GRIP — Celldöd

Briefly introduce yourself and what kind of music you make?

Hello, my name is Anders. I come from Stockholm, Sweden. Europe. Far up in the north. I make music with a strong DIY ethos. I’m not interested in the over polished or in doing something exactly the way somebody else has already done.

If Celldöd took the shape of an animal, which would it be and why?

Maybe a giant squid. A really big and battle scarred one, with only seven arms left. I’d be fucking around with whales and ships from time to time and then go back to the deep to do my own things, down in the mysterious and mythical dark.

How did you become involved in making music and how did Celldöd come together?

Listening to music has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always enjoyed banging on stuff and making all kinds of noises. As a kid I wanted to start a punk band but never bothered to learn even the three chords needed for that.

I’ve had many different projects over the years. My idea with Celldöd is to boil down all my influences and ideas to the bare bones.

You are based in Stockholm, Sweden and also grew up in the region. How have your surroundings shaped your understanding of music and the music you make?

There was a pretty good punk scene in the surroundings where I grew up. Punk was the music that really started it all for me. My brother gave me a cassette with the first The Clash album, and his friends gave me punk posters that filled my boy room with. Later on I got into electronic music, and post punk, and I started to meet like minded people as well. At the same time I started to go to clubs and I got exposed to dance music.

You work with electronic music but there’s a strong punk aesthetic and mentality present in Celldöd. Has combining these influences been an easy mix for you or has there been some cultural collision between these musical worlds?

It’s always been very natural for me. I think it would be harder for me to try to go the “other way”. I could never do polished, smooth, music firmly rooted in one genre, even if I wanted to. For me most good music has a punk edge to it.

From the early rock of Bo Diddley and The Animals over to the Detroit and Chicago house and techno. Motörhead. Grindcore. The New York post disco scene was very “punk” and experimental in a way that you could dance to. And the early EBM scene moved back to the synth punk sound of the early electronic pioneers and combined that with proto dance beats and basslines. That’s where my roots are, it can’t be any other way for me.

Punk “died” around ’77, when I was a small kid, and punk was around long before that, in folk music, in blues and early rock’n’roll. Punk will never die. It’s a state of mind, not a specific sound.

What drives you to make the art that you do?

That’s how I live. If I can’t create I would fade away. Or explode. I always work on ideas, or make music, drawings, video art. I build stupid little robots, dioramas and machines or whatever. Often just for myself. For my sanity. If I ever got stuck on a deserted island I’m sure I’d make some “coconut animals” or whatever I could work with...

How do you balance between the recording process and live performing? Does either play a bigger part?

I love doing live gigs. The energy, the interaction with the audience is really awarding. People dancing to the music I perform is a great feeling. I also love to meet people making music, the enthusiasts organising clubs, festivals and concerts.

The recording process is more of an isolated thing for me. That’s where I feed my introvert side. I escape into my own world with my ideas and machines.

Using hardware equipment plays an important part in your method of making music. What kind of meaning does it have in your process?

It’s not a statement in any way. I’m NOT interested in discussing things like “what sounds best”. As long as people follow their own ideas. Don’t be lazy! I just like the process of working with hardware more. I’m really not a computer guy, I have an old tired computer that I can’t do advanced stuff with, and I like to tweak and hit on things (I’m trying not to hit on my computer, sometimes it’s hard).

What is going on with your music at the moment / do you have some future plans?

I'm releasing a 5-track vinyl on the Italian label Out Of Tune on April 14. The release, Vargen Kommer, is a dirty, dubby, weird and funky EP. Sound snippets and Pre-order here.

What would you name as the biggest highlights or hardships in your musical history?

I’m trying not to think in terms like that. I have, of course, good, and not so good, music memories. I try not to push myself down when things don’t go as planned. At the same time I try to learn from my experiences. When an artist you admire says something good about what you do, that’s always a highlight. And when you get a dancefloor boiling with energy, it’s really something.

There’s a distinct aggressive and glitchy style for example in your music videos. How do the visual aspects of Celldöd come together and what kind of a role does it have for you?

I have always been interested in visuals in different forms. Video art, stop motion, cartoons, experimental film and so on. I make my own videos and I would like to do collaborations with other visual creators in the future.

If you could collaborate with any past or present artist/band which would it be?

Oh, that’s a hard one to answer. Maybe Topper Headon laying drums on one of my tracks. Or working with burundi drummers. Or maybe having Annie Lennox doing vocals. That would be awesome!

Recommend three artists everyone should know?

A lot of the music I grow up with is pretty underrated in one way or another. I think a band like Siouxsie and the Banshees should be just as recognized in the mainstream world as Bruce Springsteen. And on the other side of the alternative spectrum I’ve think the post disco industrial sound of Ike Yard and and the machine rock’n’roll of Executive Slacks still sounds really fresh and deserve more praise.

Last words of wisdom?

Make art for yourself, if somebody else likes it, great! If not, keep on doing what you do, for yourself. It’s good for the soul to create.

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Celldöd
celldod.bandcamp.com

Briefly introduce yourself and what kind of music you make?

If Celldöd took the shape of an animal, which would it be and why?

How did you become involved in making music and how did Celldöd come together?

You are based in Stockholm, Sweden and also grew up in the region. How have your surroundings shaped your understanding of music and the music you make?

Hebosagil live in Utopia, Turku. Photo by Aleks Talve.

It’s always been very natural for me. I think it would be harder for me to try to go the “other way”. I could never do polished, smooth, music firmly rooted in one genre, even if I wanted to. For me most good music has a punk edge to it.

From the early rock of Diddley and The Animals over to the Detroit and Chicago house and techno. Motörhead. Grindcore. The New York post disco scene was very “punk” and experimental in a way that you could dance to. And the early EBM scene moved back to the synth punk sound of the early electronic pioneers and combined that with proto dance beats and basslines. That’s where my roots are, it can’t be any other way for me.

Punk “died” around ’77, when I was a small kid, and punk was around long before that, in folk music, in blues and early rock’n’roll. Punk will never die. It’s a state of mind, not a specific sound.