CultureCritic interviews Agnes Obel

This week Danish-born songstress Agnes Obel's debut record Philharmonics is given a deluxe re-release, following its original UK release in October last year. It's not often that CultureCritic interviews chart-topping sensations, but that's just what Agnes is, with Philharmonics going double platinum in Denmark alone. We spoke to her about her adopted home Berlin, the pressures of fame and ‘selling out'...

You sing in English and live in Berlin, did you feel you needed to leave Denmark in order to pursue a successful music career?

No, I moved to Berlin because I wanted to, for personal reasons, not just to make music. But it's turned out to have been really good for my music. I have the room and space to get away from things and it can be quite liberating to move away from the city you grew up in.

What is it about Berlin that seems to attract so many artists and creative people?

Berlin's a very weird place. It's a very big city, and because there's so much space the tempo of the city is quite slow. A lot of cities are cramped together but not Berlin, people are more relaxed and it's not difficult to find an apartment or a room where you can work.

It's also a place where it's accepted that you can have a project without any real purpose. In Copenhagen, if you're working on a record, people expect you to be aiming for a record deal or whatever, but not in Berlin. There are so many people working on weird projects around you. It's really inspiring.

What effect did moving to a new foreign city have on your writing?

It's funny, for me it was like I was moving to the country, or far away from everything, up into the mountains or something. In the period I was recording the album I was living in this big empty building hall, an old radio building from the GDR – imagine if the BBC stopped working and you had all these big empty buildings. It was a bit like being on a lonely island.

Critics, in Britain at least, are very happy to use ‘Scandinavian' when describing you, in an almost adjectival way. Do you see yourself as belonging to a particular musical tradition?

I think I belong to one Scandinavian heritage and that's [Swedish jazz pianist] Jan Johansson. He's a really big influence, I've listened to him since I was a child and I still do now. This is the only Scandinavian influence I can think of, I feel much more inspired by those around me in Berlin.

You've sold a lot of records in Europe. How are you enjoying your newfound fame?

I'm really happy with it in that it means I can make a living by making music, which is not something that is very easy to do anymore. It's really inspiring that you can make something personal, without any audience in mind at all, and put it out there and people react. But it was a very unexpected thing... when I made the record I wasn't even sure it would be released.

You've joined a pretty formidable list of ‘alternative' artists who've had a song featured on an advert; Vashti Bunyan, The Penguin Café Orchestra and Feist, for example. How did you feel about having your song used for commercial purposes?

Well fortunately it was only in Germany, and the record's done really well in countries where there hasn't been an advert. But I was worried when we first did it, of course, because people in Germany when they hear the song [Just So] they'll think of that product. That's the price you have to pay, but on the other hand it helped me get a record deal.

Stigma around bands ‘selling out' seem to have disappeared in recent times, do you think this is a reflection of the state of the music industry and the difficulty emerging artists face in making money from their work, after illegal downloading?

Absolutely, I think it's absolutely your right to do it, exactly because of that reason. It's something a lot of people don't realise, that the main income source for musicians has disappeared. But on the other hand, you do need to be careful, because the people you'll work with don't care about you or your music, they see it as a product.

Can you talk to us about some of your influences, musical and non-musical?

My main influence is that I like melodies, and I feel like I have a lot of these melodies in me, like I didn't get them all out on the last record. As for influences, there's so many, I say different names every time I get asked this...

What about John Cale, obviously you've covered ‘I Keep A Close Watch' on the record...

Well I got into the Velvet Underground when I was a teenager, and I think he's a fantastic songwriter. ‘I Keep A Close Watch' was my favourite song of his.

You used to play in a musical collective in Denmark.  Do you miss working with others musically?

Yeah I really do. It's the coolest thing to do. I'd love to do some collaborations in the future, but I just knew with this album I had to do it on my own because I wanted to make sure the songs came out in the right way. I'd love to make a song with Daniel Johnston; I have a weakness for his voice, it's a big dream of mine. Kate Bush also, I love her voice.

You're currently working on a second record. Do you feel under any pressure given the success of your debut?

No, not at all. I've done it on my own for so many years. I really like recording, it's my biggest hobby so what I'm really thinking about is what I personally think is a good song. If I start thinking about what other people like I wouldn't know what to do. I can only make what I like myself, if no one else likes it what can I do?

Does touring and all this promo time feel like it's getting in the way of you writing new material?

Yeah, totally. But I've written some new songs and I'm putting them into the live set, which makes it more interesting. When you play new songs you can see how they work well. And you hear of some people who tour an album for two years, so comparatively I don't have it so bad, I can't complain!

AGNES'S CULTURE PICKS

Boardwalk Empire

'I'm a huge fan of The Wire, it's my favourite. Boardwalk Empire is really good, but it's not quite up there'

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

'by Jonathan Safran Foer, it's really good!'

Creep on Creepin' On

'The new Timber Timbre record, I'm a huge fan... it's the best record of the year for me.'

Philharmonics is out now, read the latest reviews here.