Interview: Trentemøller - 'Memoria' New Zealand Shows

Danish electronic producer / composer Trentemøller performs in Aotearoa for the very first time this winter, celebrating the recent release of his darkly majestic 2022 album Memoria with headline dates at Wellington's San Fran and Auckland's The Powerstation. Joined by full live band for these special events, including DÍSA and Silas Tinglef (2nd Blood), Anders Trentemøller kindly squeezed in time to chat with Tāmaki electronic artist Ex-Partner — delving into Memoria's ideas and dream-pop / shoegaze textures, his ever-evolving life in music (spanning six studio albums from 2006 onwards) and more...

Trentemøller

Thursday 15th June - San Fran, Wellington
Saturday 17th June - The Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets available via livenation.co.nz

Ex-Partner: I've got some questions about your latest album Memoria first, if that's alright?

Trentemøller: Yep.

I was wondering how you came to settle on this particular dreamy shoegaze sound and direction, and how that process of finding that sound differed from how you may have found it in your previous records?

It was not something that I'd really thought of when I started doing the album. It was just a natural development and somehow a lot of the songs had that vibe to it. Most of the times when I'm doing a new album, I'm trying just to start by scratch and really not have any plans or any dogmas on how the album should be. Just see where the music leads me and takes me and somehow it felt right to go this way. I also think that some of my early albums had some of the same influences, but maybe not as clear as it was on this album. Halfway through the album process, I just thought okay, now I really have it, the reason I had the sound let's go with that. That is very typical for me, how I work. Often in the beginning, (I) try a lot of different ideas out and go many different directions. At one point I can see a clear path then I try to follow that a little bit more, but I always try to stay open for the melodies for the songs. So it should definitely be the songwriting that dictates what I'm doing, not so much the sound or the genre or style.

Was there a particular song that confirmed what direction you were going to go in? Or was it that you had a bunch of songs that seemed to share similar things?

Yeah. The first song that I wrote is also the first song on the album 'Veil Of White'. That song has the electronic drums but still has some really dreamy guitars with a lot of reverbs and all that stuff and some noises. It is actually not guitars but it's more synths that I run through a lot of guitar effects and pedals and stuff. Somehow that defined the whole vibe and atmosphere of the album. Funny enough, the second song on the album 'No More Kissing In The Rain' was the second song that I wrote, and the third song on the album was the third song that I wrote. So for the first time I nearly wrote the whole album in a chronological sequence. That was actually quite new for me. I don't know if I will do the same with the new album that I'm working on, but it somehow felt natural. That was also why it ended up having that shoegaze, dreamy sound to it, because the first song had all those elements in it.

My favourite track from the record is 'Glow'. I was actually listening to it this morning with my son and he started dancing along and I kept on trying to film it, but every time I tried he would stop. He seems to like songs that have quite distinct, electronic-y, almost glitchy sounds that are like bursts of electricity or something. I was wondering if you could talk about production of that song in particular?

That song actually started out more like a dream-pop thing. Because you can hear in the beginning there are these guitars that are quite dreamy. Then I thought it could be great to go a little bit opposite what you would expect and not have the usual fuzz guitars going on. I ended up playing with one of my synthesisers and played this arpeggio thing. I really like to play all the keyboard roles myself. Because you can also put on an arpeggio effect on the keyboard, then you just press one finger and the keyboard plays all the note. But I always feel it's more fun to do it yourself, because then you can really have it exactly as you wanted it and it also gets a little bit more humanised in a way... I wanted this song to be kind of a journey. So that it started at one place then it goes into this more electronic world and then a little bit back to the dreamy stuff. It still has that melancholy vibe all the way through, but I wanted it to have that electronic feel. That's also why that song maybe is a little bit different from a lot of the other songs on the album, because it had the more strong electronic approach to it. It is a song that is really fun to play live. We jam it quite a lot because it has that groove thing going on. It's also nice in the middle of a set that has a lot of rock guitars and stuff, it's really nice to have that little island where you go more electronica. That was also the idea on the album, to have something that was a little bit different from the rest of the sounds.

It definitely sticks out for me. Did you say that you don't program MIDI with synths? You always play it live when you record?

I never draw stuff into my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), I always play everything by hand. Also drums. But sometimes I can definitely quantize and stuff like that. But I'm trying not to do it too much, because I like when you get that human feel and it's not totally in sync. I also like the idea of having something sounding as an arpeggio, but it's something that I played, because then I can change it a little bit every time and I like that feeling. That is actually what I'm trying to do in my music and I've always tried to do, especially when I make more straight electronic music always to have that human feel to it and always actually also blending real instruments into the music. Even my debut album The Last Resort had actually quite a lot of guitars on it and also live drums and stuff, even if it was manipulated quite a lot afterwards. I like this hybrid of something acoustic, warm and cold digital machine-like.

It's kind of a weird producer's dichotomy in a way, because as you progress in your journey you get more experienced and you develop the ability to have more control. But then control, you start to crave the lack of control after a little while once you become more proficient in the studio. It's sort of this constant tension isn't it?

Yeah that is totally right. I think the funny thing is the more that I have been creating music or producing music, I've tried to make my music sounding more lo-fi and maybe more un-perfect. Because I have always been drawn to more lo-fi bands like Boards of Canada and stuff like that. I didn't really have the guts to do it earlier, I'm talking about fifteen years ago or something like that. Coming from a band background, I used to play in some bands before I started doing more electronic music, that really helped me to have a little bit more confidence in the songwriting. I've always tried to focus of course on the production and the sound, but even more on the songwriting and tried to write some good songs. Have some interesting chord progressions and some melodies that hopefully works together with the music.

Now I'm kind of filling that circle, because I'm playing with my band again and I really love that band feel. It is not something that I use that much on my albums because I still play all the instruments myself. My drummer helps me play some guitars a little bit because I'm not that good playing all the guitar parts, but I'm playing all the instruments on the album. Then when the album is finished, I bring in my band and then we try to transfer the music from the album to the band and to the stage. That is quite a big effort sometimes also, because I don't want our live concerts to be like a one-to-one replica of what the album is like. It's very much about, see how we can play the music live with the band so it makes sense, it doesn't have to be exactly how it sounds on the album. When I listen to bands sound nearly exactly as their albums, I get a little bit bored sometimes, because then I could just put on their album you know?

That leads to me next question, which is, what can we expect from seeing Trentemøller live in New Zealand?

It is very much a live thing. Because we are playing with this five-piece band and we are mostly playing songs from the new album, but in the set we are also playing some songs from my back catalogue. I'm focusing very much on the latest album, because that also really fits the band set up quite well. Then we have some really cool visuals going along with that. I bring DÍSA, she's a fantastic Icelandic singer who sings with me live. She's really cool. Then the band members, they are all my heroes here from Copenhagen. I really feel that I have put together a super band, my all time favourite band. I really asked all the musicians and producers, because they actually produce music themselves and release music in their own names with their own bands, they are just the top notch of Danish music scene. For me it was a dream come true to get this band together, like an all-star band and touring with them and see how much they can give to the music. Maybe I have an idea of how the music could sound, but they come with so much input and feedback. We jam and we always change a bit of the setlist for every time. It's really nice to have that band dynamic live.

I was wondering where you got the name Memoria from?

As always with my albums, I'm very late at coming up for a title for the album. My label said, you have to come up with a title tomorrow because we are going to print, we are going to start printing the whole thing tomorrow. I was like ah, damn what should I call the album? Then I stumbled on an article about memory and I felt memories, maybe it's kind of a theme. Not just for the album but for me basically — writing, creating music, creating art if you like. Because I actually use memory in a very direct way.

Very often I'm writing my songs in front of my upright piano, I'm not doing it with a computer or in the studio but in the room next to my studio. I have this old upright piano and very often I sit there and do the chord progressions and I come up with the melodies. Because I like to not to have too many options for thinking about doing the sound and production, but really having the focus on the songwriting. I tend not to actually record my ideas but I rather like to remember my ideas. So if I come up with a nice chord progression or a song, I go home from our studio, sleep, and I go to the studio the next day and if I can remember the chord progression or if I can remember the song, then there's something to it. It was a trick that I read Paul McCartney always used. He said, if you can remember the song the next day, then there might be something worth working further on. Then I also thought about that music has same effect of bringing something to life as smell has. If you suddenly smell something that reminds you of your grandmother's food when you were a kid and you're smelling that smell, you are instantly brought back to that moment.

I think music has that same quality to it. It can really touch you through your memory, it has kind of that direct path to your heart out of your brain, your intellectual way of analysing things. Sometimes when you listen to a song you haven't heard for twenty years, you're also suddenly, instantly being brought back to that moment. I think it's quite a beautiful thing. I didn't want the album to be nostalgic or anything, I just feel that memory is a big part of our lives of course, but also a big part of the whole creative process. It felt right to use that name for the album. Then I found the latin way of pronouncing it because it sounded cool. That was the only thing about calling it Memoria. Then actually, I found out there was a movie coming out last year that had the same name. It's always hard to find a title. [laughs]

Trentemøller has traversed many genres: dance music, ambient music, post-punk, always underpinned by a romantic and expansive sense of darkness. Generally, but not always. Why do you think this approach of constant evolution and change has been so fruitful for you, when for some artists, like they try to do a rap album to use a ridiculous example, and it doesn't go too well. Why do you think it has been such a good method for you to try out new things?

For me, I (knew) that the whole electronic thing that I started off doing was a little bit limiting. I was never actually that much into the music scene of that kind of music. It was actually by coincidence that I just got signed with some of my more electronic stuff in the beginning... To be honest, I didn't really plan anything of this, it was just a natural, slow development, album to album. I always try not to think about what the label would expect, reviews and stuff like that, and really just try to be myself in the studio. Basically just see where the music takes me. I think if you are just doing the music that feels really right for you, for me, it sounds like a cliché but sometimes it's nearly like therapy for me doing music. Then hopefully, it can touch someone else also. I think that was maybe why the transition from different genres went quite easy. I actually never thought it like, now I'm gonna do like a rap album, but now I'm just gonna do this kind of an album and this kind of album. Every idea and inspiration is always up to me. Then the challenge is to make it sound like Trentemøller and not just like a copy of a band that I really like. I always try to put in my own sound, my own approach to the music and that is something that can be quite time demanding. That's also why sometimes three or four years have been in the gap between some albums, because it's not something that I do just overnight. It really is a lot of work.

I was wondering how Denmark as a landscape or an identity has affected what Trentemøller is or does? Or if you think it does play a part in the Trentemøller world?

I think that maybe not just Denmark, but the whole Scandinavian nature and climate also has impacted. Most of the time it's really grey here and dark and it's raining, so there's a lot of time to be indoors. Then we have the summer, it's starting up now and it's really nice and it's really warm. We have a lot of different seasons here, nature has always inspired me. Then there's also the whole identity of Scandinavian music that goes back, like a thousand year back. Old folk music has always had that blue, melancholic vibe to it, that has influenced me more than I'm actually aware of. As a child, when your mother sings lullabies, they are mostly Scandinavian old lullabies. They are also always melancholic in a way, so I think that we just got that melancholic vibe in together with the milk, so to speak. But that being said... it's not that when I move to a new city, my music changes, but I'm always inspired about my surroundings. Very naturally, they come into my music in a certain amount, but most of it is just part of the musical DNA.

What advice would you give to your fans in New Zealand who want to be producers and musicians or composers?

I think the most important thing is to start being around the music and just try to follow your gut feeling. That has always helped me. That can be quite hard in the beginning because you are so insecure of what you are doing and to be honest, I'm still really insecure about what I'm doing actually. I'm still trying a lot of things out, doing a lot of failures and things that doesn't sound the way I hear them in my head. But just keep on trying to pursue that sound in your head and don't listen too much to what other people say about your music in the beginning. Just do what feels right. It sounds like a simple thing but it can be quite difficult, especially when you are doing it all by yourself. It's maybe easier with a band because you have your other band members to lean on. But just stick to your gut feeling and just do what feels right to you — not what you think Spotify would like, or what people like, or what sound is trending right now and all that stuff. I think in the beginning, it's really about just playing around and having it as a playful thing to do music. It shouldn't feel like something that you are forced to or like work. It should definitely be something that's playful, that you cannot stop doing.

An addiction.

Yeah, that's how it's always been for me.

Great, I will stop the recording there. Thanks so much.