Karin Park interview – Not only big festivals, but also small and intimate venues
(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) The first Saturday in March my hometown Tønsberg was visited by the Swedish electronica artist Karin Park, who had been booked to play a gig at the local concert venue Uro at Haugar Kunstmuseum. Me and other electronica & synth heads were very excited when we saw the announcement of the Karin Park gig, and it resulted in a sold-out evening with lots on the waiting lists. I jumped at the chance to learn more about how this came about and Karin in general, and after a few Messenger messages I’d booked an interview with her.
We met earlier on the day of the concert at a surprisingly full Apollon, the local record bar, with emphasis on bar as there’s both vinyl and beer to be had there – from 26 unique taps! While ordering something to drink, Bjørnar, bartender and vocalist in the doom/sludge/post-metal/whatever band Dwaal handed her their latest album – “here’s the vinyl I promised you the last time we met!”.
Small world, there! And it became smaller during the interview when I learnt that Karin had been in Tønsberg lots of times before, even this bar several times, and also 15 years ago when her husband’s band, Årabrot, played at the Slottsfjell festival.
Karin Park interview
Side-Line: A gig in our little town – how did that come about?!
Karin Park: It was Egil (Johannesen, booking manager at Uro) that contacted me, eager to set up a concert. With my current setup that was ideal – I like it when people are standing close and tight. When I saw the venue I’d thought it’d be perfect! I haven’t done too many of these small, intimate concerts, but have been thinking more and more lately that this is what I like best, having the audience almost on the stage hanging over the synths, really intimate and sweaty.
S-L: I also heard you were going to do something there on Sunday too?
KP: Yes, in a quite different setting. I’ll be telling a bit about myself and perform some songs, doing a mix between a lecture and a concert at the Woman’s Day (March 8.) event. It’ll be a bit similar to what I do with students and others in Sweden – I have a few artists that I’m a mentor to, and I’m a guest lecturer at the music school where I live. So I’m going to mix it up, it’s going to be a bit more talk than just music.
S-L: I saw you in 2024 at the Midgardsblot festival in Horten – you had a lot of equipment on stage, two long tables full of stuff. Can you tell us what you have there, and how you use it?
KP: I’ve been thinking about what I want to do next the last five years. Early on, some people called me and asked if I could sing at their wedding because they had met at my concert 15 years earlier, wanting me to do an intimate concert at their wedding. But pure piano performances weren’t for me, so I took the equipment I used in Årabrot; starting with a Moog Subsequent synth bass and a Mellotron as a base to build something around. Then I kept on adding – a Korg MS-20, a Tanzbär drum machine, I started to use an Ableton Push 3 eventually, and then I just keep adding things, and sometimes I take away. Mostly adding. Everything goes into a mixer, the Model 1 DJ-mixer built by Richie Hawtin from Allen & Heath. It’s analogue and sounds better than most DJ mixers, making me able to mix everything myself. It’s very fun and very flexible!
S-L: Will the concert be as energetic as the one I saw in 2024, or a bit toned down because of the smaller venue?
KP: No! Although, they have a piano on stage, so maybe I’ll do some songs with that. But else it’s full speed!
S-L There’s been a lot of Årabrot releases the recent years, and not so much solo work. Is that also the focus ahead, or will there be more Karin solo?
KP: Yes, it’s been a period with lots of Årabrot, but now we’re entering a period with more of my work, starting with the release of an EP soon. But we’ve also been recording a new Årabrot album, so there will be some overlaps. It’ll be more and more electronic in Årabrot also, so…
(Editor’s note: When I wrote this I noticed that almost half of the remaining recording after I’ve exhausted my prepared questions were continued talk about how many times she’s been in Tønsberg (even at the Kiss concert in 2023 – their last on European soil!), her husband’s gig here already in 2011, how much he liked Motorpsycho and that the drummer Tomas Järmyr had been involved in both bands, and about drummers in general. Her musical awakening and early influences from Fad Gadget, Kraftwerk, Nitzer Ebb, Depeche Mode and Apoptygma Berzerk sounded very familiar to me too, and probably most of Side-Line’s readers!)
Afterwards I asked if she had some final words about how she experienced the concert herself:
KP: The show was really great. I was enjoying myself so much on stage, and I think everyone else did too. URO is such a cute little venue. At the end I was caught completely off guard when someone* asked for a song I haven’t played in a long time, but I did it because he had the fucking title tattooed on his arm. How could I not?
* The one to blame for that is Per Lommerud Frøytvedt, with his ‘Bending Albert’s Law’ tattoo 😉
I’ll end this with her masterclass in how to end a set 🙂
Do check out Karin Parks discography at Spotify or Tidal, and also Årabrot: Spotify or Tidal.
Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉
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