Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music received responses to an e-mail interview with Andreas Hauer-Jensen, Nis Bysted, and Mads Heldtberg of Düreforsög on December 4, 2004.

Xtreme Music: Congratulations on the ten year anniversary of Düreforsög. You’ve recently providing exclusive downloads of Düreforsög’s rare release from 1994, “Replacing Hinges Or…” What could you tell us about this rare demo tape and what reflections do you have from the early years of Düreforsög?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: Well, Nis and I attended the same school in Copenhagen, Denmark. My first encounter with Nis was in second grade when he entered our class, weird looking and way too tall. I thought that was the guy to hang out with. At first we were into painting miniature fantasy figures together and later we began to listen to music. Then Rune entered our class and we began to play as a three piece called “Waiiing”. Nis played guitar, I played drums and Rune played ashtray, wall, exhaust pipe, and scrap piece of metal we found on our way to rehearsal. We had no vocals at first. The only rule was we didn’t want to play any cover songs, because everybody else was doing that. Also, none of us really knew how to play so we had to make up our own music.

Nis Bysted: We rehearsed at a youth club and everyone else there picked on us, because all the other kids wanted to be a grunge band. I don’t really know what we were doing, but it was mainly just really abstract rhythm parts with one note guitar riffs on top. If one of us fell out of the rhythm or made a mistake we would have to do ten push-ups. This went on for about a year and a half, then we met Boriz at Handball practice. We were really in to handball along with music. Boriz was really evil and hard with the ball. He would always aim after people’s nuts so we figured he would be able to handle the vocals well. Jess from the parallel class joined in on bass and we became Düreforsög. Oh yeah Boriz was really into death metal and grind-core, stuff like that, which we weren’t that familiar with, so that added a new element to our set of rules.

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: The “Replacing Hinges Or…” tape was recorded on an 8 track machine at the youth club. The teacher there, “Tubas”, was really enthusiastic about us, so he engineered it. It was recorded in a couple of hours one evening and mixed the following week. It was so exciting, we hadn’t even played any live concerts at the time. At first we played schools, youth clubs, and later on we started playing at clubs in Copenhagen. Our debut record was released by a small independent label in 1995. The single got some airplay on national radio and we got signed to a big Scandinavian pop label called Mega Records. The president of the company was a real nice but crazy guy, he saw us as his new bizarre wonder kids.

Nis Bysted: All the songs from the demo tape were re-recorded for our debut album “Knee” in double tempo. I don’t think anyone at the record company realized what they had gotten themselves into when they signed us. “Ace Of Base” was their main artist! Every day after school we would go to the label and hang out, as in eating their lunch, drinking all their free soda, and stealing taxi tickets. It was fun!

Xtreme Music: I was first introduced to Düreforsög’s music through watching the music video to “Beach”. This still remains one of my favourite songs from Düreforsög. What highlights can you provide from the making of the “Beach” and “Living In Vain” music videos?

Nis Bysted: Our friend Adam Hashemi directed both music videos. He wanted to be a film director, so we set out to do the videos on our own with him. Adam and I lived close to each other, while we were still staying with our parents, so on some nights we would write these small stories with intent to make music videos of them. We had no money, so Adam would use all he had earned from working in his mom’s toy store and even paid for the 16mm film. His mom would make sandwiches and drive us, so it was actually like a family production.

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: “Beach” was the first of the two, it was pretty basic. With “Living In Vain” we spent more time on developing the script and also got some actors we knew to play the parts. We were very specific on the look and the colours we wanted for that one. Adam was later encouraged to make a TV series of the “Living In Vain” video by Nicholas Winding Refn who did the Danish box office hit “Pusher”. We did a pilot for the series entitled “Covac”, there’s a trailer available on our web site. Again we did the whole production by ourselves and of course also wrote the music score. Boriz played the lead role as the robot. The series sadly never became reality.

Xtreme Music: Your second album “Exploring Beauty” was released on Billy Gould’s Koolarrow Records. How did you first meet Faith No More bassist Billy Gould and what have your experiences with Koolarrow Records been like.

Mads Heldtberg: We just found the Koolarrow Records website, and sent him a mail. Billy Gould liked the music and artwork, and that was that. Though opening for Faith No More back in 1997 probably helped. Since then Koolarrow has put out the album Engine Machine as well, and Billy came to Denmark to help us mix it. The main objective of the label is exposing different music to the world, and that´s what they do. So working with Koolarrow has been a good thing for us. Mixing with Billy was cool and strange because we had never let anyone “treat” our music. It turned out really good in my opinion.

Xtreme Music: Where does Düreforsög find their inspiration musically and lyrically, especially for tracks like “Beach”, “In My Shoe”, “A Racetrack”, and “Nothing At All”?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: Boriz writes most of the lyrics. Some of them are just words or sounds and other things are more specific, but you have to figure out which is which by yourself, we can’t solve that mystery for you.

Nis Bysted: Lyrics are strange, I mean it’s hard say what you mean by them. You mean what they say and what people want to think about them, nothing more or less. “Nothing At All” is pretty straight forward though. It’s just us shouting about that there’s nothing on the radio, the TV, or in mainstream media in general. When I say us, I believe a lot of people think that turning on the radio or TV makes them want to throw up or possibly even die on the spot.

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: “Beach” was one of the first tracks we made for our second album “Exploring Beauty”. It started out with a simple rhythm part, and then we put the melodies on top. It was the first track we wrote that was in the same tempo all the way through, and without stop and go breaks. At the time we were much more into textures and experimenting with recording techniques and new sounds.

Xtreme Music: Who are your main influences and how have they shaped Düreforsög’s musical direction?

Nis Bysted: The main thing about Düreforsög has always been to be curious and just explore every possible kind of music or sound out there. We could name billions of bands that we have been into, but I guess someone like The Residents have always been favourites of ours, I think we were very influenced by them from the start.

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: It’s also very inspirational when artists try not to repeat themselves and push the boundaries for what a music act can do, also in terms of cover art and visuals. Although we very much consider ourselves a rock band, we’re not necessarily into the rock way of doing things.

Xtreme Music: What innovative production techniques do you incorporate into Düreforsög’s music?

Nis Bysted: Innovative production techniques as you put it is just all the fun. We like and practice all of them, including recording “Zoiwa” and “Escho”. Lately we’ve been thinking a lot about dub techniques, or just making loads of different random mixes, and then cutting them together. I really like it when mixes get out of control, if you know what I mean. Like the Hi-Hat is way to loud but you don’t manage to remove the pitch shifter and turn it down, before the B section, because you need time to remove the echo from the vocals or something like that. It’s just about making mixing as a part of playing, instead of automating everything.

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: We don’t like the idea of a definitive version of a track. I’d rather do three or four radically different mixes of a track and then choose afterwards which one is the best, instead of doing a boring compromise.

Xtreme Music: Düreforsög has composed original music commissioned by the artist FOS. How does your music for gallery exhibitions in London and Copenhagen differ from your album releases?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: FOS is a Danish conceptual artist that we have worked on and off with for the last three years or four years. He also did the cover for “Engine Machine” and we had some listening sessions with him, where he said weird stuff to us and made drawings and diagrams of our music. Then we were part of his exhibition “Inhaling Human Suffering, Exhaling Well-Being” in 2001. The music there was some altered “Engine Machine” tracks, some looser structured stuff, and one time we even did a Lee Hazelwood cover because he asked us to. But I would say that the main difference is in the interaction between us, the audience and the non-concert vibe in which we perform the music. We have also been part of some of his art courses and played tracks in between a lecture on monetary anthropology.

Xtreme Music: You’ve had extensive live tours throughout Europe with Düreforsög. How have the live performances been going and what has the crowd reaction been like?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: That depends on whether we are supporting some other act or we are the headliners. But we’ve never actually had anything thrown at us. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Rune once punched a guy and he fell into the drum kit.

Xtreme Music: When would you say has been the best or most memorable experience in Düreforsög’s musical career?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: There are many specific moments, but what I like most about Düreforsög is our diversity. We can make a performance at an art gallery one night and play in front of a big rock crowd the next, making both nights work. Also, we started out at a very early age and we have been able to more or less stick together all these years, although we have had some line up changes.

Xtreme Music: Düreforsög members have also contributed to independent films. What can you share from your experiences of script writing, set building, and sound design for these films?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: We all have different skills and interests in other fields than music and it’s very good for us to try and develop those and not get stuck. It’s something we see as a supplement or a natural extension of Düreforsög. Mads has done a lot of sound design and jingles for Danish National Radio. Both Nis and I have done film music and music for exhibitions.

Xtreme Music: What can you tell us about your extra-curricular activities in the Danish avant-garde scene?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: We have done a lot of stuff with other Danish acts. We had a side project some years ago with our friend the sonic folk wizard Goodiepal. Mads, Nis and I also play on some of his records. We have done lot of things with a Danish writer and composer called T. S. Høeg [aka Dane T.S. Hawk], and I played drums in his big band for a couple of years. Then there is Ordkløver which is the Danish word for hairsplitter. It’s Boriz’s Danish poetry backed by Nis on guitar and me on drums. We play libraries and book clubs and places like that. At the moment Nis, Mads, and myself also play in The Bleeder Group, which is a ten men/women rock group led by Danish punk legend and guitar hero Peter Peter Schneidermann. We have just released a new record called “Sunrise“.

Xtreme Music: And finally, what can we look forward to in the future for Düreforsög and their music?

Andreas Hauer-Jensen: At the moment 3/5 of the band are occupied by their duties with The Bleeder Group, but maybe some time next year. Right now we’re totally into vocal groups so we are hopefully all going to start singing, but who knows. We also have some ideas for live costumes, long white ropes with green stitches and stuff like that.