What You Think I Think Too

Beloved bearded Norwegian Lindstrom recently finally unleashed his solo debut album Where You Go I Go Too on the world, and a delightfully non-conformist beast it is too: composed of just three extended tracks which flow neatly into one another, Lindstrom pledges his allegiance to the long-player format with an album that is designed to be listened to in one go, not crudely subjected to the random play lottery or the selective hits-only approach to downloading. To accompany said release, Mr Hans-Peter Lindstrom has also recently submitted to the obligatory press blitz: the resulting interviews make for a rather interesting read, and struck quite a chord down here in the Border Community…

It was James who first stumbled across this interview with Fact, where reluctant dance producer Lindstrom reveals himself to be quite the kindred spirit to our own Mr Holden, although somewhat unbelievably their paths have yet to cross (unless the odd email exchange counts). As he champions melodies over DJ tools, at times it is like Lindstrom has somehow managed to channel the very spirit of Holden:

“What’s really important for me is that there’s no pressure to meet any one else’s expectations. I can’t really deal with other people telling me what to do!”

It appears that the pair have unwittingly been engaged in a simultaneous analogue equipment drive, and you may recognise in the Lindstrom interview the same kind of anti-computer sentiments that James wrote about recently on his own blog (scroll down to the post dated July 28th, if you missed it):

“Recently I’ve been buying lots of effects, old analogue synthesisers, flangers, ring modulators. It’s easier to do weird stuff with old equipment like that, and it’s also a reaction against using computers; all the keyboard lines on my old records were played on computers.”

And when Lindstrom talks about his bemusement at being booked to play at the wrong sort of club, I know that James and the rest of the Border Community family have been there too. A dance hit can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing, it seems, and popularity doesn’t always equate to an audience that “gets” exactly what you are trying to do:

“In dance music I’ve always felt to the left of everything. It’s weird, and it still surprises me, that I get so many offers to play clubs. Some times when I’m playing in clubs it’s great, because there are fans there who really want to hear that music, but some times it doesn’t go that well, and they’ll be people shouting ‘Louder! Faster!’. And I just think: Why didn’t the promoter ask someone else to play, who could give this crowd what they want? Why ask me?””

Then this morning I happened upon another Lindstrom interview, this time with Earplug, wherein he takes a similar melody over beats standpoint, but more importantly lets slip that he, like our own Mr Holden, spent his early teens supplementing his classical piano training with a diet of equally classic Queen. These similarities in mindset between Mr Holden and Mr Lindstrom are almost uncanny: if this blog were a dating service, I would totally set them up. But until destiny (or a clued-up promoter) brings them together, all I can do is urge you to order your own copy of ‘Where You Go I Go Too’ from Amazon today…