Interview: Five Minutes with Kasbo

Prominent Swedish producer Kasbo has steadily been rolling out teasers of his sophomore album The Making Of A Paracosm, set to drop on October 23rd via Foreign Family Collective / Counter Records.

On the 16th of September, Swedish electronic artist Kasbo unveiled his third release in quick succession with double-single ‘Staying In Love’ / ‘Skogsrå’.

Buy/Stream “Staying In Love ft. Nea” // “Skogsrå” – here 

Underpinned by the engrossing vocals of fellow Swedish artist Nea, ‘Staying In Love’ is a modern electronic track that melds breakbeats and EDM elements into something with serious crossover appeal.

“To me ‘Staying In Love’ is about the struggle of holding on,” Nea articulates. :It’s so easy to think the grass is greener somewhere else, to go out and look for the next thrill instead of seeing the person next to you. To actually be still and hold on even when the first glitter is gone can be the hardest. Or as we say in the song: To fall in love is easy, be in love is easy, but ‘Staying In Love’ is hard… Me and Kasbo have been friends and co-writers for many years now. I’m a big fan of his style and musicality.” 

‘Skogsrå’ is more raw in its appeal, harnessing captivating melodies, robotic vocals and mechanical synths to create something undeniably unique.

“I was in a bit of a dry spell when I made ‘Skogsrå’” Kasbo admits. “I remember deciding that I had to make a song a day, to stop overthinking the music and lose the pressure of every song I made needing to be perfect or ideal for the album. I think I made ‘Skogsrå’ on day 4, and it’s the most polarizing and unconventional song I’ve made to date.” 

It follows ‘Show You’ and ‘Play Pretend’, recent singles that have already amassed more than 1 million combined Spotify streams, with all four tracks set to appear on his 14-track album The Making Of A Paracosm, out 23rd October. 

Pre-Order The Making of a Paracosm here 

Since the release of his debut album Places We Don’t Know in 2018, the Gothenburg artist has gone from strength to strength drawing plaudits and boasting over 200 million streams and the support from heavyweight media.

With every release landing hundreds of thousands of streams and critical acclaim, Kasbo is an artist who’s taking the fast-track to stardom. 

Enjoy our interview with Kasbo below:

Describe the process of creating your recent singles ‘Play Pretend’ & ‘Show You’

‘Play Pretend’ started in 2018 in a studio session with the vocalist Ourchives. We were both really inspired by UK House at the time and the song started as an emulation of that style. Eventually, we found it too generic and not personal to us, so we deconstructed it and added in elements and wrote more melodies until it felt right. We’re both super glad about how it turned out and feel like it’s a unique take on modern house

‘Show You’ started with the concept in mind of wanting to create a lyrical hook by cutting up and tampering with an already existing vocal sample. Once I had created the ‘Show you’ vocal hook I ended up creating the audio bed it lives in, the soft muffled pianos, filtered drums, the shimmering vocal chops.

Do they set the tone for future releases?

In some ways yes, there’s definitely a coherent sound in the album in terms of sound selection and vibe but there’s a lot of different nuances of the album left to show that I’m really excited about

Is there a particular song on your upcoming album, ‘The Making of a Paracosm’, that you feel fans should pay attention to?

I think all of them have something special to them and they’re all favourites of mine haha. Today though I’m really excited about ‘Lune’ so would have to answer that.

Over the years you’ve had the opportunity to work with several huge names including collaborations with Shallou and remixes for Jai Wolf and Vance Joy. Who’s next on your list to work with and why?

Currently, I’m really excited about working with other producers. It’s something I’ve stayed away from for a long while but I’m excited to explore ideas together with others and see what happens. Not sure I can name names yet but I’m really excited about it hehe.

Last year, you paused music production due to severe hearing loss. Has this subsequently changed your approach to music and production style?

I wouldn’t say so, some days it’s just trickier to produce if my hearing is really bad. But that usually just happens when I’m dealing with a lot of anxiety for a prolonged period.

Earlier this year, Fakear provided a stripped remix of your single, ‘I Get You’. Tell us about your favourite aspect of seeing your work re-imagined.

I love that it becomes versions that fill a completely different purpose. Fakear’s remix of ‘I Get You’ for example is something I’d easily throw into a casual DJ set, whereas the original is something that’s more fitting for a headline show. This aspect is especially fun now that I’m getting more into DJing.

Do you feel you’ve made your own little “paracosm” in this album?  

Definitely. I think that was the entire purpose for me behind creating the album, having the paracosm that I can escape to in my head. At least creating it I’ve definitely had a very vivid and detailed world in my head that’s been pretty amazing to have been able to live within the last while. For me it’s been a very visual process, I can see the scenes and places all of these songs exist within, it’s been a great escape. Hopefully, I can give that to my listeners as well through the music, artworks, videos, and everything.

The Making of a Paracosm Album Tracklist 

1. The Making of a Paracosm 

2. Play Pretend (feat. Ourchives) 

3. Shut the World Out (feat. Frida Sundemo) 

4. Blur 

5. För Evigt (feat. Florian Rosetti) 

6. Talk Slow (feat. Noomi) 

7. Augusti, 05:19 (Interlude) 

8. Vittra 

9. Lune (feat. Vancouver Sleep Clinic) 

10. Skogsrå 

11. Hemma 

12. Staying in Love (feat. Nea) 

13. Show You 

14. Snö (feat. Freja The Dragon)

For more information on Kasbo, please visit: 

Spotify | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube