Talking to: Oslo Twins
© Willow Shields
Oslo Twins are Bristol's newest makers of dream-pop/trip-hop, and having spent the lock downs honing their craft they have been taking the live music scene in Bristol, London and further afield by storm since it opened back up again in July.
For a band that have only released two singles so far they have already racked up an impressive roster of live performances and are working with some of the most vital names on the current UK alternative music scene. Vocalist Claudia has also received the stamp of approval from songwriter and multi-instrumentalist BC Camplight, who recently said she is his favourite vocalist at the moment.
Their latest single ‘Circe’ was released on 15th October, hot on the heels of their debut single ‘The Edge’ in July. Produced with Black Midi’s Seth Evans, it is a love song to the mythological goddess & sorcerer. It’s a move away from the darker trip-hop of ‘The Edge’ to something more dance-floor suitable, but Claudia’s Swedish-pop-inspired vocals & sweeping synths keep it dreamy.
We spoke to Claudia and Eric recently about their vision, their influences and what is coming next.
First of all I know you’re Claudia and Eric, but who else is in Oslo Twins?
E: There’s us two and then Luke who plays drums and Will who plays guitar. We all met at Bristol University basically. Me and Claudia met in a class three years ago and then we just found the other two over the course of the next year and it’s been the same lineup since then.
What are you both doing in your everyday life as well as music?
C: We’ve just graduated.
E: I work in a record shop at the moment so that's basically what I do alongside the band.
C: I've started tutoring people in philosophy, pretty niche!
How do you all work together as a band and come up with your creative output?
E: It kind of depends really, but mainly I’ll probably come up with a home demo recording, then Claudia will do something over that.
C: Usually Eric will do some instrumentals and then I will make lyrics and melody, or one of the two. But sometimes some songs are written by just one of us and not the other.
E: It kind of just depends really, but I do think that even if it's written by one of us the other will have some input into the sound.
So it's quite a democratic process by the sounds of it?
E: As much as it's different each time it's kind of similar, the same things happen but different people do them.
C: In lock down I think we got used to working in this way, sending a track back and forth. One of our songs we’ve just recorded with Ali Chant, the vocals were recorded as a voice note on my phone during lock down, because I hadn’t bought a mic yet!
E: There was this stage in the lock down at the very start where I left all my equipment at uni and went home because I didn’t think I would be there that long,
C: It was all quite DIY, but it worked!
Now you say that it makes sense, there is definitely an element of DIY in your songs, in a good way - they are like a patchwork of sounds.
E: I think every song we’ve done there have been elements of the original demo in there, even after we’ve recorded it in a studio. There is always a constant thing that was there from the start. That's probably why it has that sound rather than being really polished all of the time.
What's your take on the music you make? I've heard you say it is like dreamy trip hop - are you able to elaborate on that at all?
C: This is always the hardest bit about interviews is deciding what to call our music!
E: We really like pop music...
C: ...but not really commercial pop music, more like melodies that stick in your head. The instrumentation is really like 80s revival, electronic stuff. There’s an indie rock influence as well.
E: There's a lot of songs that haven’t come out yet and a lot of them sound very different. We have a lot of songs that sound quite trip-hoppy, like The Edge, our last release, but the next track that is coming out, Circe, doesn’t sound like that at all, it’s more electronic. That's why we don't really know what to say, because I have the feeling whatever we say we will end up annoying someone!
C: There’s no genre, we’re just vibing!
Who are your heroes and influences?
C: I think we have different influences.
E: I like all that 80s stuff, but also industrial music.
When you say 80s stuff, what kind of 80s stuff?
E: I really liked all of the new wave Scottish stuff like Aztec Camera and Orange Juice, but then I am listening to a lot of house music right now, Chicago and Detroit house, and early techno. I think the reason that a lot of our stuff sounds different is because we listen to a lot of different music. For example, I got really into The Strokes a few years ago, for some reason I just really loved The Strokes, then a year later I was wondering why the hell I liked them so much. I think I just change a lot, I get kind of obsessed with certain things. So when we wrote Circe I was listening to a lot of Sharon Van Etten’s last album.
C: A lot of the music I listen to has a dreamy electronic feel. I listen to a lot of artists from Scandinavian countries. It took me a while to figure it out, I was wondering what all these artists had in common, then was scrolling through my playlists and realised I was listening to loads of Scandinavian pop.
E: I like that stuff as well, there's the crossover.
C: I like things to be ethereal if I can, which isn't easy. I'm also listening to a lot of Anna Calvi, and I think vocally she is a great influence on me.
Did you both have a musical upbringing as well?
E: I always played, I started playing guitar when I was seven or eight, but I wouldn’t say I was particularly prolific or anything, I was pretty terrible at school. I think people from school would be quite surprised if they even knew I was making music now. I listened to a lot of music though, which is more important I think. I listened to, like, tonnes, and my parents always played me music, literally from when I was born. It wasn’t like learning, being really strict with musical instruments, I just got exposed to a lot of music. That's probably the main reason why I love it so much.
Circe artwork © Anna Ellis
C: I definitely had to go and find music myself. I grew up with a very hardworking single mum and spent a lot of time around various nannies, but when I was ten or eleven I suddenly decided I really wanted to learn how to sing properly, and so I guess I started hearing a bigger range of music through learning to sing. I think my exposure to music really broadened during my mid teens.
All of a sudden over the last few months you seem to have been getting out there more and getting your names well known, how has it been since the world has come back into focus again since the end of the lockdowns?
E: Weirdly we have just ended up timing the release of our first single really well. We were supposed to get it out in March and there were loads of delays, then we ended up releasing it in July as things started opening up and we started getting loads of bookings. We found it weird, because in the past we had to beg to get support slots and then all of a sudden people are asking us to do them. It's been really good because we've just been able to play loads.
C: I think we have just been really lucky to kick off with our properly produced records when everybody is just desperate to see live music again. And we've learned, we've used the time of lock down quite well to focus on the things we could do remotely.
E: Definitely, Weirdly I think lockdown really helped us, because before then we had no idea about how you actually record in a studio or anything like that. But we have ended up coming at the gigs from a completely different perspective of having properly recorded songs and sorting out more equipment. Even though at the time I thought lockdown was a disaster in terms of the band and it was going to completely derail all of the work we have put in.
C: Honestly I can't imagine where we’d be without lockdown. Obviously it sucked but we have learnt so much since it started, and maybe that's just because it's been a long time, but I do feel that it helped us change our direction and the way we work, and that has worked well for us. We have become more self-sufficient I think.
Who's been your stand out person you've worked with?
E: We've worked with Ali Chant who works with quite a few well known people like Alduous Harding and Katy J Pearson, but then also we’ve been doing stuff with my friend Seth Evans who plays with Black Midi. It was weird because when we were first working with him obviously Black Midi were big but then they blew up even more, so now it's even weirder!
And your stand out live gig from over the last few months?
E: I think it would have to be our first gig we played [after lockdown] in Bristol, at The Thunderbolt, and loads of our friends came along.
C: It was our first non-distanced live gig, a proper sweaty gig, right after the rules stopped and everyone was ready to mosh, even though we don’t provide classic moshing material!
What's coming up next?
E: We are just recording again the last few weeks so we will keep on finishing off those things, then just keep doing gigs, we have quite a few lined up in London.
C: It's hard to predict what things are going to be like in a few months, things come up very suddenly. So we’ll be releasing singles and rolling with it I guess.
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