Interview with Swedish Post-Rock Pioneers EF

EF are back, and they brought a new album with them! After their hiatus, the Swedes landed a 10/10 with "We Salute You, You and You!". Drumroll! I asked them for an interview, and they said yes!

TW: Depression, drugs

Anne: Welcome to my blog! It's a big honour to get to know one of my absolute favourite bands! I'm so glad you are back! Congrats on the new album! It is fantastic! You must be very happy with the outcome of your work, are you?

Niklas: I believe we're pretty great at the moment. We finished this album already in February/March and have eagerly been waiting to release it to all of you. Although we're a bit afraid about the release of the new album—it's always terrifying to let new music out to be heard by new, fresh ears. But also a bit stressed out over the tour coming up and the premiere in Berlin on November 17th.

Anne: Daniel, you spent a long time in the hospital—I am glad you're doing better—and some of you started your families. When asked by Pelagic Records, you told them, "life happened", which pretty much hits the spot, I think. How did these events change you? And would you say they also influenced your music or the way of making it?

Daniel: Thank you, Anne. I do feel better nowadays. My never-ending hospital stay was due to my mental illness. Like many artists, I've been struggling with depression from an early age. I have been searching for different ways to cope with my anxiety, leading to drug abuse. I later became clean, and when I no longer had a destructive coping strategy, I just collapsed. I ended up at the hospital and stayed there for quite some time. It took me years to get my pieces together, with a lot of medical support. I will always continue working on myself to keep my mind healthy. 

Being sober, having a creative job, a loving family and being productive with EF again helps.

"Our melodies move differently"

I somehow think that the music in EF changed from when we got together again. Our melodies move differently. There are more words. 

We have lived, and we are living, different lives from when we started the band. So, I think our music might reflect that.

Anne: When you met at Nacksving Studio in Gothenburg, you started this record with only scraps and pieces—I read about some noisy rock recordings on a phone and an ambient piano sequence. Would you say this is part of the reason your new songs ended up a bit more emotional than some of your fans might have expected? I adore this, by the way. I love the contrasts between the melancholic and powerful and heavy parts. What inspired you to write them?

Daniel: We didn't really have a plan on how we were going to create this album. It just happened. We got together every other Sunday in various rehearsal spaces you rent per hour. This environment was anything but inspiring. The many audio scraps and pieces on our phones were for helping us remember what we came up with at this very moment. As well as going through our personal creative archive to find something created years ago and see if we could make it come alive. Using ideas that we made on our own or as a group years ago was like making friends with all those silent years apart. 

Personally, I think this creative chaos was to our advantage. At least this time. And about the contrast, we love it. We have never talked in terms of music theory—I live for that shit—but in EF, we talk in terms of colours, landscapes, and sceneries. We make up stories early in the creative process, guiding us through the feel we want to present.

We also shared these specific stories and sceneries with the session musicians, so they had a better understanding of the feeling we were looking for. I write all the arrangements and hardly ever write out the dynamics in the sheet music because the music comes alive if all the instruments are played with their unique feel. 

Anne: Many of the bands I interviewed during the last two or so years told me they started recording their songs remotely when the pandemic began. At some point, they got used to it and kept working this way when everything "went back to normal". Did you record all parts of your album together in the studio, or are some of them also remote parts?

"Bands were forced to write new music"

Niklas: I believe the pandemic and all cancelled tours forced bands to get back to writing new music again. All of a sudden, there was a pretty long and indefinite break, and you could become creative again. EF can't really work remotely. There are too many opinions, and sometimes we need to fight things out—this we can only do face to face. But, of course, we wrote some of our demos and ideas remotely since Erik lives in Stockholm and the rest of us in Gothenburg. But we recorded everything together.

Anne: There are seven outstanding songs on "We Salute You, You and You!". Which one is your favourite?

Niklas: Do we really need to choose? I prefer to hear which one is YOUR favourite. But I definitely believe" Hymn of…" will become an EF-classic.

Anne: You are so right. It is a tough question, though. Sorry for that. I would also pick "Hymn of..." as one of my favourites. And "Wolves, Obey", and "Leuven" with this beautiful piano intro ", Nio". But I love them all. They are so unique, and all together, they are building this wholesome picture. It's so good to have you back!

You said you wanted to be more direct with this record. Take it back a few notches to rhyme better with your youth in hardcore, and I can hear that. It suits you very well! What brought you back to screaming, which you never did before in the studio with EF, except on some noisy live parts of some of your early songs?

"We still have that DIY hardcore spirit in us"

Niklas: I don't think it was a “goal” with this album. We all played  in hardcore bands in our youth, and we still have that DIY hardcore spirit in us, letting it spill over in how we work with our friends, cover art, tour bookings, posters, merch and so on.

The screaming on this album came pretty naturally, but it wasn't a 100 percent keeper, to be honest.

Anne: Now that we already mentioned your hardcore history. Do you want to say a few words about your previous projects? I am very curious to know more about it!

Niklas: I believe it's only Daniel's hardcore band When We Fall that reached out to some people around the globe. The rest of us only had it as an outlet for our passive-aggressive teenage frustrations. But EF started as a hardcore band with Thomas (vocals, guitar) and our first bass player Mikael (and some other kids). When they moved to Gothenburg and searched for new members, and Kalle and I joined, we kind of switched sound and became more—melodic and dynamic. Less aggressive and more influenced by bands such as Logh, Mogwai and Explosions in the sky. 

Anne: What I think I like the most about your music is that you are outstanding storytellers. When listening to "We Salute You, You and You!" I also get this intense feeling of a story that puts your seven songs on it together. You can sense this common theme that makes you want to listen to every minute of it, not missing anything—especially the finale. It's wonderful. Do you want to tell me about it? Or would you say it's the room for interpretations you are creating with your music that lets everyone who listens to it create their own story in their mind?

Daniel: As mentioned, we love to tell stories. Here are a few examples from the songs on We Salute You, You and You!

"Hymn of…"

In "Hymn of…" I imagine a wooden ship on a stormy sea. It's the 19th century, and we are leaving poverty in Sweden. We all know we won't survive this storm, so we choose to sing our hearts out while we disappear into the mighty black ocean. 

"Nio"

The track "Nio" is one of those musical fragments I found on my old iPhone. I composed it while I lived in Amsterdam more than ten years ago. During that time, I felt kind of lonely and like an outcast. When listening to this track, I picture Amsterdam in the fall. It's rainy and dark. I couldn't hide among the crowd and struggled to understand the language. This melody is my voice struggling to be understood. To be heard.

"Apricity"

When lying in bed, I often write stories, thoughts or just lines of words. I often think about how the people of the cold north worship the summer. We come to life in spring because we know what's awaiting us. It's like we only live for the summer. I somehow think it's rather sad. Our life has come to be a long wait.

For me, "Apricity" is a complicated celebration of what we love. Something too fragile to hold close to the heart because we know it will break eventually. This love is not to trust because we will always end up left alone. 

"Chambers"

Niklas and I started writing the intro for "Chambers" in 2016. I remember us talking about what feeling we were looking for. At that time, I had just finished reading the novel "The Dwarf" by Pär Lagerkvist from 1944, and I could imagine the sceneries from that story while playing. There are dark woods, and the ground is moist. I can smell the pine trees. I am very cold. 

In the story, everyone hates the dwarf, which makes the dwarf full of hatred. As a result, the dwarf is misunderstood and not wanted anywhere. It applies a lot to my own heritage as a gipsy—we were never wanted. Things are better nowadays, but far from good. 

You could say "Chambers" is like a long journey, just like my people's eternal voyage. 

These are my images and experiences of our music. I am sure the other guys also have their visions. Just like I hope our listeners will create their own images and worlds. 

Anne: For "We Salute You, You and You!" worked with the great Magnus Lindberg again. Is he a friend of yours? 

"Magnus Lindberg is part fo the EF family"

Daniel: A former band of mine, Convoj, was working with Magnus in 2008, I believe. I had a great experience working with him, so in 2010, we hired him with EF to track, mix and master "Mourning Golden Morning". That was our first time working in a professional environment like that.

It has always been very easy to work with Magnus. He knows our music, he works fast, and we are always happy with the result. I guess we can call him a friend. At least he is a part of the EF family. He has no choice. 

Anne: After 20 years of band history. When looking back at your releases—I think—"We Salute You, You and You!" is number 13 on your list— If you had the chance to go back in time. Is there anything you'd change?

Niklas: Number 13? Well, I think, musically, we haven't changed much. But of course, there are always situations and choices that could have been interesting to see the outcome of if they took a different turn. Like when we decided not to go 110 percent and instead focused on having more ordinary everyday lives and regular job careers. Play it safe with a stable income.

The Scandinavian sound

Anne: You are an essential part of the Gothenburg music scene, and many bands are talking about you as their role models or their favourite post-rock that inspired them deeply. How does it feel to listen to someone's songs knowing you've been their inspiration for years?

Niklas: To be honest, there's no Gothenburg scene. Hardly any Swedish scene at all to talk about, actually. With EF, we were early to embrace this style of music and independently succeeded in doing something with our DIY style. The timing was perfect with Myspace and last.FM, connecting us with like-minded European music lovers all over.

Musically, we're often used as some reference point when you mention new(er) post-rock bands or when people want to describe "the Scandinavian sound". And as long as you don't hear the young kids rip us off, we're pretty fine with that. 

But it's even cooler when you believe you've found a "new" band yourself—add them to Instagram, and they instantly write back that they listened to EF when they formed the band. But, of course, then you also feel quite old (laughs).

Anne: It's so nice you just mentioned Myspace and last.FM, Niklas. That's where I listened to your music for the first time. Who would you say inspired you the most on your way? 

Niklas: When we started playing "post-rock", we spent a lot of time listening to Mogwai, Explosions in the sky, Sigur Rós and that whole "Canadian clan" with Godspeed and such.

But while writing more and more diverse songs, we've picked influences from bands that've always been close to heart, such as Fireside, Lack (DK) and Cult of Luna but also bigger acts such as the National, Bon Iver and Radiohead (Thom Yorke overall).

Anne: With "We Salute You, You and You!" in the record stores: What are your next steps?

Niklas: Tour a little in November and some spring shows if pandemics, war and electrical crisis allows us. We also don't want to let you wait another ten years for an album, so we need to get things going on this front pretty soon as well. But we're old, quite lazy and have family obligations to attend to, and there's never enough time available. So cross your fingers.

Here are some upcoming tour dates:

17.11 Berlin Privatclub

18.11 Leipzig UT Connewitz

19.11 Neunkirchen Gloomaar Festival

20.11 Hasselt Muziekodroom

21.11 Eindhoven Dynamo

22.11 Hamburg Hafenklang

23.11 Copenhagen Vega

Anne: Thanks for your time and this interview! 

Niklas & Daniel: And thank you! We hope to see all our friends and fans somewhere this November! Best wishes!

"We Salute You, You and You!" will be available from November, 4th 2022. You can read my review here.

EF – "Moments of Momentum"