luke mcgarry

Download: Fever Ray “If I Had A Heart”

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(from the self-titled full length available from Rabid)

Fever Ray is Karin Andersson split off from her brother Olaf and their duo the Knife and left to negotiate a landscape of Ballardian desolation with only permutations of her own voice to keep her from being completely alone. Her self-titled album is more like Jesus Lizard and Guns n’ Roses than is widely known. She speaks on the phone from Sweden, where the government actually pays for kindergarten. She plays Coachella on Friday. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

Who do you think you’ve heard the most music from in your life—Black Sabbath, Guns n’ Roses or Cyndi Lauper?
Karin Andersson : Guns n’ Roses.
Can you sing a Guns n’ Roses song now?
Karin Andersson : Yes, I can.
Should I not ask you to?
Karin Andersson : Yeah. Somebody played Appetite for Destruction in the bus while we were on tour a while ago and I knew the whole album. It was fantastic.
The first time you ever came to L.A., did you think about ‘Welcome To The Jungle?’
Karin Andersson : No, I didn’t. I read a book by David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, and he writes about Los Angeles—why all movies take place there because of the light, he says. It’s a city by the sea and it has this incredible light and that was something that I thought about when I came to Los Angeles. It’s like the Mediterranean Sea—it’s like when you fly down to the South of France or something. It’s very special.
You’ve covered Vashti Bunyan—what do you think of the way she released one beautiful album and then disappeared for years?
Karin Andersson : I think it’s a little bit of a sad story. She had to choose between having a family and working as a musician and she picked family—which I think was a good choice but someday I hope it will be possible for all women in the world to have the ability to combine work and having a family. Because still it’s pretty much like you have to choose.
Do you feel like you’re finding a way to do that yourself?
Karin Andersson : Yes, because the government here pays you when you’re home with kids—they pay for kindergarten and preschool and everything is free. So it’s a way to combine working and having a family. And I try to make it work. For me, it’s the same thing. For a lot of people, they might find it strange that I travel a lot and when I go away I dress out and do my music but for me I think it’s very linked to everything I do.
What is the link?
Karin Andersson : Trying to do and follow what you believe is the right thing to do. Do what’s meaningful. I think it’s important for me—I’ve become a better mother also.
You said that people are going to have to figure out how composers and performers can get paid for their work and that musicians have to become T-shirt companies or fashion designers to survive—how will working musicians have to change to survive independently in the future?
Karin Andersson : I don’t know. I think everybody was laughing when the big record labels went bankrupt but today, instead of paying money to the record companies, they pay the phone companies and they pay Apple and they pay Internet providers so the artists don’t get anything anymore. It’s very strange because we have to become much more commercialized now than ever if you want to put out music. I don’t know really what’s going to happen. It will be very interesting to see what will happen.
Is there any music that satisfies you as much as the songs you make yourself?
Karin Andersson : Absolutely. I like my music during the writing and production process—I don’t listen to it afterwards. I sing them live during the touring, and then I work with the music but it’s something else than writing and recording them. So absolutely. I’ve been to two shows this summer that I really was moved. I saw Amadou and Mariam at Roskilde in Denmark and it was fantastic and was so beautiful and very moving—it just went right into your body or heart or brain—I don’t know what it is. And I also saw Jesus Lizard for the first time. I’ve never seen them live before and I’ve listened to their music lots—it’s physical in some way when you hear something and it goes right into you. You don’t have to stand there and think about what’s going on or what do they play or what they’re wearing or anything. It’s just music. That’s the best experience.
Was David Yow wearing anything when you saw him?
Karin Andersson : He started to undress and I was alone on the side of the stage—me and 30 big men in their thirties so I just felt a little bit uncomfortable and I had to go. But afterwards I met him—I had to talk to him. I took some photos of me and him.
How do you think that your music is most like the music of the Jesus Lizard?
Karin Andersson : I think it’s the physicality. It must be. It’s hard to say, but it’s something that works with your body—I don’t know what it is.
Do you think it’s true that the human face is the most universally powerful subject for a piece of art?
Karin Andersson : I think I am very drawn to images of people, but in doing things … It doesn’t really have to be a person there or a portrait. But I think images of people are very interesting. I think masks, for example, are very interesting. Like people trying to dress out of people.
What kind of creative opportunities do you get when you’re working from behind a mask?
Karin Andersson : I think that’s a very good way to continue to work with the initial idea of the music—having the music performance and making it so much more clear and direct and hopefully stronger. That’s what they do in theater—just going into a character to tell a story much more focused and intense and much clearer.
Why do you think that the singer needs to somehow ‘be themselves’ but the actor can change from character to character at will?
Karin Andersson : I think it’s very limiting. Like a pop singer is supposed to be themselves or a private person. For me, pop is about fiction and it’s about telling stories and it’s about the performance. It’s very boring trying to perform a private person because that is also a performance and people think that it’s more authentic but I don’t know. I think pop music is a very good way to tell a story and work more in a fiction way.
Which is more important to you when you try to realize an idea—authenticity or purity?
I think it’s very important to follow the initial idea and not to compromise and for this time, for me, I’ve been training to do it this time. I’ve been working on my own and I’ve gotten to make all the decisions and not to do any compromises and not have anybody else to discuss with—to really go into the first initial idea and find out what it really is and how to make music of it and which sounds are the best and the right ones to accompany this idea. It’s kind of more like a procedure and a ritual than something else.
Do you find that process exhausting or energizing?
Karin Andersson : I think it’s very exhausting, but it’s good after—when you’re done. So I guess it’s both.
What did you do the day the Fever Ray album was finished and you could turn out the light switch and walk out the door?
Karin Andersson : I started to work with the live show right after.
So you didn’t take a break?
Karin Andersson : No. In the live show I started to look for visual directors and I started to work with the visual side of the album.
What are the benefits of constantly challenging yourself like this?
Karin Andersson : I don’t know what it is—it’s just a feeling for me that it’s very important that I do this. I just have to. It’s a very strong feeling.

FEVER RAY WITH JAY-Z, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, PUBLIC IMAGE LTD., THEM CROOKED VULTURES AND MORE ON FRI., APR. 16, AT COACHELLA AT THE EMPIRE POLO FIELD, 81-800 AVENUE 51, INDIO. FESTIVAL OPENS AT 11 AM / $269 / ALL AGES. COACHELLA.COM. FEVER RAY’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM IS OUT NOW ON RABID. VISIT FEVER RAY AT FEVERRAY.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/FEVERRAY.