Sound

Sally Shapiro - New album sampler and Q&A

Tom Jenkins | Monday 25 February, 2013 20:58

Winning Swedish duo Sally Shapiro (producer Johan Agebjörn and vocalist Shapiro), release their long awaited third album tomorrow (February 26) via Paper Bag Records. Entitled Somewhere Else, it’s a heartbreaking work of staggering disco genius, building on the pop sensibilities, fine songcraft and above all the sense of fun, that characterised their previous two warmly received LPs, My Guilty Pleasure (2009) and Disco Romance (2006).

You can stream several tracks from the record below. We caught up with Johan to discuss Somewhere Else’s inception, collaborations and reluctant pop-star Sally …

You’ve said you ‘don’t see yourselves as an Italo disco band anymore’. How do you see yourselves currently?

Actually we’ve been moving away from Italo disco since our first single – it started as a fun project to make a single that sounded like authentic Italo disco from the 80s. When we’d done that we felt like, ‘ok there’s no need to make it authentic, let’s just do what we feel sounds good’. Ever since then we’ve been taking influences from different musical genres, maybe even more so recently with lots of acoustic instruments.

What have you been listening to in the run-up to making this record?

I’ve been listening to a lot of modern electronic music inspired by the 80s: Lovelock, CFCF, a lot of my old favourites – Aphex Twin, Biosphere – artists like that.

Did your approach or method change when it came to making this new record?

It was pretty similar in the sense that Sally doesn’t want me to be in the studio when she records … and it starts with me presenting an instrumental track and she comes for feedback. It’s a bit different now we’re using more guest musicians and also guest producers – a lot of bouncing tracks back and forth over the Internet with people. That’s a process that started on my solo album, Casablanca Nights, which was released in 2011. I liked working with some of the people on that album so I continued to work with them, especially L’Prix, who is involved with four tracks on the new album.

Have you found this method of working more inspiring?

It’s good because you’re taking influences from other producers. Of course, it’s even better to meet in person and work – that has happened a few times – but when you work with people in the USA …

How do these collaborations come about?

Many of them have been people who’ve remixed us. If we like the work we’ll ask them – or maybe they’ll ask us – if we should do a track together. In a few cases it’s been people we’ve contacted because we like their work, like Electric Youth, who are involved with one track, Starman. L’Prix did a remix of Love in July a few years ago. Then there’s Anorak. He was the one who contacted us. It started with him making a remix of our track Anorak Christmas – that was partly because of the word Anorak (laughs).

Sally has famously said that music is something she does ‘on the weekend’. How do you manage to co-ordinate your work ethics? Are you at a point of equilibrium?

It’s much easier now. In the beginning she had really bad self-confidence. I had to talk her into singing: it could take a whole day or several days sometimes. That’s gradually got easier and now she’s pretty confident, but she still wants to be alone in the room when she records. She still doesn’t want to perform live. She’s quite a shy and reserved person.

Would you like to perform live?

I have two kids so I wouldn’t want to be away long, but it would be nice to do a few shows. I respect Sally’s decision; I’m happy to DJ sometimes.

So is it a firm no, or a ‘let’s wait and see’?

It’s a firm no I think.

When you’re away DJing do you collect music and ideas and then bring them back to Sally?

Yeah it can happen that way sometimes. There’s a track on the album called This City’s Local Italo Disco DJ Has a Crush on Me. The groove on that track was inspired by some music I heard while on a DJ gig in Finland. As soon as I came home, I started working on that track.

When you first started working on the music that would eventually become Somewhere Else, were you planning to make another Sally Shapiro record or another solo album?

In the early stages I didn’t really know, but then we took a decision to make a new album because I was suddenly given some free time. I usually study – I’m a full-time student – but I had a new child and I only needed to be at home half the time. At that point we decided, ok we can make a new album. So then we did two or three sketches … but the rest of the tracks were intended for Sally from the beginning. I think that’s good because she has a very soft voice so you can’t have tracks that are too heavy or banging – it doesn’t fit together. For example, the first single What Can I Do is very soft indie-pop and it works well with her voice.

At the same time there’s a track on the album called All My Life, which is something of a banger. It must all be in the mixing and the mastering …

Yes and that track you mentioned was actually the most difficult to mix on the album. I made a lot of versions because it was difficult to get her voice sounding really clear over that banging background. There’s a lot of very heavy compression on her voice, but I was happy with the track eventually.

This record sounds like your slickest and most-polished. Do you feel like you’ve finally nailed your sound?

In terms of production I feel more satisfied than ever … but then Disco Romance had a special charm to it because it was spontaneous and it had other strengths that people appreciated. I’m really happy that we’ve been able to have a broad range of production styles on the record.

Did you spend longer on this record than you did on the previous two?

This record took around a year, so about the same as Disco Romance and My Guilty Pleasure. I don’t feel like I have to rush anymore. Maybe it also has to do with getting older. When you’re younger you’re very eager, but sometimes it’s good to let tracks sink-in while you’re doing something else, then return to them.

Where do you record?

We record in my apartment. It’s possible because with this kind of music there are a lot of instruments in the background, so if there’s a bit of noise on the vocal you don’t notice it. It’s a cheap way to do it. It makes it possible to make a living.

---