Slickster: Have you seen the E3 trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 yet, and what do you think?

Irving Force: I’ve seen it, a few times over! I mean it looks super cool but I would love to see some actual gameplay. The testimonials from people who got to see that all sound very promising! Trying not to get too hyped though, I have a feeling it’s gonna be a while before a release is imminent. But with that said…. I’m FUCKIN HYPED!

Slickster: How is life in Sweden now?  What’s happening right now in the country that is newsworthy?

Irving Force: Can’t complain! We’re having a very early and bright summer, which I’m pretty happy about. The rest of the year is usually pretty gloomy, with the winter being almost all dark, so you have to absorb all you can. Need that D! I’m talking about the vitamin.

Irving Force: We have an ancient saying here – “The summer, it is short. Most of it rains away. So take for you, the sun is shining today.” Some of it is lost in translation but they are words to live by.

I’m kind of a shut-in and an ignoramus so I don’t really follow the news all that much. My sister said they removed the government mail boxes that people leave their tax papers in so a bunch of retirees started mashing in their envelopes under the doors of government offices. I thought that was kind of funny. They had huge piles of letters just laying in their entrances.

Slickster: What is it about synthwave music that attracts you to the genre?

Irving Force: Well the 80’s in general often come off as the opposite of subtle and nuanced. I love stuff like that. When you can just take something at face value and it doesn’t try to come off as deep or whatever. Obviously synthwave has more aspects to it than that but the feeling of unsubtlety is kind of inherent within most of the tropes used. So there’s this kind of weird ass subtle unsubtlety going on. I am using that word too much.

I must admit I used to think a lot of the sounds from the period sounded really tasteless and hollow up until not that recently. When I discovered what some of the producers were doing in the scene there was this switch in my head that flipped and the feeling of “but what if it isn’t?” when hearing something so gross sounding so cool really tickled me. It really kind of turned my world up-side down to be honest. I had like a kitsch awakening. I started rediscovering stuff I had grown up with that I didn’t even realize I loved until then, it just presented this fresh new angle on something old. 

Slickster: Is synthwave becoming too popular now?  Are too many musicians copying each other and not creating original music?

Irving Force: I wouldn’t say it’s too popular per se but there was a big wave a while back when I guess people figured out it was pretty easy to make and started flooding the scene with new music. It became really hard to spot the good ones among all of the carbon copies. I guess it’s that stage of inflation that happens to any genre as it grows. Maybe things are better now, I don’t know, I honestly kind of stopped paying attention around then and increased my daily dose of actual music from the 80’s instead. There’s a lot to sift through there as well though!

I don’t want to come off as a grump though, I still love synthwave and all the subgenres and there are a million awesome artists around! A big part of it for me is that I don’t want to start subconsiously stealing from other artists in the scene, I prefer consiously stealing from artists of different genres instead. Hopefully that kind of prevents some of that in-breeding.

Obviously I still listen to a lot of synthwave, I just choose my moments more carefully now.

The Making of the Violence Suppressor music video

Slickster: Your music video for Violence Suppressor is awesome!  We really loved the Kung Fury reference.  How did you create the video?

Irving Force: To make something you need either money or time and back then I guess I had an abundance of the latter, whereas now I don’t seem to have either, haha. The video started with me making just a short little conceptual audio clip for a Violence Suppressor film trailer just to set the tone for my then upcoming EP with the same name. I was showing it to my friend Tony “Anton” Silk and then it just kind of spun out of control from there. He helped me come up with a lot of concepts and shots that are in there. He also came up with the “Kung F U” quip. 

I have made music videos before, for my own other projects and occasionally for other bands as well, so I did have some gear and experience. At the time I had access to a room no one used in the building I live in so I just bought a couple of green sheets and hung them in there, brought in some lighting and shot some stuff on and off with friends over like a week or two. 

I had a basic idea of what I wanted and a few pretty simple notes of key shots, angles and characters I had to get, then I let people improvise whatever they wanted or just came up with stuff on the spot. The shot of the policeman looking around at a bunch of thugs and then deciding to blow his brains out was just my friend fucking around for instance, I thought it was a cool idea so I started filming other people on different days specifically to fit in with that shot. A lot of the sewer punks and thugs are just me in different costumes too.

I bought a bunch of cheap trash off ebay and also took multiple trips to second hand stores and flea markets for the costumes and most of the props, then I spread all that stuff out on a table and let people pick whatever they wanted for the thugs and stuff, with a little guidance and rules. I also asked everyone to bring whatever they could from home of course, I know a few nerds that collect different weapons and stuff like that.

Then we did film quite a few shots in different rooms in the building I live in and around around my area. I also got some internet friends to send me some footage of themselves for certain shots.

But that was all the fun stuff, probably took a little more than a month, then I had to spend like six more months doing the VFX and editing the whole thing, that was torture towards the end. The final step was scoring it, I had some very rough sketches from the original audio clip that I turned into the score. So it’s like a reverse music video kind of, I made the song to fit the visuals, not the other way around. Then I ended up turning the score into two songs off the new album, Violence Suppressor and Overlord, expanding on them further.

Slickster: We admit that we loved the video, except one thing; There were no hot babes in the video!  The only exception was a pink neon light that was in the shape a bikini stripper.  What’s up with that?  Why no sexy girls in the future?

Irving Force: Well, it’s supposed to be dystopian after all. I mean how can you tell really, maybe some of those masked sewer mutants are total babe lincolns under those rags? As I said, all the actors are my personal friends and I do have a few nerd friends that collect weapons so you can maybe kind of guess from what the rest of my circle of friends look like. 

But yeah, the video definitely is a bit more homogeneous than I would’ve liked though, I did have a few ladies that said they were coming over to film but most of them ended up bailing in the end. But that is a weird coincidence now that you make me think of it. It’s probably just because of my creepy pedo beard.

Slickster: Do girls like synthwave or is it primarily just dudes?

Irving Force: If you look at my particular stats it doesn’t look too good, I have like 8% female listeners on Spotify. I do think I kind of cater to a certain audience with my themes and influences though, so I really don’t think this reflects on synthwave as a whole. I do feel like I see a lot of female synthwave fans around the internet and at shows though. And it’s nice to see! The largest group I would say are men in their late 20’s and 30’s.

Slickster: Do you have any live shows coming up?

Irving Force: Sadly not at the moment but we’re talking to people, I’m sure there’ll be something announced soon!

Slickster: Synthwave musicians are well connected around the globe and especially in Europe.  Are there any friends you’d like to take the time to recognize?

Irving Force: My Swedish buds Oscillian, Shyguys, Amplitude Problem, Vince Riviera, Waveshaper, Robert Parker and Jonas from Rad Rush Records are all super cool guys! 

Check out Microchip Terror and Straplocked! Two fine gentlemen.

We played with Sung in Amsterdam recently and had a blast hanging out with him.

Megahammer and friends are really cool! 

I could go on forever here.

Slickster: What message do you personally want to share with the world.  What is the most important advice you want to share with everyone?

Irving Force: Train, say your prayers, eat your vitamins and be true to yourself.

Genre(s): Synthwave/Retrowave, Darksynth, Synth Metal

Similar Artists: Dance With The Dead, Volkor X, Master Boot Record

Release Date: 11 June 2018

Stream/Purchase: https://jstrecords.bandcamp.com/album/godmode-lp