Trentemøller is tired of “minimal shit”

Since his album The Last Resort back in 2006, Anders Trentemøller has been representing something extraordinary in terms of progressive techno sounds. The signature electronica that accompanies each of his releases and his multiple remixes is omnipresent, but his second album in 2010, Into the Great Wide Yonder shows his new passion which is more like an indie-rock spectrum of sounds compared to his earlier club tracks.

At Sonar festival which took place earlier this year, we met with this entirely different perspective as Trentemøller presented his live band performance.

Your last album took a big step towards the mainstream, what is coming next?
Right now, I don’t actually know because I’m using so much time on touring. We are playing a lot of festivals this summer, but I am going to start making my next album in this coming Autumn. Right now I’m totally concentrating on playing live with a band, so I don’t know what kind of sounding it would be. I’m really sure that I will try not to repeat myself, as that is my usual approach, and this is the only thing I can say.

Your live gig is more like an industrial rock band performance, rather than something electronic like your early material. How do you see the differences?
I don’t see it as an industrial thing maybe because I’m not much into that music. The thing is more like the indie rock sound, and also like from the ‘60s, which is very new for me too. It has definitely more a kind of rock attitude, but still mixed with club beats. Or instead of clubby, I would say it has a kind of electronic side. I am only thinking about making music, not about the genre.

Don’t you worry about you loosing the mood of The Last Resort album and the people who prefer that sounding?
No, not at all. If I should keep doing on that way on the stage, repeating myself with electronic live act, I would be so bored. Furthermore I always enjoy challenging myself. Now I am pretty tired of club sounds, all this minimal shit, which I did seven or ten years ago.

How did the Sonar crowd react to the new live show?
First of all I have to say that the Sonar concert was one of my best shows with the live band. The venue and the people were very much into the music. We played the latest version of our show and I really enjoyed how they reacted. We were trying to get 120% out of us. It was such a great vibe there, so when we went off stage we were so happy with it.

If we look back to your discography, you seem to be a nonstop, large-scale remix generator. Why are you so ambitious about that?
Actually to be honest until four years ago I had been doing so many more remixes, and now I still do some, but only if the song really has a special part will I start working on a remix of it. My focus is on making my own music. The remix thing is what I do in my spare time when I am not writing my own music or playing with the band. Remixing is a possibility for me to make sometimes a little bit more for the dance floor. Also sometimes it is good for me to do totally weird and experimental sounds, for example UK things, not only downtempo and piano, kind of beautiful songs. While remixing I am able to do stuff I wouldn’t put to my albums.

Could you remember for your weirdest, strangest remix?
The weirdest remix that I have done is actually kind of new one. I made it for a Danish rock band, the Giana Factory. My version is very evilly deep and dark, completely different from my current works.

Your new Late Night Tales mixtape was also out recently, what is the concept behind it?
I hadn’t known about this compilation before the Late Night Tales guys contacted with me, but it seemed to be very interesting when I was checking other names on their list for example Artic Monkeys or Flaming Lips, you know, very cool names. I wasn’t thinking about target groups, I just picked up my favourite songs, which I was inspired by the most so far. I also wanted to show new music from Denmark, because there’s a lot of great stuff there. It was a possibility to show my background and also look forward into the future and try to mix all that together as a cool mix.

Published August 10, 2011.