DD “Hazy Small Hours” is chilled the fuck out. Have you always had this kind of approach with your music?
CB No, I actually started out making up-tempoish house stuff. That was about ten years ago when french filter house still was the big thing. After that I became more interested in experimental hiphop and beat oriented music like Dj Shadow, Jay Dee, Prefuse73, etc..
Nowadays I am trying to find my way back to the up-tempo stuff, but my influences are still from lots of downtempo, chilled out music.
DD Have you gotten to see any of these artists that you’re influenced by live?
CB Not the ones I mentioned, no. I live in Sweden so it is quite hard to see these kind of artists. I´ve seen Photek when he was playing in Stockholm some years ago. Also went to see Cari Lekebusch during that same time. They were both big inspirations for me back then. I was impressed by Basement Jaxx when they played at Roskilde back in the year 2000 or so. That was some crazy funk festival on stage going on. :]
DD So is the electronic community in Sweden small? Is your base of artist friends/fans strongest on places like soundcloud?
CB I would say that it is quite small. At least for the electronic music that I like. It is extremely trend sensitive here in Stockholm, and these days people are more interested in electro-pop and other “electro-influenced” genres. The house music scene is getting bigger though. And dubstep is of course getting popular.
I mostly communicate with artist friends/fans via the internet these days. Most people that want to make a living of this move to other places, like Berlin or London. But I also have some friends who still live in Stockholm of course, which is a relief. :]
DD Does the scenery have an impact on you?
CB I hope not. :] I try to not get too affected by the trends. It might affect me on a subconscious level though. I have my specific sound that I want to keep, but I also strive to sound somehow up-to-date. As mentioned earlier I try to create more up-tempo, house-influenced and DJ-friendly music nowadays. Hopefully you will be able to hear the result of that pretty soon!
I´m also working one more production based music (for commercials etc), which is a way for me to be able to make a living out of music production these days.
DD Who are some performers, living or dead that you are inspired by? What about them would you apply to your own work?
CB There are many, of course.. But right now I´m for example inspired by the melancholic harmonics from Boards of Canada. They also have a very specific “sampled” sound that I really like. I also listen quite a lot to Flying Lotus and Burial, even though my music is a bit lighter. Also trying to dig into deep house stuff from Compost records, Charles Webster, Atjazz, etc..
DD Any final words? Much respect, please continue on with your music!
CB Sure will! Keep an eye out for upcoming stuff on Swedish Brandy Productions http://www.swedishbrandy.com. Also check their other releases, they got some really nice vinyl stuff on there!
Also, check out this new documentary movie called Press Pause Play http://www.presspauseplay.com. Got some of my new music featured in the film.
– Jimi Jaxon
dd 