Axel Boman and his fellow Studio Barnhus musicians have become staples on the international house and techno scene in recent years. Axel's irreverent style and carefree approach to music, and life, translate through his productions, giving them a life and uniqueness that translates perfectly to the dance floor - and are all Axel.
Because of this, he's regularly invited to the world's top clubs and festivals, including Dimensions and The Garden Festival in Croatia this summer. So we caught up with Axel to chat about the upcoming festival season, the early Studio Barnhus and the early, freaky rave days in his native Stockholm.
Hi Axel, were very happy to have you for a minute here at Pulse. We’re excited to get to hear about your wild ride over the years and a DJ and producer and finish our chat with your take on 2014’s summer festivals in Croatia, namely The Garden Festival and Dimensions. Can you give us a description on your state of mind after your weekend of gigs? Well I’m still trying to piece together the weekend a little bit, it was a very long one, a lot of weird logistical problems and long nights. I was in Paris on Thursday and then Berlin and Cologne on Friday and Saturday with the Studio Barnhus guys. Yeah, it was great, I’m happy and exhausted, so that’s my current state of mine. It was a nice weekend for our Studio Barnhus parties, it’s always a great thing when you get to take care of the whole night from start to finish, you start when there’s no one there, then bring the crowd together for the peak and then back down again, until no one is there. We took care of the whole trip.
Tell us a little bit more about Studio Barnhus... It’s an actual studio located on Barnhusgatan street in Stockholm. It’s kind of in the commercial tourist part of Stockholm near Drottninggatan, where the tourists buy all the commercial shit when they’re on vacation. Yeah, it’s kind of fun. The studio is in a basement; we don’t have window so it’s kind of isolated and cozy. Then you walk out and there’s all the tourist commotion. You never meet anybody that you know over there, which is strange for Stockholm. You have to walk through 3 or 4 doors to get to the studio, so it’s kind of our little secret. Not even the people we share the house with know there’s a studio down there [laughs].
How was the house and techno scene growing up in Sweden? Was there anything in particular that made you think, “Hey, I want to make it in this scene?” When I grew up, Stockholm was kind of a shitty place for clubs and electronic music. Right now Stockholm is in its dancing prime, it’s really amazing right now. A lot of clubs are competing for bookings and there’s a lot of young producers and illegal parties, but when I was young, there were only illegal parties, most live electronic music was played at bars. It meant that the DJs were learning to mix kind of eclectic and fast, it wasn’t a dance floor, so you had to entertain a different crowd. So I guess that shaped me a little bit, in terms of thinking about my music. I guess I thought a little bit bolder, like if you grow up in Berlin you think about your specific style of house music from an early point on, but that wasn’t really possibly in Stockholm in the early 2000’s. I guess that has shaped me in terms of my broad pallet of sounds.
According to you, when was your breakthrough moment as a producer? Well the usual answer would be my release of “Purple Drank” on DJ Koze’s label Pampa Records. But actually there were many moments that define where I am today. The first defining moment was when I bought my sample drum machine, Yamaha RMX 1 groovebox, a very simple machine, but a very good one. The other moment would be when I played with DJ Koze in Stockholm, I got to know him back in the days when people gave each other demos on CDs, and I gave him “Purple Drank.” And then I’d say forming the Studio Barnhus. We’re celebrating our 5th year soon! We were just three guys that needed studio space and we started sharing it, then it turned out to be a very life-changing thing. When you look back at it, it was the start of something that none of us could have expected.
Had you three played together before you got the studio? Yeah, me and Petter played together, we were friends before. Kornél we knew as the prince of techno in Stockholm at the time; a very famous underground phenomenon at a very young age.
Do you remember the first time you really feel in love with electronic music? The first time I really fell in love with music was when I went to this legendary rave-place, back in 1994. I remember this place didn’t even sell alcohol. They opened at midnight and were opened really, really late. I guess a lot of people took drugs, but I was a little bit too young to kind of see that part of it. For me it was just such an exciting moment to be there, in a room where Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahläck were playing. There was this huge, huge shipyard that they used for the club – it was this amazing space. I was like “Wow, I’m so happy this kind of thing exists, where you were totally welcome just the way you are!” You could be the person you wanted to be, nobody was looking at you even though you’re young and weird. It was a welcoming world for a person feeling a bit outside and lost. All of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, there are other people like me!” The music was loud and strange and dangerous.
Lots of DJs and producers have a certain seriousness and structure when they produce and play music live. Your structure seems to be a bit more un-analyzed and creative than most. How would you say this is expressed in your music? (Laughs) Well I think I really try to make techno, and this is what comes out. A lot of people tell me that it’s really different and eclectic or naive and fun. These are words I hear a lot about my music, but I honestly try to make techno. My sound isn’t very intentional, but of course I’m aware of its playfulness. I like the fun in other people’s music, like Matthew Herbert and DJ Koze and even Four Tet and Caribou. I totally love serious, hard music, too, but it comes out another way for me I guess. When I sit down and try to make a really strait song, I get halfway through the process and go ah, fuck this. When I stop having fun with it, I change it up. I think I’m also a guy that over analyzes things, so I need to keep it more fun.
Have there been any artists who have inspired go beyond the traditional boundaries of genres? I think what still shaped me the most was when I was listening to hip-hop. People like DJ Mugz and all those guys. Hip-hop has a very close relationship to playful things, it’s all for fun and not taken so serious. They just don’t care about anything; they don’t give a fuck. I like this punk attitude of using whatever is around, you don’t have to limit yourself to certain sounds and machines. This is still very inspiring to me. Since then, of course, electronic producers like Herbert and DJ Koze, and the Beatles and Beach Boys… stuff like this really shaped me.
What do you think of the current hip-hop scene? Very confused (laughs). There’s not a lot of stuff that I feel at the moment in hip-hop. What I enjoyed about hip-hop has gotten lost a little bit. It’s now living in other styles of music. It has new homes. Also the relevance of hip-hop has changed, it was the voice of young, rebellious people trying to express their frustrations through music. It was a sort of distraction from reality, similar to what techno was for me when I was younger. Hip-hop used to be about dancing, graffiti, good beats and expression. There’s still a lot of cool stuff coming from Chicago, but I don’t keep my ears to the ground as much as I want too. But I don’t want to come off as a music snob or anything, when I’m at home alone I listen to pop on the radio.
You’ve previously said that your debut album, “Family Vacation,” was a blend between tracks you produced a while ago and recent edits you’ve made as you’ve grown as an artist. How has your sound evolved with experience or releasing your first album? I’ve learnt a little bit more about how to make sounds sound like I want them to sound [laughs]. I’ve been better with dynamics and technical stuff. Some of the early tracks on the album were made in the days when I didn’t really know if my music was going to be released or not. And now, I’m in a position where maybe all the music I make might be considered for potential releases. I don’t know if that is necessarily a good thing for the creative process. I used to make music for me, not for a potential audience, so the awareness that the music you make could be considered – I don’t think its good for an artist to know that all their music will be judged, priced and be a part of a musical catalogue. If that’s in the back of your mind, it changes your creative process. So on “Family Vacation,”| some of the tracks were made free and young and some of the later tracks were done with an awareness of commercial possibility. It’s a strange blanket that you put over yourself.
What do you find the most challenging aspect of producing your own music? The most challenging thing is to feel that you’re still doing relevant things and that you’re not producing boring and repetitive music. Using the same tricks, while trying to be innovative, is hard, but there are definitely methods to keep fresh ideas flowing. Also, recording everything you do is a good thing. Right now I’m very excited by the thought of going to the studio and plugging new things in and getting different machines to work together. Of course, I use my laptop and Ableton like a lot of producers, but I also have a collection of analogue machines to mix sounds together in a unique way.
Do you like to play vinyl often? Of course! I’m a huge vinyl collector and I’d love to play only vinyl if possible. But you have to be careful that you don’t get disappointed. If you bring records to a party you might be disappointed because their setup is made for playing digitally. Sometimes the record players are put right next to the speakers and your records jump or you get feedback and you think, “Fuck, it’s not worth it.” So I try to rip and record all my vinyl. If you’re playing at a festival, it’s usually not good to play vinyl. But if you’re playing at Robert Johnson in Frankfurt or Panorama Bar or Zukunft in Zürich, it’s the absolute best for playing vinyl.
This summer, we’re finding your name on some of Europe’s top festivals, including The Garden Festival early July in Croatia and Dimensions late August in Croatia. What was it about playing both festivals in 2013 that made you want to come back? Both The Garden Festival and Dimensions are absolutely amazing festivals and very, very different at the same time. You could say they’re each other’s opposites, but both spectacular. The Garden Festival is intimate and small.
You get to hangout with all the artists playing, and after a few days you get to know them all, and the crowd as well. It’s a weeklong festival, so you really become close with everyone and you feel at home the whole time. On the other hand, Dimensions Festival is massive. You have to queue up for these spectacular stages and hang out with fellow ravers. But it’s also a festival where you can see every DJ you love, the lineup is absolutely crazy, you can make your own schedule of stuff that you want to see, and after a few days you’ve heard sets by all your favorite artists. It’s hard to get that at any other festival.
What are you looking forward to most at The Garden Festival and Dimensions? I’m very excited to see some of my best friends. Literally everyone that goes to play at The Garden Festival comes back, they tell their bookers, “Hey, we need to play there again. Doesn’t matter how much they pay me, please book me again.” I’m looking forward to playing with my Swedish friends, Genius of Time. We’ve played there together before. I’d say my favorite part of Dimensions is the location. It’s such a cool place to play. It’s located in a large old fort. It’s such a breathtaking location; you can’t even imagine it without being there. The first time you see it, you’re like “Fuck, it’s so big.” You get lost, and then find a new spectacular corner of the festival. It’s like an amusement park for electronic music lovers. While at The Garden Festival you lay on an air mattress between the water and the stage, where some DJ you wouldn’t expect is playing the best set you’ve ever heard. Everything is warm, friendly and cozy. Both festivals have very different energies, but both amazing.
We can’t wait to see you in Croatia, Axel! Lastly, if you could thank anyone in the music industry for giving you the inspiration to get where you are today, who would it be and what would you say? Well I’d have to say my older brother, for bringing all those acid house records back from London in the 90ies. Thank you Tobias!
Catch Axel at Dimensions Festival, taking place at the abandoned Fort Punta Christo from 28th August – 31st August near Pula, Croatia, and The Garden Festival, taking place in Tisno, Croatia from July 2nd – 9th.
Festival photos credit www.timertl.com and Dan Medhurst.