Inspired #395 - Junodef
Swedish-born, London based three-piece Junodef share their gripping new single ‘Diane’s Robot’.
Having moved from Sweden to London in 2016, Junodef have made a name for themselves on the London live circuit with their genre defying sound. Comprised of three best friends Karin Grönkvist (guitar and vocals), Norea Persson (drums and electronics) and Tyra Örnberg (Bass and vocals), they create dark dreamscapes and haunting harmonies which sits somewhere between doomsday pop and art rock. With Shoegaze and new wave influences, it’s dark, melancholic and beautiful; the perfect blend between electronic and organic, vulnerable and edgy.
They took a moment to talk to us about the inspirations behind their music.
Who are your top three musical inspirations and why?
Karin: This is ever changing for us, and we’ll have new main inspirations for pretty much every song we write. We do have a few consistent ones though.
Tyra: One of my go to’s is The Chameleons, because of their reverb drenched drums and guitars and moody depressing lyrics. They’ve been a favourite since my teenage years, so there’s a lot of nostalgia going on there too. Other two favourites at the moment are Susanne Sundfør and Anna Von Hausswolff. Both because of their brilliant song writing and amazing voices. Susanne Sundfør’s synth arrangements and productions are always super interesting and cool and very inspiring. And Anna Von Hausswolff’s mixture of doom metal and church organ, topped with her very characteristic dramatic voice speaks to my dark soul.
Karin: Elliott Smith’s songwriting has always amazed me, and his lo-fi sounding productions bring about a feeling that really hits the spot and always, without exception inspires me to write, not necessarily similar music, but it kind of awakens the need to create something. Massive Attack is always a go to for production inspiration, especially drums and synths, but also the overall arrangements and sound of the songs. Their music videos are also absolutely amazing.
Norea: My top three musical inspirations would probably be Warpaint, Ebba Grön and Black Sabbath. These are all long-time favourites that I’ve listened to since I was a teenager and they’ve all inspired me in different ways. Warpaint's drummer Stella Mozgawa is one of my favourite drummers of all time as her playing is extremely clever and tasteful, at the same time as she’s forceful and makes everything she plays groove. Black Sabbath was probably my first favourite band ever and one of the bands who properly made me want to play music. Ebba Grön, a Swedish punk band, I always found inspirational because of their attitude and forceful playing, as well as the idea that you don’t have to be very technical on your instrument to make great music.
Is there a certain film that inspires you and why?
Tyra: Thelma and Louise. The soundtrack and scenery are amazing obviously, but also just everything about the film, the outfits, the plot, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davies, it’s all just perfect. When I watched this film for the first time I then watched it again four more times in the same week.
Karin: I’m not sure I have a particular film that inspires me, but I generally like the kind of dark, depressing and slow moving ones. I also really like films that portray the relationship between humans and animals/nature, like Concrete Cowboy and Ronia: The Robber’s Daughter (Ronja Rövardotter in Swedish).
Norea: I know it sounds cliché, but I have to say The Lord of the Rings! All three of them! Perfect storytelling, beautifully shot and gorgeous nature. The films make me feel comfortable and cosy and I always put them on if I feel a bit anxious.
What city do you find the most inspiring and why?
Karin: I don’t find cities very inspiring. The forest on the other hand! Being able to hear your own thoughts and watch birds, trees and the occasional wild animal gives us the mental peace to really find that deep inspiration and challenge ourselves creatively.
Tyra and Norea: Agreed!
Who is the most inspiring person to you and why?
Norea: Patti Smith has been a long lasting inspiration for us all. From discovering her as children and seeing her live several times in our teenage years to reading her books and poetry and most recently following her amazing instagram account where she writes daily poems about life and whatever she’s up to. She definitely has the best IG-presence we’ve ever seen, and we continue to be amazed by this force of nature.
Karin: Audre Lorde. If you ever feel uninspired, check out the documentary Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984–1992 by Dagmar Schultz. Or read her poems. Or just go on her wikipedia page and read about her. Everything about Audre Lorde is inspiring.
Tyra: To continue on Norea’s Lord Of The Rings theme: Gandalf. He’s very wise and kind, and very good at staying calm in stressful situations (unless he’s surrounded by infuriating hobbits who knock over buckets very loudly and put their little hands on the palantír etc). Gandalf is very self aware, he knows where his strengths and weaknesses lie, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I want to be more like him.
What were your inspirations when writing your new track?
Tyra: The song started off as a sad piano ballad, and then I started experimenting with the sampling of various everyday objects, and the song kind of grew from that. I recorded and sampled things like a shoe box, a silver bracelet, nails on the table and a bunch of other stuff, and then started experimenting with pitching the vocals, to make it into a weird robot duet. The main inspiration from writing a song in that way probably came from Björk, as she’s created so many amazing songs and sounds from sampling strange things that you don’t really think would make sense to use when writing music. When we started translating the demo into a band setting we got rid of the sampled percussion things and turned it into a full drum beat on real drums instead, but a drum beat that kind of tried to mimic the original samples. So the sampling process acted more as a writing tool rather than actual final parts of the song.
How would you like to inspire people?
Tyra: Oof, that is a very big and difficult question and we might not have a good answer to it. But maybe just by being unapologetically ourselves and trying our best to stick to what we believe in and what we want to do in life, even if it’s not usually the most conventional way to go about things, perhaps we could inspire someone to do the same. It’s a nice thought to think that we could at least.
Karin: I agree. I’d hope to inspire people to be creative and try things out without fear of judgement. I really believe creating things, whether it be music, wood carvings or a drawing, is such a great and important way of growing and anchoring yourself. Connecting with our creative selves is super important (and fun!) in my opinion, but not always prioritised or valued very highly in today’s society.
Norea: I agree this is a difficult question and when I play, I don’t really think about inspiring other people, but if I can inspire people to dare to try things they want to do and to believe more in themselves that would be great!
