Norwegian-Danish Pegboard Nerds are barely on the radar of Norwegian media, but have more than 1,2 million regular Spotify listeners and almost 200,000 followers on Youtube. We spoke to them about how they write and produce their music.
/ 30/10/2017 / Willy MartinsenText: Kai Lofthus / Photo: Pegboard Nerds
In Brennerinoa on Løten lives a young and well-traveled guy who is passionate about the art of producing electronic music, more specifically Alexander Odden (35), who together with Copenhagener Michael Parsberg (43) forms the duo Pegboard Nerds. Together they make music that crosses several different genres such as dubstep, trap, electro, drumstep and glitch hop. Billboard and the renowned producer and DJ Steve Aoki were among those who spoke highly of them early on, and they currently collaborate closely with several well-known remixers and producers, including Koda and Krewella.
Creativity and income intersect
Odden and Parsberg's collaboration is a perfect example of the value of co-writing – and how revenue is created and collected worldwide before being paid out by TONO and its Danish sister label KODA in this case. Their songs have been released on labels such as Monstercat, Disciple Recordings and Spinnin´ Records, while remixes have been released on Anjunabeats, Polydor and Columbia. They are also supported by American management company Th3rd Brain, while booking is handled by APA in Los Angeles for North and South America, Anna Agency in Amsterdam for Europe and Supermodified in Seoul for the rest of the world. At the time of writing, they are in full swing preparing for concerts in Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Austin, Pontiac and New York.
– How did you manage to do all this?
– In 2012, we were playing a number of almost finished songs. A teaser that was uploaded to an Australian YouTube channel led to us being asked to have a song on a compilation at a Canadian label. It was a big door opener into the American market, and thus also to other parts of the world. A few releases later, we were asked by the Australian duo Knife Party to warm up for them at a release party in London. From there, it was a short road to meetings and agreements with booking agents and management. We continued to play support for Knife Party in the USA and other parts of the world. The fact that we were associated with an established artist, at the same time as we did a remix of the song "Alive" for Krewella, helped us to start touring ourselves, says Alexander Odden.
Experimentation
Alexander and Michael work primarily in their respective studios in Brennerinoa and Copenhagen, where they experiment with sounds and melodies until they feel something interesting emerges. Outside the studio, their laptops and mobile phones are great tools. They also like to work in Uber cars, rented studios, on planes, in hotel rooms, green rooms, lounges and on the street floor at the airport.
The software where the magic is created is Ableton Live:
– It has a fairly limited and simple toolset, at least compared to, for example, Pro Tools, which we used previously, but we see that as a strength. We work a lot with audio, so synths and such are quickly “rendered out” and cut and processed further. You can do a lot of things in audio that are simply impossible with midi, says Alexander and continues:
– Production, mixing and to some extent mastering are intertwined parts of the process, and as key elements come into place we also make adjustments to buses and the master, such as compression, eq and saturation. We often end up with a lot of tracks and plugins that cause the machine to have problems, and then we render a 70-90 track session down to 10-12 stems. It is not uncommon for this stem session to be worked on a lot, and end up with 30-40 tracks again. It sounds like a lot, but there is a lot of "layering". For example, a snare drum can consist of transient, tone/punch, midrange and noise, sometimes divided into mid/side. This also includes summing buses and sidechain triggers in the form of midi tracks. We always prefer to put the finishing touches on the work in a room we know - and with speakers we know.
– What are the most important elements that must be in place in a song for you to be satisfied with it?
– A solid “hook”, be it in the form of a good melody, a bass riff, vocal sample, topline, a combination, something that you can remember after hearing the song. The simpler, the better. Then a good “to the point” arrangement and last but not least a good mix.
– Which songs are you most proud of?
– “Go Berzerk” is one of my favorites, both from how it came about in the studio and when we play it out. Lars van Dalen and Mike Moorish from Quiet Disorder were visiting, and we were actually supposed to work on another idea we had started. After a few hours, it became clear that we were struggling to get anywhere, and while Lars was out for a walk, I sat aimlessly and messed around with a synth. I played the riff from the breakdown, and Lars practically came running and said “that sounds cool!”. From there, it was a short road to adding breaks, more rave-like sounds and finding a vocal sample. Large parts of the song came about in a short time. The drop took a little longer, and we ended up taking an unused drop idea from another song, transposing it and adapting it to the key and tempo of “Go Berzerk”, et voilà! “Disconnected” is also one I’m proud of. It came about when I woke up one morning and had practically the entire riff in my head. Wise from injury, I know I have to get up immediately so I don't forget it. I sat in the living room with my laptop, wearing only boxers, and plotted the melody and chords into Ableton Live with a simple init patch from a synth. It was enough for me to remember it, and thus produce it properly over the next few weeks.
– Have production methods changed anything over the years?
– Yes, we are increasingly aware that production methods are always changing and evolving. Five years ago we opened a session that was two years old and thought: “What on earth were we doing here? Now we know how it should be!” Two years later we open a one-year-old session and think the same thing. Recently we opened a session that was six-eight months old, and again felt that there were big changes compared to how we work now. But it's all part of the process, so we have just accepted that we have to do our best on every song, rely on experience, but at the same time never get too comfortable.
– Do you have any good advice for younger songwriter and producer colleagues?
– You have to find your own sound, and trust what you do. Be active and constantly work on new material and release it to avoid falling into oblivion.
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Production tools
Machine: MacBook Pro
Software: Ableton Live
plugins:
Native Instruments Contact
ReFX Nexus
Spectrasonics Omnisphere
VPS Avenger
Xfer Serum
Camel Audio CamelPhat
FabFilter ProQ2
FabFilter Timeless 2
FabFilter Saturn
iZotope Trash 2
iZotope Ozone
SoundToys LittleAlterBoy
SIR Audio StandardClip
VPS Multiband Sidechain
We also recently acquired Ozone O8N2 and are in the process of familiarizing ourselves with the new capabilities there.
Hardware:
Alex: – I use a Prism Sound Lyra 2 sound card, a Dangerous Music Monitor ST, ATC SCM45A monitors and Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube.
Michael: - I have a UAD Apollo, an Imperium monitor controller and Barefoot MiniMain 12.
We also have a DJ setup where we can test songs, mix them with other songs and get a feel for how they work in that setting.
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