This week’s interview takes us to Norway where we get to know the crew behind Flunk – the ultimate purveyors of chillout electronica. What follows is a quick Q&A were we learn about how Flunk was formed and their laid back approach to connecting with fans and producing awesome music. Enjoy.
Please tell us a little more about Flunk. What inspired you to start producing records together back in 2000? How would you describe your sound?
Well, I have a Norwegian project called Folk & Røvere which has been quite successful since the 1990’s. And I guess I was a bit bored with words and especially Norwegian words. So I started making instrumental tracks, had guitarist Jo in for Indian dinners and beer and he started building on my tracks.
I was about to produce the band of Anja’s boyfriend at the time, so I heard her voice and had her coming into my studio to do some singing on the tracks. It was magic from day one. We made most of the tracks before signing up to Beatservice Records. Our first radio play was on the legendary John Peel Show in the autumn of 2001, I think (yes, it was ‘Blue Monday’). Not really sure what I tried to do, but this was of course the heydays of chill-out, so I guess we just wanted to make electronica with guitars on…
We’ve noticed huge growth in your social media popularity among fans. What have you been doing to build up that momentum?
Not a lot. I think Flunk is a lot of people’s secret, we’ve never crossed over to mainstream, so a lot of people like us – and Anja’s voice in particular – out there. So when we started to be more active on Twitter and uploaded unreleased tracks and takes and remixes on Soundcloud, I guess the interest was fueled!
How are you using social media to promote your upcoming acoustic show in Istanbul?
Again we don’t do very much, we have been to Istanbul once before, and we are very lucky to have a lot of fans in Turkey! It seems Poland and Turkey are the two counries with most fans these days.
Do you manage your Blog/Twitter/Soundcloud accounts yourself? If so, any helpful hints for other artists?
We manage ourselves, yes. I do Twitter, Soundcloud and our webpage, Jo does Myspace – Anja tends not to do much except answering an email now and then, I know she gets quite a lot of fanmail. We have never had a manager, which is a good thing if you can get things done yourself. If not, it’s really bad. Don’t think I have any real helpful hints to others, there are a lot of bands much, much better at working social media than us. The only advice would be to stay true to the music, it is the music that counts. And don’t be afraid to give tracks away for free.
What are your plans for the future? Any big tours or albums on the horizon?
Well, we are putting together a ‘best of’ compilation – adding a new track or two. I have worked for two years on my Folk & Røvere project, so I’ve been kind of stuck. And there is a tour coming in the autumn, but not in the Western world… It’s not official, yet!
Anything else you’d like to share with the Giglog readers?
Just want to say thank you for enjoying our music, and telling about it. We’re impressed!!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this interview with Flunk. Make sure to check out their Gigsby profile!
Related posts:
- Interview with The Aston Shuffle | Artist Momentum = On The Move | Status = Influential Tracking the Gigsby Momentum Reports has become a daily ritual...
- Interview With Welcome Back Sailors | Artist Momentum = On the Move | Status = Breakthrough In this week's artist interview, we hear from the ever-chill...
- Interview with Wolf Gang | Status = Influential | Artist Momentum = Exploding For this week's top Artist Momentum Chart interview we spend some...
- Interview With The Stafford Brothers | Artist Momentum = Uber Explode | Status = Influential TV shows, international tours, podcasts, top 5 DJ awards...the list...
- Interview With Bloodgroup | The Icelandic Sensation Coming together under interesting circumstances, Bloodgroup has built a huge...
Tags: chillout, electronica, Flunk, Interview
FLUNK » Interview With Flunk | On Staying True to The Music:
[...] Interview on music loving web site Gigsby.com: On Staying True to The Music. [...]