With their latest effort Sjätte Vansinnet, Swedish postrock-band SCRAPS OF TAPE did what wasn’t necessarily to expect: they once again improved their production and songwriting and are now, more than ever in full-shape and highly aware of their abilities. We were eager to take a look behind this ever-present formation of passionate people and luckily, they took some of their time to answer us a few questions. Read here what they had to say about their newest record, DIY-ethos and the need to stand up and fight for a better society.
Hej there, thanks for taking the time – at first: Maybe you could introduce yourselves to our readers?
SCRAPS OF TAPE is a group of friends that have been making music together for about 14 years. Our sound is something along the lines of post-rock/indie-rock with a strong DIY mindset and a willingness to experiment and explore new sounds. The most important thing is to have fun playing together and make music we feel is our own.
You’ve recently released your new record ‘Sjätte Vansinnet‘ which became Album of the Week on our site – how was it for you working on it?
The whole process was pretty drawn out, with us working very hard in short periods of time. Most of us live in different parts of Sweden, so we usually meet up during weekends a couple of times each year to write and work on the music together. We recorded it during ten days in May of 2013 together with Erik Sunding in Malmö at Discrete Motion.
This album feels like the logical next step from our last album Resident Flux. We’ve sharpened the sound and wrote the new songs with a better understanding of what different roles we have musically in the band right now. Resident Flux was basically a live-album with all of the songs recorded live in the studio, and this time we worked more in the studio to shape the songs, while still trying to preserve a very ‘live’ feeling.
How did you come up with the title of ‘Sjätte Vansinnet’ (the sixth madness)?
The title was something that Johan came up with a while ago, that has several meanings in swedish. It’s a play with words where the expressions Ett Sjätte sinne (A sixth sense) and Vansinne (Madness) is combined to create something that means approximately The Sixth Madness. It’s a phrase that’s hard to decide if it’s something negative, or something positive. It’s a great description of what this band means to us. It’s something exceptional that we really are proud of, but also something that’s close to an obsession or madness in us, something we can’t seem to let go even tho it might be best sometimes.
What is madness to you – an exception or the rule?
There are different kinds of madness, it all depends on the context.
You mentioned it: In contrast to ‘Resident Flux’, there seem to be a lot more compromised and very ‘thick’ arrangements on ‘Sjätte Vansinnet’ – would you agree and is that a result of different songwriting or of another kind of production-emphasis?
It’s a result of the songs being pretty intensive in themselves but also a more focused and extensive mixing period. We worked really hard on the mix together with Magnus Björk to find a sound that really made these songs justice. The common thread between all the songs is the intensity, joy and madness that propels them forward. We think we managed to capture that feeling well and make the album very focused.
I’ve recently been to Malmö for the very first time and I’ve really liked it there. For me – growing up in a very big German city – it seemed small and cozy on the first sight, but then also very urban and open minded. As I now live, study and work in a smaller, more conservative German city, I’ve really felt home in Malmö very quickly. What’s your impression on that – is my idea of Malmö right?
Parts of Malmö is very openminded and inclusive, while other parts are very segregated and marginalized. Since the last fifteen years, the rule of Malmö has been left-wing, which has put a lot of effort into transforming the city from an industrial one to a city that has a lot of focus on the arts, culture and social topics. Malmö is a very multi-cultural city with over 40 % of it’s inhabitants being from other cultural backgrounds (than traditional swedish), and this means a lot to create a creative and eclectic identity for the city.
Whats your favorite city to visit or to live in and why?
That’s a tough question, but we all really like Berlin a lot. It has a lot of comparisons to Malmö, being a leftist city with a big and diverse cultural availability. Maybe it’s a cliche answer since all swedes love Berlin.
Traveling has never been easier – do you think globalization and easy and cheap travel opportunities help us to grow together or do they just mark our differences in look, language and life more clearly?
Like we mentioned earlier, cultures meeting and interacting is always a good thing to help tolerance and understanding between all humans to grow and easy traveling makes this more possible. On the other hand the environmental consequences of different types of transportation, and the ease of global transportation today makes our living unsustainable. We’re over-exploiting the resources of the world and this is something very alarming.The ease of travel/transportation is a complex issue.
You guys are in the business for over ten years now and I assume that everyone in the band has to live their different everyday lives. How do you manage to keep up the passion for SCRAPS OF TAPE? Especially in today’s harsh environment for small bands…
Simply put, it is our sixth madness. It’s most of the time beyond us to be honest. Our DIY background plays a big part. We have no illusions about what it means to play in SCRAPS OF TAPE. We will never get anything for free, and probably never make it big. We work hard and we do it because we want to, that’s it.
Beside your passion in music – what else do you find worth to fight for? We always wonder about your hope for our society and environment and what you are passionate about?
For us a big part of touring is meeting new people but especially being able to reach out and inspire others, and in turn be inspired by the different types of people that we meet. To work against the norms in society that keeps telling us what we can and cannot do, what we are supposed to think and not to think is really important to us.
In these times when right wing-extremism is gaining more and more ground all over Europe once again, we as a left-wing minded band feel that it is very important to stand up and fight for a tolerant and equal society that we can proud of handing over to our next generation.
Morality is one of my interest emphasis in University I always wonder how other people – maybe without such a theoretical background like I have – think about moral values and responsibilities. Are they still important nowadays?
To answer this without writing an essay on the subject; We as a band take the view of Kants categorical imperative.
We’re coming to an end, so, you already talked about it, but as our magazine is called NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION we always ask this one last question: What do you associate with ‘Hope’ and ‘Passion’?
Right now, FUGAZI actually feels like a good answer to that question.
Interview: Julia Freiburg und Henning Grabow
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