Knife Magazine

Ahead of his debut record ’1’ set for release on May 10th through Emailing While Intoxicated Records and an upcoming live performance at our launch party this Wednesday, we’ve pinned down Copenhagen-based producer Mads Bergland for an interview about his new project, Violence of the Fauve.

Check out his stunning new track, Ultraviolet below.

As a former producer for bands such as Baby in Vain, having been part of the duo Broke with Simon Littauer as well as having the solo-project MABE, can you tell us about your artistic development over the recent years and what your ideas are behind your new project?

Well, everybody has a past, right? I think every musician has to go through a lot of different experiences to find out what they really wanna do.
I definitely got a broader taste and understanding of art and music now, especially compared to when I was 22 and was doing all these other things. Also my whole technical understanding of notes, melodies and production have developed much more over the past couple of years. When you work in a creative field there are periods where you develop with baby steps, and there are other times where you’re taking bigger leaps.

With ’Violence of the Fauve’ arguably representing a deliberate step in a new musical direction in light of your previous work, can you elaborate on what inspired you to take a more experimental route with your music?

MadsI didn’t think “now I wanna make experimental music”, it was just how the music turned out to be while I was working and getting more into the concept of the tracks.
I'm always searching and I was trying to make music that would overuse the surprise elements a little bit.

On your new record ’1’ you work with concepts such as artificial intelligence, human dreaming and the ongoing subversion of our realities. By being acquainted with your previous work, it appears as if each of your projects in your discography has had a very distinctive conceptual identity. What do you believe this conceptual approach to making music has to offer?

It’s always when I get the concept together that I’m actually able to get the music done. It’s easy to make beats and chords, but it’s hard work to actually tell a story or communicate a feeling through music. 
With this release I was trying to radically separating each instrument and sounds from their normal context so they could communicate more directly to the listener. In this way I was using the instruments and sounds as a communication tool instead of lyrics.
I also worked with a lot of dogmas for each track. Music can be a really intuitive thing to do, which is cool, but lately it’s good for me to have a kind of topic I wanna dive in to and explore before I start working.

With ’1’ representing a wide array of genres, styles and sounds stretching all the way from dark and mysterious Sino Grime-oriented synthesizers, to blissful ambient pads and hard-hitting, asynchronous rhythmic patterns. What is your process when selecting these various styles you want to incorporate and reconfigure into your own music?

I actually thought it was going to be an ambient release when I first started. A lot of the ambience comes from the early sessions I had. Then I started working on beats that didn’t have a certain bpm but still was pulsing. I’m not very good at mixing soft beats, so my drums always ends up being kind of hard-hitting when I’m mixing. So I had this weird blend og ambience and heavy beats and needed to figure out all the elements that could be the glue between these two counterpoints.