ITM decided to have a chat with Swedish trance act Vibrasphere about their new album ‘Archipelago’.

Robert, you left the group for some time but then came back to work on the new album. What brought you back?

Robert: Well, Rickard came by my work one day and we talked for a bit and we decided to try to make one track again to see if we could get along. And we did! I think the pause was good for both of us and that way we got new energy and ideas for a new album.

You mention the surrounding environment as being a great inspiration for the new album and I think when you listen to it you can hear it come through. Were there any specific areas or events that sparked something?

Rickard: I am a big fan of sea kayaking and I try to go into the archipelago here in Sweden as often as I can. For me there is something very special about this naked and vulnerable environment where the ocean starts to blend in with the land and its glacier polished rocks.

Robert: We actually started to make the album in the summer but when we got more in to the album we knew that the winter was coming and we had to modify some tracks to make them fit better to the winter feel.

The album does seem to have a ‘winter’ feel to it, if you did all of the album during summer do you think it would have been different? Different inspirations leading to different sounds?

Rickard: I am sure the vibe would have been slightly different since we would have used different samples, but still the music would probably not have change that much.

Robert: We started to experiment since we didn’t make any music together for almost 2 years and when the first track was written we knew exactly what style and variations we where aiming for. We wanted to take the classic Vibrasphere sound further but still keep some of the ingredients from the Lime Structure album.

There certainly is a variety of sounds on the new album, from breaks to ambient to pumping trance. Was it something you aimed for or did the different style tracks just come to you?

Rickard & Robert: We planned to have a couple of downbeat tracks on the album, but the electro/breaks track just came about one day when we got stuck on another track we were working on.

You have mentioned a down-tempo release to be out soon. Will this affect the ‘classic’ Vibrasphere in any way?

Rickard & Robert: Not really since we have always produced downbeat tracks alongside the more pumping stuff. At this point we are not completely sure how the new album we are planning will be composed. The thing we know though is that our mellow productions will be given much more space. We will also be working much more with live musicians and vocal elements which of course will change the sound of the tracks to some extent, but the Vibrasphere vibe will still be there.

Do you guys prefer jocks, boxers or commando?

Rickard & Robert: Well most of the year up here is pretty cold so even if we would like to go commando it would be a too big risk for future generations!

As with many psy-trance acts you play a live set instead of DJ’ing. Have any of done much DJ work before? If so, does it give you a different feeling playing out the tunes on equipment instead of spinning records?

Rickard: I have done a bit of downbeat DJ’ing and sure it is different feeling. I mean instead of playing your own music that you know down to the smallest detail, you are playing other people’s music and that means you have to be more alert, but at the same time you just have two channels of sound to keep tracks of compared to a live set where you might have up to 15.

Son Kite wrote in their email newsletter about negative experiences when touring, in one example they basically spent half the night building their setup and trying to find the equipment they were supposed to be using, have you had any problems like this when touring?

Rickard: The times when things run according to plan are very easy to count. It can be very frustrating at times to have to face all the problems that might be involved with a booking, all the way from not getting your fee down to trying to get someone to take you to the airport or trying to find that mixer you ordered in your raider. However a lot of promoters are most of the times doing very few events and it is not their real profession so at points you have to cut them some slack.

They also write about artists who don’t play live sets and stand there pretending with a pre-mixed CD going. Have you seen many artists do that while you are playing live at the same event? Is it a common thing or more isolated?

Rickard: Yes it is quite common that people are just playing a pre-mix from a CD or a computer. I know we could not do it as we would get extremely bored on stage every weekend. In our opinion the most important thing with a live set is to offer the audience something new that they have not heard before. It might be some unreleased tracks, special versions of tracks or cool mixes.

You play at many festivals and events around the world, do crowds at different places react in different ways? Do you find something new everywhere you go?

Rickard: People and places are for sure different all over the world and that is the beautiful part of being able to travel and performing all over. You realize you learn something new from every trip you make.

Some of your countrymen have formed a Swedish House Mafia. Do you have any plans to form a Swedish Trance Mafia and battle it out for dance music supremacy?

Rickard: Hmm have never thought of that before. It could actually be a cool idea!

Your current label Digital Structures chose not to give ‘Archipelago’ a full vinyl release for economic reasons and online stores such as Beatport and Trackitdown are on the rise. Do you think conventional vinyl releases will ever completely stop?

Rickard & Robert: Since there are very little money coming back from the vinyl releases these days we decided together with Digital Structures that a LP version of the album was unnecessary since the two 12 inches we released held 4 tracks from the album and also taking into account that we had 2 downbeat tracks on the album. The online stores will continue to grow for sure. We have noticed this first hand since we opened our own Vibrasphere shop a few months ago. However the medium that will suffer most from this in the near future is the CD. The vinyl has survived during the CD era and we would not be surprised if it actually would get a boost out of the decreasing CD sales in the coming years.

On a similar note, Spiral Trax recently closed down, growing to the number of labels having to close over the last few years. How does news like that make you feel when you read it? Do you think many more labels will have to close down? What can they do to stay ahead?

Rickard & Robert: The case with Spiral Trax is of course extra sad for us since we made our debut on that particular label. The whole Psy scene today is in our opinion way too over crowded. Too many labels are fighting over sales that are already quite low which means some are sooner or later going to have to shut down. Then if you add the bankruptcy of the main distributor to that you get a situation where most labels are just fighting to stay alive. Good music will always sell so what the labels can do apart from exploring new mediums is just to focus on the quality.

Has this and the move towards digital changed anything in the way you make your music? Do you ever get worried about playing a new tune because someone might record it and get it out there before you want?

Rickard: We used to be really freaked out about all this in the past, but these days I have a guy traveling with me that makes sure no unauthorized tapes are going out of the mixing desk. ;)

Finally, what does the future hold for Vibrasphere?

Rickard & Robert: During the coming months we will be playing a lot of parties and festivals worldwide and in the studio we are currently working on tracks for a more downbeat oriented Vibrasphere album that we plan to release sometime next year. We have also recently started a new project, but for now this is a bit of a secret…

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions!!

Rickard & Robert: No worries!

‘Archipelago’ is out now on the Digital Structures label.