Get in where they fit in

>> Anywhere’s the place for Sweden’s Lo-Fi-Fnk

by JACK OATMON

From Annie to the Knife and on through the Legends, Scandinavia likes its pop, and likes it with generous doses of twinkling analog synthesizers and uplifting vocal melodies. Lo-Fi-Fnk, the latest deployment in the Swedish synth-pop invasion is no exception to that assertion. That said, the band, comprised of Leo Drougge and August Hellsing, retains its unique qualities amidst the catchy choruses and toe-tapping electronic drumbeats that it shares with its contemporaries.

Drougge, singer and bass player, says that individuality is what interests them in other bands. “We’re really into unique music,” he says, “like right now, we listen to a lot of Paul McCartney. It really fits nowhere.” Drougge admits, though, that they themselves “try to make music that could fit anywhere.”

“It’s not a very commercial ambition,” he says, just an attempt to find a place for their sound. The music is indeed outside certain well-manicured patterns, such as the general tendency of dance to be obsessive about clean, meticulous production. “We called the band Lo-Fi-Fnk because when we started, we wanted to make dance music, but more lo-fi.”

In practice, the wide-eyed musings of Drougge’s lyrics combine with Hellsing’s assertive synth work to form a brilliant sound that navigates the youthful urban experience with an idiot-savant’s unfettered grace. The atmosphere of discovery and experimentation that permeates the band’s first full-length album, Boylife, makes a good analogy for their current status, touring North America’s dance music hotspots for the first time.

“Pretty much everything is new for us,” says Drougge. “Actually, the audiences have been a bit over our expectations, because we haven’t released anything outside of Europe and we haven’t got a label in North America, so we’re really impressed that we get people singing along with the lyrics and stuff like that.”

Getting released in North America is a growing aspiration for the duo. “We hope so, because then it gets easier for people to find out about our music, so not just the nerds know.”

With numéro# and Sharp a l’os DJs at
Club Lambi on Wednesday,
March 28, 10 p.m., $12