre, just people you respect. <\/b><\/span><\/p>LE: can we send that to you? <\/span><\/p>Yeah of course. I\u2019ll admit I thought to ask while I was riding the train here listening to [Bruce Springsteen\u2019s] Nebraska and I thought, if anyone knows other good albums and artists people should be looking to, these guys are gonna know. <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: Bruce is one, for sure. I started working for Quincey Jones when I was 22. I did all his stuff for his label and worked with him in the studio the whole time. <\/span><\/p>Who was maybe your favorite person to work with or a story you remember about that? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: I actually really enjoyed working with Madonna. I think she\u2019s one of the most hardworking people I\u2019ve ever worked with in the studio. <\/span><\/p>What was she like? <\/b><\/span><\/p>CK: She\u2019s just.. she doesn\u2019t leave the studio. She\u2019s just behind me whispering or screaming shit like \u201cThat reverb wasn\u2019t there yesterday\u201d and I\u2019m like \u201cum, yes it was,\u201d and then I look and of course it wasn\u2019t. Alright, doberman ears. She\u2019s just hardworking and she\u2019s actually really, really good on every level of music production. <\/span><\/p> \"\"\/","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our latest exclusive interview, Galantis discuss the importance of a good song and why “pop music” is problematic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68837"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68858,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68837\/revisions\/68858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/earthquakemix.com\/boom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}