Casiokids : Interview

Where: The Great Escape, Brighton.

Scandinavia should not be tarnished by the recent sickly sweet pop musings of artists like Alphabeat and Aqua. No sir, think more along the lines of Abba (for obvious reasons), The Hives and even The Cardigans amongst many, many others who transcend diverse genres.  In fact Nordic folk-dance music remains a driving force of traditions that it shares with Sweden, whilst troubadours like Ane Brun and Thomas Dyhbdal bring contemporary alt-folk pop to the masses.  And an undercurrent of black metal exists somewhat controversially at times, amidst a flourishing progressive jazz community and seminal pop-rock culture that has given birth to distinctive chart worthy music, minus the Eurovision connotations.

But the recent torrent of Scandinavian acts all coming here to develop their UK audience bases have also demonstrated a flair for the more underground electronic based sounds, dripping with Casio keys, synths and samples that have hit a nerve on the edges of the 80’s electronic pop revival.  Casiokids are a Bergen based five piece who are doing just that at this very moment.  Signed to Moshi Moshi in the UK, their cartoon-esque hybrid of colourful electro and playful pop has counteracted the potential for tacky implications and instead has developed a barnstorming sound that resonates throughout the live arena and injects club nights and revelers with large shots of adrenaline, no Ritalin required.    

Singing solely in Norwegian, their inspiration as a band begun as a concept to make electronic music more visual but has evolved into a much broader incarnation of theatre blended with melodies and influenced by afro-beat, techno and pure unadulterated pop.  So after 12 months of relentless touring, festival dates and the imminent final release of their 3-single collection, Casiokids have become the latest Bergen export to shake things up with the jaded audiences of the UK.  And we love it.

Before their Drowned in Sound Scandinavian sound showcase at the Great Escape, lead singer and Casiokids innovator Kentil Kinder Endresen sat down to chat to 4or The Record about the year that was, Moshi Moshi and their early success at targeting a crossover audience.

4or The Record: Basics first. How did Casiokids originate?
Kentil: Well the band formed in Bergen in 2005 where there was a really good music scene going on and at the time we were all playing in different bands.  But we came together all wanting to make some sort of electronic oriented music so started out with some of the older synthesizers we had which were Casios.  We borrowed some Casios from friends or I should say stole them because we never gave them back [laughing], and started the project Casiokids.  In the beginning we were only doing music for ourselves to play at parties but later on we discovered that people actually liked it so we started playing shows and experimenting a little bit with how to do the music live.  Since then we have been touring more and more in the UK and have released a series of singles on Moshi Moshi.

4TR: So you are just about to release your 3rd single double a-side ‘Finn Bikkjen!/Gomur Mamma’ in the UK?
Kentil: Yes, the idea was that we wanted to keep the whole release process a little bit more immediate and we wanted to experiment with how we released our music because its sort of difficult these days when it comes to earning any money from a release, so you might as well try and do something fun because its hard to control.  So we decided to focus on a couple of songs at a time and have done vinyl singles combined with digital downloads which has been working really well.  We have our own studio back in Bergen and this whole process means that we can release the songs we record in our own studio really quickly after making them, so that keeps the live part of it better as well.

4TR: With that in mind after the 3rd single are you considering working on an album?
Kentil: We might do a sort of compilation of the singles later on but for now the singles thing is working a treat [laughing].  When it comes to listening to and distributing music, everything is different now and because of that we have a lot of people coming to our shows who’ve only heard us on Spotify or MySpace.  So you don’t have to buy the music to listen to anymore.  And because the whole buying process is different now, I think that makes the whole when is the record going to be released thing less important, because you have the music available online anyway.

4TR: You are working with Moshi Moshi Singles Club, who have previously put out music from artists like Lykke Li, Late of The Pier and Friendly Fires.  Aside from their previous releases, why did you choose to work with them?
Kentil: I think we have a lot of the same taste in music so that was an obvious thing but it was also because of how they work.  They were open to our new ideas of doing this singles project and also the whole concept of us singing in Norwegian and trying it out to see how it all goes with releasing our records in the UK. I think they were just up for the experiment, which was something we really liked.

4TR: Because of your extensive touring schedule and the single releases to date, have you found a significant increase in your UK audiences recently?
Kentil: You know with this UK tour there have been a lot of people at the shows and so obviously there has been an effect from all the media attention we have had like from NME, The Independent and the BBC, so the feedback in the UK has been great.  It has helped us a lot and now it just seems like everything keeps getting better and better.

4TR: What about fan base at home?  Is your music as popular in Norway as it is here?
Kentil: Well it’s slightly different because we have been playing in Norway for a couple of years and it’s where we play the most.   But actually its only this year that we have played on national TV and been in the papers and stuff, so we are getting more and more known there as well.  There is always the positive effect of things going well in the UK because the UK press and music industry is really influential for the whole of Europe, so that also helps us in other countries as well.

4TR: The obvious sound description for Casiokids is electro-pop, so when you started playing out with your old Casios was this the sound you always intended for the band, or did you just unexpectedly arrive at it?
Kentil: In the beginning we were mostly making songs to bring to parties so there were loads of home made edits going on, like just ripping a part of a Daft Punk song and looping it and just playing over it.  [Laughing] I remember we did an edit of the ‘Right Stuff’ by New Kids On The Block and stuff like that, so it was all just for fun basically, but then later on things just evolved along with the kind of music we were listening to at the time.  We have always had that kind of immediateness that we had in the beginning, but now it’s been influenced by things like South African music and music from Mali as well, so its developed into something completely different really.  But its always about trying to keep it a bit partyish, and just happy sort of positive music really.

4TR: Do all 5 of you write collaboratively? Or is it more specific on a song-to-song basis?
Kentil: Yeah it changes from song to song really, but mostly one of us will come up with the basis for a song and we will get the ideas from everywhere.  You know we have computers with us on tour and like last night for example backstage in Bath we were sort of just sitting there experimenting with some rythyms and it turned out really well so we might have some recordings from the backstage at the Moles in Bath next time, so it depends.  I think now that we have reached a point where we have our own sound its much easier for everyone to come up with ideas and knowing if it will work or not, because we have made some rules for ourselves now and what kind of landscape we should be aiming for anyway.

4TR: You sing in Norwegian, therefore convey the message via the music for all your non-Norweigian speaking fans.  Have you found that to be an effective concept allowing you to stamp your individual mark on the current electro-pop scene?
Kentil: Well by singing in Norwegian the vocals become more like an instrument and I think we have an advantage by having so many vocal harmonies, but we had to think a little differently though when we made new songs, just like with the sounds of the words.  But I think it just depends on what kind of level your music works on and our music works as danceable music, which is an advantage.

4TR: In that case would you say that crossover aspect has enhanced your appeal?
Kentil: It definitely makes the whole concert more immediate in terms of getting reactions, but it’s also about how we work with the melodies as well which is pretty immediate.  That has all worked really well for us, but then we are generally surprised when people know the songs. But I guess because the music we do is so immediate it doesn’t matter whether you haven’t heard it before.

4TR: The 3rd single is released on August 3rd, further tours are booked and this summer sees you play multiple festivals like Bestival, reading and Leeds and Latitude.  When do you ever get to go home?
Kentil: [Laughing] well not too often, but I’m kind of used to being on the road now so I’m not too stressed about traveling all the time.  Plus we get to come back to a lot of places, like we have played in Brighton many times and so we have friends here and it’s the same in London as well so its enjoyable.

4TR: What about America, have the sounds of Casiokids reached there yet?
Kentil: Well we have been doing some shows in the US and also we did SXSW which was really good and really busy because we did 10 concerts in 4 days so it was hectic, but we had a lot of good reactions and lots of people at the shows.  We are going to be doing a 2 week tour in August as well so fingers crossed things are picking up there too.


Finn Bikkjen!/Gomur Mamma is released on the 3rd August 2009 on Moshi Moshi.

www.myspace.com/casiokids

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