AXEL BOMAN PUMPS UP THE VOLYM

Axel Boman’s playful, avant-garde world is an infectious one. The Swedish DJ/producer galvanizes dancefloors with his melodic odysseys and a boisterous brand of house music that pushes twisted samples, brash, analog synths, and leftfield moments. But that’s how it’s been since 2010 when he broke big with the wonderfully blurry house cut, “Purple Drank.”

Studio Barnhus, the label he runs with fellow pranksters Kornél Kovács and Pedrodollar, is reimagining underground sounds with an experimental approach that can be heard most recently on the imprint’s inaugural compilation, Volym 1. The 19-track offering features tunes from the likes of Boman’s early champion DJ Koze, collaborator Adrian Lux, and even John Talabot, who also teams up with Boman in one of the more acclaimed DJ duos of the moment, Talaboman.

We caught up with the Studio Barnhus flagbearer in Portugal this past fall before his performance at Lisbon nightspot LuxFrágil.

DJ Times: How did you choose the 19 tracks for the Volym 1 comp?

Boman: A lot of it was by chance. There was this track by DJ Koze that we really wanted to include, a collaboration he did with Jackmate. I thought the track was so good and hadn’t been released before, and I had been mailing him [Koze] for years asking for it. Finally, he just wrote me back and said, “What if I give you a new original track [‘Hawaiian Souldier’] I just wrote?” And it’s absolutely perfect for the compilation.

DJ Times: Koze helped break you big. Boman:

Koze was playing in Stockholm years ago and I was asked to open for him. I was thinking, “Wow, this is my hero – this is my dream come true.” What I remember from the night that was so cool is how he started hard, and played deeper and slower toward the end. It was basically a backwards DJ set, and at the end we were drunk and went to his hotel room. I remember giving him my “Purple Drank” track, and months later he told me he was starting a label, but it would take a while. I told him that didn’t matter, he could take however long he needed, and that track changed my life.

DJ Times: “Purple Drank” was the big track off of your Holy Love EP, which Koze released on his Pampa label, and it really propelled you to prominence. And now he’s contributing a track to your label’s first comp.

Boman: There was a year that everyone was playing “Purple Drank” and I was hearing reports from people that DJs at Panorama Bar were playing it. It was such perfect timing, all coming from a fateful drunken night with DJ Koze. It’s amazing that he’s given us a track, and it shows he respects us because he’s super picky. I don’t know anybody that picky.

DJ Times: Tell me about your production process.

Boman: Sampling has been my main tool since I started making music, and now I still use it a lot, but it’s just transformed. A lot of the time, I’m just collecting sounds, and then I start to organize them and put them together, rather than synchronizing all of the machines at once, like an orchestra. I pull a little bit from this, and a little bit from that, exactly what I do when I sample. Then I put them together to make this collage of music, but I definitely use way more gear now because I can afford to buy it.

DJ Times: Previously, you were working off a laptop, with a Yamaha RMX1 synth. What are you using these days?

Boman: My favorite gear now to use is the Syncussion [vintage SY-1 drum/percussion synth from Pearl]. I also bought an ARP 2600, which I love. I have my trusted Roland Chorus Echo 501, which I use for everything. I use the Juno 106 for basslines, and the Moog Minitaur for basslines also. I also like cheap synthesizers, like those uglier sounds. My favorite one is the Nord Drum synthesizer, which I only use for melodies.

DJ Times: Are you still using the Fostex portable studio?

Boman: Yes, I use it a lot. It’s for when you want to add some grit to something. You record things too fast, then pitch it down on the cassette, and then the magic happens! It adds so much texture, if you want to get out of that clean, laptop, perfect-sounding world, using a cassette player is a great way to distort the sound and give it some character.

DJ Times: What do you use when you’re DJing and why?

Boman: These days usually I use vinyls, Pioneer CDJs and Allen & Heath Xone:92, plus the Fostex Strymon El Capistan Echo, and the Electro Harmonix Space Drum. But that’s just my set-up. If I play with John Talabot, for example, we use four CDJs and no vinyl. I’ve digitalized everything because so many times you go to a festival and you’re disappointed by the setup there – you can’t really play vinyl.

DJ Times: But CDJs work fine for you, right?

Boman: I don’t feel creatively disturbed by using the CDJs – I love them. I think they’re amazing machines. I loop everything. It’s easy to layer and play tracks that would be more difficult on vinyl. But again, you lose something that I miss about vinyl. Showing up with a bag of records limits you, and gives you limitations and, as everyone knows, limitation is the mother of creativity. Having endless options doesn’t make for a better DJ set. The guy with the most synthesizers doesn’t make the best music.

DJ Times: Studio Barnhus has carved out its own avant-garde lane so far. What’s next?

Boman: Everything we’ve done has happened by chance and intuition, and by not planning, and I would hate if us becoming more mainstream or successful or recognized changed that. I really wish that we continue to carve out our niche in the music world. We’re so isolated in our world and our day-to-day lives running the label that we just continue doing what we’re doing. I love that we’re standing next to dance music, standing next to pop music, next to everything, but nobody is asking us to do anything. We don’t have pressure from anyone and we’re floating in our own bubble, and I think we’re going to keep on floating.

– Jaime Sloane