What was the beginning pint for your music career? How did it all start?
I started playing acoustic guitar in 1973 or so but lost interest but became addicted to listening to music, collecting music,. recording concerts, trading tapes, and in 1984 I had my own Metal fanzine called Metal Madness. So I started writing about music. This lasted until 1988. I continued to write for different magazines and collect but did not start playing until 1999, when my friend Magnus from the band Mantric Muse said I should start to mess about with his OSCar synth when I was at one of his band rehearsals. That was the start of it all. From there on, I played and managed the Danish band, Gas Giant, then when I was let go, I started organizing jam sessions with Mantric Muse and the Swedish band, Bland Bladen and this turned into the Øresund Space Collective. We have been going to 20 years and released more than 40 albums now. I also make solo music under the name Dr Space and have a group in Portugal called Doctors of Space. I also played with the Norwegian band, Black Moon Circle for 10 years. Been quite a journey..
Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with?
The biggest challenge was being a single parent, working a full time job as a research scientist (I have a PhD In endocrinology) and trying to spend the rest of my time on the bands and record label (first Burnt Hippie Recordings and later Space Rock Productions).. The drive and passion has always been the thing that allowed me to manage all of these things.
What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far?
I think every time I get up and play for people (pretty rare these days) or have a new album out, or get a message or email from someone saying how much they live the new album.. This is very satisfying. Means I am doing something good with my life.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
It is all improvised, so ØSC, the genre space rock or progressive rock. My solo music is experimental electronic music with a big influence from Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.
What is your creative process like?
We just set up and decide a key to play in and see where the music takes us. I take the same approach with my solo synthesizer music and in Doctors of Space. We listen back and decided which pieces we like the best and that can become a future album track.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
Spotify or shitify as Rick Wakeman calls it, these streaming platforms need to share more of the billions they make with the artists. They would not exist at all if it was not for us. They are thieves and bastards. After covid, it has become a lot harder to even break even playing live so that has died for us and it is harder to sell albums and CDs as well as postage prices go up every year so musicians income is becoming less and less each year. Very sad and in the future, a lot of people will just not bother and people will be left with horrible AI created crap.. Lets hope I am dead before that…
If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be?
Just flow your heart and make the music that comes from your soul. Practice every day and get as good as you can at your instrument. Do not be afraid to ask people for advice. Make sure you copyright and own your own songs before you put them on you tube or bandcanmp or streaming. Join whatever musician organization it is in your country (BMI, ASCAP-USA, GEMA- Germany, STIM- Sweden, KODA- Denmark, etc…)…
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
That is a very tough question. There have been quite a few great concerts I have played. One time in 2003 we played in Leipzig in Germany and I was blown away by the band and audience. I will never ever forget that show. The entire audience and band were flying. IT was so amazing. Playing at Roadburn Festival in 2010 with ØSC was also a huge highlight for me and when Black Moon Circle we played at Pstereo Festival in Trondheim for like 1000 people and had this super cool liquid light show. It was awesome…
If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now?
I would still be writing about music (I still do with my Music Blog but not nearly as much as I used to). I would also still have a record label and probably still be doing Diabetes research. I built my own music studio so maybe I would have a studio like now.. Hard to tell…
What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world?
ØSC, we will play two shows in Copenhagen on April 11-12th to celebrate 20 years as a music collective. These will feature members from the bands Papir, Causa Sui, Hooffoot, Ånglagård, Tangle Edge and more. 4 sets of two nights with different line ups each set. IN May we will have our next studio album out called Alotta hella down in Estrela on Space Rock Productions and will play two concerts in Hamburg Germany on the Spaceboat. I suspect the Ode to a Blackhole DVD (live in the studio mixed in 5.1) will be out as well but then. We have two festival gigs in Germany in July and one private party gig in Sweden in August. We also have a new live DVD from Kozfest UK out in Feb 2025 and our bandcamp subscribers will have two more releases in 2025 as well. Doctors of Space, we will have a new studio album out in the Spring called Fusing your Synapses. Not sure what solo releases I will have but Dr Space´s Alien Planet Trip Vol 8- Space with Bass V is mixed any way but I do not have the artwork yet.
Thanks to everyone for the support and check out our links below:
http://oresundspacecollective.com
http://oresundspacecollective.bandcamp.com
http://drspace1.bandcamp.com
http://doctorsofspace.bandcamp.com
http://www.spacerockproductions.com
http://blackmooncircle.bandcamp.com
Http://auralhallucinations.bandcamp.com
https://estudioparaisonasn.wixsite.com/my-site
