Nadine Byrne, Stockholm 2010. Photo © Carl A
Ectoplasm Girls are a duo consisting of sisters Nadine and Tanya Byrne from Stockholm. Their music is playful, morose, dark, happy, light, still, danceable, eerie, dreamy, psychic, childish, adult, groundbreaking and many other things, all at once. On their debut album, TxN (Ideal, 2011), it’s possible to peek into their psyches, emotional lives and their relations to each other. What gives? Confusion and sadness, I’d say, but of the most beautiful kind.
What started out as an almost purely therapeutic project after their mother had passed away in 2006, grew via Myspace, a cassette release and occasional one off concerts, to become something of a ”buzz”. Two cool young women appearing in robes and sounding like girlish toy music on one hand and like the darkest possible abysmal techno on the other-what was that all about?
It was of course a combination that stirred my interest. Their fascination for non-PC dark pop culture, occultism and Californian post-hippie chaos (with Charles Manson and his entourage as relevant figureheads) in so many ways defied preconceived notions about what girls and ”electronica” usually mean when together. Not only that: their album is phenomenal, way beyond dusty experimental traditions but also way beyond any trends or fads. TxN is a unique expression from two highly creative sisters, and it always leaves you wanting more.
On their Myspace page they describe their sound as "the soundtrack to if [sic] Kenneth Anger had made "Wir Kinder von Bahnhof Zoo”. That’s not totally far-fetched or off the map. It’s a slightly opened crevasse into art history, into an aestheticized display of emotional vulnerability and sometimes desperate measures when it comes to actual coping. Also, into an underground sensitivity, a highly independent approach that in one and the same punch packs the dramatic, beautiful, poetic and painful.
Nadine also has a multimedia project called Magic State together with five extra ”priestesses/goddesses”. This combo between Magic State and Dream Family (as they’re called) is like a mix of dark ambient and ritual performance. They have also collaborated on some films that are an audiovisual extension of Nadine’s fertile mind. The five members of Dream Family appear in elementally coloured robes that Nadine has designed and sewn herself. The backdrop videos are also by Nadine, and often contain psychedelic-mystic visions that contribute a great deal to the mind-expanding totality.
Nadine Byrne left the Royal College of Art in Stockholm in 2011 and now resides in Berlin, where sister Tanya also lives. I interviewed Nadine in her Stockholm studio before the move, in November 2010, and then sent some questions to Tanya via e-mail. Here goes! Let the ectoplasm flow!
In the song ”Before it gets too late”, who is it that’s calling out: ”Somebody, come play with me…”?
It’s a sample from ”Sesame Street”. We have a lot of ”Sesame Street” LPs from when we were kids. Our father is American. It’s a sample from a really nice song about the fact that someone needs to come and play before it’s too late. That song contains what we like best. It’s happy in a way and at the same time very sad and scary. Someone needs to come before it’s too late, before you find yourself all alone.
Or even worse: grown-up?
Perhaps. It’s the same thing.
I think it’s a very symptomatic song for you. It’s nostalgic for childhood and playful but at the same time there’s something really creepy there.
That’s probably our formula.
How do you work with Ectoplasm Girls on a technical level?
Our activity is pretty low now when we’re not living in the same city. I’ve been busy with other things and Tanya also does solo stuff. I keep harassing her about [how] she needs to release her stuff.
Do you have very distinct roles? Is there someone who creates the foundations for the songs?
No, it varies. When we started out I was living in Norway and she was living in Stockholm. It’s always been like that. We send things to each other. Some of the tracks we make entirely on our own. But we have still felt that they belong in the category ”Ectoplasm Girls”. It’s more about a state of mind, or a well that we can get things from or pour things into when it comes to certain subjects. Even if it perhaps sounds exactly like something else with a different project name. It can become quite fuzzy at times. But anyone of us can start making a new song. A lot of the material on this album is based on old recordings that we made before we had even formed the project as such. We recorded things on cassette when we lived together, very isolated in a way. We used to make a lot of weird blues songs. Tanya used to experiment a lot with sounds that she’d recorded. From that material I have taken things and inserted into Ectoplasm Girls. Sometimes we sit down and jam together too. We have different roles in that our different personalities are reflected in the project. Tanya is a bit more chaotic, which is great in many ways. It means that she can express a lot of really fantastic things. She has a problem with finishing things whereas I’m good at saying that something is ready. We are incredibly different in many ways, but very much alike in others. Our personalities are quite different. The fact that we’re sisters means that we’ve fought a lot.
Have you ever discarded material because you haven’t been able to agree on it?
No, we’re usually pretty good at agreeing when it comes to that.
Maybe all siblings should be in a band?
We have a little sister who is also making music. Our father plays the bass. My dream is that we’re going to create a Byrne family band. I’ve talked to Tanya about it, that we should get our father on stage on bass. He’s a little bit shy, so we’ll have to see.
Was there a lot of music around when you were growing up?
Yes, pretty much. Our father played bass in different bands in the 70s but he had given that up when we grew up. He often talked about it. He always gave us instruments. We got Casio synths and stuff like that that we still use. Tanya got an accordion, although she sold that when she was broke once. She bitterly regrets that now. I was [also] doing music when I was a kid. I had a band from when I was eleven and went to something called ”Farbror Fläskkorvs Musikverkstad” [roughly translated: ”Uncle Sausage’s Musical Workshop' -ed.]. We were helped to form a band and write our own songs, and at the end of each semester there was a concert. I also sang a lot as a child, in choirs. Tanya did ballet seriously. And our father has taken up bass playing again.
Do you think you might have affected him?
To a degree, yes. He’s become very interested in electronic music now. He’s never seen us perform but he finds it interesting that we’re doing it.
What kind of ideals or inspirations did you have when you started Ectoplasm Girls?
It feels like it’s a mix of many things. Spacemen 3 have influenced Magic State a lot. I think they’re the reason to why I love delay so much. Besides that, it’s a mix of high and low. I like ”Sesame Street” and the Manson girls. Tanya is fascinated by serial killers and likes to watch a lot of documentaries on Discovery Channel. It’s just as much pop cultural impressions as musical ones that affect us. What I do musically is very far removed from what I actually listen to. Magic State can sometimes remind me of Californian neo-psych.
Well, there really aren’t that many bands, if any, that sound like Ectoplasm Girls. That’s what makes you interesting.
I have phases when I listen to reggae and hip hop. During this autumn I’ve listened a lot to Ciara, an R’n’B artist. I also like dubstep a lot and that might remind of Ectoplasm Girls. Really dark dubstep. Tanya listens a lot to A-Ha, Alphaville and New Order.
Do you improvise a lot when you’re working, or is there from the very start an emotional vision that you try to reconstruct?
I’d say both. Sometimes it can begin with only a word. One example of that is the track ”Sexodrome”. We were talking about something and Tanya mentioned that there’s a place close to where she lives in Berlin called ”Sexodrome”. We immediately thought we should make a track with that name. And we did. That was fast. We’ve also done a cover version of ”In Heaven” from ”Eraserhead,” and a Manson Family song. Most often though, we just jam and it becomes what it becomes. I like improvising and that it becomes what it does, much more than when I’m working with others. I’m not a sound nerd, and neither is Tanya. In this scene, there are so many sound nerds but we’re not. One thing that makes me loose when working with sound is that I’m not a musician. My entry into it is an art entry. I can do what I want because it’s my art only. I don’t need to answer to anything. I’m in between. People who are not working with sound within art don’t quite get how things are when you’re working with it. And for the sound nerds and the musicians it can be the same thing with art. I’m comfortably placed inbetween and I don’t really have to answer to anyone. When it comes to other art things I feel a lot more that I have to be able to back up what I’m doing.
Do you regard that freedom in music as a necessary valve for you as an artist? Would it for instance work to abruptly give up music?
I feel that I need it. I have thought about giving up drawing. I don’t think I master drawing as I’d like to. But I absolutely do not want to give up sounds.
How would you describe the Ectoplasm Girls LP in your own words?
That’s difficult. Sometimes it’s a bit noisy, but not all of the time. All the tracks are so different. It’s very hard to describe it. We couldn’t use all the songs we had. What we removed was perhaps a bit too different. But apart from that we haven’t really given the totality much thought. It’s just our first album. I guess we don’t know how to go about it.
How did you get in touch with the record label, Ideal?
Joachim Nordwall contacted us. It was really early on, before the first cassette even. We are friends with Audionom, who are also on Ideal. Maybe it was through that fact. We got a Myspace page fairly soon. He contacted us. We’ve never sent any songs to anyone. We feel very privileged.
What are your hopes for the LP? Would you like to play more live?
Yes. After we put the record together we haven’t really made any new songs. I finish school this spring and it feels like the world lies open after that.
Are you afraid of what’s going to happen after school?
Very! But I’m full of expectations too. I hope the LP will be reviewed. I long to actually hold it. I’m happy that it’s going to be an LP. Of course it would be great to get out and play more live. We would need to work together a lot more then.
If you compare recording to playng live, which do you find more interesting?
We haven’t really played live that much. It’s only during the past few shows that the songs have sounded the way they’re supposed to. We’ve been forced to learn how to do it. We can get very nervous. I’m probably more nervous when I’m playing with Ectoplasm Girls than with Magic State. I think it’s scary that it’s not only up to me then. I’m a bit of a control freak.
A lot of people would probably say that it’s the other way around for them.
I know. It is great to be up there with someone. If you’re alone, you’re alone. We usually become quite shy because we think that people will think that we’re a bit weird. We fight on stage. But very quietly so that noone will hear.
Have you given a second album any thoughts?
No, but it feels that we should, now that the first one is on its way. I think that Tanya has a big stack of material and sounds. It’s mostly me who’s been too busy. I have to work on my school things for a while. Then I’ll just have to start making priorities.
Have you listened to Coco Rosie at all?
I listened to their first record when it was released, but not too much. I think our material is a lot darker. It feels as if it’s coming from a pretty dark place. It’s a sad project.
You’re referring to the death of your mother?
Yes. It was right after that that me and Tanya lived toghether and were completely isolated and just made a lot of weird sound stuff. The first songs were only about that. Then it’s developed into including all those things we’ve talked about. It’s the darkest thing that’s happened in our lives. It became the starting point to collect all the other dark things we’ve been attracted to. We wanted to do it a little bit over the top, with the entire aesthetic – everything is dark, we’re wearing robes, and so on. But it’s not deadly serious. We do keep a distance [from] it. So, in some way it’s a play on the apprehensions of darkness and death.
After graduation, when you exit with your films and also costumes, do you think there will be more or less of music for you?
I think it’s going to be just as much as now. When I started at the Royal College of Art I mainly drew and also painted to some extent. But now that’s the stuff that’s gone. I don’t feel I can do my very best at that. What I create in two dimensions others can do better. I can’t really find myself there. It feels like my thing is to work on the films and music, even when it comes to the costume aspect. So that’s what I’ll keep on doing. I also want to do sculpture.
Would there be a Dream Family if it hadn’t been for Magic State?
No. That’s where it started. That’s how they appeared. I started by making small films for Magic State but I felt they really needed to become something on their own. It felt as if I diminished them by just keeping them as a part of Magic State. I became almost possessed by them. Dream Family had to have their own world, their own faith.
Do you have a favourite record?
No absolute favourite, but Primal Scream’s ”Screamadelica” and some Spacemen 3 record are among the favourites.
[Over to Tanya Byrne in Berlin…]
How would you describe Ectoplasm Girls, both the music and as an entity?
It started as a tribute to our deceased mother. Later on, it developed into something else. A musical freezone without any rules, but with strong ideals.
What kind of atmosphere is ideal for you to achieve through the music?
Frustration, extreme depression and hopelessness are for me, for some reason, when I make the best stuff, at least according to myself.
How important is music to you?
Vitally important.
What do you appreciate the most? Recording or the live situation?
The recording. If it hadn’t been for Nadine we would probably never have any concerts. I prefer to lose myself in sounds in my room. I really don’t like the live situation very much. I’m not a performer. Although I am working on appreciating that, because I think it’s an important part.
What’s the best thing with Nadine in an Ectoplasm Girls context?
That she’s on the same wavelength as me. Our sounds melt together as if they were meant for each other. We complete each other. We know what the other one wants without having to say anything. Nadine’s the best.
[This piece was originally published in the now defunct webzine Grounded Magnet in 2011.]
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