SPACE AND SOUNDS A CONVERSATION WITH BYLJA
Relax and take a journey to the soothing atmospheric and organic electronica sounds by duo BYLJA as they release their new song ‘Unity & Division’ from their Sojourn EP.
We met each other many years ago in high school doing the production of the school musical. We didn't know each other beforehand but quickly became very good friends. We started a satirical hip hop group, arranged a series of cheese tastings, and bonded over our common love for synthesizers. Over time, we became more and more serious about making music, and on new years eve 2018/2019 we formed BYLJA while very drunk and happy. We both live in Copenhagen, Denmark, and are both currently taking our master's degrees at the Music Conservatory where Emil studies Electronic Music and Marchel studies Composition.
Greatest inspirations or influences?
We have a common love for artists such as Bonobo, Jon Hopkins, Kiasmos, and many, many more. These are some of the guys who inspired us to start BYLJA in the first place and really got us into electronic music.
Tell us a bit about your creative process?
We like viewing our creative process as "going to work". We usually meet up at around 9-10 in the morning and end the day at about 4-5 in the afternoon.
We start by drinking some coffee and talk about what we are going to work on that specific day. For the most part, one of us brings a little piece of music or an idea to the session and then we work on that. Other times we start from scratch on something new, and those times we like to let our beloved synthesizers inspire us and take us to unknown and exciting places.
How has the pandemic affected your creativity and how do you see the world-changing?
Well, for us the pandemic didn't really have a negative effect on us creatively. When we made our new EP Sojourn we lived in two different parts of the world. Emil in Denmark and Marchel in the US. We had a ton of online sessions and sent a lot of stuff back and forth over the internet. So the production of the EP went very smoothly. But then came all the planning and distribution of the music, and at that point reality hit us.
Everything just took a long time, and the EP got delayed by over a year. This was extremely frustrating, but more or less everyone was in the same boat, so there wasn't really much we could do about it. It's difficult to guess how the pandemic will change the world - it's a very big question - but in terms of the music industry,
perhaps more people will lean further towards more DIY-kind of work where not so many people are involved in all the different processes. We have had to scale down on the team behind BYLJA, but we are really, really happy with the team behind us now, and are keen on making a lot more exciting music with the same people in the future.
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
The Danish artist and singer Jada. She is incredible! She really pushes the boundaries for pop music, feminism and professionalism. She's just awesome, fantastic, and everybody should look to her for inspiration.
What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?
Well-being means everything to us! We like being comfortable, doing comfortable stuff. We make a big deal out of having a good time and treating ourselves with lovely things whenever we work. We very much like cheese, good food, beers, and comfortable clothes. So when we work, we tend to present new cheeses to each other in comfortable clothes. Things like this just make our day better.
Anything else you would like to share?
Watch out for more music from us in the future. We got a lot coming, including exciting collaborations with a prominent Danish electronic music pioneer, and new music that is totally our own.
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