Natasha: A lot of the times it is absolutely intentional. I love how the Internet links people with similar interests together on the same platform, and I have fallen in love with quite a little handfull with great online communities. Livejournal has been my top favorite for quite a few years now, it has a great friends-list-function where you can watch other people’s journals and it also have awesome privacy settings! I also try to frequent places like flickr, myspace and probably a dozen more, mostly because I have come upon amazing, but quite different people on each individual site, so it is hard to gather all my forces in one place! I try to reply to everybody who sends me a message somewhere, but it might take me a little time before people get their answers!

The photobox site is a bit quirky for me as I know nothing about it! It must have been somebody else featuring my images on there. Even though I am grateful for the publicity, I would normally appreciate if people asked before they pasted my images on a web page I dont have control over though!

Pop Experiment: Do you make a living with your photography? If yes, could you give us a few details on how you work? If not, is there a link between your passion for photography and your day-to-day job?

Natasha: Up until this point I have always been focused on making photography be a part of myself instead of putting it on the side and outside of myself, so most pictures on my website are taken directly from my life and work as a good mood-indicator about my life in the moment the pictures were taken. I should mention that right now I feel I am at a break-through point, because after 5 years I finally feel somewhat finished with documenting ONLY myself and the little bubble around me. So I have new plans now. Greater plans. But they are still kind of secret, and I wont tell you! But keep watching frosk.org this fall, there will be lots of new great things going on!

I have made a living of my photography up until this point, but it is not as glamorous as it sounds. During the latest two years I’ve worked in a modern portrait studio where you take happy family portraits on a white background. The images I’ve taken at work are extremely different from my own pictures, and if you saw one of my images I’ve taken at work you could probably not tell that it was my image. All photographers working at the studio had to produce quite similar, generic pictures to fit into the concept. Working for the portrait studio was quite a stressful job, and you had very little creative freedom. I ended up feeling more like a factory worker than a photographer in the end.

As of this summer I dont work there anymore, and I’ve been lucky enough to get myself a little space in an atelier together with other artists. So this year I can finally become a full time artist as they say! (Haha, I still am not comfortable calling myself an artist and I probably never will!) Now I can finally focus fulltime on my own projects! I almost don’t have words about how much I am looking forward to it!

Pop Experiment: What can you tell us about the region you live in?

Natasha: As I mentioned in the start, for me one of the best things with the Internet is how it binds people together because they have an interest in common, instead of binding people together because of their location. I never had to go public with my various locations before since I haven’t worked outside of the Internet, but now that I’ve gone freelance I might have too! I never meant to hide my location because I wanted to be all mysterious about it, but simply because I liked the idea that people were looking at MY images, but they had to use THEIR mind to find a setting around the images since they knew very little about me and my surroundings. I’ve sometimes had the experience that a few special things are more beautiful when it is untouched and pure. When the image just speaks for itself.

But you have probably figured that I like places with dramatic northern, western, rugged looking nature. My favorite place in the whole wide world would have to be Northern Norway in Scandinavia. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else. With its steep rugged mountains that are reaching directly from the sea directly up into the sky. I felt incredibly in harmony with the rest of the world when I was there. If anybody has the opportunity to travel to Northern Norway they shouldn’t miss out!

Pop Experiment: What can you tell us about your background? Where did you go to school? What did you study? How did you begin? What artists or things have inspired you? Continue to?

Natasha: I bought my first camera at 16 after I made the dreadful discovery that there wasn’t a single image of me from I was 7 or 8 years old and up until the point where I decided to get a camera. I guess the family camera broke at 8, and we never got a new one until I bought myself one. I decided from that point forward that I would try to document as much of my life as possible, and that is how I started to take pictures.

I was pretty blank when I first got the camera, I knew nothing about cameras or their settings, and I just had to try and fail until I got things somewhat right. After I had taken pictures for a couple of years, people started to hire me for freelance work on the side of my drama education. The moment I was done with my drama education I never looked back and haven’t been on a stage since (but that is a whole other story)! I was luckily and very quickly offered a non-glamorous full-time job as a school-photographer, driving around for 13 hours in a car with 80kg of photographic equipment to schools all over the place. But it was a nice stepping stone for me. After working as a school photographer for half a year, I applied for the job at the portrait studio which I got. I probably wouldn’t have gotten it without my experience as a school-photographer, because I am completely autodidact, and don’t have a single hour of formal education in any kind photographic work.

When it comes to inspiring artists, my favorite photographer is Jan Saudek. Even though I look up to him on so many levels, it doesn’t mean I want to create the same type of imagery as him. He manages to turn something that otherwise would seem pornographic into something beautiful. He has always been ahead of his time in so many ways. He is a very unique individual. I was lucky enough to meet him in Prague this summer, and he has an amazing charisma.

Pop Experiment: A question that must be on a lot of your fans and online friends minds, why did you choose the nickname Frosk (the Norwegian word for ‘frog’) and why not using your real name, or a variation there of?

Natasha: When I was creating my web page 5-6 years ago I wanted a short, easy-to-remember-url, and that is why I came up with frosk.org. It is a lot easier to remember than a full name that needs to be spelled right. It was better for the concept I wanted as well - I primarily wanted to create a personal playground, and not a serious portfolio at that time. Now times are slowly changing, but I see no reason to change my url since frosk.org has become more of my trademark and signature than my name.

Pop Experiment: An age old question - what do you think of digital vs. film photography? What are the pros and cons of each type, in your opinion and for your practice?

Natasha: To me the whole film vs. digital debate is a bit outdated, it doesnt really matter as long as YOU find the right tools for yourself that you enjoy working with. I do think it is great that the digital revolution has made it possible for so many more people to explore photography, but it also has lead to the fact that a lot of the people that just bought their digital slr are calling themselves (freelance) photographers without having substantial knowledge to offer their services to the market yet. In my opinion a lot of freelance photographers need to master their cameras and photographic knowledge better both technically and theoretically before they can start offering their services to the public market.

Pop Experiment: On the technical (i.e. pratical) side of things, what basic skills do you think are needed to take interesting photos? More precisely, the type of photos you take (portraits, still life, abstract settings, landscapes)? Digital vs. film camera, brand or model of camera, type of lenses, tripod or not, etc.

Natasha: I like people with cheap small cameras that produce amazing images a whole lot more then I like all of the gadget-girls and techno-boys who have all the right gear, but still only manage to produce mediocre images. It doesn’t matter if you have the best gear in the world if you can’t operate it right or don’t have a good idea behind what you do! There are plenty of decent priced cameras which will do a great job as long as you have a good vision. You don’t need to be rich to take good pictures.

Pop Experiment: What can you tell us about the camera(s) that you use?

Natasha: I actually have a love for retro-digital cameras, like the old Nikon Coolpix series! Of course I also use digital slrs of various brands for work. Privately when it comes to digital cameras Im a Nikon-girl all the way, I could never date Canon-boy! ;)

Pop Experiment: Oh! :) Can you tell us what your “dream” camera would be? On the same subject, what type/kind of camera would you suggest for a beginner?

Natasha: Financial situations aside, I would love to get a digital medium format camera. Medium format has something about it that is almost magical to me, and to be able to practice my medium format skills without worrying about the cost of the film I think would work wonders for me.

For a beginner that would like to get serious about photography I would recommend the new Nikon D80 with a couple of good Nikkor lenses. 2-3 different lenses should cover most beginner’s needs.

Pop Experiment: Now on the theoretical (i.e. not pratical) side, what basic skills do you think are needed to take interesting photos? Again, according to the type of photos you take. Studies, books, etc.

Natasha: Looking at a lot of other people’s images has been very useful for me. I think people should know the basics about how photography works and master their camera. I took a lot better digital pictures after I learned how regular film photography works, both in the camera and in the darkroom. It makes it a whole lot easier for people to take good pictures when they have understood how the shutter, aperture, ISO-setting and the other things work together to create the image. Equally important, I think it is smart to educate oneself about composition, color theory, golden lines, etc. Basically, I think it is important to learn the rules before you break them.

Pop Experiment: You have an obvious love of rich color. What can you tell us about your relationship to/with color in general and specifically in your work? And related to that, what about black and white?

Natasha: I’ve had different obsessions (and a lot of complaints from photo-purists!) as time has gone by to how I post-treat my images, but for me I was never scared of making anything look unreal or less authentic. I think that the digital medium opens up an amazing door to shape images exactly like you want them. Many people have probably been in the situation where they have tried to take a picture of something they find beautiful, and discovered that the photo doesn’t come out the same way as they saw it in their head. The mind has an amazing filter - it purifies what we see. I’ve simply tried to recreate the mental image I’ve had of the situation in my photographs.

Pop Experiment: Your take on still life, wild life and landscape (i.e. photos of nature) is quite interesting. Can you tell us what inspires you, what’s your take, on these photos? How do you proceed in choosing your subject?

Natasha: I think my answer will be quite similar to the previous question, I think most places can be portrayed in a beautiful way if you take the right photograph, and I wanted to remember all the places I had been and all the detailed small fragments from my day to day life. As I mentioned earlier, I finally feel that I have managed to document most of what I wanted and I feel a bit finished with most of my nature images. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like them anymore or that I don’t see a value in them, it just means that I will probably have a new take on what I do from this point forward.

Pop Experiment: So you travel, how do the different locales you’ve visited inspire you? Do you see (or would you like to see) travelling as an opportunity to actively apply your skills, as an opportunity to simply relax and be inspired, or both?

Natasha: I live to travel around, and I try not to stay more than a couple of months in one place. If I stay too long I become extremely restless! This fall I’ll be around Norway, Sweden, Italy and the UK, and after New Years the plan is to go back to California (Probably San Fransisco and LA) for at least a month. Photography has always been an important part of me, and I don’t think I take that much more (or different) images when I am traveling around. But of course I get inspired by new places and people and things I haven’t seen before just like everybody else!

Pop Experiment: I understand that you have a solo show in September. How are things coming along? What do you plan on showing? What is main theme of this exhibition?

Natasha: Yes! I am very excited about my show! This will be my first solo-exhibition in a proper art gallery! I’ve had a few group shows and numerous exhibitions in cafes and shops, but taking the step into solo shows in art galleries is great for me. It is however much more work then what I thought it would be! The name of the exhibit is called “Biography” and it is self portraits and small fragments from my life. There is a grand opening at Sunday the 3rd of September at 17:00 at Galleri F, which is located in Bergen, Norway. Everybody is invited (but it might be a long trip for most people)! More information about opening hours and the address to the gallery can be found at www.gallerif.com.

I will also launch my new book at the exhibition opening. It is a 116 page, perfect bound book in full color print with 100 selected images from 2003-2006. For the (un)lucky readers of popexperiment who can not make it to the gallery to pick up a copy, it is possible to find more information about the book and buy a copy from this URL: www.lulu.com/content/383265. If anybody wants the book signed I am offering to send a signed paper in an envelope with my autograph and a personalized message. If anybody want this offer they can contact me by sending me an email after they have purchased a copy of my book. There will be more information about the book up at frosk.org by September 10th at the latest, I just need to live through my opening before I have time to update properly!

Pop Experiment: I also understand that you are starting your own firm. How are things coming along? What are the objectives of this firm?

Natasha: The firm is coming along great. Very soon I will be available for freelance and commission photography, graphics, illustration, web-work and more! There will come a portfolio-section at my website for people who might want to consider hiring me. I am hoping this will be done by the end of October, so I’ve got quite a busy fall! If a potential client needs work done before I’ve made the new portfolio section they are more than welcome to contact me through the email provided at frosk.org.

“lately it seems more as if the music making itself turns into an inspiration”

PE: How did you get into music?
ARNE: I went to music school starting age six and then when I was twelve I moved on to playing guitar. I had my first band when I was fifteen, playing mostly cover versions and a couple years later I got into more noisy pop stuff like sonic youth, dinosaur jr and hüsker dü and that’s when things became more serious and putting out a record of my own seemed possible all of a sudden. After a while I got sort of tired of playing in bands, so i bought myself a four track tape recorder and started experimenting on my own, gradually adding more electronic instruments and computer production to the mix.

PE: What instruments do you play?
ARNE: I play the guitar (electric + aocustic), I sing and I play some keyboards - I guess like most “electronic” producers in that aspect I’m mainly restricted to one fingered melodies. I’d love to be able to really play keyboards, maybe I should take a course or something. :)

PE: What do you like best about what you do?
ARNE: I think the most fascinating thing is the constant search you seem to be on, which can be very frustrating on the one hand, but very rewarding as well when things end up working out. There’s nothing that beats firing up a just finished new song on the ipod and walking through town.

PE: How do you define your sound?
ARNE: I think it’s quite diverse actually. Lately I feel pretty torn sometimes between live instrumentation (as I’ve been doing with the styrofoam live band the past year) and programmed sounds - I’ve been getting more into playing instruments (guitars, but also synths, drum machines) rather than using software and a computer interface. Apart from that i guess you could say what I’m doing is pop music basically.

PE: How do you make music?
ARNE: I think the main method is that there is no method. I love doing remixes for artists and I somehow always end up treating it as a way to try out new stuff, sounds, structures, techniques… I think my production process also changes with every new record. For instance for the new styrofoam album i just started working on I’m planning to have some of the live band involved so whereas before I would work towards a finished track, I’m now sort of producing demos that we’ll take into a “real” studio later on with different musicians involved.

PE: Has touring and releasing an album affected you or your approach to music?
ARNE: With the last Styrofoam album “nothing’s lost” it was the first time I had a real band to play the songs live and it sort of got me excited again about playing live like this, to be able to rock out, have a bigger interaction with the audience, leave room for improvisation and being able to play lots of guitar again on stage. It’s definitely something I want to turn to my advantage when working on this new album.

PE: We read in an interview with Thomas Morr that you used to run a record label called Atomic. Is this true? Is there anything you can tell us about this experience?
ARNE: Yes, this is true. It was the in-house label of the record store where I used to work back in the day. We released a series of vinyl only singles and ep’s - one of those was a split 10″ with Isan and Tin Foil Star (the latter a pre-Styrofoam project), two albums by a band called Orange Black (Dieter’s band before he started the Go Find, now also on Morr Music) as well as an Amber#2 album (the band I sang and played guitar in before starting Styrofoam).

PE: How did you become involved with Morr Records?
ARNE: Thomas Morr was working for a distribution company that also distributed the Atomic recordings releases. That’s how we first got in touch. Pretty soon after that, Thomas started up Morr Music and asked me if I would like to do a release on his new label.

PE: Could you describe your influences?
ARNE: I’m a big music freak - I’ve been buying and collecting records and cds pretty fanatically for the past fifteen years. However, there are a couple of constants, bands that I feel have had a huge influence on what I’m doing - artists such as Hüsker Dü, Morrissey, Spacemen 3, The Go-Betweens and there are more… That whole New Zealand scene with the bats, the chills, David Kilgour… electronic music (the standard fare: Aphex, Autechre…) were more important in terms of showing production techniques and possibilities of playing with sound. However - I’ve always been more interested in incorporating these techniques and sounds in more conventional pop song structures and contexts.

PE: What do you like about touring?
ARNE: Mainly the idea that producing music in my studio in the spare room enables me to travel all over the world. I’m also a “big cities” type of person (as opposed to countryside) so I always feel excited about for instance being able to travel all over north America for three weeks and get to see all these big cities.

PE: Do you have any favorite places?
ARNE: My favourite cities in North America (just to start somwhere) are Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, NYC (up to some degree), Montreal…they each have their own thing going on, very distinct from one another…Montreal definitely reminds me the most of my home town (Antwerp, Belgium)

PE: What inspires you?
ARNE: I used to feel really inspired by outside influences (books, movies, tv) but lately it seems more as if the music making itself turns into an inspiration - just being able to sit down and start creating stuff.

PE: You mentioned to us in an email that you have a day job…what is it?
ARNE: I’m running a city funded but independently run musicians’ centre here in Antwerp - it’s a huge place with rehearsal spaces, recording studio, multimedia room, lots of masterclasses, courses etc. We are also opening our own club on Sept 20th. It’s a fun job but it takes up a lot of my time.

PE: What do you love to do?
ARNE: Touring, playing with my kids, dining, producing music and performing it live.

PE: What do you love to eat?
ARNE: Seafood, asian food (especially Japanese)

PE: Is there anything you can tell us about your upcoming album?
ARNE: I finished a collaborative album with my friend Fat Jon (of the Five Deez) that’s coming out in October. We produced and wrote everything together on that one, so it’s got me and Jon collaborating on the music and the both of us singing and rapping as well.

Apart from that I started working on the next Styrofoam album a couple of weeks ago. So far I have three songs finished in the demo stage. I would like it to be quite uptempo, rocking even, lots of guitar playing and live drums. Then again, it might end up sounding totally different (as usual). I hope to have the album finished by the end of this year. I’m not sure yet if I’ll have guest singers or not this time around.

I’ve also been working on quite some remixes lately. I just finished one for an american band called the Submarines and I’m currently working on another one for Leigh Nash’s upcoming album.

PE: Who are you listening to these days?
ARNE: As I said I’m a big music geek, so I’m constantly listening to lots of different stuff. currently near my turntable/ cdplayer/ ipod: Sixtoo, Eleventh Dream Day, Ghostface, Madlib, Hefty label compilations, Built to Spill, Spank Rock, Tom Verlaine.

–

Styrofoam
Styrofoam MySpace
Fat Jon and Styrofoam
Morr Music

Albums
Nothing’s Lost (2004)
I’m What’s There to Show That Something’s Missing (2003)
A Short Album About Murder (2000)

Some Remixes
“What I Want” on “Over the Edge” by The Go Find
“Casio” on “Mixed Signals” by Tristeza
“A New Start” on “The Academic Rise of Falling Drifters” by Giardini di Miro
“Drugs Or Me” on “Stay on My Side Tonight” by Jimmy Eat World
“Cool Kids Keep” on “Set Free” (Japanese edition) by The American Analog Set
“Let The People Know” on “Let The People Know” by Five Deez
“Capable” on “Capable” by Najwa Nimri
“The Postman” on “Updates ep” by The American Analog Set
“Nothing Better” on “We Will Become Silhouettes” by The Postal Service

PE: How did GimmiJapan form?
GIMMIJAPAN: The Bass player, Ruben and I knew each other from school, and Ruben moved to London for a couple of years, but when he got back a mutual friend had started a band with this weird girl who just got out of Jehovah’s Witnesses and became a lesbian for a period. This woman turned out to be Therese of GimmiJapan. We tried to form something great for a year or so back in our hometown (Aalborg), but could not agree on the terms, so we split up and moved to the Capital, Copenhagen. Ruben, Therese and I agreed to give it another go, and began to make music as a trio with the computer as a forth partner. It worked out ok, but we needed a guitar player, and tried different people out until we found Morten who fit in perfectly and had the right approach. After that we became GimmiJapan. By the way, we are planning on recording an EP over the summer, and rerecord some of the tracks from our myspace profile. We want them to be more sensual and with less effects on vocal and drums. Also, we are planning a tour through Sweden and Finland in the fall.

PE: When did you first get into music? First band? How did the computer enter the scene for you?
GIMMEJAPAN: I (Casper – laptop, drums) started playing ´cause my dad was a drummer as well, and I kind of looked up to that. Ruben (bass) started cause he heard that it is a good way to pick up girls, unfortunately he picked the bass instead of the guitar! Morten (guitar) liked the Pixies and grabbed a guitar to be like them. Therese (vocals, organ) started in school and has a background strongly inspired by the early trip hop scene. GimmiJapan was the first real band for Therese, Morten played in some indiebands in his hometown, me (Casper) and Ruben played in a Jazz band together.

PE: What motivates you to play music?
GIMMIJAPAN: We have got a lot of stuff that needs to be said and a lot of feelings and moods are projected via the songs.

PE: How would you describe your sound?
GIMMIJAPAN: Melodic, dreamy and innovative

PE: And your influences?
GIMMIJAPAN: Wide spread between Portishead and Björk to Interpol and the Cure to electronic stuff like Lali Puna and Jazzy acts like Tortoise.

PE: What instruments do you play?
GIMMIJAPAN: Ruben Ben-Yedidia: Bass and synths/Organ — Casper Hegstrup: Drums/Laptop (Programming and Samples)/Bg Vocals — Morten Sandvall: Guitars and e-bow — Therese Bindslev: Vocals and Synths/Organ

PE: Do you compose the songs together?
GIMMIJAPAN: As a band we always make the tunes together starting with a sample or a loop. Everybody puts layers on top and we evolve towards a final track. Everybody is free to come up with ideas for melodies, structure and parts. Normally we are most attached to our main instrument and guiding each other from there.

PE: How would you best describe your process during production.
GIMMIJAPAN: In the studio our technical producer has been very good at understanding where we want to go sound wise. We usually go to the studio with finished songs but ahead of that lays a long process of selecting and trying different structures. We always record our new ideas and listen to them at home, that brings a nice progression and gives each person the space and time to work on new ideas. When we believe a song is done we ad the final programming and practice the given structure for live and studio use.

PE: What facets of this process most interest you?
GIMMIJAPAN: We all get a kick when we have a collective feeling that a song has got the right feel but sometimes there is a long way to reach that point. Between those parts, live performances are always great, and new ideas appreciated.

PE: How has releasing your EP affected you or your approach to music?
GIMMIJAPAN: First of all, it is nice to record stuff to get an outside view of the music. From there we seem to make progress. Second, it is so cool to get the positive feedback from people who listen and that is a very nice motivating factor as well.

PE: What are some of your favorite things to do?
GIMMIJAPAN: Playing live shows, recording and to make music in general. Concerts, reading books, watching movies, study.

PE: Favorite foods or drinks?
GIMMIJAPAN: We have a meat lover, a vegetarian, we like a beer, and everybody likes a chilly coke and a falafel sandwich on Sunday rehearsals.

PE: Where are some of your favorite places and why?
GIMMIJAPAN: We have played some cool shows in Finland, which have been a great experience for us as a band it has strengthened us as a band and as friends. We are going back soon and we expect it to be as cool, or even better than the last time.

PE: What are some artists you enjoy listening to?
GIMMIJAPAN: Right now we listen to The Band, Cult of Luna, Cocteau Twins, dEUS, Tortoise, Spleen United, Rufus Wainwright, Lali Puna, Magenta Skycode, Björk and Arcade Fire amongst others!

PE: What part does collaboration with other artists (either sound, visual, etc) play now or in your future plans?
GIMMIJAPAN: We see it a big force to connect with other artists. It is always a joy to help each other arrange gigs both at home and abroad. We have got good contact with other Danish bands and a few abroad as well.

PE: Do you experiment with other modes of expression?
GIMMIJAPAN: It is only music and lyrics. Two of us are collaborated in side projects. I (Casper) am involved in two other side projects, one being Amstrong, and the other Knob A Siesta.

Amstrong is a band that started out as a trip hop act back in the mid nineties, and I joined as their new drummer in 2002. Around that time they were planning the release of their 3rd album and we spend some months making new songs and planning the recording - The band had BIG plans, we were going to America to record the album with award winning producer Malcolm Burn. He had made albums with Emmylou Harris, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and so forth, so, as you can imagine, this was a big deal! Some of the other guys had been recording with Steve Albini on an earlier occasion, so they remained calm, but of cause we all looking very much forward to it. So we spend a month in his house recording and enjoying life, but unfortunately our German label went broke so when we got back we had no label to release the album on! It took a couple of years to Finnish the album in Denmark and to find the right label, but the band found a new German label, and the album “Lack of You” is now out in German and the Benelux countries and Denmark as well. I am not in the band anymore though. - We kind of drifted in different directions, and I did not feel that I got the best out of it.

My Other band “Knob A Siesta” is a duo project with an old friend, Chistian. We are both drummers but in this project we are concentrated on various effects, mixers, keyboards, laptops, amplified objects and so forth in order to create experimental ambient soundscapes with a noisy edge. Or something like that..Ahem, the music is semi-improvised and since we live in different cities we do not play together that often, but we actually have a rare show tomorrow at a Copenhagen Festival. This is a very cozy project with a narrow audience, but we love it and find a great pleasure in moving some borders in our expression. Christian is joint in lots of projects ranging from Dub to free jazz groups. We have new songs on the way that will be available on our muspace profile soon.

I just have to mention, that I am planning to release a solo album in the fall on a small label that one of my friends is starting. Not much is planned yet, but it will be electronic music as well, but with more structure than knob a siesta, and some voices and stuff as well. Hope it will come to life, let’s see.. That concludes my side projects.

–

Popexperiment would like to thank Casper and GimmiJapan for taking the time to answer our questions and we’ll certainly be looking forward to their upcoming EP.

For more information please see:
www.gimmijapan.dk
www.myspace.com/gimmijapan

Ciao!

We say it is that, plus more.

With three released albums (Computer Recital, My Petit Melodies, and Little Songs About Raindrops) and another on the way (Lullatone Plays Pajama Pop for You), Lullatone has created worlds where the sounds are gentle, interesting, varied, layered, and evocative of afternoon sunshowers, dreamy summer naps and languid days spent painting, writing, and watching the moon move across the sky.

This music is contemporarily electronic, but full of the natural world, be they the sounds of drinking orange juice, or the sense you get of being outside while listening to Lullatone at your computer with your headphones on.

Some say it is minimalist, and it is essential, using only what is needed to convey its incredibly lush sentiments, leaving the rest to you, the listener.

PE: I love the organic nature of your music and vocals. Do you have a way of describing/defining it?
SHAWN: Thank you! We usually call it pajama pop. A lot of musicians and artists seem to want to avoid genres and descriptions of their music, but I think it is fun to think about that kind of stuff. Especially if you make up your own genre name!

PE: I read that many of your songs grew out of lullabies you were writing for Yoshimi…has this changed over time?
SHAWN: Yeah, it has really. Before I would stay up all night every night. I only slept like 2-3 hours a day, so it was a good chance for me to make these sleepy sounds for her while she was snoozing by my side. But now I work with Junior High School kids, teaching English, and I usually end up playing basketball or running or something with them after school. So, I am too sleepy at night to make lullabies these days. Every time I try I fall asleep in the studio (it happens a lot).
YOSHIMI: He always woke me up in the middle of night to play the lullabies he made for me!

PE: Do you look back and see what has influenced you or do you not look at things this way?
SHAWN: I don’t usually think too much about what is influencing me. But, I think there are a lot of things. Even the weather or the time of day or what I read in a book, or… many many things are influencing me, but I don’t think about them too much.

PE: How did you begin producing music: Individually? Collaboratively? How did you two exactly meet?
SHAWN: We met in an intercultural communications class at my university in America, and we started dating almost immediately. At that time I was already making some funny, cute computer pop music and I thought it would be great if Yoshimi could help by singing because we were already spending all day everyday together, so it just seemed natural. But, all of that was for a different band. We stopped that one before we moved to Japan because it was a little too silly and Yoshimi was going to be too embarrassed to sing those songs in Japanese in Japan. For Lullatone, I usually make all of the melodies. Then, we both make some words, and I just think of the way to sing. But, I can’t sing well so it is hard for me to tell my ideas to her. Plus, my ideas for timing are really strange some time. So, she is really nice and patient for dealing with that.

PE: What instruments do you most enjoy playing? What instruments sound is most interesting to you?
SHAWN: I like playing xylophone and harp and a toy keyboard called SK-1 best. I think that they all sound really good no matter how badly you play them, and that is their charm point!

PE: It seems that you are always composing songs…is this true? How would you best describe your process during production.
SHAWN: Before, I was really always always composing songs, like 1 or 2 a day. But for the last two years I became too worried about every little detail of this new CD and spent all of my free time (like 6-8 hours a day) mixing and remixing and un-mixing and rearranging and re-editing so many little details that I didn’t make any new songs at all. Usually I make a whole song in a day and go about editing and fixing it’s production over the course of a week. But this time, I went totally overboard. I wish I hadn’t, but I couldn’t stop then because I was too in love with these melodies and I wanted to make sure that they were presented in the best way possible. But, next time I am going to try finish everything quickly again like I used to! I promise!
YOSHIMI: I hum in bath tub everyday!

PE: What facets of this process most interest you?
YOSHIMI: I like the echo of humming in the bath tub.

PE: What motivates you to play music?
SHAWN: I just want to play music all of the time. I daydream about making songs all day long.
YOSHIMI: Shawn tells me he will make dinner if I do good job.

PE: When you’re at home what inspires you?
SHAWN: Just having enough free time to be able to play with my instruments is enough to make me want to. Who wouldn’t want to? It’s so much fun!
YOSHIMI: Thing about dinner.

PE: When you are touring, what are your favorite parts of traveling?
SHAWN: I like trying food in lots of different places. For example, in Japan, every city has some special food that it is famous for. So, we always try to try the local specialities everywhere we go. So, when we make a plan to go to some new place Yoshimi always says something like, “Oh! Great! Then we can try so and so!”
YOSHIMI: We also like shopping, especially me!

PE: What are some of your favorite things to do?
SHAWN: I really really really like eating breakfast.
YOSHIMI: I really really really like doing laundry. It smells good.

PE: Favorite foods and drinks?
SHAWN: My number one favorite food is Peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. Yoshimi’s favorite food is rice. She becomes a little cranky if she doesn’t eat rice everyday. That is why it is difficult for us to travel in Europe or America.

PE: Where are some of your favorite places? Why?
SHAWN: I really like Nagoya (where we live now) because I have a lot of good friends here. Other places I have been that I thought I might like to live in are Malmo and Gothenborg in Sweden, Macau, and Montreal.
YOSHIMI: I like Louisville, Maui and Nagoya. Oh, LMN!

PE: Do either of you have a typical day? If so, what is it…
SHAWN: Usually I wake up at 6 am and get ready for work. Then I shave, eat breakfast, etc and kiss Yoshimi good bye and leave the house at about 7. Then I ride my bike for about 45 minutes to school. When I get there I get some things together for the classes to teach. Then I teach and eat lunch with the kids and teach some more. Classes end at about 3 and I usually stay at school until about 5 or so playing basketball, or soccer or something with the kids. Then, I stop by the market and buy something on my bike ride back and get home around 6 or so. Yoshimi usually gets back at about 6:30 or 7, so we make dinner then. Then after that I was working on mixing and stuff for a long time time every night until like 2 or 3. But, now we finished that so I am usually working on some kind of promotion thing instead.
YOSHIMI: I wake up at 7 am, just when Shawn’s leaving house and get kissed good bye. Sometimes do laundry, get ready and leave the house about 8:30. I work at a Sewing machine company and export spare parts and accessories to oversea. I work at gigantic factory so sometimes when I’m bored, I just take a walk around the factory. Oh, we have a shrine inside of factory. It’s nice! Then I get home around 7, then we make dinner, do dishes and after that, I just like to relax or maybe go to public bath.

PE: On your site, I read (again from 2004) that you were enjoying listening to your friends music. What are you listening to these days?
SHAWN: These days my top 2 are Jens Lekman and a new band from Nagoya called Happa No Uragawa Sisters. They are 2 girls who are going to help us shoot our next video.YOSHIMI: I like this Japanese guy Hanaregumi lately and my all time favorites are Le mans and Os mutantes.

PE: Is there anything about making the new album you would like to tell us (besides re-recording some tracks over 150 times!!)?
SHAWN: Well, I think I spent too much time cleaning up every detail on it at first, and when I listened in the end it sounded a little… well.. too clean. So, in the end I re-recorded al of the final tracks onto an old Tascam cassette 4 track recorder. After I did that, I realized we were finally done. Other things…
YOSHIMI: We once recorded vocals in our bath tub and also on our bed. It didn’t sound that good, but it was fun!

PE: Who made your Little Songs about Raindrops video? I love it…
SHAWN: Oh, thank you! We made that. We usually make that kind of stop motion animations to play at our live shows.

PE: I saw pics on your website of you and Yoshimi at an art exhibit of your paintings…do both of you paint? What about other modes of expression? Are a lot of your friends multi-media expressionists like you are?
YOSHIMI: We paint, make animations, take photographs. I like sewing (I have my company’s sewing machine) so I make dolls, finger puppets and purses. I also like doing collage out of origami paper (like the one in Little Songs about Raindrops video). In Japan, most of our friends are DJs or musicians and in America, most friends are visual artists.

PE: I read in the interview from Groove in 2004 that you had been collaborating with many friends. Since then, have your collaborations continued? What part does collaboration with other artists (either sound, visual, etc) play in your life?
SHAWN: Yeah, lately we play live with 3 of our best friends and use a lot of toy instruments. It is more fun for us to play with friends, and it is going to be summer soon, so hopefully we can go and practice in the park! Also our new CD features more players than ever. Even a lot of my students are on there, playing violin, cello, piano, etc. And even a Junior High School girl’s choir!

for more on Lullatone, visit their website, www.lullatone.com

Dean Garcia Versatile and innovative musician Dean Garcia has played and collaborated with many musicians over the years, creating distinctive and interesting sounds. Born in Kentish Town London, he left school at 15, and is self-taught on the bass, guitar and drums. He started off working and touring with the likes of the Eurythmics, Mick Jagger, and Sinead O’Conner, and then played in State of Play in the late ’80s where he met Toni Halliday. They created Curve in 1991, composing and performing incredibly innovative music together until deciding to move on to other things in 2004. Dean continues to bring his distinctive sound to his collaborations with other artists, including his daughter, Rose Berlin and The Black Holes. Dean lives and works in London, England with his family. Popexperiment had the pleasure of asking Dean a few questions. This is what he had to say.

PE: In Curve you manged to create a new sound, a rock without all the baggage associated with it. Is there anything you’d like to share about that time or the work you did on the Curve project?
DEAN: A wonderful chaotic time was had by all….

PE: What is Doglab?
DEAN: It’s was more of a studio identity for collaborations. I’ve ditched that now and pulled the site and am in the middle of setting up a new one probably under my own name this time (see www.deangarcia.com) …I like to chop and change things and names for the work I do. [note: Doglab was a website Dean had up for a while with mp3’s of his recent collaborations and links to artists he was working with.]

PE: What is it, overall, that you’d like to express or explore with your work?
DEAN: I like to take the listener through stages..some moody some scary some irritating…you know, just like you would if you were talking to someone in a pub..different reactions and feelings not all of will be easy on the ear…

PE: What is your greatest thrill as a writer/musician? Greatest disappointment?
As a writer it would be writing Horror Head…and the recent tracks I’ve been doing with my Daughter Rose.

Life is so full of dissapointments…they’re all the same. not sure which one stands out.

PE: When looking for inspiration where do you go?
DEAN: I like visiting art galleries, walking along the Southbank…reading the usual.

PE: How has your work affected you?
DEAN: I’m not sure…it can make me a miserable bastard, then again it can bring joy like no other…it effects me in every way possible.

PE: How about your son and daughter? What do they think of your work? How does your family affect your work?
DEAN: They love it…Harry is seriously kick ass at all things new tech…like I was at his age but much more so because of all the new creative tech available..he’s brilliant on the guitar as well…I taught him a few funky riffs about 2 years ago and his progress is astonishing…much better than I was at his age and all self taught like me, watch this space…Rose is a very gifted singer and artist…streets ahead and wonderful in all aspects…I feel that I have done very well as a parent..even if I say so myself….As you can tell they are very much involved in my work.

PE: How did you get into the industry?
DEAN: I made it my ambition in life…all I wanted was to be an active musician/writer/producer..

PE: What do you admire most in other musicians/artists work? What most disappoints you?
DEAN: I admire originality. Bland shit is very upsetting.

PE: How do you perceive peoples reactions to your work?
DEAN: Depends if they’re being cruel or nice..I mostly respond to the people who don’t like what I do…in a very nasty aggresive way. I’m a mouthy bastard.

PE: How has your work effected you?
DEAN: In everyway possible…

PE: What would you like to do that you haven’t done?
DEAN: Play bass with PInk Floyd on a world tour.

PE: How was your time with the:

Eurythmics? Mind blowingly fantastically brilliant introduction to all things cool and global…I love them both and always will…uber cool and clever with it…Dudes.

Mick Jagger? Totally cool…I really liked him. There’s so much history to the man and still he comes across as interested in people and listens…someone who gives a shit…Dude !!

Sinead OConner? Brilliant…Love her to bits. I only got to know her properly when she wore her long wig, She was easier to talk to when she had it on…She’s funny clever and very dedicated to her beliefs and I respect that…She’s a Dude.

Ian Drury (of Ian Drury and the Blockheads)? Dury…He was and always will be the Don for me…I loved him dearly and will never forget the times spent with him chatting drinking and playing some funky ass bass…Ian is a genius to me.

Brian Ferry? Very very cool sophisticated, clever, smart and knows about everything arty and interesting…also he taught me about vodka martinis and the joy of pasta and garlic in olive oil…delicious. Uber cool DUDE.

Toni Halliday? Toni is like the sister I never had…you know what those relationships involve…extreme ups and extreme downs…But I still love her dearly no matter what.

Others?
Bring em on !!

PE: Do you enjoy travel? What have been some of your favorite destinations?
DEAN: To be honest travel freaks me out…the only form of travel I can relax with is on a tour bus, probably the most statistically dangerous of all. I’m very skittish about flying…I’m alright once I’ve had a drink or ten but it’s not always the best thing to get of a plane pissed as a fart…then again.

PE: I saw the Istanbul tour pictures. Did you get to spend time there?
DEAN: Istanbul is deep….intense and beautiful yet very fucking scarry. I’m sure it’s to to with that film…Midnight Express.

PE: Any interesting tour anecdotes?
DEAN: Never get off the bus…

PE: Who are you collaborating with now?
DEAN: Rose Berlin / Lucia Cifarelli / Jason Novak / Bomb The Bass /

PE: How involved are you in the production of your work? Specifically, what aspects?
DEAN: The meat and potatoes of it…The start up and general overall everythingness of it…

PE: What do you most dislike about your line of work?
DEAN: Ummm…not enough sex?

PE: How is the internet impacting music?
DEAN: In all ways…

PE: What do you have planned for the future?
DEAN: Have more sex and grow old gracefully without botox…

PE: What do you most enjoy about life?
DEAN: My family…drinking with pals….making music, funny people and lets not forget the old faithful SEX…

Links:
www.deangarcia.com
www.myspace.com/deangarcia01