A few months ago the Danish/Finnish collective Liima released their really lovely second record 1982 – a dreamy electronic pop album that reflects former times while also taking a look into the future. It’s obvious that the LP’s main theme are the 80’s and that most journalists ask the band questions about this decade. As we already featured an 80’s guestmix of the four lads and we didn’t want to bore them with the same old questions (you know, about the 80s) we thought of something else: playing a little game. We prepared a little box with term-sheets from which they should pick one without looking, some form of ‘Lucky Dip’. Here are some of their best answers.
Tatu: (laughing) You have to say something about that.
Rasmus: I think about Hans from Rotterdam. It’s a nice guy that we have met. In October we were on tour and we stopped for gas at a gas station. When we pulled in, he also pulled in his car 30 meters away. I looked at him and I felt like he looked like someone who likes music. So I yelled at him if he likes music and he said yes. And then I said: we are a band do you want to buy our record? I tried to describe to him how our music sounds. He came over to the van and bought our record out of the back. Then he drove of again and we were like: wow that guy is amazing. But we didn’t have his contact info, but we had a photo of him.
So we put it on Instagram with the hashtag: #HansfromRotterdam. It took a long time but there were so many people helping via Social Media that we found him in the end. Yesterday we were reunited with him in Amsterdam. He came to the show and he was really happy. It’s very unofficial but the working title for the next album is Hans From Rotterdam (laughing).
Teenagers
Tatu: (Caughing and laughing) We were all once teenagers. That’s true. Yeah, I don’t know, today … What was it we were talking about lately? We had a walk and you suddenly came up with this thinking about when you were twenty and sort of what happened to our lives? (laughing) Life goes really fast and I still feel like I’m kind of a teenager. When we’re touring with this band in a bus the level of talking has not gone too far from being a teenager and being in high school. And that’s beautiful.
Rasmus: It’s both difficult and very exiting times. The world is so big and everything is possible but it doesn’t really feel like it when you’re in it.
Grizzly Bear
Rasmus: I think of four nice guys. I think especially of Chris Taylor who coproduced 1982 with us. And then I also think of the tour with them in October when we supported them around Europe. I also think way back to 2005 when they were supporting Efterklang. That’s how I know them. And we used to run a record label also, I actually put out the debut album of Grizzly Bear in Europe. So it’s a lot of history and old friendship and many memories. But for Liima it’s especially working with Chris Taylor.
Copenhagen
Tatu: It’s a nice little town. To me all the Scandinavian capitals are kind of small and cozy. But yeah it’s a nice city and although I’ve been there many times I still don’t know it so well. It’s like Oslo and Stockholm – they all have the royal past and it’s very distinctive. It’s very hard to put it into words. It’s a lot in architecture but it’s also in how people dress and almost how people sort of are, their identities. There is something royal about it. But Copenhagen also sort of has this roughness that I think Oslo and Stockholm are missing a bit.
The first thing I noticed that differs Copenhagen from the other two cities is that you can buy alcohol anytime.
In other Scandinavian capitals buying alcohol is restricted with this state owned shops and bar closing times. Copenhagen as a metropol has this more central Europe feeling where you can stay out late and drink anytime. Yeah, it’s a nice Nordic town with a central Europe twist.
Goat
Moustache
Tatu: Moustache is something that my father always had until his hairstyle got so white that you almost didn’t see it anymore. Somehow a moustache is a very interesting thing. I remember the moment when I walked into the Efterklang audition and Rasmus had a moustache and Jasper also had one and I felt a little bit like a joke. But I must say Rasmus is the only guy who I know that is carrying the moustache in such a natural and proud way.
Rasmus: It’s eleven years this summer.
Tatu: Sometimes I have this fantasies when Rasmus is sleeping and I’m shaving it.
Nostalgia
Rasmus: I’ve been afraid of admitting it but I’m getting more and more nostalgic.I hope it’s not in a bad way that prevents me from moving forward. The older you get there are more and more things to think about from the past (laughing). And it can be very nice to go back especially when you’re on a tour like this. A lot of us have known each other for many, many years and it’s a nice way of just remembering things together. I don’t sit at home and get nostalgic about stuff but sometimes when you’re with people and you share a past it can be really nice to go back and talk about those things.
