Interview with Erland
Before I began doing my best of myspace, I discovered Erland who is the son of a Swedish composer that began learning about music and how to play instruments at an early age. He’s now living in New York and his songs vary between emotionally effective instrumentals even to cover songs. I bought his album, Dirt Cleans here and you can also buy his other album, In the Mud Paddling Like You here. I was so intrigued by these songs that I wanted to ask this gentle creature some questions about his music, which you can also listen to by visiting his myspace page
One thing that drew me to you immediately besides the songs themselves was how on your website you have pictures attached to song samples and when you move your mouse towards the picture, the picture enlarges and a song plays. I’m an avid photographer and I love to take pictures of bands in particular while hearing the music and I thought how perfect and beautiful it was to experience both at the same time. I’m really curious if you ever are inspired by some of your pictures and that what leads to the creation of the music?
I don’t think I’m ever directly inspired by my photos.
In your bio, it says how you make up songs the moment you are recording, which leads me to believe you are a very spontaneous and creative person. Is it always so easy for you to create or do you sometimes experience peaks of songwriting when you feel you are at your best and lulls when the music and lyrics don’t come to you as quickly?
Music has always comes pretty naturally to me. I usually just hit record and go and see what I end up with if I’m recording.
What was it like to grow up the son of composer Maurice Karkoff? It sounds like you had a great deal of practice early on with learning different instruments. Did you feel pressure to create music yourself or do you feel like it just helped support you to have that musical background.
I never felt pressure to create music growing up. I was fortunate enough to have music around me growing up. I was never forced to play any instruments, I just wanted to.
You were born in Stockholm, Sweden but are now living in NY. I can’t imagine a life change like that. Can you talk about how that has affected you and your music?
Well, I’ve actually lived in a few more places, like Hawaii, the Boston area, this small island in between Finland and Sweden and now New York. It was definitely difficult moving around a lot. You’d make a good friend then leave the next day. It had its good sides too though. I had seen some of the world by the time I hit high school.
You’ve done covers of songs by The Beatles and Elliot Smith. I’m always a little intrigued by the process of doing a cover. When you approached covering these songs, did you feel the need to breathe new life into them or did you just want to record the song yourself because you had such a connection
I do cover songs simply because I like the songs. They’re just interpretations at a certain moment. I don’t think anyone needs to breathe new life into Beatles songs. I think they’re fine the way they are.
Can you talk about any experiences you’ve had performing your songs live for others?
I don’t play live for several reasons. It’d be hard to remember the songs since 99% of the music is improvised. There are so many parts and I only have so many hands. Playing live is something I have been thinking about though. I’ve performed with a looper, a device that lets you layer parts on the fly. That’s something I’ve been thinking about doing again. It probably wouldn’t be performances of songs that I have recorded though, but improv again
I think my favorite songs off of Dirt Cleans are “Thursday Moon” and “The Space Around Me” I was wondering if you had any memories you wanted to share about how these songs (or any of your songs were created?)
To be honest, I’d have to look those songs up because I don’t remember what they sound like. I can tell you they were probably made in a very similar fashion to the other songs though. Basically, just improvised. I feel like my music is just a reflection of the mood at the time.
Is there a way that you come to a conclusion about whether or not to add vocals to your songs?
Not really. Sometimes I feel like music will fit better to a song than others. Sometimes I tend to occupy the space to soon with instrument lines, so I just leave it without vocals. I can always save vocals for the next song.