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housefloor.de: |
in septembre your new single „no rain“ with audio affinity has been released on the new york based system recordings. how came about your cooperation with audio affinity and how can we picture you working together? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
audio affinity has been doing a few remixes for substream in the past and i’ve been very happy with his work and we somehow started talking about producing a track together. i had an electro-pop track with full vocoder vocals which i hadn’t finished, and we took it from there.
i’m not working with audio affinity together in the studio – we’re working in different software and have been doing everything apart in our separate studios. no rain has been doing quite well and the label has been pushing us to do a follow-up. hopefully we’ll manage to do one next year. |
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housefloor.de: |
in february your debut ep "trollflojten" has been released on pearldiver records, which is a driving techhouse-track, both straight and melodic. how do you define your style as a dj and producer and how has it developed?
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håkan ludvigson: |
i’m a very versatile dj, i explore new styles of music all the time and am incorporating that both in my djing and production. i’m involved in electro, progressive and minimal collaborations as well as in a trip-hop project, so i suppose it’s hard to put my own productions in a specific style, although tech-house has been my main area of focus lately. i love collaborating with people on tracks - i’m learning a lot from working with different people and have a lot of fun. trollflöjten was collaboration together with joachim bröckers from pearldiver who is a good friend that i’m trying to meet with a few times every year. |
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housefloor.de: |
besides being dj and producer you have co-found and are manager of clubstream and substream which is a swedish label group with more than 25 releases. with which philosophy do you run the label? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
looking back at the time since we launched substream in 2004 the label has been the activity i’ve devoted the main part of my time to. our philosophy is, and has always been, to work with music that we are passionate about and people that we enjoy working with. |
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housefloor.de: |
as a dj you have played in more than 50 clubs in asia. what connects you to asia to have come around so widely in these countries? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
i wanted to get out of sweden for a while to experience something different and to get a chance to get good practice djing and extend my network in the nightclub industry. i had a few friends and contacts in shanghai so i decided to move there for about a year to give dj-ing a real shot and to do as many shows as possible. throwing my own club nights in shanghai and pr gigs for various alcohol brands opened one door after another and before i knew it i was busy djing most days of the week.
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housefloor.de: |
where do you get inspiration from for your music production? do your tracks tell a special story? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
i guess music is my main source of inspiration. the ideas can come from anywhere though, listening to rock can sometimes give me the best inspiration to produce a minimal house track.
many of my tracks do tell a special story. no rain actually has a story if you can manage to hear what i’m singing through the vocoder – but even the instrumental tracks have a story most of the time. |
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housefloor.de: |
you have released serveral remixes. how do you approach a remix? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
one isn’t like the other. sometimes i focus on the parts in the original that i really like and try to build a new track around those parts – like my remix of electrocker which is coming out on big mamas house rec, (uk) in 2009. other times i try to create a completely new groove, preserving the feel of the original track. remixing is a lot of fun – it lets you try out things you might not normally do in your own music. |
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housefloor.de: |
talking about electronic music from sweden, many people may think of adam beyer, cari lekebusch and the drumcode label. what is in your opinion special about the electronic music scene in your homecountry? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
the dance music scene here is very commercial and not at all as big as in germany or the uk. stockholm might be a little better than gothenburg, but i’d say that steve angello is a better example of what goes on in the scene here than for example adam beyer. |
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housefloor.de: |
what can always be found in your fridge? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
belgian beer for sure, but also dozens of different sauces used for asian cooking. |
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housefloor.de: |
what can we expect from you in the near future and what are your long-term aims? |
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håkan ludvigson: |
in the near future i’ve got two more 12” coming out in germany. a dark tech-house thing on vi två records and a deeper, techier one on pearldiver records that i’m producing with joachim bröckers from the label. also, i have at least three in-your-face rocking electro tracks that i’ve made together with radio jack (us) that will come out this winter.
looking into the future i’m involved in a jazz/electronica project which is secret so far but will be brilliant once we get done. i’m also working on my own electro house album, which i hope to finish next year.
also, after finishing most of the productions for the winter i will start planning the summer’s tours (germany and china) together with the spacelounge booking agency in germany and with my agent in asia. |
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interview: alexandra |
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.:: more on håkan ludvigson ::. |
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booking & infos håkan ludvigson |
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myspace.com/hkan |
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substream.se |
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spacelounge.net
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