"The Kozmic Jam"

Interview with the members of the great improvised progressive space rock band Oresund Space Collective

By Sergio Vilar

How did the Oresund Space Collective begin?
Søren: It began with numerous of jams in Sweden and in Denmark. First it was just for the fun of it, and later it was off course still fun but more concentrated going to the studio and playing concerts. 

Why did you choose that name for the band?
Søren: I guess Scott chose it, and actually it’s a great name. We are situated in the Øresunds-region, we play strange music and we are a lot of people involved in the project.

Scott: Yes... I just put the 3 components of where we live, what we play and who we are all together and you get the Øresund Space Collective! It made sense to me at the time..

Imagine that you had to describe your music to people that has not heard your music, what you would tell them? How would you describe it?
Søren: I really don’t know. Obviously its rhythmical music – there’s a beat and then there’s a lot of layers of sound on top of the groove. Sometimes it sounds like real/traditional space rock but often it is completely different. I think we have developed our one kind of style, and it’s a bit difficult to describe it.

Sebastian: Lysergic story-telling…

Scott: Spaced out kraut-jazz-electronic-funky-space ROCK….

From where does your main inspiration source proceed?
Søren: My inspiration is coming from all around the spectre. I enjoy great musicians that really can play and at the same time have a strange, weird approach to music. For the moment I really don’t have any favourites, but lately I have listen to a Danish singer/songwriter named Dicte and her first band called Personal Pain. It’s nice rock with a little twist. Unfortunately they only made one album. I’m also playing some of Charlie Hunters records at the moment. 

Sebastian: Moments in every-day life mixed with the musical feelings and moods that you’re in at that moment.

Scott: I am inspired by the musicians around me and the music that I hear everyday, both old and new bands. When I listen back to a lot of our music, which I hear quite often, this inspires me to try something different and to explore our musical universe even further.

I can hear that  experiencing with new forms and sounds is fundamental in your music?
Søren: We often try new stuff. I will play some weird beats, and sometimes they work and often they don’t. The others try to expand the range of their sounds all the time and making new riffs. But we are not into the form-issue – we jam and try to avoid any kind of forms. We are more like a long weird groove-going machine.

Sebastian: Compulsory!

Scott: And people are upgrading their equipment, getting new pedals and synthesizers so we are always expanding the range of what we can do so to surprise and excite each other…

I would like us to speak of the disc that you have just published…
Søren: OK!!!!!

Could you give me a brief description of each song?
Søren: No, because I really haven’t heard it in a long time. As I recall it the CD is ok, but the next one that comes in a few months is going to be much better. I think most of us tend to forget our music, and it is actually part of the concept. We only play a song at one given point in time, it’s being recorded, we listen to it, and then we are moving in another direction. Off course a lot of the stuff we play has references to stuff we have played earlier. It can’t be different as your musical tools are limited to a certain point. It’s only few people – if any -that masters Beethoven, Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, African folk-music and music from the Middle-east at the same time.

Scott: Sure… I can try. Let’s start with “Faked it all the Way”. This was actually one of the last tracks we recorded just before “Sundown” (last track of the session and also the CD). There are no drums on this almost all electronic piece except Magnus playing some very cool guitar. “Consumed by the Goblin” is a long uptempo kraut rock inspired trip and groove with a great smooth steady tempo and some really cool spaced out electronics. “OSC Bolero”, was our most composed like piece in a way and some how reminded some of Bolero?? “Falling Stardrops” is actually and edit of a longer 27 minute piece called “Falling Stardrops” explode into Space. This is probably the best track on the CD and show cases everyone in the band and we really fly. We were not satisfied with the mix of the complete track but we will release this someday. “Grab a Cab” is a reggae inspired short piece and probably the tightest groove we had. A really nice piece. “Moonhead” is the shortest piece on the CD and is just the end portion of a longer jam that was not that good but the end we really had some magic and that is what you hear. “Sundown” was the last piece of our first session is a very long 17 minute piece with a very long and spacey start without any drums until about 9 minutes but then we all come together to create some intensity. Nice way to end the CD. That is it!

What process you do usually use to compose your music?
Søren: We are a jam-band, so composing is not our thing. But I think we all reflect on what we would like to play at the jam-sessions, studio-sessions or concerts. Perhaps I have a new grooves I would like to try, Michael has some bass-lines and so on. And then we see what will happen. The randomness and chaos is one of the nicest things about OSC.

Scott: As Søren said, we are 100% improvised. We have no pre-compostion or anything before we play. We set up and we play and see what happens. The only thing is that perhaps we will decide to play in a certain key but that is it. Total free form…

How are you distributing the work inside the band when composing? Do all the members compose or is there some main composer?
Søren: Again, we do not compose, but nevertheless we have some kind of order in our music. Often the drums and the bass will decide what happens in a song, but it can also be the guitars or the synths that start some great riff or theme and the rest of us try to play with it. Our ideal must be some kind of organic distribution between every musician. Some kind of synergy-effect where the whole actually is more than the sums of the individual parts.

How do you observe the evolution of your music with the step of the time?
Scott: We are coming together and getting more intense. People will notice a massive difference between the new double CD soon to be released on the same label, Transubstans Records and our first one. We play more together, more hard and heavy and more spaced than ever but in a very good way. Our music is becoming more complex and people are experimenting more as well.

Just as it is presented the topic at the present time from the musical diffusion to international level, would you say that for the new bands, is the only form of giving to know its work through Internet? Which has your experience been about this?
Søren: Our space leader, Scott a.k.a. Dr. Space, is doing a great job spreading our music on the internet. So the internet is a great community for absolutely non-commercial bands like OSC.

Scott: The internet is really the only option for a band like us. IF it was not for the internet, we would have a very difficult time being known side Copenhagen and Malmö, Sweden. We try to use the internet as much as possible, contacting magazines, posting in forums, creating a Myspace web site, etc… IT is the only way. I wish more people would write to us though with ideas and what they would like to see us do or invite us to play at festivals, etc..

Which is your opinion about the current scene of the progressive rock in Denmark and in the rest of the world?
Søren: I guess it’s almost non-existent in Denmark. In the other Nordic countries it’s a bit more developed. But I really can’t say. I’m sure Scott has an overview of the situation.

Scott: Well, Progressive rock basically does not exist in Denmark. We had Etcetera but they had disbanded. Mantric Muse, whose members all play in the OSC, is about as close as we get. The story is very different in Sweden, where some of our members are from. They have a lot of great progressive rock bands and fans as well. In the rest of the world, I think Prog Rock is alive and well and you can see the great success of so many bands. I think it is still hard as a starting band to break into this community but places like Melo’s Prog Bazaar (http://melosprogbazaar.com/) are about the best place on the net with really cool people who are really open.

How is the current situation of the bands in your country to put on concerts?
Scott: Well, Denmark, is the land of pop music. Virtually no rock music is played on the radio here so the people have really lost contact with really good music and everyone has grown up on awful pop, so most Danes have no clue about good music. Even basic rock music is underground music in Denmark. All bands that play psychedelic, 70’s hard rock, space rock, prog rock, all have a terrible time getting gigs in Denmark. Heavy metal is popular. We can probably only get gigs in Copenhagen and Ålborg in all of Denmark. There is a tiny bit more opportunity in Sweden but we will see. We have really not been trying that hard to get concerts until this year when we put out our first CD. Ask me again in a year and I will let you know.

What music are you listening at the present time? Something new that can recommend us?
Sebastian: “The Gram Parsons Anthology”.

Scott: I listen to a lot of different music. The things I am playing the most at present are: Seid “Creatures of the Underworld”, Gov’t Mule “High and Mighty”, Mater Dronic “Mundo Espectro”, Free Love “Apocalypse”, First Band from Outer Space “Impressionable sounds of the Subsonic”, Gentle Giant “Freehand”, and many others.

Lastly, what would you tell to our readers so that they are interested in listening Oresund Space Collective?
Søren: Have a lot of patience and you will be rewarded with 20-30 hours of music.

Scott: I think Søren really hit the nail on the head. Our music is not about a quick fix or rocking out but more about relaxing and taking a journey, thinking people’s music. If you really listen you will be rewarded as we create a lot of interesting sound and the unique thing about getting addicted to the OSC, is you can hear our music over and over and you will always hear something new and exciting in it and we are constantly evolving and releasing a constant stream of new music for the fans... Hop on board our spaceship and have a nice trip!

Thank you friends, if you want to express something go ahead...
Scott: We just want to thank everyone for supporting us and let people know we have a new double CD coming out on Transubstans Records in October 2006 called “It’s all about Delay” and it will be released in a limited edition DVD case with amazing artwork by the great Ed Unitsky (www.edunitsky.com). Visit our web site often as we put up new music all the time for free. We hope to be able to play concerts all over Scandinavia and Europe in 2007. We will see… Adios amigos!

www.oresundspacecollective.com

 

Nucleus interview: 09/09/06