Vanligt Folk usually shares presence and effect and in general, they fancy regression rather than stupidity or such ideals analog to growth. Musicwise, Vanligt folk likes old and new music and are inspired by good and bad events. Rational like a child and with a medieval resolution-thinking. This unhoney-baby, unhappy with ever being born, but while awake, vomiting and scatting popular music over the sick-spreaders’ heads (moms n dads). Not just for the basic fact that it’s fun but also for inaccessible remission. Here, we talk to band member Carl Carlsson.
What is the genesis of Vanligt Folk?
Vanligt Folk was born out of dying. Gothenburg punk band that David and I played in. At the time, we were both into old-school EBM and such. We had the ambition to produce and make music that sounded DAF-like. Obviously, we failed. After some hustle finding a drummer, Jonas joined and shortly after we released our first album.
It’s been 10 years since the release of your debut album, how does the 10 year old pre-teenage Vanligt Folk feel?
Old ..but there are some good songs that might deserve a rebirth.
Live performances are a crucial part of your work – can you talk about the live element of your work?
Yes. The regression, sometimes violence and stupidity that appears on stage is a crucial part in the embodiment of Vanligt Folk. This expression allows us to address important/serious/fucked up stuff without coming across as pretentious, but still being pretty pretentious?
What does making music mean to you?
It means getting close to both escapism and self-realisation. That might be the same thing (?), but the experience is regardless, liberty.
You have a new audiovisual project out, a collaboration with video artist Tobias Toyberg, called Dischorealism. Can you talk about this project?
The Intonal festival, Ekko/Bergen, Radar/Aarhus and the Norberg festival gave us a flattering proposal. They wanted us to create a collaborative work and then perform it exclusively at their venues/festivals. We had worked with Tobias pre-Dischorealism, on the 2021 ”Blackfriday hele uka” album, and as he is an inspiring and talented artist he was asked. We started working on the project in the fall of 2022 and are now halfway through performing it. So post-July, anyone interested, are free to book and get dischorealized.
What are some of the themes that interest you that you work with?
On the first albums we were mostly commenting on different society related stuff. Gradually we developed a more personal expression and a greater interest for introspection. Furthermore we believe that pretty much anything can be interesting or have the potential to become interesting enough to make something out of it.
What’s up next for Vanligt Folk?
Finish the Dischorealism project and then make a new album out of the scraps from it. We are also working on a new idea “Rockskadad” which will explore our hard rock/metal DNA and the effects it has on us. Recently we introduced the concept of FOLKY Mir which is a meta concept for Vanligt Folk and which will serve as a platform for various Vanligt Folk projects.