kings of convenience say...

Sydneysider Cat Juan spends a sunny Wednesday morning (or late Bergen night, if you’re on the other end of the phone line) with Eirik Glambek Bøe, half of Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience.

Covered: dependence, what makes a song lasting, and plans to come to Australia.  

Cat Juan: Why don't you tell me a little about your new album Declaration of Dependence? What is it dependence to?

Eirik Glambek Bøe: It's a title that has meaning on several levels. To me it describes a very personal experience I have in my own life of realizing that the idea of freedom that I was somehow caught up with, and strived for, somehow didn't feel true. I was looking at my own life and realizing that a lot of my efforts in life actually have to do with trying to belong to something that is bigger than myself. And trying to make my relationships work and trying to somehow feel united with people around me. So it's something like a conflict between the cultural idea of freedom, that I feel is this ideal around me, and this other personal experience of seeing how freedom and independence is not at all what I need to be happy. 

CJ: Could you elaborate more on what you meant by relationships, is this in your personal relationship with your girlfriend Ina, who appears in most of your videos and album covers.

E: It’s both on a romantic level and also with my friends and family. I mean all my efforts somehow seem to be motivated by this desire to be with people not be away from them.

CJ: In what aspects do you think you've changed or developed as a musician from your first album to Declaration of Dependence?

E: I was just listening to our first studio record, Quiet Is the New Loud and trying to ask myself, "Have we really changed?" The one thing I can say is that we're better singers now. Our voices have a fuller sound and also there's a feeling of more confidence in just letting silence speak for itself. I mean, we called it Quiet Is The New Loud, but I think we still wanted it to have this pop effect: we wanted it to be entertaining at the same time. But this time around, we feel a bit more confidence in the strength of just letting there be lull space and not so many tones.

CJ: It's obvious that Kings of Convenience, from Quiet Is the New Loud to Riot on an Empty Street, and now Declaration of Dependence, has stayed constant to the same calm melodies. Why haven't you sold out like many other groups do by the third album?

E: We didn't feel a lot of need to change. A lot of music critics expected us to change and were complaining that this new album basically sounds like more of the same. But that's exactly what we tried to do, we wanted to make more of the stuff we have been doing. 

CJ: Speaking of songs, why don't you take us through your song writing process? How do you know when a song is finished or is ready?

E: That's a good question. I think there are all these elements that need to be there for a song to be ready. To start with, it has to have a melody with character. The moment it comes to my mind it's instantly asking to be become a song. It won't leave my mind. Whether for a few years or months later, it will come back. The words need to describe something that feels like a real experience, it has to describe a moment, which was somehow important. The song is finished when there are these layers added that create a kind of tension. It has to be this kind of inner tension within the song, the point where the whole song just comes to a halt and releases into something else.
 
CJ: Interesting, I'm curious to see how this process came into play in your well-loved song 'Toxic Girl'. Tell us about the personal inspiration for that song.

E: [Laughs] That's actually one of our earlier songs. It's not about me and it's not about Erlend. It's about someone we know and I could never tell you who that person is or he'd probably kill us. [Laughs]
 
CJ: Okay, does the person at least know that the song is written about his experience?

E: He doesn't know. It's a secret.
 
CJ: Could you explain a little more?

E: It's not a very typical song for us because that song was written about someone else, about someone else in the third person. That's not a very typical Kings of Convenience song. Because we now write more about the first person, about me and you.
 
CJ: Why the five year gap between this album and Riot on an Empty Street? Was it intentional?

E: A few years ago we started talking about getting back into the studio to start recording a new album and it just took three years to write the songs and record the songs.
 
CJ: During that time Erlend was busy with The Whitest Boy Alive and his solo album, I understand you've got your own project Komode. Were you busy with that?

E: I've definitely been busy with KOC that's the simple answer. I mean there was really no way I could pursue a solo project the same way that Erlend has and still make the new KOC record. For this record to be made, that means that I had to put aside all my side projects and focus on this record and work with Erlend whenever he became available to work with KOC.
 
CJ: And if I'm not mistaken you were also finishing your degree in Architectural Psychology?

E: I've been doing this full time course of seven of the ten years of my musical career. In seven of those years I've been a full-time student, aside from the tours and being a musician. I've been working a lot basically.
 
CJ: So have you been working in that profession as well?

E: No I haven’t. I just finished my Masters degree and I've only been doing music since I finished.
 
CJ: Let's talk about some influences, what artists would you say influenced you and your type of music?

E: A lot of different artists, but the most obvious comparison did not influence our work in the least. We've often been compared to Simon and Garfunkel and I've never listened to a whole album of theirs. I was much more into house music and electronic music when I was younger.
 
CJ: I would never have guessed that listening to KOC.

E: Actually I think there are a lot of elements of this background in our music.
 
CJ: Hmmm *unconvinced*… Can you elaborate on that a little more?

E: Well, I think both Erlend and I, certainly when we were younger, loved to go dancing. I believe that a lot of our songs were made after coming home from a club and dancing late at night. And heading back to your room and enjoying the blissful quiet, then filling that silence with a little bit of guitar playing. I think that's the ideal starting point for any KOC song.
 
We tend to be seen as this chill out music for people who are really into electronic music. In many ways, that's exactly what KOC was. We made songs to relax to after all the electronic music.
 
CJ: Let's talk now about some present day artists you like to listen to.

E: I'm listening a lot to stuff from Bergen. Our hometown is such an exciting place when it comes to music. I just love discovering all these new young bands all the time.
 
CJ: Could you share with us some of the young bands you've discovered?

E: There's this band called The New Movement from Bergen. Some really young boys. I went to their show a few months ago and I was so impressed by what they did. They're very young but they seem like this danceable Toto. I guess you could compare them to Phoenix. They're really young and maybe have a few recordings but it's looking very promising.
 
CJ: In an interview you did in 2005, you said that you write songs for your own enjoyment. With the success of KOC in recent years do you still believe that?

E: [Laughs] That's a good question. It's really hard to keep the feeling that you're just doing this for your own liking. I'm constantly trying to tell myself that I'm doing this for my own sake and I think part of the reason why we like to take five years in between every album is that once the fuss is over and things have quietened down around our music, then that feeling comes back to us. And I start thinking that no one actually cares what I'm doing here. I'm just playing these songs to help solve the problems I have with my own personal life.

Right now I feel like now I've been doing a million interviews and my music feels like a very public thing. But four years from now, when no one is asking me questions about my music, I hope that the feeling comes back that I'm just doing this for my own sake and I don't owe anyone anything and I don't have to write this song because someone is expecting me to write this song.
 
CJ: I'm sure your fans will agree when I say that I continue to hope that you and Erlend continue to share with us songs that are personal to you.
 
E: I think it's the only way to write something that is lasting, a song that has a genuine quality. You couldn't write it if you just sat down and tried to write a hit song for the radio. I think the starting point of all art is the lonely moment in your life when you're not really talking to anyone else. You're talking to yourself.
 
CJ: Do you find yourself being surprised as to which songs your fans gravitate towards?

E: I'm always happy to hear that different people have different favorite songs. That it's not just one song. There's hasn't been a song that someone hasn't told me is their favorite song. That, I feel, is really wonderful because it tells me that we're not writing crap songs. I really like all of our songs. I could never say that I like one song over another, because then we wouldn't have written it.

CJ: This interview wouldn't be complete without me asking if you have any plans to tour Australia and Asia in the coming months or year?

E: We're just talking about it at the moment. We've gotten a lot of offers to tour Asia and Australia and nothing is confirmed yet but we're considering the spring of 2010.

CJ: Looking forward to it. Thanks so much, Eirik.

E: I’ll see you in Sydney, Cat.

kings of convenience, norway