Niki And The Dove: TAS In Session
The mysterious world spun by the Swedish trio Niki and The Dove is buoyed by a dreamy brew of ebullient, delectable synthpop, winning songwriters Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf plenty of breathless critical accolades for their debut album Instinct, out now on Sub Pop.
The band — which includes drummer Magnus Böqvist — just played the Reading and Leeds Festival this past weekend and they'll be back Stateside this week for gigs in Los Angeles on August 31 and Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival on September 2. Niki and The Dove embark on a tour with Twin Shadow next week with stops that include Manhattan's Webster Hall on September 27 and Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 28.
Niki and The Dove have also released their next single, "Somebody," today, August 27, along with a remix by Clock Opera.
Listen to Niki and The Dove's wonderful session in Studio A, taped earlier this summer, on Friday, August 31 on TAS on 91.5 WNYE at 11 a.m. EDT, also streaming on the TAS site:
Alisa Ali: What’s the story behind the name Niki and The Dove?
Malin Dahlström: You know, that’s a secret!
Alisa: That in itself is a story.
Gustaf Karlöf: We live in a society where we have so much information about everything. Every second. We think it’s healthy not knowing everything.
Malin: It’s good that you can make up your own [story].
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX-SRkbk3fs]
Alisa: There’s so much going on in ["Mother Protect"]. At first you’re talking about being in the sky and then falling. But then it gets all futuristic and crazy and I feel it scales back even higher.
Malin: It’s beautiful that you get those images.
Alisa: There’s a lot of crazy imagery going on in your songs. On the record, this song is a little bit different; you have a chorus on the studio version.
Malin: Sort of. We have a lot of vocals on that track, but we also have a choir on “The Gentle Roar.” We asked all of our friends to come. We had a good time when we were recording that. Twelve girls who came.
Alisa: Were these musician friends of yours?
Malin: No, they were just friends who like to sing. Some of them are musicians, some are actresses and some are artists in other forms.
Alisa: You mainly focus on music, though. You don’t have any side gigs, do you?
Gustaf: No! We’re focused on this.
Alisa: I had interviewed Shout-Out Louds and they have side jobs. One of the guys is a baker.
Malin: Really? Wow.
Alisa: And Bevan, she writes technical manuals.
Malin: That’s really cool.
Alisa: You must have an interest in visuals because you have a lot of videos on your website.
Malin: Yes, I’m interested in that.
Gustaf: Malin did some of those videos.
Malin: I did the first one we had, the single for Moshi Moshi for “DJ, Ease My Mind” and “Under The Bridges.” I also did for “Hot Summer,” a new track.
Alisa: That’s the one with the surfing. Gustaf, was that you on the board?
Gustaf: Absolutely.
Alisa: The [video for “DJ, Ease My Mind”] features two people doing a crazy acrobatic routine.
Malin: I found them online. I searched for footage and then I found these trapeze artists and we asked a friend to cut that particular one. That clip is from ‘84 I think.
Gustaf: “DJ, Ease My Mind” is one of the oldest songs on the record.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agim5yf1kD0]
Alisa: You had also released “DJ, Ease My Mind” on an EP, correct? A few of the songs from that EP are on this full-length album. What was the thinking in including those rather than having them separate on the EP?
Malin:That’s a good questions. It would have felt wrong to leave them out of our debut album because they have played such an important part in our band. We made that decision to put all of the songs together [on the album]. Like the people that have followed us from the beginning, maybe they are disappointed with that! It would have felt wrong [to leave the songs] out.
Gustaf: Also, when the EP was out, there was no plan for doing a full-length album. The plans came along as the reactions to the songs came along. So when we did the EP there were no plans.
Alisa: Did you think at that point that you’d just put together a bunch of EPs.
Gustaf: We took one step at a time. We made songs and we didn’t see longer than that. But then we got good reactions on the songs that we made an eventually we took the decision to make a full-length. The full-length is more like a conclusion of these two years.
Alisa: You got a very good reaction to your music. You were included in the BBC Sound of 2012. That’s a big deal. Were you shocked?
Malin: We were shocked (laughs). Everybody was very surprised.
Alisa: Did you find yourself in the UK a lot after that happened?
Malin: We had actually already moved there then. It was all very surprising and we were very happy for it. We couldn’t believe it could happen. We had moved to London already. All the people that we were working with, that liked Niki and The Dove, were in London.
Alisa: I understand that the recording process for this record took a fair amount of time.
Gustaf: It was really one step at a time at that point. We made songs in the beginning for the fun of it.
Alisa: But you still makes songs for the fun of it!
Gustaf: Yes we are! Hopefully.
Malin: No, now it’s just boring. (laughs).
Gustaf: Work all the time. No play. Of course, the fun is there but one bit difference is that at that point, we didn’t have a record deal or a plan of a full album.
Alisa: So where did you record the EPs?
Gustaf: In Stockholm. The whole album is recorded in Sweden.
Alisa: Did you produce it yourselves?
Malin: We produced it together with Elof Loelv. Back then he was in Stockholm and we spent a lot of time in his cellar studio.
Gustaf: The three of us produced it together.
Alisa: [It sounded] like a labor intensive process, trying to organized all of the different sounds [on the record].
Gustaf: There were a lot of fights though! Most of the time we have the same vision of the end result of a song, but we can argue about how we can get there, how we can reach the top of the mountain. But we think the same way about the aim or goal of a song. You have to make so many decisions along the way. I think it’s healthy to have discussions about it.
Alisa: This next song you’re going to play, [“Tomorrow”], what were the differences?
Malin: That was actually a song that we wrote by the piano. It took some time to translate it into the world that it’s in now. I don’t remember — did we have any big fights about “Tomorrow?”
Gustaf: Yes. Well, not fight, but we did have some really big discussion about a key change in the song. There were versions with the key change and versions without.
Alisa: And that’s when the producer would come in an referee?
Gustaf: We were on the same level.
Mallin: Yeah, it wasn’t like that. We were fighting, all the three of us (laughs). He wasn’t the grownup or anything! But it was good.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcPKfeSa1l4]
Alisa: Do the songs change when you play live? Or do you always try to get this exact pattern.
Gustof: No, we try to keep it alive in that we have the beginnings and ends open and have some kind of improvisational aspect. Sometimes it happens more and sometimes less. It keeps things alive. It depends on the situation and sound.
Alisa: How does [the lyric writing process] work? Do you collaborate?
Malin: We write the music together most of the time, but on this album I’ve written the lyrics.
Alisa: But you’ve collaborated in the past?
Malin: Never on lyrics. I’ve always written my own lyrics.
Alisa: Is that something you’re interested in or intimidated by?
Gustof: Yes, it would be nice to try. I’ve done it a bit in the past in other situations. But I think Malin is doing a great job.
Malin: We’ll see in the future.
Alisa: It sounds like you want him ….
Malin: No, no, we’ve been kidding about this in other interviews. Gustof has been saying that he’s not ALLOWED to do it (laughs). So for the future we have to change that.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRnhEotE9l4]
Niki and The Dove Tour Dates:
Aug. 31 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
Sep. 01 - Vancouver, BC - Electric Owl
Sep. 02 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot
Sep. 05 - El Paso, TX - Tricky Falls*
Sep. 07 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre*
Sep. 08 - Omaha, NE - Waiting Room*
Sep. 09 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada Theatre*
Sep. 11 - Norman, OK - Opolis*
Sep. 13 - Dallas, TX - Trees*
Sep. 14 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk*
Sep. 16 - Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds*
Sep. 17 - McAllen, TX - Cine El Rey*
Sep. 18 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree*
Sep. 19 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl*
Sep. 21 - Asheville, NC - Orange Peel*
Sep. 23 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
Sep. 24 - Washington, DC - Black Cat*
Sep. 25 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer*
Sep. 27 - New York, NY - Webster Hall*
Sep. 29 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
Oct. 02 - Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel
Oct. 03 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
Oct. 04 - San Francisco, CA – Popscene
Oct. 06 – Los Angeles CA – Taix
Oct. 07 – Los Angeles, CA – Culture Collide Festival Block Party
*w/ Twin Shadow
