In order to not miss a beat TURN UP THE VOLUME scans the musical
horizon daily, for 10 years now, to pick ace tracks and add 5 new ones
twice per week, to the one and only JUKEBOX playlist that matters.
ALL TOGETHER
.
The 5 fresh ones TRACK BY TRACK
Artist: JODIE LANGFORD Who: Ripping wordsmith from
the Hull/East Yorkshire area.
TUTV: Exuberant and outspoken EBM-rap-punkette screams through
your phone in your face. Direct and without a screen. Outspoken as ever,
she rattles without breaks, without brakes, and has a very loud and very
clear message: put it down!
Artist: VLIMMER Who: The moniker of German
dark-Goth-wave artist based
in Berlin.
Track: FIRMAMENT
Piece from his new, notable 6-track EP Diskomfort. You can stream/buy it here.
TUTV: No writer’s block for Vlimmer. His creative production the past few years is quite impressive. And with his excellent new-dark-wavish EP he expands his catalog once again.
Opener Firmament is my favorite. It’s a shoegazy musing causing instant daydreaming. Shiny synths, a non-stop solid drum beat, and hazy vocals combine for an illusory,
melodic trip.
Artist: NIGHTBEATS Who: The moniker of American musician Danny Lee Blackwell.
He has spent the last fifteen years exploring a nexus of vintage
rhythm & blues, after-midnight soul, and sun-scorched psychedelia.
TUTV: This new piece resonates like a bizarre hallucination, somewhere between reality and surreality. I have no idea what’s behind the green door, but the way to get there is a far-out psychedelic experience.
Band: FRONT PAGE NEWS Who: Group formed in Leeds (UK) by three schoolmates and a ‘drummer wanted’ poster on a lamppost. They turn rough-and-tumble, high-energy sound–injecting indie rhythms into punk sensibilities and subjects.
TUTV: Imagine The Fall fronted by Iggy Stooge. These cocky hound-dogs know all you need to know about indie (post)punk history to get up, stand up and form a band with an eager mission to kick ass. Great news, music junkies. Don’t stop listening.
DIM GRAY are three Norwegian musicians coming from different places, both musically and geographically. All three have contrasting backgrounds in genres as diverse as black metal, progressive rock, blues, folk and film music, but in fusing these together they have developed their own distinctive sound.
On their excellent second album, named FIRMAMENT the trio floats in a universe
where the poignancy and starry-eyed melodrama of Sigur Rós and the spiritual
vocality of day-and-night dreamers Fleet Foxes become one.
Turn Up The Volume wanted to know, and you probably too, about these symphonic pop architects. But as usual, we start an interview with a piece of music. Here’s Mare, one
of the highlights of the longplayer.
Hello Tom
Hello Oskar
Hello Håkon
How/when started DIM GRAY start its musical career?
Tom: “We first met in 2012 when we all started to study for our bachelors
degree in music in Olso, and Dim Gray was formed soon after early 2013.”
What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Tom: “We had our first gig and needed a name. We had several suggestions,
and I think all of them had a colour in them. After several suggestions back
and forth between Håkon and me into the wee hours, we ended up with “Dim Gray.”
Now all these years later, I feel we have grown into the
name, and give it even more meaning with our music.”
Which song would you pick to introduce DIM GRAY
to people who never heard of you?
Håkon: “Maybe Mare, Avalon | The Tide and Black Sun is a good start
to get to know Dim Gray and we still enjoy playing them live also.”
Oskar: “I think Avalon | The Tide from Firmament would be a good
starting point. I feel like that song is “quintessentially Dim Gray,” with
important contributions from all three of us, and I also think it’s
one of our best ones yet.”
Tom: “Personally I would pick Mare or Ashes from Firmament.
They are pretty different, but still hold the essence of Dim Gray
in my ears.”
Last September you released your second album called FIRMAMENT.
Is there an overall theme or do the songs stand on their own?
Oskar: “It might be a stretch to call Firmament a concept album, but nevertheless
there are some common themes running through the album. We wanted the album
to feel like a journey, and the sequencing of the songs is very deliberate with
regard to the lyrics.
The idea was that each track should work on its own, whilst painting a greater picture when taken together with the rest of the album. And so while each song might mean something very specific to its respective lyricist, we use recurring imagery in order to
tie up the greater story.”
The album’s artwork is so stylish. Who developed it
and what did you want to express with that image?
Oskar: “Thank you! The artwork and design was done by my brilliant girlfriend Linnea Vestre. She has made the artwork for every release we’ve ever done. Where the cover for Flown was muted and subtle – and that was correct for that album – I felt that it should look more vivid and iconic this time around, to reflect the more direct, colourful, and diverse sound of the album.
I knew I ideally wanted a wave to fit with the album’s watery theme; The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (note: Japanese painter and printmaker) (as well as the album cover for Keane‘s Under The Iron Sea were on the mood board. The moment I saw Linnea’s first draft I knew that it was right. I think the way that the wave wraps around the physical version is ingenious!”
Were all three of you involved in the making of the longplayer?
Tom: “We were all involved in one way or another. Music and lyrics have
primarily been written by Oskar and Håkon, but we have all had a hand in
arranging and creating the finished result.”
Håkon: “Yes, I think it is good to collaborate in the writing process
to get more ideas and find a fresh perspective. We start writing by
ourselves and then we meet up to figure out the shapes and sounds
afterward.”
CANNONS is one of my favs off the album. What is the song about and
what story did you want to tell with the funny accompanying video?
Håkon: “The song started with the main guitar riff and it took a while to
figure out how to use it, but luckily all the parts fell together in the end. It’s
about the frustration of when you get older, there are so many chores and
the same routines every day.
It made me a little crazy at the time and I waited for something big
that could wake me up. We did a music video and wanted it to be fun
and playful.
We know a magician friend named Mats Svalebjørg and decided
to do a more literal interpretation of the lyric with a cannon.
We are really happy with the results and it was an amazing experience!”
Which big-name artist(s)/band(s) would you love to tour with and why?
Oskar: “Joining Peter Gabriel on his newly announced tour wouldn’t be half bad.
He’s a very important hero of mine and I think it would be a good fit musically.”
Tom: “I think that to tour with Muse or Porcupine Tree would be very cool!”
Håkon: “I think Jack White, PJ Harvey, Wilco or Paul Simon
would have been incredible.”
What movie would you pick to soundtrack your music?
Tom: “Tough question. Either a Studio Ghibli film or
a nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough!”
Håkon: “I daydream that The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings
of Power series wants to use one of our soundtracks one day!”
Oskar: “It could be anything from somber drama to vivid fantasy
or dark sci-fi. Maybe something like Arrival; although Jóhann Jóhannssons
score for that film is already perfect.”
Oskar: “I recently stumbled across Grizzly Bear singer/guitarist Daniel Rossen’s
new solo album You Belong There, and it probably takes the top spot for me
this year.
It’s an uncompromising album that doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve heard.
For top track I’m going to go with For You The Night Is Still by Becca Stevens and Attaca Quartet, from another of my favourite albums from this year.”
THE event – good and bad – of 2022?
Tom: “Regarding Dim Gray, I think it must have been the way we were
received in Stockholm when we supported Marillion on their Weekend there.
A night I will never forget.”
If DIM GRAY would cover a Xmas song, which one would it be?
Oskar:“I would be very surprised if we ever did, but never say never.
I’ve been playing with Big Big Train this year, and one of the songs we did
is a beautiful, melancholic Christmas song titled Snowfalls. It’s one of my
favourite Big Big Train songs and probably my favourite Christmas
song too, so I wouldn’t mind doing that one.”
Håkon: “Very hard to choose! It would have been fun to
do Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues (Feat. Kirsty MacCool).”
Tom: “I’m not sure if it would fit Dim Gray, but one of my all-time
favourite Christmas songs is ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ by Carpenters.
Which song will you play at New Year’s Eve and why?
Håkon: “Auld Lang Syne is a classic and I need to hear this at least once before midnight!”
Oskar: “I might live out my inner synth-pop fantasies with Til/slutt from Amalie Holt Kleive’s excellent debut album, released this year. It’s in Norwegian, but it’s a banger!”
What do you really want to happen in 2023 for DIM GRAY?
Tom: “Would love to go on tour again. We had a blast traveling with
Big Big Train in September, so hopefully we’ll get to tour again during 2023.”
Oskar: “I want us to achieve the lofty goals we have set in terms of writing,
recording, gigging, and putting ourselves out there in 2023!”
Photo by Emile Vestre
Thank you Tom, Håkon and Oskar for this interview.
May the road rise with Dim Gray next year.
Band: DIM GRAY Who: Three musicians coming from different places, both musically and geographically, with each member moving from different parts of Norway to Oslo a decade ago to study. All three have contrasting backgrounds in genres as diverse as black metal, progressive rock, blues, folk and film music, but in fusing these together they have developed their own distinctive sound.
Prog:“Majestic and wistful, ‘Firmament’ is a sweeping, beautiful
journey. Dim Gray deserve their moment in the sun.”
Get Ready To Rock: “A beautiful album bursting with musicality and
a treasury of exquisite songs to soften even the hardest of hearts.
Exceptional.”
Perogadar:“This band have elevated themselves
to another level entirely. A magnificent achievement”
Turn Up The Volume:Dim Gray float in a universe where the poignancy and
starry-eyed melodrama of Sigur Rós and the spiritual vocality of day-and-night
dreamers Fleet Foxes become one. This heart-and-soul stirring trio reverberates
like a full orchestra. They’re cinematic pop architects working with a drone flying
up high like an eagle and showing us where the ocean meets the sky.
Symphonic pop splendour. Firmament is a shiny diamond of a record.
Band: DIM GRAY Who: Three musicians coming from different places, both musically and geographically, with each member moving from different parts of Norway to Oslo a decade ago to study. All three have contrasting backgrounds in genres as diverse as black metal, progressive rock, blues, folk and film music, but in fusing these together they have developed their own distinctive sound.
The trio state that writing this piece was “where the album really started, as it became a blueprint for the entire record. The expansiveness in its lydian harmonies and modulations,
the prevalence of piano and strings, as well as the lyrical themes, all came to influence the
rest of the songs.”
Turn Up The Volume: Dim Gray operate in a place where the melodrama of Sigur Rós
and the darksome epicness of British romantics Editors become one. This heart-and-soul stirring trio reverberates like a full orchestra. They’re cinematic pop architects working with a musical drone flying up high and showing us where the ocean meets the sky. Supreme stroke!
Band: DIM GRAY Who: Three musicians with contrasting musical backgrounds
in genres as diverse as black metal, progressive rock, blues,
folk and film music, but in fusing these together they began
to develop their own distinctive sound.
New album: FIRMAMENT
The trio’s second LP following their praised 2020 debut Flown
Press info: Firmament will appeal musically to fans of artists such as Radiohead, Agnes Obel, Owen Pallett, Susanne Sundfør, Keane and Tears
For Fears. Thematically, it explores further the landscape of melancholy
and longing that was introduced on ‘Flown’; however, those sensations
are now contextualised in the depressions of the modern world, juxtaposed
against romanticised ideas of simpler times through childhood memories
interspersed with myths and superstition.
Oskar Holldorff (singer/keyboardist) about the song: “It’s about trying to break
free of invisible shackles and the yearning for something more. We tried to balance
the earnest expression of emotions with more obscure imagery, but achieving the
right blend took a lot of time and effort.”
Turn Up The Volume: Mare is melodramatic epicness in sonic motion.
This sky-reaching symphony sparkles with lyrical synths and shiny guitars
and Holldorff‘s transcendent voice lifts this rhapsodic tour de force to
the stars on the firmament, up high. Magnifico.
The dark side of Editors and the experimental
grandeur of Sigur Ros. Fascinating, right? You bet.
