Efterklang have been a favourite on the CMU stereo ever since their debut album 'Tripper', but it was their second offering, last year's 'Parades', and the simply stunning live shows that came with it that really made us fall in love with them. Their rich, orchestral sound with nods to post-rock and an ear for good pop should be required listening for every man, woman and child. The band play Summer Sundae and Field Day this weekend, so we thought now was a good time to catch up with frontman Casper Clausen to ask those same six questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Efterklang basically started when Mads [Brauer], Rasmus [Stolberg] and I moved to Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. We all grew up in small villages on an island called Als and after high school it felt natural for us to move to the capital to fulfil our dream of making music on a more 'serious' level. Mads and I lived together in a basement the first few months, where we started playing around with studio equipment and writing our first songs by using the computer as our main tool.
Q2 What inspired your latest single?
'Caravan' actually started out being an outro to another song from 'Parades' called 'Illuminant'. One late night we soloed a couple of tracks in the song and started adding some drums after listening to Moondog. These drums didn't really fit in 'Illuminant', but it created an opening to a new song, which ended up being 'Caravan'. Lots of our songs start out that way.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Our song process is usually very time consuming. Most songs start out with a simple melody or rhythm that we like, which we record on our computer. Then we add different layers, pieces and ideas upon this and start figuring out where the song wants to go. It can take months and even years to figure that out.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Quite a lot of artists influence our work. We're constantly getting new ideas from listening to other music. Lately we've been listening a lot of music by Bon Iver, Daft Punk, Beach House, Deerhunter, The National and Neil Young, for instance
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Give it a little focus and I hope you'll enjoy it.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single, and for the future?
We've been touring quite heavily during the last year to promote our latest album 'Parades', which has been a great experience. Now we have a couple of concerts and festivals left during the summer and early fall, plus a very exciting concert with the The Danish Radio Sinfonietta on 26 Sep, where we'll be playing 'Parades' from start to finish with a 60 piece orchestra. Also, we're just in the middle of finishing some music for a theatre production, which will premiere in August, and about to start a new one, which will premiere in November. We hope to begin the recording a new album in the early winter.
More: www.efterklang.net and www.myspace.com/efterklang