Name: Joline Scheffler
Nationality: Swedish
Occupation: Producer, DJ, sound designer
Current release: Joline Scheffler 's Afterglow EP is out via made of CONCRETE.
Recommendations: I read a lot of books and one of my all time favorite authors is Isaac Asimov - I would love to recommend the the ’Foundation’ book series.
And the second recommendation is one of my favorite tracks of all time ’’Ballet fusion, Belfast remix’’ - Sven Väth.

If you enjoyed this Joline Scheffler interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, and Soundcloud. 



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I listen with my eyes closed because then I can move into the music and touch the sounds and frequencies while letting myself into another universe outside of this 3D world.

When I listen to music my body and senses moves into a kind of ’’out of body experience’’, where I feel my body and mind moving me to the music.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I’ve been singing and dancing my entire life. As a kid I always sat down in front of my CD player, just listening to the music and learning the sounds and lyrics. I started to sing in a choir when I was a kid, in my early teens I started to DJ and that lead me into producing and sound design.

I’ve learned almost everything through experience. Reading, listening, trying, re-doing, trying again is the way I gained most experience and knowledge.

You can learn, find and train to use tools. But the artist lives inside of you - you just need to find it.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

It was and still is one of my life’s most meaningful things.

At the age of 13-16 I was listening to music constantly and I think it was a way to cope with all emotions trapped in my body during that time. It’s still the same, though I’m not always listening to music because I do appreciate the contrast of silence.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

My key idea is that ’’what is being created, needed to be created. Feel what you feel about it, no matter if it’s a negative or positive thought - it's still a feeling that the music made you feel, and music is made to be felt.’’

The motivation to create is that I need to express my self in some way and music is one of my easiest ways, because I can process feelings both during the creative process and after, while listening to it.

Another motivation is the feeling you get when you see people move to and feel the music you created. That feeling is beyond words and creates a drive and motivation.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Ha! Tricky one. I have to say that I’ve discovered the idea.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I’ve never reflected on how I’m listening to my music.. But my first thought is that I’m listening differently, depending on where in the process I’m in. While creating I’m going with the flow, but I'm always listening to what I need more for filling my emotional need.

After creating an idea I’m listening to the overall feeling it gives me, that leads to listening to the overall sound. But I rarely listen to chords and stuff like that.

I’m actually having a hard time define my personal sound, although I often hear that I have a unique sound.. If I have to say anything I would define it as deep, non linear with a bit of attitude sprinkled on top

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Oh there are many sounds and experiences that have moved me! The first thing I think about is the first time I heard the Ice settle. It’s a crazy sound that sometimes can be ear numbing and heard from miles! It sounds like the ice is singing, a deep song from the underground.

It happens when the ice gets thicker, a tension is created that rises until the ice cracks.The crack is then traveling very quickly across the ice and that leads to strong vibrations that we can hear.

It’s the most musical thing I know from nature and water, because it’s not ’’only’’ noise like water pouring. It’s shifting overtones and textures, like music.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/ complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I actually think that this is a really hard question, and I don’t know why. I’m drawn to sounds played in minor and with a deep sound. I like sound feeling like it comes from the underground of nature or ourselves.

It doesn’t matter if it's simple or complex compositions as long as they have that little extra that makes them bubble in my body and makes me want to move and look inwards.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

One of my tracks, ’’Afterglow,’’ is made out of a memory. I think that the track got made during the memory, because when I later went to the studio the track just made it self, no thinking, just feeling.

And the crazy thing is I can remember being in the studio, but I don’t remember that I made it or how I did it. Of course I can go back into the project and see how I made it, which I did while mixing it. But there's no memory of making it, because I think I made it during the time the memory was happening.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

It happens, though I mean sound is physics and I’ve been reading a lot about sound science. But at some point you stop thinking, you just do.

Though I’ve made some experiments creating binaural sounds / beats and made music. That was a fun project!

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Sometimes while making music you can really feel the music you’re creating while doing it, it’s a type of moment when you are truly present. And sometimes all that is a reflection on what’s going on in your life or your day.

The music you create will be different depending on everything in life, so yes it does reflect it. If you look back to the music you’ve made and think about your life during that time ... I think you could understand a process or timing in life.

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?

I think that all you do with pure love and enjoy from within can make you express something beyond words and description, and what that is is up to you while making it.

Though I feel that making music is a way of expressing my self outside the limitations of the ’’ 3D’’ world, its a way of sharing that can not be like anything else in a physical world. It’s beyond all.

Music is vibrations in air, and we can’t breathe without air, still we can’t smell it, taste it or see it but we know that it’s there and we need it to survive - same with music. I don’t think I can explain it in another way.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

There are many, but I would say “Voodoo Chile" - Jimi Hendrix.



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I’m hoping we’ll go back to more collaborations between artists and musicians because that is really shaping the sounds and the outcome of the music. Now everyone is doing everything by themselves (wish I in someway appreciate).

Though when you walk into a room and create together, something happens with the energy and creativeness that shapes and often creates a unique sound.