It Feels Good To Be Around You: A Conversation With Air France
“Love, if anything, is evolving with us. The need to create, to build, to take pride in something that stands apart from ourselves as individuals — it all stems from this one basic emotion.” — Henrik Markstedt
With only fourteen songs released between 2006 and 2012, Air France — the duo of Joel Karlsson and Henrik Markstedt — remain amongst the most influential acts of the last decade.
When On Trade Winds — their incredible and sublime four-track debut EP — dropped in December 2006, the pair from Gothenburg, Sweden had no inkling nor expectation of the gargantuan influence they would create over several music genres for the next decade and beyond.
Released by neighboring record label Sincerely Yours, the fourteen minutes of the EP were nothing short of brilliant; the near-impossible perfection which results from poignantly and precisely capturing then translating emotions into sonic landscapes. Overflowing with equal parts nostalgia, inspiration, relaxation, urgency and euphoria, On Trade Winds is a creation to inspire generations; a timeless masterpiece belied by its runtime.
In April 2007, Air France dropped “Afraid You Told Someone About Us” — their Au Revoir Simone cover track:
“We all loved it. Of course, we were so happy that they lent their creative energy to it; it’s always a thrill to hear another musician’s take on your music. I just gave it another listen — it’s been nearly a decade since that remix came out so my mind was a little fuzzy. But I was delighted to have a listen and remember its infectiously sunny, sparkly and tropical vibe. They really made the track their own!” — Heather D’Angelo, Au Revoir Simone
Eight months later, another stand-alone single with “Hold On To Me, Baby” as part of their dedication to the Sincerely Yours label.
Beholden to their perfectionist nature while fearful of failure, the duo took one-and-a-half years to complete and release No Way Down — their six-track, twenty-two minute follow-up released in June 2008:
“It’s brilliant and I’m very proud to be a part of it. I did the master around the same time I did lots of fantastic SY releases. Every week or so (SY co-founder) Henning (Fürst) came by the studio with an awesome album for me to work with. I do remember that Joel and Henrik where present in the studio while doing the master, really nice guys.” — Philip Granqvist, Master Engineer (No Way Down)
What happened next was remarkable — especially when contextualized with how music was released during the mid-2000's.
Supported by Sincerely Yours and backed by a voracious and dedicated fanbase, the duo actually met — exceeded — expectations with No Way Down, building upon their sound with depth and detail while maintaining their singular ability to transcribe memories, childhood, innocence and discovery into audible arteries.
Eleven songs and two years later, Air France near-single-handedly created then perfected a sound and emotion — still emulated with reoccurring inferior results.
Then, simultaneously ironically and appropriately, the duo hibernated for an entire year. And again appropriately, they returned with pure brilliance.
Their single “GBG Belongs To Us”— released in June 2009 — was accompanied by an original music video and website, both of which would disappear forever after the duo either forgot or lost interest in maintaining even the basic trappings of modern pop stars.
November 2009 saw the duo release their remix of Saint Etienne’s “Spring” as another Sincerely Yours one-off. Almost two years later, Air France yet again resurfaced incarnate with “It Feels Good To Be Around You” — amongst the finest (and final?) tracks created in their six years together and mixed by famed U.K. producer StarSlinger:
“First time I went to Sweden to play a show, the promoter told me the promoter told me they were too shy to say hello! We eventually went on tour together in the U.K. alongside Memory Tapes and I had a blast. Both really chill, fun guys! I remember listening to a lot of 80’s music in the van, much banter and being drunk in Glasgow and Manchester! They asked me to mix their last single and I found that to be a huge honor! The track had over 100 separate parts to it (super layered) and I was still pretty much a novice to mixing back then! It was a huge task for me and I did not feel worthy but nevertheless I gave it my best shot and Pitchfork went onto post it as their last-ever song (which came as a suprise). The experience made me want to learn mixing professionally! And I do wish they were still making more music! Though I understand the craving for a normal, working life is understandable/often more pragmatic life.” — StarSlinger
With an incredibly heartfelt and crushing open letter to their fanbase in March 2012, the duo officially closed the door on one of the most revered and beloved acts in recent memory; their minimum output unequal to the maximum loyalty and love from their habitués.
Luckily, two years later the superb Yumi Zouma quartet covered “It Feels Good To Be Around You” and convinced Karlsson and Markstedt to appear on the interpolation, a bittersweet ode turned memorial released in April 2014.
Thirteen years after the release of On Trade Winds, the contributions of Air France remain as vital, vibrant and vulnerable as ever. The duo is rightfully revered equally for their output as for their adherence to their own creative principles and timelines. Perhaps the most crucial element to the appeal of Air France is the unmistakable yet foreign sense of what their music evokes; shared commonalities without description, but understood — felt — by their listeners.
While long removed from putting out music — at least under the Air France moniker — both Karlsson and Markstedt took the time to speak about love, memory and creativity.
ON CREATIVITY
Joel: I grew up in a incredible boring tiny town, forty-five minutes north of Stockholm. There was a post office, a pet store; maybe a gas station or two. Every Walpurgis Night, people come together to light a big bonfire. And when my dad accidentally got stuck between the sliding glass door of the local store, it became big news in the local newspaper.
Growing up in that town always felt like waiting — and that was crucial to my own creativity. It gave me an endless amount of time to discover music and to read about all those places I dreamt about going to.
My creativity has helped me express things in life that I can’t express with only words — like a supportive, receptive and wise language that operates in silence. But at the same time, I’ve also felt great frustration when I haven’t been able to materialize my creativity.
Henrik: For me, creativity is a way of making sense of the world. Whether it’s a feeling, an emotion or a phenomenon, to create something from it is to tearing it apart and building it back up again, amplifying certain aspects and discarding others.
A friend of mine, a musician, once said that he doesn’t make music because he wants to, but because he has to. And I think that’s true in my case, as well.
There is always that conflict, whether it’s there from the start — a powder keg that only needs a spark — or whether it has to be created. Even though I’m not making music anymore, I still find myself writing notes to myself, telling me to sample the intro to this or that song. And I don’t think that will ever change.
ON LOVE
Joel: Growing older is not something I would recommend; it’s very complicated and it leaves you in a constant state of feeling unprepared. I’m perfectly fine with aging; what I miss is the freedom and the risks we could take when we were in our twenties, early thirties. That kind of alertness that comes with youth.
I can miss having people around me who would create new ways of viewing the world, with new esthetics; who weren’t afraid of being pushed to the margins while trying to form new dreams and new alternatives to the constant and the ordinary of society and culture.
We were looking beyond ourselves and our egos.Today, I feel that many of our peers are busy branding themselves, measuring their success on LinkedIn and Instagram. There’s not much room for subversive expression in that kind of culture. I’m sure I’ve been heading down that path many times, but I’m trying to stay clear of it.
Henrik: Love is our only means of survival. It’s an evolutionary by-product of the fact our children are born helpless. It’s one of the few instincts we simply can’t shake, along with fear and grief.
Love, if anything, is evolving with us. The need to create, to build, to take pride in something that stands apart from ourselves as individuals — it all stems from this one basic emotion.
The ability to look beyond ourselves and see the needs of others not as an obstacle but as a possibility to do good, to ease pain, is integral in the fabric of humanity and in, I believe, our future existence.
ON MEMORY
Henrik: In my case, there’s never really been a clear line between memory and wishful thinking. And I think using memories in a creative process tends to complicate things even further. I don’t know if it’s because my memory is particularly bad or if my experiences haven’t been all that memorable, but when we were writing and trying to formulate an emotion or story linked to a specific night in the archipelago or on a rooftop, those stories eventually became part of me.
We’ve done so many interviews and written a lot of lyrics and I honestly can’t tell what’s real or not anymore. Have I ever been to party on a rooftop? I don’t know. But I’d like to think I have. And I think that’s a natural consequence of the kind of terraforming that Air France was committed to. We were building better worlds.
