The last stop on our journey through scandinavia was in Oslo, Norway where we let a man who thinks that the eurovision song contest is a 'filthy shame' answer a couple of our questions!
i:Vibes: Hi Lars "Elusive" Jacobsen, how would you describe yourself as a person to the people who don't know you?
A: Born and raised in Oslo (Norway). I have been working in the music industry for some time now. Mostly behind the scenes as of yet, but slowly reaching the surface. A shy clown. Quiet but loud. Slow and fast. Basically a walking oxymoron.
i:Vibes: When in your life did you feel that music was the thing that you wanted to work with?
A: Ever since I was a kid I was always drawn towards music and played in many obscure underground bands in Oslo. We played weird 30 second tracks that contained German lyrics the way we feel german should be spoken (as in: we didn’t know what the hell we were singing and we all flunked german-class). It wasn’t until 1997, when I bought my first DJ-setup that I started to feel like this is something I would like to work with. But even though I’ve been behind the scenes for quite some time now, it’s the recent love for production that has actually made me take that step.
i:Vibes: In which point of your musical career did you find yourself leaning towards the electronic kind of music and who do you think has inspired your choice the most?
A: I can’t give you any date mate, but somewhere between 1996 and 1997 when I picked up a few CDs by Norwegian DJs Stigma and Jamie, plus the “Forbidden Paradise” series and other various compilations. I usually listened to a lot of metal and rock. Even though I listened to Jean Michele Jarre a lot in my early days, it was trance that gave me that final push into EDM. As DJs Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and Nick Warren have been inspiration for me. When it comes to producers I could make the list go on for quite a few pages, so I’ll settle for Oliver Lieb, BT, Tilt, James Holden, Sultan and G-pal.
i:Vibes: Did your parents have any impact on your musical life? Were you taught to play any instruments during your youth?
A: The only real impact I could think of is that I was exposed to music at a very early age. For as long as I remember there was always some kind of music on the stereo at home. Everything from The beatles to Abba, and lots of classical music. I wasn't thought to play any instrument, but I wanted to learn how to play guitar so I worked a whole summer to buy an electric Washburn guitar, an amplifier, books etc. I still have that guitar today and use it in my productions.
i:Vibes: You have been labeled as one of scandinavia's most important new trance talents, does this put pressure on you?
A: That was a while ago and a lot of things have changed. At that time there was pressure, which fortunately resulted in the “surviving the chills” album. But just as I got into the scene and was viewed as “the new stigma” etc, trance pretty much died in Norway while I took an interest to the deeper sides of EDM. The only pressure I feel now is the one from labels and what I am putting on my self.
i:Vibes: How do you think that you have developed as a DJ and as a person during your time behind the decks?
A: I started out buying a cheap Numark mixer and two CD players with no pitch control, so you can imagine how horrible my mixing was at that stage, hehe. Again, I worked my ass of to buy a proper mixer, cd players and 1210's. During all this time I've widened my horizon when it comes to taste in EDM, which is reflected in all my sets. Those that have known me since the start, and even fans of Oslo Nights should be able to tell how my sound has developed trough the years. I make it a priority to put my current mood into music in my radio sets. So a good month would result in a happy set for instance, while a hard month for me would result in a mellow and perhaps longer set. Maybe ironically, the sets I have gotten the best feedback on is when I have had the worst time personally. It really proves the fact that music is a universal language, and I perform best when I am at a peak emotionally.
i:Vibes: What has been the highlight of your career so far?
A: Probably to be asked to do an artist album. It shows that the label in question has a huge amount of faith in you and connect to you musically. For me, thats is what it's all about. It's an incredible cliche, I know, but to have people tell me that my music somehow made them cope with things in their life in a better way, or even tell me that their sex life is better because of my music (which actually happens from time to time hehe), then I feel like I have a purpose in life. I would also like to say that the first time I played out in a club and it was packed, and people were going insane like I had never seen... I will never forget that. I had goosebumps in places you don't want to know mate hehe ;)
i:Vibes: Many people think that the trance scene is having a tough time at the moment, what's your opinion on that?
A: I don't think so, honestly. Is it natural for a perticular genre to always be overwhelmingly popular amongst the masses? No. People go crazy for it, then it wears off. That's just the nature of things. About two years ago I was complaining about how new trance tunes "all had the same sound", an opinion which I see has been surficing again now a lot. But it's not. I just grew up. I started to explore other things. It's not natural for people to enjoy the same thing for 10 years. Sure, I love the movie "Gladiator", but if all I was watching was those kinds of movies, I'm sure after a while I would complain about how all the movies seemed the same, no? You can also look at what Elvis did to rock, Michael Jackson did to pop, Nirvana did for grunge, Eminem did to hip-hop and Destinys Child did to RnB. Sure, they are great artists that sell alot of records, but they also brought a sound back from the dead. When Nirvana broke trough, all you could ever hear on the radio or see on mtv was flashy glam-metal groups like motley crue and def lepard competing in who could scream the loudest and have the most outrageus hair style. But when Kurt Cobain and Nirvana came along, it literally changed over night. A "new" culture was born. Seattle became the capital of grunge and for 5-6 years it stayed like that. Then dance music came along in all it's forms. Ferry Costen, Armin Van Buuren, Tiësto etc introduced a new culture. Amsterdam and London became capitals and it lasted for a good run. Recently Eminem completely raided the charts, and right now, rap/hip-hop and RnB are the top sellers. Does this mean that grunge, rock and dance music is dead? No, it just means that people are exploring new things, or "following the herd" as many would say. Right now we are again seeing that rock is slowly coming back more and more. It seems like people are slowly getting sick of Britney, Christina and all these puppets and starting to listen more to rock. Sorry for all this rambling, but it just bothers me so every time someone claims that a certain style is "dead". Dj Magazine famously said trance was dead in 1999 I believe, the height of it's existance. Claiming that is nothing short of sensationalism and utter bullshit. I evolved, you evolved. We all do. It's inevitable. And quite frankly, I would find it absurd if trance was still just as popular now. You SHOULD keep in mind though that the worlds most popular DJ just played at the opening ceremony at the olympics. People can bash Tiësto as much as they want for all I care, but ignoring the magnitude of that achievement is crap. If you truly loved trance at one point in your life, there is no way you can convince me that you didn't like the fact that he played it infront of all these people. If you read I:vibes, if you own a cd by Tiësto, if you went to party after party worshiping trance and what it stood for, you were just as pleased by his performance at the olympics as me, no matter how "fresh and underground" you believe you are. Trance isn't dead, it's already planning it's next move for gods sake.
i:Vibes: What do you think about the Scandinavian dance music scene at the moment?
A: I want to say it’s in a crisis, but it’s not. In many respects dance music had an artificial popularity in the late 90s and labels, artists and club owners have to get used to being somewhat more underground all over again. DJ and artist wise there is an incredible list of talent currently breaking trough from Scandinavia. I could list at least 100 people that have or will have releases in 2005. So all in all I would say it’s suffered and taking another form at the moment. It will rise in popularity again. It’s just a matter of time.
i:Vibes: What is the scene like in Norway and how would you compare the Norwegian trance scene to the other Scandinavian countries' scenes?
A: If you limit it to “trance” Norway is close to death when it comes to events. But the good thing is that all these DJs are now focusing on production. Norwegians have learned by looking to Sweden and seeing what they have been able to accomplish. Right now we are looking at an impressive amount of producers working together in Scandinavia. Setting up labels, working as agents etc. Slowly but surely we will see club nights starting all over the place.
i:Vibes: Nowadays you are hosting your own radio show "Oslo Nights" on DI.fm together with LikWit & Stigma, what can you tell us about it?
A: It’s going nicely. A new website should be up one of these days. We have a new resident lined up. Guests are pretty much scheduled for 2005. And we were picked up by XM/Satellite Radio, so we have between 100.000 – 4 million listeners each month. Stigma quit over a year ago but we might convince him to do a guest appearance soon
i:Vibes: So, what more than hot Oslo nights does the future hold for Lars Jacobsen?
A: A lot of productions will be coming out in the months to come. I’ve been working with Espen (half of Recluse) on a number of upcoming tracks. “Shexy” was out on Red Flag Collective a few weeks back, while we have a 4 track EP on Lost Language later this year. My track “The Things We Do” will be out on Nascent/Low End soon, while “Sicilian Flame” has been signed to Klik. I am currently working with Espen on some new stuff we think is going to be really great and also solo work which I hope will result in a debut album later this year or early 2006.
Now simply choose Good or Bad to the following statements:
i:Vibes: MP3
A: Good
i:Vibes: A-ha (the group)
A: Overrated in Norway, underrated in the rest of the world
i:Vibes: The eurovision song contest
A: a filthy shame
i:Vibes: The norwegian guy Stream who started up Ivibes?
A: I talked to him a lot a few years back and I have nothing but positive memories
i:Vibes: Cross-country skiing
A: Bad
i:Vibes: Oslo Nights
A: My sweet baby
Many thanks for the interview Elusive and we at i:Vibes wish you all the best in the future!
|