motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’re from Copenhagen, Denmark. How would you describe the current music scene there? Do you feel that you’re part of it?

SWASH: Besides the more mainstream acts, there are lots of niche, genre-driven scenes that thrive in smaller communities. We don’t really feel part of any one of these, but we have played with a bunch of cool bands around the city, so it’s interesting and inspiring to see what others are doing.

MOTEL VOID: Your favorite local venues and artists?

SWASH: One of our favorite venues is Loppen (The Flea), which lies in the commune Christiania – a lot of great bands play there, and it has a very intimate vibe. Then there is Underwerket, in Valby, which has a strong DIY atmosphere, and where they put up shows with lesser-known bands.
Some of our favorite local artists and bands are Deirdre, Inventory, Kindsight, Pelts and pære banal. Also Trader, who are technically not a local band, since they are based in Aarhus, but in a small country like Denmark, bands play in other cities all the time – so it kinda still feels local.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your new EP ‘BEES’. Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of this record?

SWASH: We have been sitting on these songs for ages, but for some reason it took us a long time to finish them. Our first three EPs were exclusively made by ourselves – in regards to writing, recording, production –, but at some time in the process of recording ‘BEES’, we realized it would be fun to try and ask someone outside of the band to handle mixing and mastering. So we reached out to Christian Ankerstjerne, whom some of us have collaborated with in other projects, who did a great job!
We recorded the songs in our practice space which is located in an old bunker from the Cold War era. The room has these curved concrete walls, so sound resonates really weirdly in there, and you can’t really stand up straight either. It’s not an ideal place to record, but it’s been the “home” of the band for quite a few years, so we’ve learned to make it somewhat work.

The three songs on the new EP are quite sonically distinct, but there are some unifying elements as well. We don’t think that we have “a sound”, but there are definitely recurring traits that might be seen as characteristic for the band. However, we also tried to play a bit more with our approach to songwriting, e.g. in terms of song length, structure and dynamics, so we feel that the EP encapsulates both something new and well-known for us.

MOTEL VOID: In your music you are inspired by American lo-fi indie rock. Could you name 3-5 of your favorite artists from this genre? Do you prefer ‘old 90s’ indie lo-fi?

SWASH: We do like a lot of lo-fi indie bands from the 90s, like Pavement, Guided by Voices and Built to Spill, but when the band started out, we were actually more influenced by newer bands. It’s super inspiring to see bands like Pile and Cloud Nothings, who haven’t yet been “canonized”, but have done so much in their own right in the last 10 years or so.

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for the rest of the year?

SWASH: It’s kind of hard to say – we’re not super goal-oriented, so we usually don’t rush the things we do. But we know for sure that we’d like to record and release some more music, as well as play a bunch more shows with other bands – so if anyone out there is looking for someone to play a show with in Copenhagen, reach out!