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Covenant
One of the original members of the future pop trio (joined by Apoptygma Berzerk and VNV Nation), electro/ebm/synth heros and celebrated superstars, Covenant might be one of the most influential and most original bands to be found on the scene today. Their latest album, "Northern Light" proved once and for all that this is an outfit that delivers, no matter the expectations. Of course, one does wonder, how long the band, still in its original line-up consisting of Eskil Simonsson, Joakim Montelius and Clas Nachmanson, can continue to build their legacy, album after album. A new album is taking shape, and after flying across the globe, with a short stop to catch their breath and enjoy the summer, the band is heading home to do a show at the Subspace Encounter.
What was Australia like then? Joakim Montelius, all praise over the Australian promoters sums it up.
- It was fantastic. Incredible audiences, hot clubs, cool cities, wild dolphins, awesome surfing, great wine.
The band spent only seven days "down under", but into these days a tight and crammed schedule was fitted. Fortunately, for any hard working individual, after rain comes sunshine.
- We were welcomed as kings and the Australians sure know how to throw a party. After the last show, in Sidney, the promoters, support acts and their friends took us on a night cruise on a yacht in Sidney's harbour. Complete with a crew, DJ and a bar with a bartender, we sailed around the Opera house until the sun came up. It was a killer 20 hour flight the next day, but definitely worth it.
Romanticizing tour life (which I thought was work!) I ask if the band has found the time to write new material while on tour promoting "Northern Light.
- While some has been written on tour, most of the new material is stuff that I and Eskil have jotted together on our own and then traded back and forth. Eskil is back in Berlin right now in a small project studio while I'm in our regular studio in Helsingborg, so mostly, we talk on the phone and FTP each other a lot of stuff. At this point, nothing is quite done, just bunch of ideas going in all directions that need to be smoothed out and be fitted into a meaningful whole. It doesn't feel like we have anything ready enough to be preformed on stage yet, but it is our hope that we'll be able to try out some new notes in Malmö.
- The new album will not be a continuation of "North Light", which was voted "Best Album" at the Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards last year, spawned singles such as "Called the ships to port", "Bullet" and dance floor fillers such as "We stand alone". "Northern Light" is a closed chapter and we've sailed out into the unknown. No one knows where the wind will carry us, but that's unimportant. What counts is not staying in safe harbours, but to seize the opportunity to go off towards the horizon, Joakim says poetically.
Covenant has also got new labels after the Sony/KA2 debacle, one of furious consumers raging against copy protection and botched promotion in Sweden.
- We thought about starting up our own label and doing everything ourselves but after talking to Synthetic Symphony we realized that their label format and international distribution network would be a better solution for us. However, for Scandinavia we asked our old partner in crime Subspace Communications if they wanted to release our album in Scandinavia. And they did, so now we're back in with the family again, which feels great. We've sorely missed them.
Also missed, is the collaboration with producer Jacob Hellner.
- For our part, collaborating again is probably not a likely event. Time and money are scarce. Unfortunately, because we would very much have liked to work with him again. We had a really good dialog and he really knows how to get the most out of a band and the fact that he normally doesn't work with electronic music was only on the plus side. There weren't any frames or formulas regarding how it should be done or sound, and then the ideas can flow more freely.
Being in flux, closing the previous chapter and having begun writing an entirely new one, I ask what Joakim considers to be the thread running throughout Covenant's career.
- When we began we didn't have single thought about any thread whatsoever. It never crossed our minds that we would make more than one album or that anyone would like to buy it. We just made the music that we ourselves wanted to hear and couldn't buy. And we still do. We make music to satisfy our own curiosity, need to express ourselves and creativity. Naturally, the demands increase with popularity, but we ourselves are the most hard to win over critics. We'll never put out something that we don't believe in 100 percent. That's the way it has always been and that the way it's always going to be. And we'll always be an evolving band. It's an incredible driving force to always try to be going somewhere, to strive against conformism and the human tendency for nostalgia - for us that's motivation to always continue to evolve. It becomes increasingly difficult with time but that also makes it all more important.
/Fredric Düring
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