Domboshawa interview
Anders Broström is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist. His latest album Mind Electrix consist of improvised jams for fans of lysergic space rock. Drone Rock Records released Mind Electrix on vinyl.
What do you consider to be your first real exposure to music?
I’m from a very musical home where my parents worked with music so there was always a lot of music at home, they played Beatles, the Moody Blues and Billy Joel and a lot of other of great music, but the first music that was mine own was heavy metal, 1984 was the year when I started to buy my own records, I loved Kiss, Mötley Crue, Twisted Sister, Dio, Alice Cooper, Guns N’ Roses and everything else that was happening back then.
My introduction to psychedelic music was probably in 1993 or something, I was taking drum lessons when I was younger and my parents had taped the Woodstock movie from the tv and they showed me Santana and the drum solo Michael Shrieve does in “Soul Sacrifice.” I was blown away! I watched the whole movie about 200 times and started buying records by Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Grateful Dead, Country Joe And the Fish and much more from the San Francisco scene, then from there it just grow with the English bands and Swedish bands and so forth, I loved the whole “turn on, tune in, drop out” vibe.
The band I got really hooked on was Grateful Dead, I’m a huge deadhead.
Instrumental music with a lot of jamming and improvisation is really awesome, Earthless, Phish or Ozric Tentacles, it’s all great.
When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music?
After Amaxa (the group I was playing in before Domboshawa) split up, I kind of stopped playing music for a while and got more into painting, then I was on a show with Carlton Melton and two other bands that I can’t remember their names. It was fantastic! Carlton Melton was a great inspiration.
So I transformed my painting studio into a recording studio and started recording drones and jams and trying out what would work and won’t work playing all the instruments myself, and it slowly evolved into what would become Domboshawa.
What does the name “Domboshawa” refer to in the context of the artistic name?
Domboshawa is the name of a magic and sacred mountain in Harare, Zimbabwe.
I was lucky to be invited to Harare on a trip in 2016, and one of the things we did was to climb this mountain, and it was a special feeling standing on top of that mountain in Zimbabwe in the South part of Africa, so when it was time to come up with a name, it just came to me naturally, Domboshawa.
What’s the songwriting process like?
It usually starts with an idea or a riff, or sometimes just the inspiration of creating something, if I have an idea from the start it always changes during the recording process, it never comes out the way I thought it would from the beginning, that’s the greatest thing about it.
I often start with making a drone or a loop or something and after that maybe bass guitar and synths, then drums and last the guitar(s), I rarely do more than one take on each instrument.
What kind of process do you have at mastering material for the release?
After I mixed the song, I try not to make any big changes that can change the sound, the mastering I do is very simple, just give everything a little more bottom end and maybe making it a bit louder I guess?
The first album Dark Lights were mastered to cassette by the guys at the label Ljudkassett! who released it, and Minds Electrix was mastered to vinyl by Chris Hardman.
How would you compare Dark Lights to Minds Electrix?
It’s about the same, it has the same feeling, maybe a bit more rough?
The songs on that album was recorded over a longer period of time so it might have a more uneven sound.
Who is behind the art work?
I do all the artwork myself as well, I take photographs in the countryside in Sweden, at my girlfriend’s family summer home outside of Eskilstuna, mostly of trees and landscapes and then work with them digitally, changing the colours, and move everything around until I’m satisfied with the image.
What are some future plans?
I’m recording new music right now, the dark and cold months in Sweden are really ideal to hide in a small studio and make weird music, and hopefully I will release more music in the near future, I would like to release more cassettes and vinyl records.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Oh, that’s a hard question! I have been collecting records since I was kid and there are so many awesome bands and albums, but I’ll try come up with a few favorites, Live Dead and Dick Picks 18 by Grateful Dead, On The Threshold Of A Dream by The Moody Blues, Arborescence by Ozric Tentacles, A Live One by Phish, Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky by Earthless, and Shout At The Devil by Mötley Crue.
There is tons of great new music, my friends in Snowy Dunes just released their new album Atlantis, and the first two albums by Chris Robinson Brotherhood is awesome if you haven´t heard them yet.
– Klemen Breznikar
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