Vivrant‘s sixth release of the year brings the debut of OLING. The 25-year-old from Rättvik, a small village located a four-hour drive from the capital of Stockholm, began his foray into electronic music over a decade ago. After spending his childhood years immersed by the rich fauna and breathtaking nature of the Swedish north, OLING has carved out an intriguing sonic and aesthetic niche in melodically infused house and techno. Drawing notable inspiration from his cherished childhood memories from the relentless waterways and soothing hissing sounds of the wind making its way through the pine trees, he’s devised a melancholic and riveting debut project. ‘Aves’ channels the suspense and tranquility of mother nature and presents a captivating tribute to the place he calls home.
Music piqued OLING’s interest at the mere age of 4 after being gifted his first drum-set by his parents. He fell in love head first with the rhythms and beats and soon, covers of In Flames, Michael Jackson, and James Brown became a part of the young prodigy’s everyday life. The electronic underground first struck a chord in his early teens. He disappeared into the YouTube rabbit hole and submerged himself in an endless stream of videos portraying DJs forging bonds with passionate fans at the world’s premiere clubs and festivals, and decided then and there to pursue it with an incessant dedication.
After a decade of honing his craft in the studio, his productions appeared on the radar of Vivrant founder and melodic house phenom Jeremy Olander. After inviting the young talent to join him and the rest of the Vivrant roster at a writing camp in early 2021, OLING instantly showed Jeremy his tremendous vision, work ethic and technical know-how in the studio, with Jeremy signing OLING to Vivrant on the spot.
On the live performance end of his artistry, OLING employs a hybrid live setup that adds an additional dimension to his sets. As a classically trained drummer, he leverages the Yamaha CTW-Multi 12 drum machine as well as the KORG Minilogue XD hardware synth in addition to a three-deck CDJ setup, allowing him to create extended transitions and effectively remix, edit and mashup records on the fly.
His debut project entitled ‘Aves’ EP is the culmination of over ten years of relentless work in the studio, and it doesn’t disappoint. The latin inspired name of the EP and eponymously named lead record, referencing a class of vertebrates which comprises the birds, is a tell-tale sign of the inspiration behind his cohesive body of work and future Vivrant classic. With immense sampling work ranging from the chirping birds in his backyard and to the textures of steps on an old wooden floor in his family’s remote cabin, he takes the listener on an atmospheric, rhythmic, and emotionally charged journey that transcends genre and brings an sonic translation of the place he calls home.
You can now listen to the full premiere of ‘Aves’ exclusively on When We Dip. Enjoy!
WWD: Hi OLING! Thanks for speaking to us and congrats on your debut release on Vivrant. First of all what led up to you joining Vivrant and what’s the story behind OLING?
I’m from a small village in Sweden called Rättvik about a four hour drive from Stockholm. I’ve grown up surrounded by lakes, forests and just nature in general all my life. I’m a country boy.
Music piqued my interest early. I got my first drum set for my fourth birthday and I was pretty much hooked instantly, borderline obsessed.
The years went on and in my early teens, when I understood the process behind the electronic music and started getting an understanding of the scene, I started to play around with my self-recorded samples and textures from the outdoors. Sounds of the birds chirping, the rain hitting the outer deck in my backyard. I got very intrigued by the sample culture of house music and wanted to put my own spin on it and add an organic touch to the stuff I produced digitally in a DAW.
When I moved to Stockholm from Rättvik about two years ago, I got more involved with the local scene. I went to a lot of shows, Vivrant in particular, and got to know more and more people. During the pandemic my manager got in touch with Jeremy’s manager and they ended up starting working together and since Jeremy wasn’t touring due to the pandemic, we got together the four of us at their office to go through some of the music that I had made to figure out if it could work for the label. After playing what I think the first four or five tracks, Jeremy stopped the music and asked me if I wanted to join the producer camp his team had planned to organise in the north of Sweden a few months later. The rest is history.
I vividly remember Alex, Jeremy’s manager and co-founder of Vivrant, knocking on the studio door during the camp when I was working on ‘Aves’. The studio was located in a treehouse and had an amazing view. He asked me what I was working on and when the melody kicked in he just stopped, looked at me, and screamed something like, ‘this is it, this is the one’.
WWD: Describe the sound of OLING with 3 words.
I don’t want to pigeonhole myself in a specific genre, but I’d describe my sound as rhythmic, melodic and maybe organic? I don’t know, it’s hard to put labels on something as subjective and abstract as music.
WWD: Tell us about the story and the inspiration behind the lead track ‘Aves’?
The first parts of ‘Aves’ first came to me when I was about to finish a studio session for the day and go home. I came up with a melody and it appealed to me straight away, but I was too tired to make something out of it lthen and there.
A month or so later, when I opened the project again and listened back to the melody it felt like it held up, so I created a nice groove around the lead. I felt pretty happy with it and thought it had potential but still, something was missing in the sound image. When I finally added the modulated woodpecker before the drop and some of the outdoor samples for added texture during Vivrant’s producer camp in March and Alex knocked on the studio door, I felt it was pretty much there.
‘Aves’ is inspired by the bright summer nights that we have during midsummer in Sweden. In the northern parts of the country during that time of the year, the sun never sets. It’s slayful and uplifting but has an undertone of melancholy, which makes it particularly great for Vivrant. A lot of Jeremy’s music also has that element of subdued sadness.
WWD: What excites you most about releasing this EP? Any shows schedules before the year ends?
The road to get here has been long so to be able to put out my debut out on my favourite label is everything. It’s also a big luxury to have daily contact with Jeremy, lend his ear and tap into his experience of navigating the music scene. That’s what I’ve come to like the most about Vivrant so far. It’s not just artists putting out music on the same label. We’ve become friends and spend time together in and out of the studio. To me, that’s what the idea of a label family should be about.
I mean, even if music is a very individual game, if you’re a solo act at least, it’s nice to have a team of nice people that are either on the business side or DJs and producers. You depend on honest feedback as a producer and knowing you can get that is great.
Finding my identity in terms of the aesthetics and the sound is of course very rewarding too. I’ve spent close to ten years getting my sound to this point, and to finally move in a direction that feels like it represents who I am is a relief to be honest. I’m ready to put this out there and see the reactions whether they’re good or bad.
As far as shows, the week after the release I’m playing my first ever Vivrant showcase in Stockholm with Jeremy, Marino Canal, MOLØ, Dominik Eulberg, Hultmaskjina and Hunter Game, which I’m looking forward to a lot. I’m playing a hybrid set for the first time adding a Korg Monologue XD to the mix alongside the CDJs.
WWD: You’re doing a livestream with DJ MAG from an abandoned factory plant in Sweden. What can we expect, tell us about the location?
We were going to record the stream in the woods at first, but as the weather in Sweden is unpredictable to say the least, we had to come up with a plan b. It was recorded a couple of hours away from Stockholm, and when we had everything scheduled for a specific date we couldn’t postpone it. But everything turned out great though.
My management found this abandoned factory plant in the same area as the first location, and DJ MAG liked it. We felt like the slim and minimalistic production would work at either spot. The only thing that was important to me was that the location had some connections to nature, and when I arrived I felt overwhelmed. It was so cool to see how nature all of a sudden reclaims its soil from the moment the factory shut down. How trees grow around solid iron poles, and how the grass cracks through the concrete floor.
Music-wise it mostly showcasing my originals. It includes the entire EP, of course, as well as some new tracks that I’ve been working on lately.
WWD: Last but not least – Please share three of your favourite tracks at the moment.
Mind Against – Reveries
Kotelett – I Got Something For You
and hmm, OLING – Aves, haha.
Thanks for having me guys!
Release Date: December 3rd, 2021. Buy Here