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 Our latest interview is with the young and very talented Swedish producer, Joni Ljungqvist, whose productions have found their way onto compilations such as the ISOS and ITWT series and Armada's Electronic Elements label...
Joni Ljungqvist Bringing Beautiful Trance From Sweden
Joni Ljungqvist, born in 1987 in the south part of Sweden, started making music at the age of 12. Finding out later that electronic dance music was his passion, he quickly got his hands on ReBirth and started making his own tracks. Doing this for five years and at the same time evolving as a musician, his music started to get noticed more and more on the internet. But it wasn’t until the summer of 2004, when Joni, at the age of 16, worked on a collaboration with Norwegian DJ and producer Terje Bakke, he got his first deal.
Markus Schulz picked up their tune, called ‘Fanatic’, for the Electronic Elements label, part of Armada. ‘Fanatic’ got released on the Coldharbour Selections 3 vinyl. Later on he’s had success with both his JPL, Ljungqvist and LNQ aliases, as well as smaller aliases such as External Art, Illustrator and Dauntless.
Having produced the debut album of Swedish champion in Poetry, had a number of tracks in the dutch dance chart, remixed producers like Antidote, York, Andy Prinz, Jones & Stephenson and Will Holland among others, and finally having released over 30 singles, 25 remixes and been on compilations like Tiësto’s ‘In Search Of Sunrise’ 4 & 5, Ferry Corsten’s ‘Passport: Kingdom Of The Netherlands / United States of America’, Markus Schulz’ ‘Miami ‘05’, Phynn’s ‘In Trance We Trust 11’, Airwave’s ‘Planet Trance Vol. 2’ and Pedro del Mar & DJ Shah’s ‘Mellomania’ 4,5 & 6 among others, the future looks very bright for the little Swedish boy, now 20 years old. He has taken the trance world by storm in the last few years and there is still more to come. i:Vibes had the chance to interview him...
i:Vibes: Joni, how are you doing? I interviewed you back in 2006 for the German website www.tranceunited.com. That was a long time ago. How have you developed as a producer in this time?
Joni Ljungqvist: Hi, I’m all good thanks, just swamped in a sea of homework at the moment haha, but it’s all good. Yes I would say I definitely have. I think my productions are much more clean and better done these days, but I still try to have a lot of heart in them of course. I have moved around a bit so I thought to myself that I just had to learn to use the mixing abilities more for my productions to get them tighter. Also, I have been quite influenced with house music which I guess you will hear in some of the coming productions!
i:Vibes: How have you grown up in the last three years? How was it developing as a young man and slowly getting established as a Trance producer?
Joni Ljungqvist: I would definitely say that I have grown up, quite a lot. In 2006 I was just getting started, still living in with my parents and all that usual teenage-stuff. Now I’m still young, but I live on my own in another city, study at the university and pay my own bills. It is quite different and you learn to tackle life differently as you have more responsibility. For music, it was hard. I didn’t have a lot of time and I had to work in a much smaller space than before. I also went through different stages in life which sort of affected how, and how often I could produce. I also felt people started expecting tune after tune after tune, but it sort of didn’t happen the same way as I thought. I think I’m back on the right track now though. Despite these things though, I’m still quite a childish and funny guy who tries to have a lot of fun of course! If you’ve seen the videologs I think you know what I mean!
i:Vibes: Are you a full time producer now or are you studying or still going to school?
Joni Ljungqvist: I study at the university but I make most of my income from the music. I’ve been incredibly lucky to actually get paid for my productions, seeing as I nearly don’t do DJ gigs at all at the moment. Hopefully I can keep it that way in the future too.
i:Vibes: Do you have a trance mentor in Sweden, who gives you musical advice?
Joni Ljungqvist: Not really, no... I have a few persons I usually send around my things too for advice, but not really a trance mentor. I have discovered that the best listeners are my parents; if they like it, it’s usually a “hit”, if they don’t like it, it usually goes unnoticed - quite crazy but they are like hit-meteorologists!
i:Vibes: What current Trance producer do you respect the most?
Joni Ljungqvist: Besides saying these obvious top 10 names, I’d say my fellow Swedish Carl B and Marcus Schössow, and also the incredible American crazyman Breakfast. What they do deserves respect!
i:Vibes: In the last years, you have been a regular guest on Tiesto’s ‘In Search Of Sunrise’ compilations. Do you try to produce some tracks in a certain way so they may attract the taste of these compilations or do you just produce the same way that you always have?
Joni Ljungqvist: Haha. It’s all luck! Really, I have just been lucky I think. I’ve tried once to produce a tune that would “fit” on ISOS, and that was for ISOS6 and it didn’t get on... so I just did what I do instead; fill my tracks with emotion and heart, and apparently someone thought they would fit well on the In Search of Sunrise compilations. There’s not really a recipe besides that I think – just put your soul into it and it will show!
i:Vibes: You list John Barry as one of your musical influences. Probably best known for composing the James Bond themes. Why does he influence you so much?
Joni Ljungqvist: I am a huge James Bond nerd. Sometimes when I’m bored at home, I like to pretend I’m 007, watching my corners on my way to the kitchen to get some food, haha! There are never any ladies there though, oh well! On a serious note though, I think part of what I love of the movies, are the fantastic orchestral pieces. John Barry has made so much, so good, and inspires me not to use the “obvious” chord-progressions, but to look a bit outside the box. What he has done is truly amazing and I actually put on his themes sometimes just to be amazed.
i:Vibes: What is your favourite James Bond theme song that he composed?
Joni Ljungqvist: I would say that it’s a tie between ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘From Russia With Love’. Everything he has done is amazing but these two definitely stand out I think.
i:Vibes: I guess down the road you might not be hindered from making some kind of movie soundtrack. How would the perfect Joni soundtrack sound like?
Joni Ljungqvist: Hard question! If you mean the soundtrack to myself, I’d say, since I’m a person of bland and ever-changing emotions, it would be both dark and bright, and beautiful. Also it would contain both intense and more laidback elements. It’s hard, but I guess that would be a start!
i:Vibes: How would you describe the 2009 Joni Ljungqvist sound?
Joni Ljungqvist: It’s really gone progressive now, and it has become more groovy I think. But it’s still melodic and emotional I’d say. I read that someone described my trademark as being lush emotional pads, and those are still there. So, it’s sort of a re-updated Ljungqvist-sound to go with the sounds of the future! And it’s more bouncy than ever...
i:Vibes: I recently heard ‘Orchid Blossom’ in Talla 2XLC’s radio show and instantly fell in love with it. You made this with Carl B? What was your inspiration behind the title and the music?
Joni Ljungqvist: Thank you! It was a collaboration between me and Carl B, originally for his ‘In Trance We Trust 13’ compilation. Carl and I said we should do something new since ‘Foresaken’ was already 2 years old. So Carl had this Asian-inspired string part that we worked around (which also inspired the title) and we finished it just in time for his compilation. So we worked around that string and the chords for it, and tried to make it dancy. We did a mix each which will be out on ITWT sometime in the near future!
i:Vibes: How has the DJ feedback been for ‘Orchid Blossom’? Talla 2XLC played it!
Joni Ljungqvist: That is cool! It’s been good I think, besides Talla I know that Armin played it on ASOT too... it was my first ASOT play in over 1.5 years I think, haha. But yeah, I think it’s going in the right direction so far!
i:Vibes: Was this a difficult track to produce? You really captured a brilliant soundscape and wonderful atmosphere!!
Joni Ljungqvist: Thanks again!! To be honest, the hardest part was doing a main melody for the somewhat unusual chords Carl had, but once we got working on it, things went pretty quick from just a few chords to a complete track. We worked back and forth over MSN for a few nights and after a week or so we had two mixes finished!
i:Vibes: What was the most important thing that you had to get right so that ‘Orchid Blossom’ sounded perfect for you?
Joni Ljungqvist: I would definitely say, as you said, setting the theme to capture the “right” atmosphere. The main ideas were brilliant that Carl had, just needed to put it in the right environment so to speak, and making it as beautiful as it deserved to be. I think we hit a few bright spots with it anyway!
i:Vibes: How important is establishing a beautiful atmosphere in your tracks?
Joni Ljungqvist: It’s everything. It doesn’t need to be soaring pads and all that stuff, you can have a beautiful atmosphere with just percussion really. What I’m after in my tracks is to make them breathe on their own, they need to have soul and people listening to my tracks must feel that it affects them in some way – even if they hate the track. Of course it is dance music so a bit of bang-bang doesn’t hurt, but I’ve always been captured by the more mellow sounds of dance music, and the feelings it brings.
i:Vibes: You have worked with many different project names in your young career. Will that continue down the road? You seem to use JPL most!
Joni Ljungqvist: Yeah, it was just that I was so inexperienced with the terms and contracts, and it ended up spawning a lot of project names. But now I focus on using my full real name, and then JPL as you said. I have two other collaboration projects going but those aren’t really in the same style so those are different. For my solo and trance-collaborations, it will be either Joni (Ljungqvist) or JPL from now on, even if it is a bit outside the usual stuff!
i:Vibes: Some years ago, you produced beautiful music with Terje Bakke. Will you guys produce something in the future again?
Joni Ljungqvist: I don’t know to be honest. The last tune we produced was the upcoming ‘Envision’ back in late 2007/beginning of 2008. We’ve gone in such different directions now I have no idea what is going to happen. Terje has moved into more minimal and electroish sounds kind of, and I’m still the trance guy. We’ll see, perhaps someday we’ll do something together again, can’t promise anything though!
i:Vibes: You have some JPL tracks lined up for the next months with ‘Downfall’, ‘Linger’ and ‘Forgetting What You Were’. What surprises can we await from these tracks?
Joni Ljungqvist: Actually ‘Linger’ was released as the B-side to ‘Lighthouses & Shorelines’ and is out now, so buy buy buy, haha!! ‘Forgetting What You Were’ is quite old now too, and I wouldn’t say it’s a huge surprise. It doesn’t really sound like my sound does today, but has a more old school approach to it. ‘Downfall’ together with George Hales is a slow yet uplifting trancer, with some glitch influences. The biggest surprise would probably be the fact that I do the vocals! It’s quite fun and isn’t as horrible as people would expect, haha! But there are some really cool and funky remixes coming from the upcoming American Tyler Michaud and the brilliant Japanese producer Nhato. I’m hyped about it as I think it’s a really different and good package all together!
i:Vibes: When you produce a track in the studio, is there a particular way that you go about making a track? Have you changed anything with your procedure in the last years or do you just go in at scratch and make a masterpiece?
Joni Ljungqvist: I used to start doing a remix of some song before, and eventually I would turn it into my own track. ‘Explanations’ is a perfect example of that. That’s how I used to do it back in the days. Today I however usually start humming melodies in the shower or something, go sit down by my keyboard and start playing, and go from scratch. Usually I have a lot of projects at the same going, so sometimes I just need a melody for them or something. It’s a really different work process from track to track really, and depends on my schedule. One word to sum it up would be though that it’s fun, loveable, horrible and absolutely sweaty sometimes. But it’s always worth it to listen to something you created!
i:Vibes: With what producer would you like to be locked in the studio with in 2009?
Joni Ljungqvist: This might be a little off bounds, but I’d say Stuart Price (Thin White Duke). In my eyes he’s absolutely brilliant and I would love to see how he works to get these tracks and remixes of his together. It would probably be more of an observation thing really but it would be amazing to do!
i:Vibes: How is the present state of the Swedish trance scene? In the last years, the House scene has really taken off. How healthy is the Trance scene and how has it been developing in the last few years?
Joni Ljungqvist: As always, it’s almost dead. There is of course Mondaybar and a couple of smaller events, but trance was never really big here I think. I don’t live in any of the three big cities though so I might have missed something. But when it comes to dance music I would say that everything from house to minimal and techno is where it’s at in Sweden. The kids in my little city even go off to house and minimal at the clubs so it’s really “the thing” at the moment I’d say! I do appreciate it though as there at least is an option to R’n’B and mainstream clubs, even in smaller cities like here. But I wouldn’t mind if we got more trance here, there’s lots of fun and cool trance and the music is very much alive. We just need to get people around here to start realizing it!
i:Vibes: How is your DJing career going at the moment?
Joni Ljungqvist: Pretty much dead, heh. It’s just that the few gigs I have been getting usually collide with my studies and I can’t put the studies to the side for gigs all the time, especially not now since it’s my last semester. I wouldn’t mind getting a few gigs and play for people, as it’s a thrilling experience. But right now I have to focus on other things!
i:Vibes: What could we await from you in a three hour set?
Joni Ljungqvist: It would be a trip from deeper and really progressive sounds through groovy funky beats to uplifting and banging stuff towards the end. I would throw in a lot in there, also of course I’d have to see how to work the crowd!
i:Vibes: What three things would you take with you on a deserted island in 2009?
Joni Ljungqvist: Hard question! I think I would settle with a nice lady (who can sing) for company, some water and a huge “HELP!” sign!
i:Vibes: What are your five current favourite tracks?
Joni Ljungqvist: Jerome Isma-Ae – Smile When You Kill Me
Sander van Dien – Aurora
Pryda – Miami To Atlanta
JPL & George Hales – Downfall (Nhato Remix)
Mango – Good Morning Track
i:Vibes: What are your hobbies?
Joni Ljungqvist: Writing and reading. And movies and TV-series are always nice. ‘Flight Of The Conchords’ is a winner as well as the British detective series ‘Midsomer Murders’. Also, I like to lie around in the park here when the sun’s out and play a bit of football. We also started a new business here locally so that’s a bit of a hobby gone serious so to say! Other than that, it’s just music I guess, hehe.
i:Vibes: Thanks Joni for the chat! Good luck in the future!!!
Joni Ljungqvist: Thank you, best of luck to you as well!
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