Feature: Planetariet Decodes ‘Saknas’
What was the creative process like for this particular 'Saknas?’
Earlier we’ve always just met in the rehearsal space and songs were created organically from jamming. Sometimes someone came in with a riff or a chord progression and we went from there. When going into writing ‘Saknas’ we had a storyline that we wanted the album to follow, and we also knew we wanted to try to write the album in a more structured way in order to create songs that fit into the narrative we had created. A huge part of the writing process was figuring out the wiring process itself. In the end, we had this sort of structure where we wrote the songs layer by layer where previously the songs would emerge as a whole from each member simultaneously. When writing ‘Saknas’ we had drum days and guitar days and synth days where we focused on each part individually. It was sometimes frustrating, sometimes confusing, but in the end it was very rewarding because we figured out this new way of writing songs that allowed us to experiment with structure and sounds a lot more. Approaching it this way worked out because we’ve known each other for so long, and everyone could always bring in their weird ideas and get heard.
What has been one of your most favorite memories along the path to making 'Saknas?'
While we conceptualized ‘Saknas’ back in 2015 after finishing our first album, ‘Rymden,’ production really took off during the pandemic. Our album ‘S/T’ was just supposed to be an EP we released between ‘Rymden’ and ‘Saknas,’ but it took off and ended up taking a lot more time than we expected. And when the pandemic hit we were on the tail end of working with it, and there were no gigs to play suddenly, so writing was the only thing we could do. And for most of us, our favorite memories were just hanging out in the rehearsal space together, trying to write this weird record we had in our minds. We met every week and it was a way to focus away from reality for a bit and just be in a place where everything felt normal. It was a safe fixed point.
How does this 'Saknas' fit into your overall artistic vision?
Like we mentioned in the previous question, we’ve had the idea for the album for quite a while, as it is intended as a follow-up to Rymden. Rymden (meaning space in Swedish) is the story about an astronaut going into space, and the excitement of heading into the unknown. ‘Saknas’ tells the story of the same astronaut losing contact with Earth in an accident and fading into the endless void. The goal of ‘Saknas’ is to show all feelings that can be held in that story.
Where do you find inspiration for your songs or musical ideas?
We’re five people with very different tastes in music. Pontus H and Per listen to strange electronica and neo-classical music, Pontus M likes hip hop and soul that makes most people blush, Klas is and avid listener of expensive pop, and Björn likes confusing messy math-like guitars. But, everyone has some overlap with everyone, and since we’ve been friends for so long everyone has always been able to bring their own influences, ideas and feelings to the table without being judged (mostly). This time we also had a storyline for the album to look to when writing as well.
What do you enjoy most about performing live and connecting with your audience?
Post-rock is a genre that translates very well into live settings. Getting to slowly build massive walls of sound is just so damn fun to do in a setting where you get to go really loud. Connecting with people is creative fuel, it really keeps you going. When you’re a small band, every DM that tells you someone liked your record means a lot. Making music is a slow process and it’s easy to lose the feeling that you had when you first wrote it, so that kind of reassurance is great.