Shadow Ego’s stunning follow up to their debut “One Of These Days” is “Out of Reach” – an epic slice of brooding electronica that inhabits the same dark, glacial spaces as Portishead, Goldfrapp, and Depeche Mode. Back To Culture spoke to Shadow Ego’s Sven Fredrikssen to find out more…
What’s the story behind Shadow Ego? How did Shadow Ego come about?
As a singer/songwriter that has been influenced by both Indie rock music and Electronic music, creating music that harnessed the rawness of my own Indie rock productions and vocals in an electronic format not only made so much sense, but sounded incredible.
I had written and produced an album in London with Primal Scream’s Darrin Mooney and Barrie Cadogan (Little Barrie), and had met up with John Taylor of Punx soundcheck shortly after. I had wanted to re-work some live material that I had into an electronic track and after completing a track with John, knew that we had something. We then went on to produce 3 more tracks.
We’re loving “Out of Reach” here – what were the influences that shaped that track?
I just wanted a track that was reminiscent of 90’s Trip Hop, and since the track is at a slower tempo, it worked perfectly with the whole feel of the track. Its quite an emotional track, and like all the my tracks, it has meaning, so it was also important to be subtle with the percussion. A Trip Hop vibe really worked well here!
And how did you come up with the concept for the video?
The whole meaning of the song is that feeling of being out of reach of love. I have my own personal meaning for the song, but it’s also important to allow the listener to take what they need from the song.
We know that you work with Punx Soundcheck’s John Taylor on Shadow Ego – how did you two get together?
As I mentioned earlier, I met John shortly after finishing my own album. I had always wanted to improve my DJ skills, as I had a set of turntables when I was young (Bedroom DJ), so I had private lessons with John. We both found that we had similar tastes especially with music, so it was pretty easy thereafter to progress with Shadow Ego. John is outstanding at what he does, so it was also important to work with someone of his quality and understanding.
What’s coming up in the pipeline for Shadow Ego?
We’re just pushing the singles out at the moment. We have the second single release of “Out of Reach” set for 9th March, and then “World in Disguise” which will be released on 6th April. I’m pretty excited with the music, so will just see what happens after our releases!
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