GOING NORTH WITH THE DEER TRACKS
BY MATT DIXON, DECEMBER 2011.

<<The Deer Tracks>> are Elin and David. They come from Sweden and they play delicate & haunting music. We'll be keeping an eye on them and hope you will do the same!

MATT: Hi Elin and David. It's wonderful to be doing this interview with you. I would like to begin with a connection.... The Northern Lights. We can both witness them from where I am in Canada and from where you are in Sweden. Unfortunately, I cannot see them from exactly where I am, I would have to go quite a bit further North, but I have certainly seen them as a child. Can you see the Northern Lights from where you're sitting? Can you remember the first time you saw them?.

ELIN: I think I was about five years old when I first experienced the northern lights. My street, a small dirt road that had gotten so bumpy after a very rainy autumn was at this time of the year covered in a white slippery duvet of snow and ice. At my house the road had to climb up a small hill, but for us it was the world championship slope for down hill racing. My cousins, my sister and I were the only children within a few miles range. The age difference was quite remarkable from the youngest to the oldest, and we used it to our advantage when we built the longest kick-sled train ever seen. We fitted in the pedals in size order starting with the smallest, took a seat and held the kick-sled in front of us in a tight grip. My oldest cousin ran as fast as he could and with all his strength he pushed the train closer to the edge. Like a wave we dived down the hill, and crashed in a bank of snow further down the road.

For hours we went up and down that hill with bright red smiling faces. Eventually the cold and the late hour caught up with our enthusiasm and we were ready to surrender by the time our grandmother joined us. She told us to look up in the sky. Colourful ribbons were dancing among the stars and we all watched enchanted in total silence. The roaring wind through my knitted beanie made the same calming sound as when you put a sea shell tight against your ear. Above us was the Septentrion and Orion's belt and the sky seemed so endless. After an unknown amount of time I couldn't tell if the sky was above or below me. I felt dizzy and I fell down in a pile of snow.

MATT: I know you do not like to reflect too much, but if you could humour me for the next few questions... I just have to ask you about your connection with the wilderness. You wrote your wonderful trilogy of music very much secluded in a cabin, shut off from the habits of the world... the need to consume and be constantly connected. --You stripped that all away and it rings through in your music and in your art. Tell me about drawing inspiration from <<nothing>> as it were, to be free from the world around you.

DAVID: In the beginning and before the end, there was nothing and after the end of the beginning there was nothing. Not before or after the beginning either and so forth in eternity… "Nothing" is like a blank paper. You've got endless options of opportunities to create. To search your very own core of your (hopefully) vivid soul. So to disconnect yourself form all things that are forced upon you these days is the only way to find your true inner self. It's a scary ride, but the reward is greater than the fear. Believe me.

MATT: Please correct me if I am wrong but there seems to be an element of mysticism in your music, in particular with the woods and the secrets that are contained within them. Could you talk of your relationship with the woods?

ELIN: A couple of weeks ago when I visited my parents my cousin and I took a walk through the forest were we played more or less everyday while growing up. We were surprised how small it was. When we were younger the forest seemed enormous and though we knew our way in it, we could always find a tree or a stone that we hadn't seen before. At that time I dreamt of having my own horse and my uncle gave me my first one. I named it Vind because it could run as fast as the wind. I pulled the harness made of wrapping string and it instantly obeyed. He also made a yellow and green necklace of tape so I could separate my horse from other tree branches in the forest.

MATT: One of the coolest things about The Deer Tracks is that you are very much hands on in your approach and above all, you create. You create instruments. You create sounds. Simply put, you create. What is it that drives you not only to make music, but to do it the way that you do?

ELIN: Recently I found a new fragment of understanding how and why we are able to work and create music together the way we do. We met a woman at a party who was very spiritual. Without really knowing us she instantly said that David and I radiate similar energy, and the more I thought about it started to make sense in some way. We barely speak at all to each other when we are in the studio and not much outside. It sometimes feels like there is one person in the room but with two different personalities. Though one is not always aware of what the other do, there is no need for communication or control. The only form or transmission is through lyrics, drawings, sounds and we use whatever we can find that will produce the sound and feeling we are looking for. For us everything in reach is an instrument to create.

MATT: David. In response to a question about why you make the music you do you wrote "the reward of our work is not what we get, but what we become." I thought that was very telling. Would you mind explaining that further?

DAVID: Don't really know how to elaborate on that further, but I'll try.

I consider myself a very spiritual human being I always try to reach a higher understanding, potential and beyond. Because for as long as I continue to develop my spirit and soul as mush as possible I can begin to understand myself and my own progression in this confusing world. And then from that, I’m better equipped to try wrap my mind around this thing we call LIFE.

I truly believe it’s all about always develop in all areas of life. To be a better friend, lover, son, musicians, fighter - A BETTER PERSON (ultimately the best you can be) and to find ways to get that flame in your heart to always keep growing insanely bigger, then spreading it around you like a wild fire, burning down all doubt and fear in devastating fashion, and only then you can be free.

What I'm trying to say is that writing and creating (music) for me is like catharsis. It's hard work, it's a struggle but it's also cleansing and you'll come out on the other side as a better person with a rejoiced soul.

MATT: Phewf, those were some heavy questions. Let's finish it off a little easier. If you were to properly introduce a first-timer to Sweden to all that Sweden has to offer what would you have them do?

THE DEER TRACKS: Come here in the winter and go far north. There you have northern lights dancing for you while you can here the never-ending deep woods whispering secrets for you!

MATT: Thank you! Your favourite dance party song:

ELIN: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - "Y-Control"
DAVID: Stephan Bodzin - "Turbine"

MORE, MORE, ALWAYS MORE
THEDEERTRACKSMUSIC.COM

Feeling down in the dumps in his second year of university Matt Dixon took things into his own hands and started to interview bands, put on little shows throughout his native Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and started this little webzine that could. He likes to listen to rad records and watch films at Charlottetown's only art-house theatre, the beloved City Cinema. Current Listening: Buried Inside, Q & Not U, Tallest Man On Earth, Lucero, The Transit.

E- MATT (AT) JUNNNKTANK.COM
H- JUNNNKTANK.COM/MD

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