Anders Trentemoller is in a dark place right now but that, he says, is just perfect. The inimitable Danish producer and live performer – ditch the first name - this week becomes the 25th act to craft a mix for cult compilation series Late Night Tales and his recent bleak mood has ensured it is something he feels proud of.
“The title says it all for me,” Trentemoller opens in quiet, meditative fashion. “I am a very nocturnal person who makes his best music in those quiet, wee small hours. And my current mood is really quite deep and melancholic which has, I think, suited the mix and the idea of the series well. I didn’t want my ‘Late Night Tale’ to be just a cool lounge soundtrack; I wanted it to reflect what I genuinely like listening to, and how I feel.”
Indeed, Trentemoller’s mix is as subterranean and eclectic as anything the Late Night series has thrown at us before, offering sombre moments from Low and Nick Cave and even an exclusive Trentemoller revamp of Chris Isaak’s broken-heart classic Blue Hotel.
But is such a gloomy music-making focus all that healthy in the long-term? There has to be some form of psychological and creative fallout, surely?
“I’m not always deep and wistful when I’m in the studio but as part of the musical process such moods are rather beautiful” he reflects. “They can add real depth to a song and take you on a journey; I think electronic music provides a unique and powerful backdrop for those already powerful feelings.”
Trentemoller, hailing from Vordingborg in Denmark, first made his name during the late nineties as part of live-house duo Trigbag. A slick tech-soul solo outing followed on heavyweight deep house imprint Naked Music (The Trentemoller EP), before several darker, minimal house outings on labels such as Audiomatique and Poker Flat (Physical Fraction, Polar Shift, Sunstroke) and, in 2006, moody debut album Last Resort.
Whilst directed firmly at the dancefloor Last Resort highlighted its author’s growing interest in live instrumentation and idiosyncratic vocalists. “Looking back, it was a natural development for me to progress from club music to instrumentation and other ideas” Trentemoller says. “But then I used to be in a rock band when I was younger. Club music is for the club and it didn’t always express everything I wanted to say. It missed a little melancholia; a little finesse sometimes.”
Last Resort opened the door to interesting, high-profile remix work for iconoclastic mainstreamers such as Moby, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys, and a global album tour complete with live band, guest singers and major dates at Glastonbury, Melt (in Germany) and ‘local’ Danish festival Roskilde. These experiences would give Trentemoller an entirely new perspective on things, as best reflected by last year’s aptly titled follow-up long player Into The Great Wide Yonder.
The record, with its heavy reliance on instruments and bold fusion of indie-rock and electronica, proved a huge hit with fans and critics alike. “I wanted to explore my boundaries and then leap over them” Trentemoller stresses. “I had a lot of different influences, melodies and styles I wanted to get on that record and, of course, bring the whole thing together… to make sense of it all. But ultimately my music is personal; I have to do things for my own pleasure. It’s great that I’ve attracted new listeners over the years but you can’t please everyone; even back when I was making clubbier records fans would be telling me I needed to do more deep house or techno. I ignore it all; I make music that feels right for me.”
Trentemoller’s touring sound is fairly ‘dance’ driven; does he view that stylistic adjustment as exciting creative challenge or reluctant audience compromise? “The music is still mine” he responds. “I’ve just finishing touring the latest album and, sure, the large crowds at some of those venues needed something extra – something more immediate - but that wasn’t a compromise of my core ideas, it was an opportunity to take the sound of the album further.”
He continues: “When a band plays live they don’t simply play louder, but think about song arrangements and how they can deliver an even greater vision of their music to entertain people. Live shows are a fantastic experience, an extension of what I do in the studio.”
Trentemoller’s recent tour has, once again, taken him all over the world and earned him plaudits by the truck load. His several appearances at the pivotal Coachella Music Festival in California this year were sell-outs; a convincing indicator of his current artistic standing.
“Things are going really well, for sure” he acknowledges. “I like doing what I’m doing, and where my career is currently taking me.”
Today, Trentemoller is busy finishing off production duties on his first album for someone else, Copenhagen alternative-rock duo Darkness Falls – an album he describes as lo-fi sixties pop meets kooky electronica – and refining plans for his third artist album. What more can he tell us about that one?
“I’m not too sure what direction I’m taking this one in but I think it will have a more simple sound” he offers. “I am putting some rules up this time – fewer, simpler tracks. But I’ll think about it, I have some festivals to play first over the summer.”
Bar those festivals, Trentemoller will be spending a considerable amount of time in the studio, in Copenhagen where he is based. It is a city that, musically-speaking, has come on leaps and bounds over the past three or four years.
“This place has literally exploded” he enthuses. “10 years ago, the local artists we had wanted to sound like artists in the UK or America but now we have a unique, creative scene of our own. The internet has opened people up to new styles, for sure, and Copenhagen has developed real awareness and self confidence. A lot of the kids are mixing rock and indie with house and electronica and that’s really exciting. I feel like I’m right at the heart of this new creative pulse and that makes me really happy.”
Happy, that is, in Trentemoller’s rather dark and delightful way.
Words: Ben Lovett
Trentemoller’s Late Night Tales is out now on Late Night Tales.
