Trentemoller - Easter With Trentemoller
Fuzzy continue to throw the party with the most apt title (that would be ‘Killer’), with their Easter line-up of Fake Blood, Sinden and Trentemoller proving the organisers can still pull the right punches to bring you awesome. 3D’s Cyclone speaks to the Dane rep, Trentemoller.
Denmark’s Anders Trentemoller is the most adaptable figure in contemporary dance music. He can remix tracks by Moby and Robyn for peak-time clubbing, his version of the former’s Go charting in Australia. But then he also masterminds sublimely cinematic electronica, as heard on 2006’s debut ‘artist’ album, The Last Resort. And Trentemoller has assembled a band, with whom he toured Australia a couple of years ago. He is now returning to DJ.
“I’m really looking forward to coming back – also [coming back] as a DJ,” he says from Copenhagen. “This time I have a lot of new bootlegs that I have done and edits and mash-ups – and also some new remixes that are not out yet that I’ve done recently. It will be this mix of electro, techno and some indie-rock – and some surf maybe! It’s a very mash-up style, but still mostly techy.”
Trentemoller won’t be accompanied by his original partner, DJ TOM. They stopped playing together when Trentemoller introduced his band. “I wanted to see if I could play as a DJ myself because, early, I was only playing keyboards on top of the records. So, for the last one-and-a-half years, I’ve been playing as a DJ – and that is really fun for me.”
Trentemoller has been active since the end of the ’90s. His sound crystallised with Physical Fraction, which surfaced on Steve Bug’s Audiomatique. Following The Last Resort, the Dane issued The Trentemoller Chronicles – a ‘best of’. Last year he presented the Live in Concert EP, based on a rapturous show at Roskilde. However, he is working on his next album proper.
He’s hinted at recording an even more atmospheric LP – possibly acoustic – but that’s changed. His new material has acoustic elements but, overall, it’s “a little bit more noisy.
“I’m heading even more for the indie kind of sound,” he says. “I’m very inspired by this ’60s surf sound – mixed together with electronic beats... It’s actually more up-tempo than my first album, so it’s a little different from the first, but still with this melancholic feel.”
Trentemoller listens to bands like Radiohead and Animal Collective. The shoegaze pop lover would love to collaborate with Mazzy Star’s enigmatic Hope Sandoval and has “stalked” her.
Trentemoller once performed in a Danish rock band. After four years, he quit, sick of the “shitty gigs”. “It was very bad because we were trying to sound just like Oasis or Blur,” he laughs. “We were very much into this Britpop scene back then, so it wasn’t quite original.”
He journeyed to London, immersing himself in drum n bass. The industrious Trentemoller is preparing to drop a mix-CD, Harbour Boat Trips – Copenhagen, in May. It’s the first installment in a leftfield chill-out series from Bug’s latest imprint, HFN Music. Trentemoller’s mix traverses electronica, indie and folk, past and present.
The Dane has even ventured into fashion with two designer pals. He didn’t want to offer the typical DJ ‘merch’. Although The Trentemoller Collection was “fun”, Trentemoller has abandoned the enterprise, realising he’s not cut out for business. “It’s ended up being too expensive for me!” he says. “I really wanted to concentrate more on making music and also playing music live.”
WHO: Trentemøller
WHAT: Plays Killer Easter at Metro Theatre
WHEN: Sunday 12 April
MORE: fuzzy.com.au