On January 19th, Elin Engstörm aka Loopsel was performing alongside Charlott Malmenholt (Treasury of Puppies) on the Closer Music stage at Lafayette Anticipations. During the set, the infectious magnetism of Swedish underground filled the Parisian air, as the two Göteborg-based artists poured out guitar loops and reverbed vocals from Loopsel’s latest album Öga för Öga .We caught up with them to discuss their local scene and international audience; dealing with thoughts of revenge and trolls in the forest.
mana: Göteborg is a rather small city with an extremely active and world-renown underground music scene. Can you tell us more about it and how artists relate to one another ?
C: It's a mixed bag. Some come from the harsh noise scene, others from a more post rock tradition, but everything is evolving and genres are constantly being combined as new creatives come to the city. It’s also a very inviting environment.
E: People here are curious about finding new and different ways of expressing themselves, and many of us are eager to put forward various forms of expressions. Although it hasn’t always been like that, I also feel like the reason our music scene is so alive is the tolerance, and the curiosity. There are no gatekeepers, nor people who deem this or that doesn’t fit in the scene. When I was younger I was part of the pop scene which was very narrow-minded. You had to listen to C86, and nothing else. But the current scene that we have shaped together is much different: there's no prestige. Experimentation is central. It doesn’t really matter if it sounds right or not.
Would you say this open mindedness has shaped your musical development as Loopsel?
E: I had been making music for a long time, but mainly kept it to myself. And when I showed my productions to Matthias from Discreet Music*, that’s when I understood I could make records out of it. I don’t think I would have realised that without him.
* Record shop and label based in Gothenburg
As members of an underground scene in a remote city, what's your audience and how do you connect with the rest of the world?
C: Göteborg artists are able to reach an international audience because there are a lot of people here who work hard to make it available. Discreet Music for example is very important in our scene because they promote local artists who have never been released before and give them a platform. When I think about Sweden, I realise very few people care about Treasury of Puppies, but there are promoters at the opposite end of the world who want to put us on. Maybe because Swedish sounds exotic to them.
E: We have a great audience in the UK. NTS helps a lot in broadcasting our work abroad. Carla Dal Forno played Loopsel and Treasury of puppies in one of her mixes, which kind of propelled us.
Your latest album, Öga för Öga explores considerations about revenge, justice and anger whose fundamentals are shared in English in your liner note, whilst the greatest part of your listeners (including us) can't understand the tracks in Swedish. How do you feel about that and how does it affect your relationship to your audience ?
C: When it comes to playing live, one of the most important aspects is honesty. If people can’t understand our lyrics, they at least can feel how honest we are about a certain subject. That’s what makes it worth it, despite all the stress.
E: Sometimes I think about people listening to our lyrics, and I’m wondering how it sounds from a foreigner’s ears. Although there isn’t much to say about the Swedish lyrics - as there aren’t that many lines -, writing in Swedish is a very personal way of working. That’s how I find a theme I want to delve into. This time round it got to be about revenge, or thought of revenge.
Where did this theme come from ?
E: Tension is just everywhere around the world, now it’s exploded with Palestine. Frustration and powerlessness were feeding our thoughts of revenge, which had been brewing under the surface.
C: I remember the Swedish political landscape when Elin asked me to collaborate with her on Öga för Öga. We were surrounded with politicians who didn’t actually care for people, who just wanted power over others. And we were having these forbidden feelings of wanting to bluntly do revengeful things, because it felt so provoking. That’s how I decided to create a web of “stolen” material that tackles the theme of revenge, and that people could recognize and translate. The lyrics in Öga för Öga are a collage of texts from the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, about a troll in the forest who wants to take revenge on humans; the Greek play Medea, and William Blake’s poem, Poison tree.
Talking about trolls in the forest, there is a sense of folk music in your last project, some may call it a more woody folk, but still. What’s your relation to folk- whether it is traditional Swedish folk, or broader folk?
E: I’ve been listening to folk music for a long time. I also have a sweet spot for lullabies and old traditional Swedish songs. Especially the vocal parts, which are very melancholic, and so dark - they’re wonderful ! I also listen to a lot of American folk.
We can definitely sense this nostalgia, and distance through the effects, recalling old lullabies, with your spin to it. Is there for both of you a need to reconnect with the past- or with past influences ?
E: Yeah, we don’t want to come too close to lullabies, that’s why we are adding these ethereal effects. But there is also a sense of closeness, with the idea that people from the past are no different to us.
C: Using echo and reverb makes sense, if we want to create a bridge between the past and the present. We are interested in tales, what creates a community and the continuity of these influences. Exploring this through music enables us to deal with the past.
What made the shift from a more instrumental music in your debut project The Spiral to the prevailing role of voice in Öga för Öga ?
E: There are two explanations to that. The first one is very practical : I created The Spiral for an art installation, and there weren’t supposed to be any lyrics. The other explanation is that I am becoming more and more interested in using the voice as an artistic medium. Lately we’ve been working a lot with choirs, getting more and more vocals oriented. It’s interesting to work with the voice, it’s limited in an interesting way. It’s a part of yourself and reflects the human soul - and I would like to explore that theme.
You both play in other bands (Monokultur and Treasury of Puppies), what led you to create your solo project ? How do you navigate being part of multiple projects ?
E: The Loopsel project started with me playing for an art exhibition. And then I realised I could pursue that, because at that moment Monokultur was a little too much for me. It was during the pandemic, and I was constantly with Julius*, we were doing everything together. Right now I don’t have much time for myself, so getting on with the solo thing is simply easier than trying to make it work with other people who are also busy. But Charlott and I have been talking about creating something new together, another project.
C: We hope this new project can be activated in 2024, we don’t want to drag it out for too long. You have to create something new so you don’t get bored of what you do, with all the rehearsals, and preparing for gigs that talk about trolls in the forest for people to not understand it (laughs).
*aka JJulius
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Interview by Mila Dutilh & Antoine Malo.
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