DNKL

​“Battles” embodies those polar opposites. There’s gargantuan FOR BDK-style synth melodies that glide like bats on night mist, and brooding, almost elegiac solemnity in vocalist Claes Erik Strängberg’s voice (he’s also in Immanu El, if you happen to recognise his name). Though fairly synthetic in timbre, there are reams of piano lurking in the background like a South London bedroom producer soundtracking urban solitude. It’s something of a calling-card for DNKL, who utilise this overt electronic topcoat to almost entirely mask an organic core; they’re not just evasive in terms of Internet presence. “Hunt”, lolloping with post-dubstep throbbing’n'wobbing, is a congealed slur of raspy gasps and matte vox. It’s more dancefloor-aimed than “Battles”, though it’s also seemingly more morose – though it’s got a strident sense of pace and movement, it’s not likely to entice crowds to cut shapes.

We had the chance to speak to the band and shed some light on DNKL, where we discussed their background, being band in Gothenburg, and their plans for the future.

Hi guys. Could you just give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do?

Claes: Hi! So we are three close friends living in Gothenburg making electronic music together. We’ve played music since we were kids in different bands, and we decided to start this project a year ago after spending time in a studio together experimenting with new sounds. I sing and play guitar, and Jonatan and André handle the electronic side of things.

So there’s quite a bit of mystery surrounding you guys at the moment. Was it a conscious decision to remain in the shadows?

Both yes and no. We didn’t really have the intention to be totally anonymous (our friends and people around us knew about this new project more or less since we started), but we really wanted to put the music in the focus instead of the people behind it. To us it’s far more interesting letting the music speak for itself.

How did you come up with your sound?

We started off just experimenting with sounds and rhythms in Jonatan’s studio, and after a while we had a couple of tracks that we felt we really wanted to develop into songs. We’ve always been inspired by dark and mysterious sounds, and art in general (it’s the country of Bergman they say…), so we’ve kept the soul and core of the music around that mood, no matter if we are working on a slow, calm song or if it’s an energetic and upbeat dance track.

What gets you up in the morning (besides your alarm)?

Living next to a primary school and those kids know how to be extremely loud way too early in the mornings…

Ever since we graduated from high school the most important thing for us has been to work with something creative of our own that is challenging and evolving. Working with music has been both a journey and goal for us for as long as we can remember, and through music we met for the first time years later. It’s what keeps us going.

What musicians inspired you when you were kids? How about now?

Haha, that is really different depending on who you ask in the band. Really different…It goes from Pink Floyd, Spectral Display, Edgar Froese, Mogwai, Sigur Rós, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The War On Drugs, Sonson, Hammock to bands like Sun Glitters, Depthford Goth and Ásgeir.

Can you sum up your sound, for people who’ve not heard you yet?

Hmm… Electronic Noir Pop.

I hear you’re from Gothenburg. What’s it like? Is it a good place to be a new band?

André and Jonatan are originally from Gothenburg, I’m more of an outsider who moved in. It’s a lovely city, people are in general very relaxed and down to earth compared to other places in Sweden. We like to call it the biggest small town in the world.

It’s all about what kind of music you play. For most genres it’s a pretty small local scene. Swedish press like to compare all music from Gothenburg to a specific kind of Gothenburg-sound and that just makes us feel very tired. But, as for many Swedish cities, there are a lot of support from government funded cultural organizations that can help out a lot when starting up a new band.

Do you have any favourite places there or hidden gems we should know about?

The best time of the year in the city would be around the Way Out West festival in Slottskogen, a huge park in the middle of the city. During that week in August the whole city comes alive. The best thing about Gothenburg is its archipelago, that would be the hardest thing to be without, if we ever moved from here. Day trips to the seaside or to the islands outside the city are highly recommended during summer!

Who’s the best band/artist in Sweden right now?

Tough question. In no particular order: I Break Horses, Jonathan Johansson, HNNY and Frida Sundemo.

You’ve recently had your first shows ever – how did they go? What did you do to prepare?

They went really well! We got to support the German duo Hundreds during the release tour of their new album. The shows were held in old theatres and concert halls so it was very special. To prepare we first of all had to buy a whole lot of instruments to make it possible… it’s important to us that we try to play as much live instruments as possible and that the live show adds something extra to the songs that we’ve made in the studio. We got the opportunity to rehearse in a borrowed room at Yaki-Da (a night club in the city) during the days they were closed, and for the final rehearsal we invited our friends before hitting the road. Must be the best way to start a tour!

Were you nervous about them at all? How did you feel on stage?

We were not that nervous… we had fun. It feels different and very special to play the songs we’ve been working on in a studio on a stage with a huge sound system in front of hundreds of people, so we really enjoyed the time on stage. We were more nervous about technical issues. A lot of things were fixed in the last minute, but generally it all went really well.

What will you change/keep the same for future shows? What did you learn from the performances?

We learned a lot more about how to handle the equipment to make our set more dynamic. It’s a lot of technical stuff to handle, and in the beginning those things tend to create problems.. we learned a lot from that. Luckily André is really good with machines.

Live shows should be dynamic. It’s just nice to change a few things between the shows but mainly we will try to add more tracks to the set. When we supported Hundreds we played for 25 minutes and at the Roskilde Festival we need to play twice as long. We would like to try to make even more developed live versions of our songs that we can play around with on stage.

How did you write and record “Battles”?

The foundation of “Battles” was originally an idea Jonatan had on his laptop, which was actually stolen one late night while on tour with another band. We spent a lot of time trying to re-create that track in Andrés studio and after a really long time we ended up with something that we think sounded even better than the first version. We experimented a lot, maybe too much, with layers and attachments for Battles, something that was really fun but that gave us a headache when we started mixing the track. Finishing the track took a lot of time but in the end we were really happy about it.

How about “Hunt”?

Hunt started out as a jam in Jonatan’s studio. At the beginning it was quite different, with just a dark synth melody that we added a beat to (that melody is still there but most hearable during the outro of the song). After playing chords on the piano to that melody we got some really nice ideas, and we were actually pretty amazed how quickly things fell into place. Out of nowhere we found the lead synth melody for the chorus and at that point we knew we had a special song on the way.

What do these songs symbolize for you?

They probably symbolize a lot of different things for us, but lyrical themes are actually pretty similar for these two tracks. They both tell a story about realizing who we really are throughout our struggles of endeavour. That we are not perfect, that we will never be satisfied and that we need something better, something more than ourselves to put our hopes in.

Can we expect a longer release any time soon? An EP/LP?

There are a few more songs finished and even more tracks that are currently in progress. We will definitely try to make a first proper release soon and we are actually talking to a few labels and other partners about it. As soon as we all agree on a suitable way to release our music, then we think you can expect a release pretty soon. We certainly can’t wait to show you the new stuff.

What were you doing this time last year? What do you hope to be doing this time next year?

One year ago all three just came back from a long period of touring with other bands and we started to talk about what to do with the tracks that we had going with this project. In a year from now? Hard to say. We hope that we are in the middle of touring with DNKL to promote our first EP/LP release… but we might as well have moved out to an island, smoking pipes and saving our beards. Probably we will be doing something that has to do with music.

Do you have any more shows planned? Are you planning to head to the UK any time soon?

Yes, we will support Com Truise for a few shows in Europe in May and we just got another festival booking in May. So there will be some touring just before the summer starts. Hopefully there will be a couple of more summer festivals confirmed the next weeks as well. We’re actually also looking into possibilities to play in the UK right now so let’s hope we find something that could work out soon!

What’s on the horizon for you in 2014?

We will make more songs, release more music and play more shows. It feels like we just got started.

You can download “Battles” for free by heading here. They play Denmark’s Roskilde Festival in June.