I was incredibly happy to get the chance to interview my favourite band in 2009: Hammarin & Robin! The duo is releasing their debut EP on April 17, of course through everyone’s favourite Swedish netlabel Mad For It! So before that I wanted to give them some exposure and their audience to get to know them a little better. So I’m incredibly proud to present the very first English-language international online exclusive interview with the two masterminds behind the two best songs released this year: Hell Knows I’m In Love and Lingering Regret (download them at the bottom of this post)!
Interviewer: Jesper Persson Alias: The Lemur Birth date: July 27 1991
Interviewee 1: Hans Mattias Hammarin Alias: Hammarin Birth date: April 17 1983
Interviewee 2: Ulf Martin Robin Rudén Alias: Robin Birth date: January 17 1985
Place: Online, MSN chat
Time: Friday ca 20:00 - 22:00
Language: Swedish (translated to English below)
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The Lemur: Hi Hammarin! Hi Robin! No time for sinking losers! Efficient winners prevail! Let’s get straight into it!
Robin: Hi!
Hammarin: Hi!
The Lemur: Now, how does the cooperation between Hammarin and Robin in the duo Hammarin & Robin look?
Robin: Simple. Hammarin writes the song and sings. I produce and write a little.
The Lemur: And the producer’s tasks include…?
Hammarin: Most often the songs are born in my studio (my room) and then they travel through the kitchen to Robin’s room.
The Lemur: So I take it you live together?
Robin: Oh yes.
Hammarin: Yep.
Robin: We basically live in two studios!
The Lemur: Of convenience or lack of another solution?
Hammarin: Nah, I moved in so that we didn’t have to send the songs over the net.
The Lemur: Heard in the coffee room (the kitchen): “I was working a little on a song the other day, just finished it, could you take a look at it? I need a spaced out effect before the crescendo on my desk by Wednesday.” “Hammarin, you don’t have a desk?!” “It’s my bed, OK?”
I just saw that in my crystal ball. Totally unnecessary that I go through an interview if I’ve got a crystal ball and foretelling powers, though 
.
Hammarin: Haha, just like that. I don’t even have a desk damnit! There’s a synth stealing all the space.
The Lemur: So how did you meet?
Robin: We grew up in the same town: Kumla.
Hammarin: I think it was sometime in 2000-2001? Robin had an ridiculously advanced studio and I used to hang around there.
Robin: If you’re up to music in such a small hole of a town you will for sure get to know each other sooner or later.
Hammarin: True.
Robin: Most of those who were into music sucked, though. But I thought Mattias was cool.
Hammarin: Haha! 
The Lemur: Naaaw… sweet.
Robin: Oh yes!
The Lemur: Do you have similar musical inspirations and which are those in that case?
Hammarin: Most often we have very similar tastes. But maybe I look a little more for the artistic aspects in music while Robin mostly listens to the productions. I don’t think he can cite a single song lyric by heart. Not even our lyrics.
Robin: Exactly. It’s like I have a songfilter so I usually don’t hear the song while listening to music. Or it’s like… I hear the song but I don’t hear the lyrics. Also, I suck at English.
The Lemur: I was just about to ask how Fleet Foxes sound instrumental. Now I lost my thread. I’m looking through my planning sheet and think fuck that, fuck that, save that, fuck that. But to be honest my planning sheet is just a drawing of a cat I drew in Chinese class today.
Found the thread again! What can we expect from your upcoming EP I’ve been hearing about, gentlemen?
Hammarin: It’s called SUPERLOVE Part 1 and it’s something as odd as the first part of a trilogy. We don’t know when part 2 will come but we know for sure that this will be number one.
The Lemur: Odd, but not unique, my dear dear friend. Dead Heart Bloom released their third and last EP earlier this year.
Hammarin: Ah, there you go.
The Lemur: Do you feel that you’ve developed your sound? Or polished or refined it?
Robin: We’ve bought a new synth that has put its own touch to the sound to a considerable extent.
Hammarin: Those who have written that we are a new Dexy’s Midnight Runners will probably stop listening to us. We have many sounds and this EP trilogy will be quite gloomy and painful. The album this Autumn will be more poppy.
Robin: Yea, there won’t be that much big band-indie either.
The Lemur: It feels good that you try not to fall into the given descriptions you’ve received.
Hammarin: Yea, we don’t write that much new material. Everything we’re taking from now is stuff that has been growing in my head through years, far away from writers and critics. Well, of course there are some completely new stuff.
Robin: It will sound 2009, though.
The Lemur: Oh really? So you already know how 2009 will sound like? Except the fact that it will be strongly marked by the colourful duo Hammarin & Robin, I mean? Jokes aside, I interprete it as it’s gonna sound right in the time.
Robin: We have a crystal ball too, you know
The Lemur: Will the EP and album be released for free via Mad For It?
Hammarin: It will be released through Mad For It. But we’ll have to see how much of it will be free. One or two songs, anyway.
The Lemur: Well, you know you’ve got one buyer already. Will you miss releasing physical records? Or is that something that we will see in the future?
Hammarin: That’s absolutely something you will experience. I mean, many people want that. The first singles (Hell Knows I’m In Love and Lingering Regret) should’ve already existed in limited editions physically if it hadn’t been troubles with the paper work. But it will be rarities foremostly.
The Lemur: Is this your first interview?
Robin: Through msn, yes.
The Lemur: Funny, mine too. First ever, if I’m not mistaken.
Robin: Otherwise, this is our second interview overall. The other was for Göteborgsposten (The Gothenburg Post). It was a classic café interview with mostly basic questions like where we were from and how we worked with the songs.
The Lemur: Do you agree that it’s a darn shame that Conan O’Brien left his host-spot for Late Night on February 20? I mean, if you had sent in the picture where you compare Hammarin with Conan you would have been on American television sooo fast! Millions of Americans and people all over the world watching… I mean, maybe he would’ve listened to and liked your music and invited you.
Wouldn’t that have been the coolest thing ever to get mega-media exposure just because of a little lookalike picture?
Hammarin: Absolutely! That’d been something… But for your information: I have that hairstyle everyday! For better or worse, it’s a sort of love-hate. Some days I curse my hair, other days I love it.
The Lemur: Nothing said, nothing implied.
Hammarin: Haha 
The Lemur: But seriously, where does it come from? You might as well get used to it now, because you’re going to get questions about it, no doubt about that.
Hammarin: It’s the only style that looks good. I’ve tried many and that is the only one I’ve ever liked.
I was yelled at by a female hairdresser who said I couldn’t have such a big hairstyle with my thin face. But the critique turned back onto her. Two strange men came inbetween and defended the hair, haha
The Lemur: If I would’ve come to you when you were 13 years old and showed you in my crystal ball where you are in your careers/life right now (having the weirdest msn interview with some goofy Lemur dude), how do you think you would’ve reacted?
Robin: Well… I guess I would’nt have been that surprised.
Hammarin: When I was thirteen I would’ve probably wondered how the hell everything had happened. I hadn’t touched music at all. If you had come a few years later I would’ve been relieved. Most of all I would’ve been wondering how the hell I had learned to sing like this. Robin can testify on how it sounded just five years ago.
The Lemur: I wonder that too, without having heard what it sounded like five years ago. If any, what inspirations forms your singing style, Hammarin?
Hammarin: It has gone in periods. A lot of 80s of course, with all the big names. I think it’s a lot of fun to read blogs where people are guessing wildly. Dexy’s Midnight Runners is probably the one most people have guessed. But I’ve only heard one song by them and until last Autumn I thought that they were called Dexters Midnight Runners.
The Lemur: Sounds like an episode of Dexter’s Lab, haha!
Hammarin: Haha, exactly!
The Lemur: Maybe I shouldn’t squeeze out many more strained, awkward questions and milk you like some sort of information cows much longer. It’s getting late and we’ve been chatting longer than I’ve ever chatted before, haha.
Hammarin: Sounds good. We’re gonna nail a singing take right now. Robin is probably absent because he’s stuck in some kind of mixing trance.
The Lemur: But first a little roundup. How long do you think Hammarin & Robin will be around?
Hammarin: For long. Commercial success go down. But it’s gonna be hard stopping this now. I know I will be writing songs and sing for a good long time, anyway.
The Lemur: And the interview ends in a philosophical climax in the form of an old The Lemur-classic which no one has been able to answer, or understand whatsoever!
Why are you?
Hammarin: We are because we have to. Because you of some reason has resisted adversities, hopelessness and many times a feeling of lack of talent. Because this is “a silly teenage dream”, a deed of madness, a stupid idea.
The Lemur: I’m gonna ask all of my interviewee victims this question in the future.
Hammarin: It’s a very good one.
The Lemur: Thank you thank you thank you for bearing with me through this interview!
Hammarin: Thank YOU! It was rewarding!
Robin: You have a nice weekend, The Lemur!
The Lemur: You too! Go nail that take now, tiger!
Hammarin: *rraorr!
Robin: Yea, I’m preparing here.
Hammarin: I can hear that. Put on some reverb too. Awesome!
Robin: You put on some coffee, Mattias.
Hammarin: Will do.
The Lemur: Haha, you guys…
Hammarin: Have a wonderful weekend, The Lemur, and thank you for inspiring blog posts!
“Robin has left the conversation.”
“Hammarin has left the conversation.”
The Lemur: Hello? Anybody there? Could you send me my assignments? How about some lunchables? Just a single burrito? Or a juice box? I love you too Brett!
Great interview. Great job. Great all things.