Eardrums has interviewed Peter Nilsson, the man who is responsible for CDOASS’ catchy and infectous Basslines.
Soundtrack while reading: CDOASS – speak to me

So far, 2005 has been a very good year for swedish dancerockfunkpunks CDOASS. They have had a successful tour as supportband for The Hives in Europe. Their single “Speak to me” has been playlisted on MTV and hyped by music magazines all over, including the NME. Their debutalbum “Extra fingers” is close to release, and Europe is listening…

The band started as a duo in 1999, and the fact that it later became a band was out of necessity. Peter Nilsson explains:

- To make it short. Me and Anders started it in 1999. Drums on a C90 cassette and then us doing guitars, bass and synthesizers on top of it.We had the ambition to have a soundsystem and do guerillaevents on dancefloors. Then we’ve gradually evolved into 5 people when me and Anders felt we had too much to do at the same time. I did vocals, bass and synthesizer at the sime time at several occasions and it just wasn’t satisfying.

CDOASS released their first single “for a few dollars more” in 2001, and then several self-financed 7¨ and cd-singles on small indielabels in Sweden. Today, CDOASS style is quite unique, even in the popular dancepunk scene that they often are linked to. We ask Peter how the style has developed since the first single?

– A lot! Really! I don’t know cause I’m caught up in the CDOASS-machine, but a lot has happened. It’s more rhythmic and better songs if you ask me. And we’d never make another song like “For A Few Dollars More” today. We’ve evolved really.

All of a sudden you seem to be on everybody’s lips. How is it to play in a band like CDOASS right now?

- It’s really nice. But its gonna be even nicer when the album is out. We’ve existed i 5 years and have always been playing live infront of an audience which have heard maybe 1 or 2 songs from us. So that’s one upside of it all. To see how an audience which have heard us will react to our performance on stage. And when the album is out we feel we can take the next step forward. We’re already working on songs for the next album and it feels really liberating.

– and how does it feel to have so high expectations to your music before you release your first album?

– …well… it’s only great to get the attention from people. We feel that we wanna go places and this is the way to do it.

The album “extra fingers” will be released on April 20th in Sweden, but according to the band it is only a matter of time before they “stretch their tentacles into other regions”. The tour with the Hives has given them an audience in the UK, Germany and USA, and they are playlisted on radio and TV-channels in several countries. The album is produced by former Imperiet-bassist and studio wizard Christian Falk.

What can we expect on the album? How does it sound?

- The album is more of an album than the other songs have been. You know, earlier we produced and engineered everything on our own and it had its ups and downs. We recorded for 24h and our heads were near to implode due to exhaustion. Now it’s produced more like an album. There’s that red thread thru it all. Still, you can pick out songs for the dancefloor..but a little more slick.

You make music that fits equally well in a rock-club and on the dancefloor. Do you feel at home in the dancemusic scene?

- I’m a lot into the dancemusic scene. I DJ a lot and play electro, italo, postpunk..stuff like that. Rough dance music. So it’s natural to get people to do remixes for the dancefloors.

Who will do the remixes for the new single “I spy”?

- I don’t know exactly who will do remixes..we’ve got one ready from Phonique and Simian Mobile Disco and Lo-Fi-Fnk are working on their contributions and I’ve got a lot of names in my head to ask for the next single. Hopefully Christian Falk (our producer) will make one as well.

You are joined by musicians from Revl9n, Caesars and Paddington DC
on the album. What are their contributions to “extra fingers”?

- Ceasears more or less just dropped into the studio to pick up some stuff or something and ended up doing some backing vocals on the next single “I Spy”. Paddington DC helped us out programming the synthesizers and borrowing us some stringmachines. Then we felt like trying out some female vocs and I knew of the girls in Revl9n so we phoned them a saturday night and put down some vocals on six songs I think.

What are the plans for the release? Any touring?

- Well, we’re doing a tour in Sweden all spring and we’re looking to get
back to England pretty soon. And we haven’t played in Norway since like
2002 and so much has happened since. Please take us back to Kocks
Pensjonat!

Lots of reviewers have compared you to LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand and !!!. Older bands like Talking Heads, Devo and Gang of four are also mentioned. Do you feel comfortable with such comparisons, – and what are you influenced by?

- We’re not influenced by anything when we make music. We don’t make music with the intention to sound like anything. It just pops up in our heads. The Franz Fredinand thing I don’t get at all, but I can see some comparisons with Rapture or Lcd. I don’t think we sound anything alike but i guess we have some preferences in common. Everyone seem to narrow it down to like 2-3 bands. When you read an article in Sweden it’s like “Gang of four, Talking heads & Devo”. People are to klazy to have their own opinions. They just read others reviews and copy it. Ten people in different parts of Sweden can’t sit down with a single and think it sounds like gang of four, talking heads and devo. In that case we must as well stop playing. But we know they’re fuckups. Why don’t they mention anything else?

And to help the future writers of articles and reviews to find something new to compare the band with, Peter Nilsson has made a list of artists that he enjoys listening to…

- Here are some bands which I like… but I stand for like 15% of the music but anyway.. here goes… don’t leave anything out Suicide, Flying Lizards, Holgar Czukay, The Chills, Human League, Bowie, N.O.I.A., Raincoats, Lex, Material, James Chance, Orange Juice, Young Marble Giants, The Wake, Arthur Russell, Kano, Palais Schaumburg (andthe whole NDW-scene), Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Gary Numan, Stockholm Monsters, Fire Engines. …and i hope some swedish reviewers read this and maybe they’ll start comparing us with something else.

You come from the same small town as The Hives, Fagersta. Do you feel that Fagersta and the music community there has done something for the way your band is today?

- No, Fagersta has nothing to do with us. We like the town and we like the
surroundings but otherwise..nothing.

By the way… what is it with you and the Hives and suits?

- I don’t know. We’ve had it like that all of our existance..in some way. In the beginning we we’re all dressed in white. We want something that sets a border between everyday life and the stage, to get us in the mood you know. And we’ll…we like dressing up so it turned to suits. It’s that simple really.

Are there more Fagersta-bands we should keep our ears ready for?

- Not that I know of, but I really really hope there are some which I never
heard of, hiding in some basement, a flat or in someones computer.

I can’t leave Peter without getting a proper explanation of the bands odd name. Some say it stands for “corporate dancefall of a subjective sister”, but not according to Peter:

- It doesn’t mean corporate yadda yadda.. that’s just something we threw in to get rid of annoying questions. We made music long before we had a name. We hadn’t thought about it really. One day it was like “oh..we’re gonna perform live..what are they gonna write on the poster?” We had some suggestions but generally both me and Anders were against the whole bandname-thing so we wanted to do something that annoyed people but still looked good in writing. That’s it really. Of course there is astory but that isn’t relevant.

And after getting the name-thing straight, we can all sleep well and wait for the new CDOASS-cd. Maybe we will see them headlining next year, with support of… The Hives?

Some links to artists mentioned in the interview:

The band…
CDOASS: http://www.cdoass.com/

The helpers…
Revl9n: http://www.revl9n.com/
Caesars: http://www.caesarsweb.com/
Paddington DC: http://www.paddington-dc.tk/
The Hives: http://www.hivesmusic.com/