The Beat Surrender

Rasmus Faber releases his new album today (23rd February) through Farplane Records, entitled Where We Belong it’s highly anticipated, not least by me and features some stunning vocal contributions from the likes of Linda Sundbland, Dyanna Fearon and Emily McEwan.

Just ahead of the release date I caught up with Rasmus to find out about how his sound had evolved, what it was like working with Dyanna Fearon and if he had thought about the next album yet. Read on for an interesting insight into the man behind the music.

We’ll start with the single (Everything Is Alright) that came out just before Christmas, it was a track that one much critical acclaim but got somewhat swallowed up in the Christmas singles market, were you not tempted to wait until January to release it in the quiet sales period?

Well, we were actually planning to release it well in time before Christmas, but as you probably know the music business is pretty much in ruin, and companies are falling apart like houses of cards, so we got delayed a bit. I’m not too worried though, I believe if the song is good enough it will come through anyway sooner or later.

The track scored four out of five on our site and was an instant favourite, did you know when you started recording that you’d nailed a great song, or does it creep up on you over time?

It creeps up over time actually. Bits and pieces fall into place, and then you listen and go “wow!”

Linda Sunblad contributes vocals brilliantly on that track and you have a number of other guest vocalists on the album, how do you go about selecting which vocalist is right for which song?

Personally I let the song and the vocalist shape each other. I often have a singer in mind when starting, or later moulding the production to suit the vocalist perfectly.

One of the most interesting collaborations is your hook up with Dyanna Fearon from Reel People, who are still massively underrated in my opinion, how did that come about?

I just loved what she did with Reel People, and her voice is so appealing, both innocent and experienced sounding. She’s a really good writer too, she wrote her own words and melody for my album, really cool stuff that I wouldn’t have been able to come up with myself.

Despite your jazz piano background you’ve mainly been linked with house music, the new album sounds like the start of a potentially subtle shift away from that, is that a conscious move or just something you wanted to explore a little on this album?

I think it is essential when making an album not to make it sound like a compilation of dance floor singles. House music, like all dance music, is to a large extent music with a clear purpose, and is written and arranged to suit that purpose. I believe when people are listening to an album they want something deeper.

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