We are Tokyo Denmark Sweden. Writing bangers for changers. Music your ex has sex to.
You’re playing at the Openair Cinema in Bondi soon; do you have a favourite movie soundtrack?
I used to love The Wedding Singer soundtrack only because it was equipped with such sick 80s awesomeness like The Thompson Twins, Hall & Oates, Bowie. And any Tarantino film has a slick soundtrack.
What genre movie would your music best be suited too if it was used on the soundtrack?
A teen angst, drug fuelled indie rom-com drama?
How much work goes into translating the produced material into the live setting?
We’re constantly fine-tuning our live setup. Taking our queues from all the live shows we enjoy going to. It’s a lot of work, but when it’s done right, it is so worth it.
Are there any bands you’ve looked to or been inspired by when putting together the live show?
We look to bands like The Presets, Crystal Castles, M83 and RUFUS when it comes to executing our live show. Punchy, balls-out sets, with tons of lighting to boot.
Having created a fair bit of buzz online in a relatively short amount of time, have you felt any pressure in living up to peoples early praise of the band?
I think as long as you are in anyone’s spotlight there is always going to be pressure. We are working on new material at the moment so it’s definitely in the forefront of our minds to keep things fresh and make things better than the last EP. We put pressure on ourselves to make every release, in some way, better than the last. But we are staunch about making the music that we want to listen to, and are careful not to be swayed by trends (easier said than done).
‘Fess up. What records have you stolen from your parent’s record collection and why?
All the classics. Dylan, Queen, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, the Stones, Talking Heads. I think collectively we have always had a love for writing and listening to pop music. And the above-mentioned help plant those seeds.
Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?
Tom usually likes his alone time and a coffe… Chris likes to have everything like our gear sorted, soundchecked and ready to go before he can relax. There’s a weird old sock in Tom’s keyboard case, maybe it’s his lucky charm, who knows… Chris also has a photograph of Meher Baba taped to the back of his guitar for good luck. But you’d have to ask him why..
If you could collaborate with any living Australian artist who would it be?
Gotye, Flight Facilities, RUFUS, The Presets.
You only recently released your debut EP, but can we expect some more new music soon?
Definitely. We’re working new stuff as we speak so in the next month or two, we should have a brand spanker out! And will hopefully follow it up with another EP this year… working towards that elusive feature length.
What’s happening for Tokyo Denmark Sweden in 2013?
Bigger and better shows, some awesome support slots, would love to play some more festivals. And a few remixes & DJ sets to boot.
