Photo courtesy of the artist
Norwegian "club boyband" Rytmeklubben—a supergroup made up of Henrik the Artist, hi tom, DJ KARAOKE, and Torjus—today followed up their recent single "Like That" with an exclusive mix for THUMP. The 30-minute session finds the quartet at their most gleefully self-indulgent, running through a range of genres including joyful Jersey club and UK bassline, and even having the guts to commit a Lumidee/Animal Collective blend to tape. They also find room for preteen pop star Sophia Grace's inimitable 2015 single "Best Friends", which is a feat in itself, and deliver a surprisingly listenable noise edit of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself."The group told THUMP about the inspiration they channelled for the mix. "Believe in yourself," they said. "Follow your passion. It's when you think you are really at the bottom of everything—that is when you will ascend. Never let anyone tell you how to live the life. When you are insecure, take a moment and think about why. Maybe you will find that your biggest moment of insecurity will bring you your biggest achievements. Even though we started working on our project in 2013 it feels a bit like a new beginning after all this time. It feels so good to be back and releasing music."They also answered some questions about the mix, their approach to making music, and how their collective dynamic works over email.What were you going for with this mix? Was there anything in particular you wanted to evoke?
We wanted to shine a light on the alternative universe where American Football worked with Future, and Arne Nordheim produced for Justin Bieber.Do you have any favorite moments in the mix?
TFW Ciara over Meshuggah.You've been called a "club boyband." Could you explain what that might mean to you?
We have been called a club boyband, that is indeed true! It is a funny story you see, because it is a weird thing how it all did come together some years ago when we started playing and making music together. We have had many moments of great laughs talking about that particular story and we still laugh very much and very loud when we talk about it.This one time we actually laughed non-stop for seven whole minutes! After that much laughing at the funny story we had to stop because one will eventually start coughing after that much laughing. Oh my, I feel a laugh coming just talking about it! But we won't start now, because then it would be hard to finish this task in every thinkable way. This is a great thing about being called a club boyband.Four people is relatively quite a few to be producing club music together. What do you think is the common ground between your styles that makes this project effective?
Being four hard working people producing music is three or 14 times more efficient than being one hard working person producing music. Especially when we sit in a circle and can talk with eye contact about every snare hit and chord change. Kind of like the idea of a common sound rather than a individual sound, which is a common goal when doing music.
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We wanted to shine a light on the alternative universe where American Football worked with Future, and Arne Nordheim produced for Justin Bieber.Do you have any favorite moments in the mix?
TFW Ciara over Meshuggah.You've been called a "club boyband." Could you explain what that might mean to you?
We have been called a club boyband, that is indeed true! It is a funny story you see, because it is a weird thing how it all did come together some years ago when we started playing and making music together. We have had many moments of great laughs talking about that particular story and we still laugh very much and very loud when we talk about it.This one time we actually laughed non-stop for seven whole minutes! After that much laughing at the funny story we had to stop because one will eventually start coughing after that much laughing. Oh my, I feel a laugh coming just talking about it! But we won't start now, because then it would be hard to finish this task in every thinkable way. This is a great thing about being called a club boyband.Four people is relatively quite a few to be producing club music together. What do you think is the common ground between your styles that makes this project effective?
Being four hard working people producing music is three or 14 times more efficient than being one hard working person producing music. Especially when we sit in a circle and can talk with eye contact about every snare hit and chord change. Kind of like the idea of a common sound rather than a individual sound, which is a common goal when doing music.
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