Part 2

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Eleonora: Ideally I don’t wake up before10am. There will be some morning scrolling and some morning exercises. Then I go for liquids - through the years it has morphed from 2 cups of peppermint tea to 2 cups of water to the current 2 cups of freshly blended oat drink.

When these things are done I start to organise my working space for the day, think through what I I am going to do. Then I make a quick breakfast, then a quick coffee and then I dive straight into seizing my day.

Kalle: I wake up quite early and spend about an hour drinking coffe and surfing on the web. As we live in the countryside, for me it is very important to get out of the house every day. I either get things done in the garden, make fire wood in the forest or spend time in my workshop.

Music and rehearsing usually happen towards the evening. All this of course is possible if I don't have to drive to work in the city.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?
    
Eleonora: I will describe it on the basis of creating music for Ringhold as for my solo abstract work there almost is no piece, just a continuum of this thing.

So, creating for Ringhold has multiple fases - the beginning is the state of not knowing but being on the look for something. We gather in our small studio in our small house and just improvise bits and pieces and try to sense if something grabs a hold of us. Maybe like trying to feel my way in a dark and strange room, bumping into things, loosing direction and trying to imagine what is surrounding me.

Then finally the sun rises outside and some light starts entering through the windows and the room (that is really a song) becomes strangely familiar. Lyrics and music start aligning in a Ringhold kind of way and we are happy.

At one point we record a demo and come back to it the next time in the studio. Often trying a new demo out the second times makes us realise it does not really work. And then again sometimes it works. So it turns out that for each Ringhold song there is an imaginary room somewhere.

Kalle: Creating a piece of music for me normally takes a long time. It starts by improvising something freely and recording it on my phone. Then It normally sits in the phone for some time before I rediscover it.

There are two stages of music being ready – one is when it is time to record it and the other is when I have played it countless time in concerts. These are two totally different stages of readyness, the second meaning deeper stages of ripeness.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Eleonora: In a large group I don’t feel my own weight and that makes it difficult to contribute my ideas.

For me the duo works best and for it to function productively there must be loads of trust involved.

Ringhold is perfect for that as we live together and have a good vibe for creating and focusing at home.

Kalle: I like to create in a group – I have experienced the creational process in duo situations but also bigger groups up to big bands. I have least experience as a solo player.

I like the unexpected dynamics that happen in a group with other artists.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Eleonora: Music is one of the arts and it can add to society things like playfulness, emotional comfort, it can make you feel relaxed, educate you, warn you about things, confuse you, amuse you, soothe you, make you sleepy or maybe even uneasy. My creativity also tries to offer some values like this.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Eleonora: I try to be careful in how I consume sadness-provoking sounds, as I can get depressed really easily. At the same time I know that if I dose aimfully I can use it to release an emotion of sadness.

I have a strange relationship with Rage Against The Machine - I listen to their album RRR very seldomly, only when something happens to me which pushes me in the corner and leaves me raging and kind of hopeless. Then I play this album very loud and maybe spin it 2-3 times.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Eleonora: I honestly haven’t given much thought to this despite acknowledging the fact that music and science are interconnected if viewed and analysed as such.

I personally approach music as much as possible from a dreamerÄs point of view.

Kalle: Today it is possible to analyse music and sound on a scientific level.

And science reveals it as nothing too mysterious. Mystery is created by the listener and the player.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Eleonora: For me going on stage is a way of communicating condensed chunks of emotions I feel the need to express. So there is a difference if I am preparing coffee or performing my art.

But a great cup of coffee can be an artistic gesture if performed by a devoted coffee practitioner.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Eleonora: It is magic :)

Kalle: I don't think that music on it's own creats a message. The message gets created by cultural and emotional circumstances of the moment.