Name: Hans Berg
Nationality: Swedish
Occupation: Sound artist, producer, live performer
Current release: We Come In Peace, a split EP by Hans Berg and Johanna Knutsson is out October 7th 2022 via UFO Station.

[Read our Johanna Knutsson interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Hans Berg, visit him on Facebook, and Soundcloud. We also have an earlier Hans Berg interview, where he discusses a wider range of topics.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Creating music for me is my main language, it’s how I express myself the best. For some it’s writing, talking, painting … music is my way of expressing and understanding myself and the world.

It follows, then, that the result is always a process of everything I encounter; dreams, people, art, and so on. It’s like an itch, I have to do it.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Too much planning seldom works for me.

The absolute best method for me is to just start with something, a sound, or a synth, and go deep with that, sculpt it or try new things with it, that usually gives me a direction where to go, and I follow that. There can always be an initial idea, like I want to make a hard techno track, but it’s always best if I don’t follow that path too much, because maybe it turns out I’m making an ambient track, then I should follow that lead instead. I like that freedom.

“Cake Buffet” on the new EP is a good example; the bass line is made from noodling around on my modular synth, recording something like 20 minutes, and then I cut out this half bar loop which sounded good. I also made the hi hat from something in that loop. The drippy synth lead is made in the same way; I just twisted knobs in real time on the modular, recorded it and cut out the best bits, then added delays and fx.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

It’s all mixed up together. The most important thing is to just start, and sometimes that’s hard, to just begin with nothing.

I try to avoid researching stuff at that stage because it’s too easy to get caught up in that instead of actually making music.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Always coffee in the studio! And I have 6 coloured neon lights in the studio, the lighting is very important for me to get in the vibe.

But really, again it’s just about starting, all other things can also easily become distractions.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

In a way it’s terrible, if you put a lot of importance on that first press of a key. But I know I will usually not keep what I do initially anyway, it’s more of a warm up phase. If I can remember that it takes some of the internal pressure off.

That’s why I like chance so much, it can take away my preconceived ideas of what I want to do. Those ideas are usually based on something I’ve already heard somewhere. It’s when I introduce chance that I go into unknown territory.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

Moodswings, from thinking I’m the best producer and a genius, to thinking I’m the worst fraud who can’t make any music anyone should ever listen to.

It’s best for me if it’s messy, lots of tests, snippets, recordings all over the place, and from there I can sort it in a new way, I don’t want it neat - or I go against my impulses to keep it neat.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Always. If it’s a good session, working on a track can be the start of a few other tracks as well.

If I find a new element that could branch off into something else, I always save that as a different project so I can come back to it later.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

It’s a great mystery. Where does it come from?

I like to think of myself as a filter rather than the creator, ideas occur from out of nothing, and what I do is just noticing them, capturing them and using them. But I don’t “create” the ideas on a conscious level. They emerge.

How I react as a filter depends on my conditioning, my skills, experiences etc.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

It’s very important for me to get some distance to the work, I get really blind (or deaf rather) for my own work so it definitely needs time.

But then I don’t change a lot, most often it’s about rearranging, mixing and more detailed work. If I want to change too much, the track was maybe not so good, and then I lose interest.

I definitely want to leave tracks once they are done, I don’t go back forever and change stuff.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yes, it’s like coming home after a festival, to a clean and empty apartment, it’s hard to get back into it right away. I need something to reset myself, clear the brain.

If I’m in a hurry, listening to completely different music can help, to put myself in a very different mindset.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing 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 feel there’s a difference between perfecting a craft, and creating something. Making that perfect cup of coffee would be a craft, it’s not expressing yourself. Making music could be a craft too, it all depends how you do it.

But music (and art) can express thoughts and feelings that you can’t express in words, it’s a different language. Music is a direct way to your emotions.