Alvar - Electro-industrial specters from Sweden

Alvar are a Swedish band based in Stockholm, rooted in electro-industrial. Originally formed as a duo made up of married couple Johanna Backman and Jonas Fredriksson, the band's ranks now also include Jimmy Svensson and Fredrik Djurfeldt. Alvar's work shows an interesting convergence of different strands of post-industrial music: from Cold Meat Industry influences to the electro-EBM of Klinik. All of this is accompanied by techno-industrial excursions and claustrophobic atmospheres reminiscent of Haus Arafna.

We exchanged a few words with Jonas and Johanna on the occasion of the release of their album, "I Sew A Blanket Of All The Broken Clouds", released on Dirk Ivens' Daft Records (The Klinik, Dive, Absolute Body Control).

Why did you choose the name Alvar? What does it mean?

Jonas Fredriksson: I come from an island called Öland, where you'll find "Det Stora Alvaret", a vast limestone plain located in the southern part of the island. That's where I grew up. My favorite spot is Dröstorp, a completely deserted village, abandoned by its inhabitants at the end of the 19th century.

Johanna Backman: I can vouch that it's a magical place to be.

You started out as a duo, but today you're a four-piece, right?

JB: Yes, we started as a couple, but by now we've been playing with Jimmy and Fredrik for about a year and they've become a very important part of Alvar, especially live. It felt natural for them to become part of the band.

JF: They're the best possible travel companions and hugely talented guys too. Just listen to their own work: Jimmy as Yabibo Hazurfa or Fredrik under the guises of Boar Alarm, Analfabetism and Severe Illusion. Pure magic!

In Italy, a lot of industrial music fans know Sweden through Cold Meat Industry artists like Brighter Death Now, Mz.412, Raison d'être, Deutsch Nepal and so on. Looking back at the Scandinavian scene of the Nineties, which bands and projects influenced you the most?

JF: The Cold Meat Industry label was probably one of our main influences. I've collected tons of CMI releases over the years. Last year I went to the label's 30th anniversary concert here in Stockholm and it was fantastic!

What about current bands? What do you usually listen to?

JB: Do you mean current bands in the industrial scene? I'd say the Swedish project Hjärnkultur, and of course Trepaneringsritualen.

JF: And Brighter Death Now. I think Roger Karmanik still feels vital and full of energy. "With Promises Of Death" only came out a couple of years ago and it's definitely a great album. But we don't only listen to industrial and electronic stuff. I think bands like God Machine, Swans, Spacemen 3 and Loop (especially the album "A Gilded Eternity") have been just as important, or maybe even more so, for Alvar as bands like Front 242 or similar acts.

JB: We also listen to a lot of dub. The compilation "Rhythm & Sound", for instance, sat in our home stereo for quite a while. We're also huge fans of the Swedish musician Thåström, probably one of the best artists you can see live right now.

JF: And, of course, there's always Throbbing Gristle, Klinik and Coil...

How would you describe your music? EBM, techno or electro-industrial? Which of these genres do you feel closest to today?

JB: I don't know... EBM? Sure, if we're not talking about old-school Electronic Body Music. Industrial if we mean music like Throbbing Gristle, not the American version of industrial music. Or industrial-techno...

JF: I don't know either. We could be whatever you like, I really don't care. Call us whatever you want. We just make our music and it doesn't matter if it sounds like this or that.

What do you think of the current techno-industrial scene?

JF: I think it's really nice and interesting. There are a lot of great people in it, and I'm glad some of the best around today are friends of ours.

JB: So many people in that scene have been really kind to us. And yes, I really like them.

Let's talk in more depth about "I Sew A Blanket Of All The Broken Clouds", your latest work. How did it come about? What does the title refer to?

JB: We won't explain the title, but we can say it's a tribute to a Swedish musician. We started working on the album last year. Some tracks came together while we were playing them live, and some are entirely new.

JF: This album was a real pain in the neck for quite a while. We re-recorded something like half the tracks last summer because we didn't like them. They sounded more pop than we wanted.

JB: Haha... yeah! We're sick of this album now, but we've just started getting ready for the live shows and we'll get back into it. It's nice to revisit your tracks and see what becomes of them once we start playing them live. Or at least some of them.

JF: Yeah, but I guess the album turned out pretty good in the end. But who am I to judge? We're happy with it for now. And I imagine some tracks will soon start turning into something new once we start playing them live.

How did your collaboration with Dirk Ivens and his label Daft Records begin?

JB: He contacted us because he wanted to put together a CD compilation of our releases that had come out on cassette. Then it all turned into “The Guilt Kollektion” and now it's really great working with him. We really like Dirk!

JF: Sounds fantastic! Daft Records isn't a big company, and that's really a good thing. We hope to do more things together. Soon.

How do you compose your music? Analog or digital gear?

JF: It depends… sometimes we use analog synthesizers if we need them. Sometimes we use pots and pans or screwdrivers, if the song needs those sounds. None of us cares whether it's analog or digital, we use whatever we feel like using at the moment.

Let's talk about the live experience: I know it's a very important dimension for you. Would you like to tell us more about it?

JB: Yes! It's become very important. Since we started playing with Fredrik and Jimmy, we've slowly also started finding ways to express our music live. Today it's all become much more intense.

JF: We want the show to be like one single piece, not like six different songs in a particular order. That piece might differ from time to time. Sometimes we start off like a storm and leave you with silence, and other nights we slowly build our tower of babel and then tear it apart at the end.

JB: Or it could just be an explosion. A big dark storm, with a grim smile and tears in your eyes. That's what we want.

JF: We almost never rehearse all four of us together, which means we actually never know how the whole thing will sound. I never know what the others will play or experience. It's really great that we've found this way of working, otherwise I think we'd sound more or less the same at every show. Now every show is something unique. Even for us.

Do you have any plans for the future? When will you play in Italy?

JB: We'll be playing in Copenhagen on October 27th with Dive and the Danish band Negant. It's going to be a great night, I think. We're really eager to play live right now.

JF: And we hope we'll be able to release some new songs very soon… But we need to talk to Dirk about that first.

JB: Italy? Any time you want! We're ready, just call us and we'll come running!

JF: We'd love to play in Italy!

(Photo by Bengt Rahm)

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