Highly Sedated interview

Let’s Talk about Highly Sedated

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With four singles and an album on Steve Angello’s SIZE Records, Highly Sedated has brought a breath of fresh air on the monotony of today’s music industry. We have already talked about their album, as well as the single and remixes of their tracks (Make Love and Make Love).

Quoting from their website

Merging the universal sound of dance music with the structure of a rock band together with exquisite attention to detail around their aesthetics and artwork, Highly Sedated is a unique concept that promises to take electronic music forward to incredible new levels.

We had the pleasure and the honor to interview them. That’s what they said:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1509550204185{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_toggle title=”How has been your summer and this year so far?” open=”true”]It was extremely busy leading up to the release of our album. Trying to finish everything off without compromising on the quality. Then we headed straight to Vilnius in Lithuania to play the entire album together with the philharmonic orchestra. Everything went incredibly well and after that we took a well-deserved breather for a few weeks before it was time to attack Opium in Barcelona with Steve. In Barcelona, we teamed up with CYA and spent some time in the studio together. Great stuff in the making. [/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”How did you guys get together and formed Highly Sedated? How long you know each other?” open=”true”]Well, Patrick (Vocals) got in contact with Leo (Production) when they shared publisher before, and they started sending stuff to each other. Patrick was then invited with Verner (Vocals) to a festival and they invited Sebastian and Hannes to tag along. We had an insane week together that was more than X rated but more importantly we felt the VIBE, the one you look for but can’t force. We had it together, in Leo’s studio when we rehearsed. It was moments of magic and we decided to actually try to do some stuff together all of us. Keeping everything in-house and doing everything ourselves without people telling us what to do.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What is an idea behind your band?” open=”true”]Be real to ourselves and to our sound, never compromise. Do what we want to do and not what anyone else thinks we should be doing. To be as analog as digital can get and to give the live audience a hell of a show.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”This year you’ve released your debut album ‘All We Have Is Now’ on Size Records. How long have you been working on this album?” open=”true”]We have worked with it for about two years. Since Leo lives in Vilnius and the rest in Stockholm, we have met for a long weekend every month. So actually, it’s not that much time we have spent even though it took two years.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Can you tell us more about this album, the ideas behind it, creative process?” open=”true”]When it comes to creating music, we always want to use and work with analog instruments. It’s just more of a real feeling and much more inspiring. Using analog gear like sequencers, synths, drum machines, the controls are usually much more primitive and has less of choices. Also, it boosts our creativity. In comparison to the computer world, when you sometimes can get lost by having too many options. For some machines, you cannot save your settings, you have to memorize buttons and knobs and what is so great about it, that analog sounds never the same. The next day the same settings can sound different.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What was the most challenging part of this album?” open=”true”]Sometimes the most challenging part is to get the song done. To make a track to perfection can be a never-ending process, there is always something to fix or to change, but we think it is better to press stop and let it go.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”You enlisted Corey James and Anckarstrom to remix your self-titled single, ‘Highly Sedated’, how did the remix come about? What made you pick Corey and Anckarstrom to remix your track?” open=”true”]Yes! It’s a great remix, we’re very happy with how it turned out. Remixes are special for us, we don’t want all remixes be from the same part of the EDM world, if you can say it like that. The next remix that will be coming out, is something really different from the Highly Sedated remix for example. That touches base with another part of the genre. But who to choose to do the ‘Highly Sedated’ remix was an easy pick. We got a message from Corey, saying that he said that they would like to do it and we said yes. Corey is a great producer, a real rising talent and has his own sound. We love having remixes, it is so interesting to hear our compositions in different perspective, sometimes you cannot imagine how your song could be made.[/vc_toggle][vc_separator][vc_posts_slider count=”4″ interval=”3″ slides_content=”teaser” slides_title=”1″ thumb_size=”600×300″ posttypes=”post” posts_in=”4286,3706,3095,1183″][vc_separator][vc_toggle title=”Before the release of this album, you’ve released a couple of singles with very interesting artworks. How did you choose these artworks?” open=”true”]What they all have in common is that we know the artists, and the artists are incredibly good at what they do. For ‘Existence’ Sebastian knew artist John Clark from his time in Cambridge, UK. ‘Got Some Water’ was made by Sara Brant Lundin who’s a good friend of Hannes. ‘Make Love’ by Sohan Qadri happened through Patrick. Ernest who made ‘Last Call’ is an old friend of Leo. It’s all very personal to us.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What is it like to work with Steve? Did he give you any advice or guidelines?” open=”true”]Steve basically just said ‘’Do what you do best and you can do as you like”. He likes what we do and how we do it. Sometimes we ask him for advice and then he helps out. But he just wants us to be free and have the tools to release good music. That we are forever thankful for. Steve is as everyone knows a pioneer and we are honored to have him close to us.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What kind of hardware and software are you using in the studio?” open=”true”]What comes to software, we love to use Logic Pro and Ableton. But, we think it doesn’t really matter what kind of software you are using, they are all more like the same. We think its more important what kind of ideas you have. For our album, we used mostly analog instruments: Prophet6, Arp Odyssey, Minimoog and Elektron machines. Processing signal through analog gear and back. We think both worlds, analog and digital works great together.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What do you think about current dance music?” open=”true”]As long its danceable its great! We all love to dance. After our gigs, we are always out dancing with the crowd.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What are you doing apart of music?” open=”true”]We are all working with other stuff on the side. Which makes our time when we are all together even more precious. Leo works full time with music and cross fit from Vilnius. He also one of the judges in The Voice Lithuania. Patrick and Sebastian are designers, Hannes is a photographer and Verner works with people.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”What are your plans for the rest of the year and beyond? New music, shows…?” open=”true”]We are always working on new music. So, as we speak, that’s what we are doing. Both our own songs and some really interesting collaborations. We are also planning live shows with a band set up. The live concept is something that is very important for us and that takes more time to plan then just a regular DJ set. But some really interesting shows are coming up 2017 and 2018. Stay tuned for that![/vc_toggle][TS_VCSC_Info_Notice panel_layout=”notice” panel_type=”info” panel_icon=”fa fa-bullhorn” font_title_family=”Default:regular” font_content_family=”Default:regular”]Thanks a lot to Highly Sedated for answering our questions. We can’t wait to discover what’s next[/TS_VCSC_Info_Notice][/vc_column][/vc_row]