BUDS DIGEST 009 / FEATURE
THE
TENDER MAGIC
OF
FEVER RAY
Interviewed by BEN TOUSLEY
Photographed by MICHAEL MARCELLE
Makeup by ROMMY NAJOR
Karin Dreijer of Fever Ray, photographed by Michael Marcelle before their concert at Terminal 5 in New York City. May 2023.
With a spectacular new album and live performance, FEVER RAY’S KARIN DREIJER returns to share Radical Romantics, another spellbinding work of queer resilience.
Mixing their signature tonic of eerie atmosphere, guttural soundscapes, and compassionate empathy, the album plays like a meditation on the power of bodies moving together.
At the start of their tour for Radical Romantics, Buds’ co-founder BEN TOUSLEY sits down with Dreijer to discuss the new music, befriending one’s own anxiety, and the importance of activism through intimacy and community during our times. Photographer MICHAEL MARCELLE joins for stunning portraits before a sold-out concert at Terminal 5, the New York City venue home to now-legendary performances from Fever Ray and Dreijer’s previous collaboration THE KNIFE.
“I think a lot about performing,” Dreijer explains. “I think we are performing all the time. We perform gender and we perform a lot of different things. It does become a mix of how I want to live my life and what I would like to suggest. I think in art and in making these live performances, I want to perform a community and a friend-situation that is fun and taking care of each other.”
Read on for more from our patron saint of radical queer tenderness.
BEN TOUSLEY: Hi Karin. Good to meet you here and thank you for your time. Congratulations on the new record, it sounds incredible. How are the first days of the tour going?
KARIN DREIJER: It's going really well. I'm a bit surprised. I hadn't been doing any live shows. It was four and a half years ago, so when we started working on this, it was like you don't really know what to do. It feels like you have to start completely from scratch. It's like you have all these weird questions like, “Do I know how to sing? Do I know how to perform? Do I know how to dance or do things on a stage?” I think I'm always questioning what I'm doing.
We've been working on this live show for a long time. I started with the music with Finnish producer Minna Koivisto in May last year. We started rehearsals in November last year and choreography rehearsals and band rehearsals, production rehearsals… It's a lot of work. And now we've done five shows.
BT: You have quite a history of putting on productions and it's not just playing the songs; it's a lot of other great stuff happening as well — can you tell us a little bit about how this production is different from tours in the past? Were there things that you liked from past performances that you wanted to keep and explore further?
“Sometimes I call my anxiety like it’s a colleague of mine... If you can play a little bit with your fears, it doesn’t become so frightening anymore. To find that spot, being on the edge a bit but still smile—that’s a good place. Then you get some strength out of it.”
KD: I've been working again with Martin Falck, my friend, who also does videos and graphics. He does all of that. He has been having a creative overview, sort of, and making the costumes; part of the set design, which is not that much. I'm working again with Maryam Nikandish and Helena Gutarra, who is performing with me. I have two new musicians; an all female and non-binary band, which is amazing. We are having a lot of fun.
What's different… I think this is a bit slower and a little bit darker and a little bit more melancholic than the last show. It still has a lot of humor and it’s choreography and performance. When I look at the pictures and videos from the show, it's hard to say, but it looks like that, I think.
BT: I’m curious about the sonics of your new record Radical Romantics. It's very rich and beautifully layered. A lot of your work is, but this one in particular feels very shimmery. There's a lot of electronics, but it also has a very organic feel to it; live feeling…
Could you talk about the process you took to this sound and what you're interested in exploring in terms of electronic music right now?
KD: I have had collaborations with very different kinds of producers on this one. When I started I didn't think so much, I just went on gut feeling.
I worked on four tracks with my brother [Olaf Dreijer] this time. He's been doing a lot of dance music and producing a lot of different artists the past years. He's always been very into analog, real drums and sampling. Around the last album, I was DJing a lot with Maryam who is part of my band now. I think the music we played was very organic. I think that's a part of me. I worked with Nídia from this Portuguese label Principé. I guess one could think it’s a huge gap between that and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross [who also feature on Radical Romantics], but as I see it, they are really good at settings and atmospheres. I think that is what I look for.
I always start to write the song and record vocals and do sort of a sketch of the track myself. I think I worked like that for a couple of years before I invited these people. So I have a very clear idea, mostly, where I want the song to go; what kind of setting I'm looking for. For me, that is sound, but one could also look at it and say, oh, it's very, very different sounds…
I mix everything with Johannes [Berglund] and we sort of wrap it together, in a way. So, in the end, we use similar effects and similar vocal effects on everything. So, I guess that connects, wraps it up, sort of.
BT: You seem to have great relationships with the people you collaborate with and also sharing the stage with; going back and forth with sharing vocals. Could you talk a little bit about those collaborations and what's drawn you to them? How does the experience of the community that you've built facilitate your artwork?
KD: I think a lot about performing. I think we are performing all the time. We perform gender and we perform a lot of different things. It does become a mix of how I want to live my life and what I would like to suggest. I think in art and in making these live performances I want to form a community and a friend-situation that is fun and taking care of each other.
But it is also true because we do that on tour. It is a very sweet group of people that I work with. I think I'm very lucky they want to come back; they want to continue working. It's important. It's also a suggestion of how I think we should care for each other and take care of each other.
Especially in these times, I think it's very important to suggest something that is not so individualistic and all these neoliberal ideas about competing and just taking care of yourself… I think the community is super important.
BT: I think that comes through in your work and has a beautiful honesty to it.
There's a lot of dichotomies in your art; really beautiful juxtapositions of things like humor and darkness or sadness. The photographer for this piece, Michael Marcelle commented, in regards to what you do so well, that there's this notion that comedy and horror could be the same emotions, and that they're kind of intertwined in an interesting way.
As you're coming up with a song or an approach for a visual — there's obviously a lot of layers that are going in there. What's that process like? Where do you start or how do you end up adding it all in?
KD: I think making the music is sort of a separate thing from making the artwork and film because I almost finish all the music before I start to work with Martin more hands on. The music, I don't think so much about how it'll look, the visual side of it. That's something that happens later.
We are always collecting images and film clips and stuff, me and Martin, and sending back and forth like, “This looks amazing. We should try this next time. We have to do something like this,” for inspiration. But this time it turned out to be something completely different from what we thought a year before.
I think we are both very interested in playing a little bit with fear. I think because we have both been struggling a lot with anxiety and things, so we know how horrible it can be when you are really, really scared. And the best way to overcome that is — I mean, I don't know what's the best way — but, I think humor is a good thing. If you can play a little bit with your fears, it doesn't become so frightening anymore. To find that spot, being on the edge a bit but still smile — that's a good place. Then you get some strength out of it, I think.
BT: Absolutely. It's kinda like an act of power over it, to control it the way you want. Take it back for yourself.
KD: Yeah. Or just hug it. Sometimes I call my anxiety like it's a colleague of mine. Somebody who's always with me, always hanging around. But if I treat it more like a colleague, it's fine. It's always there. I don't love them. I don't really believe that it'll ever go away. So you have to befriend them in some way.
BT: I love that. It's a great way to motivate yourself too, right? Soften it somehow.
KD: It's too much pressure thinking, Oh, this has to go, this has to go. I think that can make it even more frightening.
BT: If you don't look at it, it's obviously much scarier; whatever we can't see or acknowledge.
To that point, with queer community it can feel like we're really under attack right now and it can feel scary. You have a song on the new record, “Even It Out” which I just wanna say thank you for making. It feels powerful to hear that at this point in my life, in our time, and to have somebody standing up on the behalf of others. But also having fun with this idea of something that's really dark and painful for people, or empowering them in that way is really beautiful… That's a great example of what we're talking about.
I know a lot of people have probably asked you about that song. I'm curious, more specifically, with this time that we're living in, how do you find hope for our community and what do you look for to know that we're gonna be okay and stay together?
“We exist and I think it’s important to keep on doing what we are doing. It’s so easy to become devastated and very sad about the situation, but there are so many people like us. We just have to take care of each other.”
KD: I think for me personally, I think it's important to do things together, to have different kinds… It can be anything; queer events of different kinds. To just be together and do things together. All these club scenes and having parties and stuff, that is one thing, but I'm also very into just hanging out and reading and cooking together. Find ways to exist together.
It's important to find the places where you can get rest and strength back, because being an activist, I think in these times, it can be very draining because it's quite horrible times. Last year we got a neo-fascist party that is now collaborating with the government in Sweden. I think twenty percent of the Swedish population voted for this party and they have roots in neo-Nazi movements. They have really fascist politics which is already causing a lot of problems for the queer community, but also for immigrants and a lot of minorities. And that is happening in so many places in the world right now.
We exist and I think it's important to keep on doing what we are doing. It's so easy to become devastated and very sad about the situation, but there are so many people like us. We just have to take care of each other.
BT: Thank you for that…
In much of your music, there's also a lot of tenderness. Your melodies and chord progressions can feel very comforting yet mysterious, like a spell. Outside of how the sounds take shape, when writing, how do you get there and where does that come from? I feel like you're particularly good at that corner of tenderness.
KD: That's nice to hear. Thank you.
I read a lot. I think this tenderness and the thing that has been very important for me to find out about is this thing; how to become friends with your fears… I think when you start to sit down with your fear and let go of everything, like resistance and the barriers and trying to avoid things that you've been doing, there is some softness that appears. Like kindness. Then there is also room for love and hope.
I read many different kinds of things. I know I've been talking a lot about Bell Hooks, this All About Love book, but I'm also very into reading Pema Chödrön, this Buddhist nun. I used to joke and say that I will probably become a Buddhist nun someday. I don't think so, because I think this work is better for me, but I'm into all practices that include a lot of kindness and intimacy and that is what I'm interested in now. I know on the last album, it was more explosive. I think intimacy is a very interesting thing to understand what it is and to find out how to create it.
BT: Looking to the future, is there anything else that you're looking forward to trying? You're kinda in the middle of the tour right now, so I know it might be hard to see what the next steps are…
KD: Yeah, but it's good to think about that because the tour will end. I’m looking into maybe I’m going to score music for a film. It's good to know, sort of, what you're gonna do when you come home, so you just don't drop. But I think we will continue [with the tour] for like one more year, at least.
BT: That’s great. Well, I thank you so much for your time, your beautiful answers and your beautiful work.
KD: Thank you so much.
