8kHz Mono

First of all, tell us a little more about yourselves and about your band.
Krister: - "I'm an old 1966'er that have liked electronic music since I heard Kraftwerk for the first time on the radio in 1973. Since then I've been more or less keen on that concept. Sometime during the 80's I started to realize that you were able to buy such instruments, drum machine, synthesizer and then you started to play and try it out. Later on that kind of music started to air on the radio and even some records started to come out and then I thought "I want to do this too." The time passed by, the 80's became the 90's and the technology became more advanced. Now they played more of techno and trance on the radio so I began to do that kind of music. Sometime during the beginning of 2000 I thought it became doll so I didn't want to do that anymore. I asked myself what it was that I wanted to do and I realized that I wanted to do the old kind of music that made me interested in the first place. I didn't even know if I could do that kind of music, I just tried it out. Later on I met these two guys and then it went how it went."
Joakim: - "I'm the middle child, a young 73. I'm actually an old hard rocker with poodle hair and everything. In those days you could only listen to one style of music and I chose hard rock, but went home and listened to Propaganda, Depeche Mode and stuff like that on the sly. Sometime during the 90's I "came out" and chose the electronic music. My old pals still call me a traitor. I love old synthpop, the music should be electric and it's even better if it is with a vocoder."
Henrik: - "Henrik is my name and I'm born in '75 and I'm the youngest one of us. I really don't have that much control of the music, instead I say what I think is good and bad about it. I like hard stuff like DAF, Spetsnaz, Feindflug and I prefer it without any singing. Often Krister have the final word, but we can live with that."

Your self-produced E.P (demo) with the name 'Monolog' seemed to spread like fire, what are your opinions about that record?
Krister: - "The first thought was only to have some fun, but after the time passed by this project started to take shape and I wanted to do something with it, that's why I recorded a demo. The tracks were chosen and I decided to burn one CD and send it to a company. That company burned out 50 copies of the demo and we organized a release party in Stockholm, 180 people showed up and it was totally unbelievable. I really hadn't expected that, the demo sold out instantly and then spread like fire. Not because of the 50 copies, rather because of mp3's. All of the sudden everyone knew about 8kHz Mono, but I didn't think we were that good as people thought. The thing was that we didn't have any record deal, we only had a 50 copy demo and one gig in Stockholm, that was it. I was surprised, but in some way I wanted to push for it. After all, this is something I'm really passionate about. "

In this moment as we speak you have a release party for your debut album 'Monochromator'. What are your expectations and thoughts about this record?
Krister: - "The release of this debut album is a new beginning, despite of the old tracks from the demo and I don't think anyone hope that everything would be like that. We have kept the old feeling from the demo as well as we have evolved and our sound is quite different. You will recognize the tracks from the demo since they are more "Old School". If I didn't have those old songs I would have made a couple of new "Old School"-tracks. This is an album that contains some old and some new."

On your E.P 'Monolog' you find the track "30-56-99", but on your debut album you find the same musical part in the track "305699V2" but with other lyrics. What is this all about?
Krister: - ""30-56-99" was the first track I produced with 8kHz Mono and I came up with the lyrics in some form of desperation of even have one. Later we did a GHz-remix and were placed in the end of the demo. Later on when I was thinking about the track and if I wanted it on our upcoming debut album I realized that I wanted it on, but not the lyrics. So I remade the lyrics without asking my companions about it, but they think the old one is better."
Joakim: - "The verse in the new one is much better since there was no verse in the original version; still the old chorus in the old version is better than the new one. It had some kind of nice "Star Trek/SciFi"-feeling about it, and he just went and changed it to something different."

You guys have already become a big name around Europe. What happens for guys you in the near future?
Krister: - "This gig (At Plasticity the 8th of October 2004, Editors Note) is the first of many. We start out here, then next weekend in Stockholm and after that a gig in Falun. A weekend off and then off to Malmö. Torny (The manager, Editors Note.) are saying that he have allot of stuff going on, so probably some things are about to happen. Next year we will go abroad and go to Germany and/or USA. We will tour with Project-X and that's going to be real fun. It is a very intensive period right now with the release, but that is really natural since you have to promote yourself."

In the information sheet you are compared to bands like VNV Nation and Front 242, personally I'm thinking more of Evils Toy - XTC Implant ('95). What do you guys think?
Krister: - "As an artist you can't come up with your own comparisons, that's the record company's work. But I don't agree either, but I can agree on that we sound like Evils Toy. I think the comparisons are more a promotional thing so the people are able to recognize some names. But it's a fact that if you would take Front 242 and VNV Nation and place them in a big bowl and stir it up something that reminds you of what we do could come up. I'm really too much into 8kHz Mono to be able to see us from the outside too make that comparison."
Joakim: - "If people say we sound like old Evils Toy and mean it, you get very happy!"

How did you come in contact with Torny Gottberg and the label Progress Productions?
Krister: - "I visited Electric Gathering '01 when Project-X played and it was kind of a cool show. I took contact with Torny after the show and asked him if he could sell me some records. We went backstage and we got some T-shirts and some records, even that we wanted to buy it from him he gave us everything. Around that time we released the demo and I thought that Torny should have a copy. In the same time I send it to different labels and one of them were to Energy Records were Torny worked, I had no clue about that. We had an offer from USA and I asked Torny artist to artist for advice. He said that we shouldn't sign up because we were going to be Energy Records and that's how it started."

What could you expect from your gig tonight? How would you describe 8kHz Mono as a live act?
Henrik: - "We play hard music with a hell of a spirit and hopefully it really shows that we love the music we play."
Joakim: - "And if people jump around and like it you get even happier. If the crowd is great you become great."
Krister: - "I do 198% when I get on stage and continue until I pass out in the middle of the gig, then I drink some water and go 198% again. The important thing is that it looks like we enjoy what we do and that we flow with the music and give our best."

Any last words to our readers?
Krister: - "It would be really great if we could find some people that like just the same music as we do. So that they in some way are able to find the same wavelength as 8kHz Mono because then they will always like what we do. That's the thing I remember from when I was young and found my electronic bands. I thought I understood them since I loved the music the made. They were my buddies. Even if this is our thing I hope some people out there make it their thing too and really love it."

This interview was made 2004 and initially published on Neurozine.com