Igloo :: Did the group get its name from the type of horse or the Star Trek character? How did you decide on the name?
Florian :: We found out later that it was a type of horse and a Star Trek character. At the time when we started working together as a Duo, we rehearsed close to Loquai Square, which is located in the 6th district in Vienna. In German, Loquai and lokai, are pronounced the same way. We liked the word, the sound of it. After a show a Japanese women once told us that lokai means “6 times” in Japanese.
Igloo :: Were you formally trained as musical artists, or self taught?
Florian :: At the age of 6 I played flute, and then at ten I started to play and study clarinet.
When I turned eleven I decided that a guitar would be the Instrument to play, and I started out learning chords and patterns to play Beatles and Stones songs, stuff like that. I also had a teacher in the very beginning.
I continued to play and take lessons with clarinet too. After a year I turned to electrical guitar, doing more rock and some jazz. This became pretty intense, and the one really important occupation to get me through school. Around the age of fourteen I decided that this was what I wanted to do. I moved to New York after finishing school at the age of 18, to play with different rock bands there for three years. After that, I moved to Vienna where I managed to pass the classical tests for concert guitar studies at the Vienna Music University, and studied there. The confrontation with all that written and sometimes old music was intense and I also began to experiment with very abstract music. I guess it was necessary in order to have a good balance. Composer and trumpet player Franz Hautzinger was an inspiring person and teacher I met at the University. This was also the way I met Stefan – through playing in a quartet with Martin Brandlmayr, Franz Hautzinger, Stefan Nemeth and myself. We played and rehearsed on a regular basis for about 2 years. After that, Stefan and I continued as a duo, and it’s a great way of working!
Stefan :: I only had a few years of guitar lessos when I was a child, but more for fun.
My background is biology, which I studied at the university in Vienna. After my diploma I was mainly doing music for a couple of years. Basically it was a process of learning by doing and, as you need some technical understanding in biology, it was not very difficult to get used to all kinds of electronic music machines. However, it was a joyful and not so much a scientific approach to electronic music.
Igloo :: How did you become interested in experimental music, seeing as it isn’t mainstream?
Stefan :: The borders between mainstream and experimental music are often blurred, so I would not necessarily make this kind of determination. The music to which I listen feeds me with very different input and when it comes to so-called experimental music. It is the process of discovering something unexpected, maybe even unheard (at least for me), which attracts me. Ideally it is rich with fresh ideas and these ideas can give me a lot of motivation to do music by myself.
For me it is the sensation of exploring new territories. As listener and sometimes as a musician, too.
Florian :: Like Stefan stated, this kind of evolved out of that intense studying of written material. I always need different perspectives, different projects and directions to keep me happy.
Igloo :: Are you into any mainstream music and has anyone in particular influenced your own music?
Florian :: When I grew up, I liked the classical rock stuff a lot. I was always a Queen fan and I´ve always liked Brian May´s guitar sound. Back then I also listened to some harder stuff, like Rollins Band for example. As a guitarist I liked Stevie Ray Vaughan a lot–his “hands on” approach to sound, Fats Waller or Lalo Schifrin. Stevie Wonder is always a voice that makes me smile. Tom Waits and Ween, or Ani diFranco, and many others. My taste is not really bound to a certain style, more to the energy or the elements that are being used.
Stefan :: I cannot say that there is a mainstream artist in particular, which influenced the music I do. I guess, a little bit of what I heard is always there and remains in one or the other sound. This is inevitable, but I spend a lot of time to keep these references as minimal as possible. Recently, I have become more interested in various kinds of traditional music, which creates an open pool for me. Plus it is not attached so much to one person or group, it is somehow more ego-free, which i like. Also fashion and aesthetics don’t play the most important role in this music – a factor which makes it easier for me to focus more on basic parameters of music in general.
Igloo :: The new album (Transition, Thrill Jockey) begins with a lot of minor chords, a lot of negative space, and a lot of unexpected noises. “Roads” in particular has a somewhat unsettling, isolating feeling about it. Was it a connection to the uncertainty of life, or of current times?
Stefan :: “Roads” makes a transition from random to being organized. Also there are a lot of tiny rhythms with does not fit into the same grid, but slowly it evolves into something, which has a clear pulse altogether. It is the same with the harmonies, which are a bit unusual in the beginning as the Rhodes piano was not used in a regular manner. In the end it becomes more obvious that there are a lot of regular intervals and notes. For me this depicts the development we made from the last record to the new one. The random structures of 7 Million are turned into the definite organization on Transition.
Florian :: I guess lots of uncertainties can be found today. For example, when this album was written George W. Bush was still the President of the United States.
The starting riff or rhythm evolved out of a playful afternoon, where I recorded inside the fender Rhodes. Playing with a heavy metal piece, that touched or hit the metal “sticks” of the Rhodes keys.
Igloo :: A lot of your music keeps the listener a little on edge, waiting for the next noise or the next movement. Do you compose the music this way, or do you record with improvisation regarding sounds and sharp details??
Stefan :: In most pieces you can find some track, which was recorded spontaneously. One could call this improvisation, but I guess it is just another take upon an already existing scaffold of sounds, which was edited before. And, for instance, a break within a piece is intentional. However, we are open to things that happen on the spot, as they bring in a lively energy.
Florian :: The pieces are composed and arranged very exact the way they are. But then, in everything we do, there is a little bit of improvisation.
Concerning “keeping the listener on the edge” – I see it the other way around – for me without these little “irritations” or musical signals and sounds there would be a chance to get a little too cozy and comforting. We are not the right band for that. Especially Stefan is very alert, when it drifts into to much “Schönklang.”
Igloo :: What does being an artist mean to you?
Florian :: One of the advantages of being self-employed is the free time structure. I feel lucky to be able to make a living and do the music projects I like.
Keeping all musical decisions 100% within the projects is a bonus when you do stuff that does not depend on big commercial success. So besides Lokai I have my electronic singer-songwriter solo project, KMET, where I can really decide on the spot what I want to do, and this is also very open style. And three other band projects, all in different musical areas.
Stefan :: I don’t see myself so much as an artist. I still work as biologist. Apart from that I think that there is a lot of romanticism connected to the word artist (at least here in Europe)… this I don’t like so much. It is very often a distortion of reality.
The put it in another way: To make music, you don’t necessarily have to be an artist. I find this pleasant.
Igloo :: What are some of the unusual elements or sounds that you’ve brought into your music and what do they add to a piece?
Stefan :: A lot of the more unusual sounds are not synthesized. They derived from recording techniques or from playing an instrument in another way the manufacturer wanted you to play it. Mostly it is an acoustic instrument and we just tried to capture another aspect of its sound.
After a few tests it seemed the way to do it… for example there is only a single track with a real drum on the record – the rest of the rhythms is done with objects which surrounded us in the studio as well as with guitars. It just integrated much better to the music we had in our minds. Everything came from the same pool of gear.
Florian :: Generally lots of sounds evolve out of guitar sounds. During the recordings for Transition we really started to record more and more acoustic instruments, and sometimes stuff out of my former kitchen. My little studio and also the recording technique has come some way, and so it was real fun to get inside of the different sounds and objects and experiments or search for the sounds we needed, to make progress with a piece. Then Stefan sometimes went home and continued there with his old synthesizers, or brand new Moog.
For example, in “Rhodes” inside Fender Rhodes is a pretty important part. The deep bass are bowed acoustic guitars mixed with deep synths; In “Salvador,” which is based on a Brazilian rhythm Stefan really likes, my gas heater was used for percussions.
Igloo :: Have you worked with any other artists that you found interesting or inspirational?
Florian :: I have 4-5 different regular bands or projects, and of course all the people I work with I find inspirational and interesting. My other projects are, besides my solo, KMET, are: Superlooper, Trio Exklusiv, Fatima Spar and The Freedom Fries, Duo Mignon; besides that I just played at the Glatt & Verkehrt Festival with Gunter Schneider, a great Austrian guitarist and composer, Christoph Dienz, also a composer and zither player, and Alexandra Dienz, an upright bass player. I collaborated at TQ Vienna with Rhys Chatam on his Guitar trio, and with Wolfgang Mitterer in a piece for a Japanese dance company and 8 musicians. Different projects I’ve done also, sometimes with video, theater or dance arise from time to time and are a great way to get out of the continuous band work, and then get back to it, refreshed, afterwards.
Igloo :: A lot of the songs have moments of rhythm pieced in, and many have reoccurring patterns. Is it important to have repetitive patterns or themes within a piece? Do you aim for that when you write a song, or does it reoccur naturally as you create?
Florian :: I wouldn’t say it is important in general to have repetitive patterns, but it’s definitely something we both like.
Right now it is a good way to work for us with Lokai, and evolved more during the work on Transition. Our first album 7 Million was more atmospheric and less rhythmic, at the same time more aggressive concerning the sounds. Now we prefer more acoustic sounds, which are softer and warmer in general.
We don’t aim for repetitive patterns when writing a song. Still we both sometimes like to have a kind of straight structure in a piece. Mostly it´s about balance within a piece and within an album.
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Fore more information about Lokai, visit their website at lokai.at.
Transition is out now on Thrill Jockey. [Purchase / Listen
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