Ravens Brain

Present yourself to the readers

STRIKKLAND is longtime friends Henric Ceder (music and programming) born in 1969 and Henrik Johansson (vocals and lyrics) born in 1970. The band was formed in the Swedish town of Trollhättan in 2015, where we both lived at the time, but it wasn’t until this year (2020) things really started to pick up. STRIKKLAND is currently based in Gothenburg (hence “Göteborg” in the band logo). We are both married and have kids in the late teens. Most people give up on the idea of becoming rock stars at 25 while we waited until turning 50 before actually starting. Guess it’s never too late. Henric took classical piano lessons in his youth and started using synths in the mid 1980’s. Henrik used to sing in a metal band. The idea of starting our own band came after visiting a music festival (and a few beers). We soon discovered that we worked well together.

Who composes? How does it work in the duo?

Henric is the one writing, composing, and programming. Usually he comes up with a basic idea, often a loop with a bassline, simple drum beat and a melody that is sent over to Henrik, who provides feedback. Ideas that get positive feedback are saved and additional work is put into them. We then meet up in the studio to go through these ideas again, usually a few times each month. Henric usually get musical ideas from just messing around with the hardware synthesizers in the studio. These ideas are then brought into a DAW. Up until now we haven’t been using many samples but that might change since Henric couldn’t resist buying a classic Emulator IV a few weeks ago. He is passionate about older gear, so our latest release contains sounds from 1980’s Casio CZ-1000 and Alesis HR-16 machines in addition to newer hardware. We are also experimenting with adding live tracked drums in addition to drum machines and sequencers.

Who writes the texts? What are they talking about?

How does inspiration come? Henrik writes all lyrics as well as does the singing. Inspiration comes to him like a bolt from clear sky when he hears a song idea that he likes. He reads a lot and some texts clearly can be related to that. He also has a very vivid mind and sometimes even he is surprised of what ends up on that piece of paper. When we arrange the songs it is based on the lyrics and not the other way around.

Why the name STRIKKLAND?

Mainly because it sounds cool and look good in writing. The name came from a character in a book Henrik read and it stuck.

What are your personal musical tastes and your influences?

Growing up in the 1980’s we were influenced by bands like Kraftwerk, DAF, Front 242, Skinny Puppy but also acts like Ultravox, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Depeche Mode etc, etc. Henrik has always been a bit of a Metal Head as well, while Henric has been more into the softer, melodic stuff. We believe this mix makes our music interesting to be honest. Henrik can say “Woah! That is WAY to cheezy – make it harder” and sometimes Henric says “This is too boring and it NEEDS a more melodic touch”. The end result becomes something other than what you normally hear within our genre.

In studio, what was the atmosphere for your new E.P A GIFT OF SOLITUDE?

We work in a very simple home studio environment. A pro would probably laugh his/her ass off if they saw it. But for us it is a very creative environment. Henric spends a lot of hours with the machines and in front of the Mac (we use Reason by Swedish Reason Studios) but once we decide to commit to a certain track and record vocals for it, it is usually a pretty smooth experience. Sometimes Henric isn’t happy and we have to re-do everything though. That was the case when recording Truth will unfold, a track where Henric’s wife Cecilia ended up contributing with some vocals, which wasn’t part of the original plan. We are very happy with the end result even though it’s not the typical four to the floor EBM.

How does it work for the design of the CD? and why this title?

Unfortunately, we haven’t produced any physical CD’s yet but if you mean the cover art it is the brainchild of Henrik. All our covers are photos taken by him. It all started when we were about to release our first digital single Predatorial Right. Henric went through Henrik’s photo art and found a picture called Tivoli Tank. It is a shot of Henrik’s son Einar wearing a mask and x-mas lights and it has an eerie feel to it that suited the track. We then decided to use masked models and lights as a theme for our cover art. A gift of Solitude shows Henrik’s daughter Vilda (she is also on the Levitate cover) symbolically giving away the lights to the viewer. If you listen to the lyrics of the songs on the EP, the overall theme is related to solitude. Or at least sort of linked to it. At least the songs are weird and dystopic…

How was the shooting of the clip DANCE LIKE A GOD? and why this choice?

As a band we are very fortunate when it comes to making music videos since Henrik is a film producer with his his own production company (Fandango.se). This means we have resources available that most small independent acts can only dream about. Not many bands without a budget can use ARRI cameras and shoot in pro studio environment with the help of professionals like we did with Dance like a God. We felt that this track needed a video and it was shot on location in Gothenburg and in Holger Hund studios in Mölndal by Hans Johansson (co-owner at Fandango.se) and the video was directed by Henrik’s wife Sofie. To be honest, that video actually deserves more attention and views than it got.

With Management and booking, how do you work? And with whom?

STRIKKLAND really kicked off this spring (2020) during the Covid-19 pandemic so there hasn’t really been any real talks about bookings. Hopefully, that will change in 2021. Currently, STRIKKLAND is a 100% independent project and we do everything ourselves. This involves marketing, music videos, etc, etc. Our goal is to release physical records (both CD’s and vinyls) and for this we will probably need help from a label. But we aren’t willing to work with just any label for the sake of getting the bragging rights of having a record deal. It has to be a label that a) is passionate about the genre we are in and b) work closely with their fanbase to help the artists get their stuff out. Ideally such a label has a strong presence in continental Europe, so labels based in Belgium or Germany would probably be a good option. If any label managers are interested, hit us up!

What are your projects? (for your duo)

We are planning to release some remixes from A gift of Solitude, made by other artists/bands. Which bands is still a secret but they span across continents. After that we will probably release another single that we have been working on. We also have material ready for a full album, but since we want to release records/CD’s in addition to the digital releases, we haven’t really set a date for it’s launch yet.

What do you expect from the future?

First of all, we hope that Covid-19 ends soon so that we can get back to normal and start playing live. We also hope that we either find a label to help us release real records or find means to do it ourselves. Other than that, we are grateful if our small fanbase continues to grow at the pace it has grown up until now.

Website to remember

Our main platform is of course Spotify. The short URL to find us there is https://sptfy.com/strikkland. We also have our Bandcamp page https://strikkland.bandcamp.com where we are planning to add merchandise shortly. To keep up with what we are doing the best places are https://instagram.com/strikkland_official and our Facebook page https://facebook.com/strikklnd

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What would you like to say to the readers?

Well, first of all, thanx for taking your time to read this! Small independent acts like us rely on the support from people like you. Clicking a follow button on Instagram, Facebook or Spotify might seem like a small thing to do, but for us that token of support means A LOT! Every listener, follower or playlist curator that shows their support is very important to us and we are extremely grateful. So, if you like what we do, keep on sharing. We love you!
Thank you for showing an interest in us and our band!
With kind regards, Henric Ceder STRIKKLAND