This month Stephanie Nicole Smith interviews one of her favorite bands – Dungen. If you aren’t familiar with their catalog of work, perhaps you have been sleeping under a rock. Swedish bred Dungen are quite possibly the best living psych band. “Allas Sak” (2015) is their eighth full length album and possibly their best album, thus far. I asked bassist Mattias Gustavsson and guitarist Reine Fiske about their recording process, best & worst tours, favorite gear and other projects they are involved in at the moment. Read the interview below and be sure to follow Dungen on all things social!
What are some of the other projects you guys have worked on and are working on?
MG: I was writing in a band called The Works, back in the early 2000s, before I left to study in Vietnam in the middle of recording our debut album. I’ve written and produced three records as Life on Earth! A project that sort of evolved, or expanded into Our Solar System, which has released two LP’s the last couple of years. One of them just the other week, actually! I also plunged into a solo project last year, called Hi Tom Low Tom, and released a cassette earlier this year. I also write and sing and what not in a pop band called AOP.
RF: The first band I was in was Landberk between 1991-1998. That’s when I started to actually work on trying to write songs, but it was always in collaboration with others. My older musical relationship with Stefan Dimle (of Mellotronen shop/label) led to us forming a one-off thing called Morte Macabre based on our love for soundtracks, mostly from 70’s horror films. Then we started Paatos, which I did one album with, then I got involved in Dungen and Gustav Ejstes a lot - that sort of took over. I have maybe written 5 songs on my own up to now. A current project called The Amazing, which is Christoffer Gunnrup doing the songs, is pretty much like working with Gustav. We get to be involved in the arrangements a bit, but most of it is already written. Anna Järvinen and her producer Mattias Glavå wanted to incorporate Dungen as backing band for her and since 2007 we all have been playing on and off with her, recording and touring her albums, now three in total. Lately, I have been involved with Elephant9 in Norway and I’ve also recorded with one of my absolute favorite bands of all time, the Norwegian band Motorspsycho out of my mom’s hometown of Trondheim. They deserve more praise I think. They have been going since 1989 and made about 20 albums by now.
Where did you spend your “coming of age” years?
MG: My coming of age was a ride! I moved away from home when I was 16 and got heavily depressed for years. I just couldn’t find my place anywhere. Totally lost! I was reading, painting and playing music non-stop as a sort of refuge. I started figuring things out, how to rudimentary understand people basically, in my mid-20’s. In a way, I feel like I am still coming of age.
RF: I was a kid playing guitar a lot, listening to my mom’s mix-tapes with a lot of 60´s music, playing along. My uncle and their cousins in Norway were very influential getting into music that, perhaps, was a little more demanding. I was an early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis-fan, as well as early Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd. Listening to that when everyone was into hardcore or punk has the typical “nerd” written all over it, but I found something in that complex and epic music. That deepened with the coming of the early 90’s when I sort of left my brief Mudhoney/No Means No/Nirvana period. I listen more to late 80’s, early 90’s music now than I did then, actually. School was o.k., music was always the escape in a way. Music became my muse, my sort-of language.
Where do you live and work now?
MG: I live in Stockholm and play music most of my time.
RF: I live just outside of Sodermalm in Stockholm with my amazing girlfriend and her 14 year old daughter and a rabbit named Oshi. I have always had a day job, but I just decided to quit in order to have more time for music. I’m also pretty fed-up of course. This year is quite busy, so I simply had to make a leap in this direction. We barely can make a living out of the music anyway, so I will work extra hours later this year I think - hope. Sometimes, I think the job has saved me from going out of my mind in a way, it demands certain routine in everyday life that you usually miss out on when you’re your “own boss”.
How long have you been in Dungen? How did the name of the band come about? What does it mean?
MG: I started playing with Dungen sometime between 2001 and 2004. In the beginning it was just the odd gigs here and there as a substitute bass player. They were my friends! But since 2005 it’s been full time.
RF: I’ve been involved with Dungen since 2001. Gustav had the name already. It’s a place in Västergötland where he grew up on the other side of the small hill, or mountain, of Billingen, just out of Skövde. The name means “The Grove”, a small gathering of trees.
How would you describe your current band’s sound?
MG: Dungen sort of… rocks? Maybe the sound now is about some vague feeling of authenticity. Raw basic recording live in the studio as much as possible. Our live shows are a lot about the interplay between us, I think, and to create something ecstatic and ethereal. A release of some kind.
RF: That is for others to decide, I think. We usually get lumped into the psych bag, which is both right and wrong, in a way, it easily puts a stamp on the music. Gustav and the Dungen thing has always been very song-based with possibilities for improv and the odd craziness. Gustav has a strong sense for the structure of songs and he is a master in recording, producing, and creating a certain soundscape with his records.
What bands do you draw inspiration from?
MG: I like Can a lot. And early Kraftwerk, Amon Düül II and the whole german Kraut thing. I am really into the idea of sustained intensity by minimal means. Lately, I have been listening more and more to Ralph Lundsten.
RF: There are so many, The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Tame Impala, and Kevin blew me away when I first heard it. I wanted to join the band sort-of. There was just an immediate click. He sent their first EP to Gustav to eventually work on the mix in 2008, or so, but Gustav thought the sound was already there. Now we are playing with them in New York this June. Amazing! I’ve always been very affected by Radiohead. Their guitars have a serene and very unique weave that is always breathtaking. I’m sort of a record collector and I’ve been into the Scandinavian psych/folk/prog scene of the late 60’s and 70’s since 1990, or so. I guess me and Gustav are the ones mostly affected by those players and the records they made. I’m also into a lot of the garage and beat/psych scene from the 60’s to come out of the U.S. New unearthed stuff still keeps popping up in these reissue times. The U.K around 1971 was just amazing. There were so many bands that made these amazing albums. I’m fascinated by the sound on those records too, some of them sound like they were recorded in cardboard boxes with tons of reverb; stuff like Egg, Arzachel, Julian’s Treatment, East of Eden, Van Der Graaf Generator, Comus, Trees, C.O.B., Blossom Toes, I could go on forever. Brazilian music, Aphex Twin, Fleet Foxes…
Who were your main early influences on your sound?
MG: I don’t know if I even have a particular sound! The bass playing on Van Morrison’s ‘Astral Weeks’ was an early influence. Also, Bella Linnarsson in Mecki Mark Men, and Jojje Wadenius on the Pugh albums.
RF: Kenny Håkansson, Hank Marvin, I guess, and Terje Rypdal. Jimi Hendrix, of course.
From: https://originalfuzz.com/blogs/magazine/114991556-five-minutes-with-mattias-gustavsson-and-reine-fiske-of-dungen?srsltid=AfmBOorYmmpalBcOjVYg82ZdPKzL6-lLJ_1_mrQMYG-xuSNAH1bH5Qa1
