Photo by Christoffer Lind.
Swedish duo Hampus Klint and Einar Andersson released their debut album Värd Mer Än Guld on London/New York label Cascine last autumn in the shape of Ditt Inre. It’s pretty rare for Swedish acts to go abroad before doing it locally – especially considering that their lyrics are sung in Swedish. But since Ditt Inre isn’t riding on the same wave as other contemporary Nordic acts are, I guess you can say that it makes sense. Ditt Inre seem to be shaping their own sound with music that sound like a mixture of Swedish 90s pop and a slowed down version of Röyksopp.
We caught up via email when we all were on the go to speak about their mixtape that they’ve made for us and what’s hiding deep within their collaboration. Oh and by the way, Ditt Inre translates to “your inside” in poetry-Swedish.
Noisey: Let’s get straight in to the basics. Your name, Ditt Inre, literally means inside. Do you prefer to listen to sounds inside our outside? Speakers VS headphones?
Hampus: Outside. In a big factory space. In front of an entire wall filled with speakers. But sometimes it feels good to lock yourself inside and keep the music to yourself.
Einar: Headphones are good when you produce music and want to hear details. Otherwise I prefer speakers since headphones almost reveals too much.
How do you describe your music?
We’ve heard loads of different comparisons. The latest one was how it would sound if Familjen swallowed a can of valium and played record with standard Swedish vocals. Journalists always want to put things in boxes. We like to say that we make electronic pop music for people with a broken heart. We used to describe [our music] as contemporary music with one foot in the future and one in the grave. That’s how we work a bit; we bring elements and inspiration from both the past and current times that we try to make something new of.
How important is technique when you produce music?
Computers, analogue synths, guitars, bass, piano, harmonica, tambourinem – we’ve used it all. Samples are an important part. That gives the song an extra dimension and a certain atmosphere. One example is “Månljus” that starts with people buzzing on a beach.
PC or Mac?
Mac without a doubt.
Why?
It’s easier to get a creative urge when you work with a machine that appeals to you and invites you to dance.
Right. How much do you compromise when you produce?
Not that much. Or, obviously since we got signed with Cascine, more people are involved and have opinions about stuff, which sometimes can be a limitation. We sometimes have to compromise between us, too. It happens a a lot that we like the same thing but in different ways. Then there’s the problem when you want to develop something. We have to find a way to meet in between when we want to head at different directions. But it’s fun when you create something that doesn’t become exactly what you had in mind, but you like it anyway.
So how does your music taste distinguish itself from each other? I mean is there anything that Einar likes that bothers Hampus and vice versa?
Hampus: I think we complete each other very good and have pretty similar opinions on what we like. Sometimes I think that Einar is a bit too much focused on how “you’re supposed” to create an order of chords or what matches well with each other in theory. When I’ve nagged enough and finally got something through – that he really hates – he can come back to me the next day, when he’s listened to it again, with a complete change of heart. It’s usually the skewed stuff that we’re mostly content with.
Einar: Hampus wants “effects” on everything without knowing what exact sort of stuff he’s after. Like, he can say that he wants something to sound metallic. I have no idea what that means and he’s unable to explain it. In music, theory, system and patterns are important things for me. Hampus likes the feeling.
Hampus: Ha ha. I’m trying to learn terms for stuff – I guess I’ll have to buy a dictionary. It’s not that easy to explain to Einar about stuff that I have an exact vision of how they sound in my head.
What do you appreciate to most with each other? How do you complete each other?
Einar: Hampus is the genius behind many melodies and skewed key changes, which are often insane. Sometimes it sounds good. Sometimes not.
Hampus: Einar is extremely talented with tech stuff, but he’s also a great musician.
How long have you been making music together?
It all started as a friendship. We both had played and made a lot of music before but never anything together. One day – under certain influence of alcohol – we made a song together. We uploaded it on Soundcloud and it’s been going on ever since.
Tell me about the mixtape.
It’s made to be listened to as a whole. It follows a story and has its own electronic personality. It begins with a Nordic caress that moves on pretty fast to become a rigid and crisp landscape. It returns in the shape of a rhythm and the entire mixtape ends in somewhat a collective ecstasy.
Did you focus on something particular when you chose music for it?
Hampus: We chose to not compromise with any of the songs that we wanted to feature. We managed to make it good as a whole even though we made it unnecessarily difficult for us.
Einar: The mixtape jumps pretty much between different styles of music. We tried to make it with songs we like no matter of genre, which isn’t that easy. It’s hard to make a tight mix when neither keys nor rhythm are even the slightest close to each other.
When do you think it’s the ultimate time to listen to it?
Whenever. The ideal would be during a warm summer night together with a bunch of drunk, dancing friends and bottle of sparkling wine.
Can you tell me about a personal memory of sound? Like, the first time you got a pair of headphones or got hold of speakers that changed the way you experienced music.
Einar: A strong memory for me was when I as a 12-year-old discouvered Text To Speech. I spent many hours trying to get that English synthetic voice to say profanity in Swedish.
Hampus: I have a clear memory of my dad recording a cassette with Michael Jackson on it when I was really young. I listened to it all the time in a small freestyle. I think that’s the first memory that shaped my interest in music.
So what about Ditt Inre’s favourite memory?
There are plenty. When we’ve heard our songs on the radio for the first time. That’s really special. And when we played at Debaser last winter was loads of fun, too.
What are you looking forward to right now?
We just released two amazing remixes of our song “Formulär 1A” as well as we’re working on some new stuff. We might end up playing at some festival this summer – ask our booking agency!
Finally, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “bass”?
A fist in solar plexus.
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TRACKLIST
01. Jan Johansson – Polska från Medelpad
02. Burzum – Rûnar munt þû finna
03. COMMIX – Japanese Electronics (Mental Moog Remix)
04. Karma Kid – Try as you may (Feat. Module Module)
05. Dave Angel – Counter Wave (Jamie Anderson Remix v.2)
06. Yves De Mey – Transfer #2
07. Pan American and Komet and Fis – The Passage
08. Murcof – Memoria
09. Alex Smoke – Dust
10. Axel Boman – Barcelona
11. Akiko Kiyama – Rabbits (Takashi Watanabe Remix / Ditt Inre’s Blodburen Edit)
12. Baths – Miasma sky
13. Goldroom – Embrace (Bixel Boys Remix)
14. Ditt Inre – Formulär 1A (Hilmer X vs. Yourhighness)
15. John Martyn – Sweet little mystery
16. Thomas Dybdahl – But we did
17. Negishi Takayuki – Akogare (マクロス 82-99 Mix)
18. Sophia Black – OVR AGN
19. Vector Lovers – Solstice (Nanostudio Remix)
20. Blende – Sparkle
21. Ilya Santana – Disco Panorama
22. Shine 2009 – Older
23. Brenda Beachball Ray – Theme from another space
24. Midnight Savari – Rimshots
25. Jensen Sportag – One lane lovers
26. Perseus – Shadow of the beast
27. Ditt Inre – No.15 (Previously unreleased demo – exclusive)
28. Flume – Slepless feat. Jezzabell Doran
29. Panama – Always (Wave Racer Remix)
