COLLECTION 6

188
KALTBLUT: This album has, indeed, a far more song-structured style–-compositionally
speaking—and not only because of the vocals
from collaborating artists. Was this a calculated attempt to spend
more time working with other people? Do you think the album is
more commercial than your previous work?
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think about being commercial or not,
so it’s hard for me to say, but maybe it’s a bit easier for people to
connect to because there are more vocal tracks on the album. It
was very much just how the tunes I wrote ended up progressing,
I did not plan to do an album with more vocals on than before,
but the songs somehow really fitted vocals as I went along, it
wasn’t my intention to create something more commercial at all,
but simply because the tunes I wrote kind of ‘demanded’ vocals it
seemed natural to follow the flow.
KALTBLUT: You’ve been quoted as saying, “For me, making music is
quite a lonely process.” Does this ever bother you? Or do you embrace
it?
TRENTEMØLLER: I really love the process of writing and producing
all on my own, that’s what works best for me. I don’t incorporate
the musicians when I’m in the studio, I like to have
100% control over the music at this point. So often we make quite
different versions of the same song, and then when we finally
get together we share our ideas. I can offer my experience as a
musician, because I know what it’s possible to actually play on
the different instruments and often that is a big help, and the
musicians give me a lot of feedback on the music and often come
up with other ideas how to play the different parts, and at this
point it becomes more of a collaborative process. I didn’t really
want the album to be a ‘feature’ album actually, that was very
important for me. So I really hope the album works as a whole
album even if there are several different vocalists on it. There are
also several instrumental tracks and that is something that I still
really love to do. Next album could maybe be a pure instrumental
album, who knows…
KALTBLUT: How do your collaborations usually come about?
TRENTEMØLLER: For me it’s actually not the main thing to collaborate
with vocalists, but since I really sing quite badly myself
I need someone to sing my songs! When I started writing for this
album these songs just materialised when I sat at the piano, and
I instantly knew that they would fit specific vocalists, so I actually
wrote all the songs with certain vocalists in mind but without
their knowing. So it was quite nerve-wracking finally after
the songs were kind of finished from my side to begin to contact
these vocalists and hope that they would want to work with me!
Luckily everyone said yes actually, if not these songs would not
have been on the album. Each track was specifically written for
the vocalist who recorded it in the end.
KALTBLUT: Was there any one particular artist with whom you
had a special musical chemistry, where you just immediately clicked?
TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah! The song I did with Mimi Parker of
Low. It was so easy to work together and the result turned out so
well I think. I’m a HUGE fan of their music and they have been
a constant inspiration for me the last 15 years, so for me it was a
fantastic thing to have them on my album. When I started working
on the chord progression of the song I had Mimi Parker’s
beautiful voice in mind, so it was a great, great pleasure and a
big honour that she actually really liked the music I sent to her
and made this magical melody and lyrics to put with my music.
So that’s also one of the reasons that the song ‘The Dream’ is the
opening track on the album. From there you can go everywhere…
it’s quite open and I like that!
KALTBLUT: The collaboration with Jonny Pierce from The Drums is
the one that surprised us the most. What’s the feedback on that been
like? Did it open up a new audience for your sound?
TRENTEMØLLER: I had a really good feedback on that track, especially
when we are playing it live. We play it in a quite different
more uptempo version that sounds a bit like The Cure. It’s Marie
Fisker, who also appears on the album, that sings it live. So to
make the song adapt to her we change it quite a lot actually, but
it works.
KALTBLUT: Do you feel like you’ve collaborated with almost all the
people you’d like to? Or is there anyone that seems out of reach for
you—a dream collaboration, perhaps?
TRENTEMØLLER: If I had to choose one artist that I really respect
and love it would be Nick Cave. To work with him on a song
would be out of this world! Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds played
just before us at a festival, and we watched the whole concert
from the stage. It was mind blowing, nearly a bit scary how well
they played and how good Nick Cave was on stage.