Interview: Charlie Thorstenson on recording more freely to bring his new album 'Insikt' to life

After a stand out LP on the Awesome Soundwave catalogue in the form of his "Kretsloop" album, Swedish producer and live act Charlie Thorstenson returns the to the label. This month sees the "Insikt" album come to life. A body of work that sees Charlie in some of his finest form to date, exploring a multitude of textures as the album travels between vibes, maintaining the innovative sound we have all come to adore from Thorstenson. We discuss below everything he is up to, the album and of course we talk all things LIVE! 

In his studio in Malmö

Hi Charlie, welcome back to Awesome Soundwave. We are beyond excited to have you back with us for your forthcoming "Insikt" album. How has the year been for you so far? 

Thank you! It’s an honour to be back! I’m very excited to let these tracks out in the open. I started the year with two intense weeks of tweaking and editing of the album. Then some more preparations and now it’s finally time!

So, this far the year has been pretty good! And the sun has finally come back to Sweden. Hopefully the warmth will come soon to. Good times ahead!

How would you say have developed since your "Kretsloop" album? Music is always about learning and discovering new paths, and exploring fresh ideas...

For ”Insikt”, I started to make music in a slightly different way. Instead of thinking too much about arrangements and follow the “rules” of dance music, I started to record much more freely. 

Every part/synth is recorded on it’s own, and not multitracked as I used to. In this way I end up with a bunch of recordings of different length. When later piecing together the recordings, different arrangements happen automatically. For example the energy build up in the bassline and high hats probably doesn’t align properly according to the ”rules”, but it might sound interesting and sparks new ideas! ”Cirklar” is a good example of this technique. The high hats dictated the whole arrangement basically. The same with ”Reflektion”, where the evolving FX on the melody created the structure, breakdowns and drops on it’s own. 

I really like this way of working as it strikes a nice balance between being intentional and happy accidents. Yet it’s not random as I program everything myself.

I also feel I learn new things about arrangements and sound tweaks that I can use when playing live. So it’s kind of ”full circle” there.

It would be great we could discuss your ideas behind the new album, where did it begin and is there any particular concept you had in mind when creating this body of work? 

It took a while to really figure out what the concept of the album would be, but I knew I wanted to create a warm and inviting album. Something for both your headphones and the big club systems.

After a while things started to crystallise and the real ”coin drop”, in lack of better words, was a recording I did on the street just outside my apparent. 

Every evening around 8 you could hear an alarm sound coming from the school building across the street. I have no idea exactly why this alarm sounds out on the street, as it’s no fire-alarm or so… Its a very soothing sound..

I went out and recorded this sound. Then together with the Avalon Baseline and a Pad I had made for my Live-sets, I made a hypnotic, meditative track. I called it ”Skimra” (meaning Shimmer) and this track layed the foundation of the entire album. So even though ”Skimra” doesn’t take the spotlight on the album, I’d say it’s the most important one.

You mentioned before using field recordings, how important is it you to take small snippets from your environment and including that in your music? Is this something you are often trying to achieve? 

One thing I’m allergic to is when music gets too sterile and generic. Especially nowadays when you can polish everything until there’s no soul left. All genres included. Also the search for ”the most interesting synth sound ever” can be a bit exhausting. We’ve all heard thousands of variants of saw waves and FM bells… They sound good and all, but also very predictable. Field recordings and accoustic recordings could be exactly what you need to feel inspired again. Even if you don’t end up including it in the final track, it can certainly help to get going.

That being said, I wouldn’t say it’s something I actively try to incorporate into my music, but some sounds are just too good to not be used! I guess I tend to really listen to the things around me. I hear it’s good for you, and a way to let your brain relax when looking at things around you and try to listen and ”zoom” into that sound. Maybe it’s a reason why I’m still, kind-of, sane..!

Anyways. I have some sounds that I really love. The alarm you can hear on my album is one of them. And the signal sound by the pedestrian crossings in Japan! What a sound! Like small birds chirping… genius! 

And there is one sound I plan on recording soon; There is a Wakeboard-park close to where I live, and when I was out walking during a storm this winter you could hear the thick wires (that pulls the wakeboarders in the water) vibrating in the wind. It sounds like lasers but with an interesting rhythm to it. Unfortunately I didn’t have my recorder with me, but in the next storm I’m planning to go there and record it.. So maybe the next album will be about Wakeboard-lasers! Who knows?!

Let's get stuck in to some tech talk. How is your studio and live set up looking at the moment? Anything you can't live without at the moment studio wise? 

I think I might have got somewhat carried away the last years, collecting synths and drum machines… haha! I have started to slowly build my own library with samples of my machines. You know for those days you’d rather lay on the couch, but suddenly get an urge to make some music..!

For studio work I guess I couldn’t live without my two favourite drummers RE-909 and MFB-522. And probably the OP-1 too. I’d say the rest is really really nice to have but not essential. For me the machines boost creativity, but sound wise I think I could do a lot with just the computer. There are many great plugins I use. I’m no analog purist. If it sounds good, it is good.

With that being said, I haven’t really found a plugin that makes real nice kicks yet. So I 100% rely on analog kicks.

My live setup is quite simple and slimmed down, as I want it to fit in a backpack. For my drums I have a Digitakt and the MFB-522.  I could do with just the 522, but the sequencer breaks my brain every time. Acid comes from the Avalon Bassline. The Blackbox is taking care of sample playback. OP-1 to add synth lines and such. Chase Bliss Mood mk2 for soundscape FX.

Everything goes into the mixer, Bluebox, then the master out goes to the Oto Boum for compression and saturation. I also have a Faderfox controller to keep me from having to dig through menus.

I sometimes switch out the drum machines or OP-1 to something else, but the structure stays the same. With this setup I can quite freely choose if I want to go deep, almost ambient or go towards tougher techno.

We are always curious to hear about local scenes and new artists to have on our radar, can you tell us how things are looking in Sweden at the moment, any up and coming acts you would like to give a mention to? Any clubs you really enjoy to visit and play? 

I don’t really know about up and coming artists as all my friends and the artist I listen to have been into the scene for quite some time.. but! If I need to point out something I feel people are sleeping on, it would be this: Naan Boys - It’s a love song. It’s a beautiful album by Jesper Dahlbäck and Nima Khak! It’s really lovely and inspiring stuff!

I must say we are VERY spoiled with some of the acts.. in the world, I dare to say! 

Just looked though a playlist of what’s usually in my headphones and it’s like 90% Swedish artists:

Naan Boys (Nima Khak & Jesper Dahlbäck), Joel Mull, Sebastian Mullaert, Marcus Henriksson (& of course Minilogue!), Patrick Siech, Sandra Mosh, TM404/Tilliander, Per Hammar, Inter Gritty, Kuf, Abdullah Rashim/Anthony Linell, Evigt Mörker, Özgur Can… And the list goes on and on and on.. You get the point. We’re spoiled!

Can you tell us about any other projects, releases you are working on this year? 

I have been working on an EP that’s basically done… Just need to make some adjustments, and then it should be ready to be released somewhere.

I’m also thinking it would be interesting to expand further beyond “club music”, whatever that would mean. I picked up some old reel-to-reel tapes with rhythms in different kinds. It’s like an old school sample library from the 70s! Might do some acid-fusion with that!

If you could pick one track which influenced you to start a journey in music what would it be? and why? 

You mean from the “beginning” beginning? That sparked my interest to make music in the very first place? 

It’s a hard one! I don’t know. I listened a lot to trance in the beginning but I can’t say that a specific track got me into making music. I think it was the overall feeling and interesting sounds that caught me.

I remember buying ”Music 2000” for my playstation. This must’ve been my first contact with music ”production”. Would love to get my hands on that again..! Didn’t know a thing about music, but I LOVED ”Music 2000”. Then I moved on to the computer and Reason 2.0…

There is one really profound experience that really dragged me deeper into music production. But that was a bit later:

Seeing Minilogue in Malmö for the very first time. Can’t remember exactly when it was.. Must’ve been around 2006 or so. Around ”Hitchhikers Guide”… I was into Trance at the time and still lived at home, outside Malmö. This must’ve been one of the first times going out in the ”big city”… And the slow way Sebastian and Marcus built up the set was totally new and mind-blowing to me. I remember looking at the clock; it took 10 minutes before the first high hats came in. Wow! That was crazy! I had to leave early to catch the last bus home, but on my way I ripped down a poster. I still have it on my wall today! This night was a real eye opener for me, and probably the whole reason why I still do this.

▶ Charlie Thorstenson’s INSIKT LP is out Friday 10 May 2024.