Northern Wind _ Interview With Ida Matsdotter

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Whats your view on the scene in Sweden. I came to find you through a very organic approach, and you struck me to have a certain type of value. Experimentation and giving value to the music.

 The scene in Sweden is very imperialistic but I guess that’s the way it is worldwide. Mostly people go together and create parties together and book each other. But I believe that when you make great music people will start to appreciate it and you will get bookings without having to be a part of a special group. Be an introvert, stay home and produce for a while. Take a step back and relax.

My view on techno has grown throughout the years from dark minimal techno to more strange poetic, artistic and experimental. Now I feel I have integrated my style more and everything I ever listened to is now within my style. In the beginning of my DJ career I went through stages and I was listening ONLY to minimal, ONLY to deep. really, really geeky and excluding everything else. Now I can play within a wide range of styles and combine techno, dub, house, jazz and trance if I feel it’s right for the moment.

For me techno is not just about having a party. It is hard to explain but I can feel that some people seem to have difficulty to understand what I am about. They often tell me I should make it sound more like techno and learn how to make this and that style. That my music is strange. But it is not for me. For me it’s very clear that I have taken in all influences from my environment. Consuming and learning about music has been very intense over the last 8 years and now it is coming out of me in my own way. I can understand that some people find my music strange but that’s only because they didn’t listen to “strange” music and kind of overcame the feeling that no music is strange. It just sounds different and it’s so many musicians out there. So it’s not strange that music sounds different from person to person. We all have slightly different taste and we are all different.  I just want to do what I feel is nice and have fun doing it.

But I feel with the scene opening up maybe people will start to understand me more and hear what I am about. People are becoming more open minded and more interested. The society and people are developing.  Important to mention is that I will not only reach out for the techno scene. I just make music and happen to love techno but I listen to a wide range of styles not trying to do a certain style anymore. I just wander with my mind.

This”party” techno, you mention, Do you think one can lose that poetic and artistic edge by leaning heavily towards it?

I definitely believe that this sort of techno can be too shallow. It often bores me when I get this vibe in a club. I think it’s easy for the artists to lose themselves inside it. It just happens. Maybe they even like it. This party on the surface life. Many artists get consumed by fame and disappear behind their management. I don’t want to walk in that direction and that makes my path a little bit difficult, but more interesting. For me it is just more interesting to see the visions of the music from a much deeper perspective. This is my philosophy shining through. My life, my feelings, my visions and what I believe in.

I want to make the scene more open to other perspectives. And it is already happening. A friend and I already started this club concept, The Bang Bang Bar, which focuses on these things. The skills, the personalities. The whole concept, their visions combined with their music. It doesn’t have to be “boom boom boom” all the time. . You don’t have to stay within the “Yeah this is techno….” mentality. Keep it a bit experimental. We don’t run it so often to keep it a bit more special. You know that clubs have a problem believing in this way because of the profits. So we’ve had it twice now and are trying to do it again. We are only picking the people that we find and have a shared interest. You can be this strange, old woman from out somewhere. Nobody might have ever heard about you but if you are making this super cool music, then yeah we will pick you. It is about the music, the general philosophy and the inner beauty.