Invent/Perform Is Finally Streaming
Our debut EP is out on streaming today, and listening back to these songs feels wild.
Back in 2002, we gave ourselves the space-age alter egos Dwight, 3D, and Animalia. The grand concept was that our records were radio dispatches beamed back down to planet Earth. The real-world setting was considerably less glamorous. We were three friends sneaking into the office of consulting firm ÅF on Friday nights after working a full week at our day jobs. We grabbed burgers, brewed coffee, borrowed potato chips from colleagues' locked desks, and sat there tweaking patches until five or seven on Saturday morning.
There were no software plugins back then. The tracks were built purely on real hardware: our Casio VZ-1, a Roland D-50, and an Alesis SR-16 drum machine. Datapower was sparse, RAM was virtually non-existent, and our setup constantly ran out of breath. We picked the best synth patches we had, and once the hardware ran out of memory after three songs, the record was practically shaped. That gear constraint gave the EP its open, uncluttered sound. We also established a strict band formula right here: no faded endings, melodic "cute" bridge parts, and songs driven entirely by hardware synthesizers instead of sweaty garage rock.
Five Tracks, No Software
• Invent/Perform, where Daniel took lead vocals on real gear and laid down our melodic, bubbly synth-pop blueprint.
• Near Terminals, packed with consumer product lyrics, a bassline inspired by an Eminem and Dr. Dre track, and an eleventh-hour speed boost so it would not drag on forever.
• [Untitled], the instrumental third track that originally started out as a much slower song called Air Traffic Controller before shedding its lyrics entirely.
• Hollywood Needs You, a four-on-the-floor track driven by our Casio VZ-1 strings and cowbells, which we buried as track four simply because we thought in EPs rather than radio singles.
• Science and Art, our 7:47 epic built on Depeche Mode style beats and ABBA harmonies. The track famously prompted Weeping Willows frontman Magnus Carlson to pull us straight to the front of the queue at Mosebacke after a karaoke night.
Even the sleeve was pure DIY, shot on Lilla Västerbron overlooking Rålambshovsparken with an old Goodyear neon sign that was torn down years ago.
The skyline changed, but the synths survived. Grab your headphones and give the Invent/Perform EP a spin on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you listen to music.
