man on the moon

O projeto sueco Azure Blue foi uma das publicações do ano de 2012 neste blogue que melhor impressão causou nos leitores, uma banda que suscitou alguma curiosidade de quem acompanha, com alguma regularidade, as novidades que vou divulgando.

Assim, achei que seria interessante conseguir entrevistar Tobias Isaksson, o líder desta banda, principalmente se as questões fossem elaboradas pelos próprios leitores do blogue. Como certamente se recordarão, há algumas semanas atrás lancei um desafio nesse sentido a todos os ouvintes e leitores que, como sempre, teve uma adesão massiva! Finalmente recebi as respostas do Tobias e deixo desde já o agradecimento público ao Pedro Pereira pelo excelente trabalho de tradução das questões.

As we agreed, here are the questions that me and some of the followers of my blog have for you, related to your solo project, Azure Blue and the album Rule of Thirds.

- First of all, what are you main musical influences?

I listen to a lot of different music. These days I mainly listen to new modern pop, some dance music and some hiphop but my origin is classically written pop songs. Rule Of Thirds was inspired by a combination of Adult Oriented Rock music like Roxy Music’s Avalon and pop like The Go-Betweens, OMD and New Order.

- Do you think that the nostalgia emanating from the music of Azure Blue, like some other groups from nordic origin, it's related with the weather, or it's just an option that reflects your own personal taste, way of life or experiences?

I think it’s a combination of my growing up on the west coast near the water and my experiences in love and life in general.

- Did you ever thought to play in Portugal? Portuguese people are known to usually having loving relationship with nordic music groups!

Not yet, but I hope to go there. I have representation by Green UFO’s in Spain so hopefully they can help with Portugal in the future!

- Ever thought (or proposed) to change your music style to something more commercial in order to try achieve more success in a particular target audience or just to sell more? If so, why not accepted?

It’s not that important to me with the commercial hooks. It’s more about having material that’s fun to play live in the long run, so I have a new album coming up which is slightly more upbeat. I accept all music, my songs are actually published by a major, Warner Chappell.

- I loved Dreamy Eyes… Do you have a favorite song in Rule of Thirds?

I don’t have any favorite right now, but I have a few songs that I don’t play live anymore. But everyone can hav his/her own favorite!

- How has it been promoting Rule of Thirds? And the concerts?

It’s been a great journey with a lot of great moments, but also long travels with some disappointing shows in terms of audience outcome. But all and all I am very happy for where I am right now.

- At Soundcloud I noticed that Azure Blue also as some remixes of songs from other musicians. Is this work as serious that could even lead to an album or it's more like an hobbie?
There will be a remix album with other artists remixing my songs and my remixes of other songs have been released on various records already. So it’s serious. The only thing I keep in mind is to not get stuck too long in a remix. My remixes are made very fast and spontanous. I don’t like to chop up the songs too much I just dress them in Azure Blue sounds.

- Azure Blue had won the Swedish Independent Grammy Awards - Manifest 2012, at Best Pop category. What was it like succeed to names as important as The Knife, Jens Lekman, The Embassy, The Honeydrips or El Perro Del Mar?

It was incredible. Unbeliavable. At the same time it puts some pressure on me now and I focus on making new music. I thing the upcoming stuff will be better!

- In the future what can we expect from Azure Blue? What is the next step?
The remix album, a new single and then a new album in the Spring 2013.