Your music is quite elaborate with a strong sense of atmosphere and mood. Can you describe the creative process behind your instrumental music? How do you approach composing and arranging your songs?
We get together a couple of times a week. We play together for a couple of hours. Some days we rehears pieces that we played together for years, and in periods of time we experiment with new landscapes. Some one comes with a new fragment and we jam around that, making bridges and new landscapes in the moment connecting to the new tunes and fragments and sowly with time, sometimes years, we have a new piece. They normally never closes up, always evolving.
Since the formation of Agusa, about ten years ago, have you noticed any significant shifts or changes in the public’s interest in progressive rock music? How do you perceive the current state of the genre compared to when you first started making music together?
I don’t think any shifts has occurred, more likely we as a band has explored new progressive nerds on our trips and concerts. They are like mountains, strong and doing their thing. Progressive fans are very special people, deep and explorers of the romantic landscapes within.
Have you noticed any significant differences in how your music is received by audiences in different countries or regions? Are there any unique reactions or experiences you’ve encountered while performing or promoting your music internationally?
From my point of view there are more serious fans in the countries like Spain, Italy, Germany and France. I think there is more progressive culture down there and people dedicated to music. We encountered many fans that travel far to experience progressive psychedelic music in those regions and its nice to see that Sweden has its place on the map regarding to the genre.
In a recent interview Keith Richards made a statement basically suggesting that ‘the only real music is the one played with instruments.’ How do you view this perspective, considering that your music is predominantly instrumental? What’s your opinion about the use of computers and synths in music? What role do you believe instrumental music plays in the broader musical landscape?
We have been guests playing on a couple of electronic events though the years. Mikael, our guitarist, hates electronic music. He always say that machines doesn’t know what friendship is. Sometimes I talk back and say that a guitar doesn’t ether. But when I think about it, the hands that play a guitar or a flute or any other instrument knows what love and friendship is, but so does the hands of a machine that makes electronic music. At the same time a machine can not imitate my breath that makes a passionate sound in the flute with the tremble that comes from love, anger or excitement. A machine is to perfect and in total control, a human on the other hand is imperfections all boiled down to a beautiful, ugly, vibrating and dying creature. So my answer to your question in what role instrumental music plays in the musical landscape, I would say it is the only musical landscape that counts.
