September 2, 2008

Niklas Åström (SE)

Niklas Åström (SE) needed a place to stay before going on tour with his multi instrumental, epic and explosive post-rock band EF and then moving to Hong Kong. Here seen unpacking his bags at Creators Inn by Elvine.

What is creativity to you?
Creativity for me is to create, to me, something totally new, something challenging, without limitations and rules. To fulfill myself with some kind of new “knowledge” – that makes me grow as a person, as a creator.

How was the room? What did you like, what did you lack?
The room was intimately and cozy. Huge plus for the balcony: what a view! Had some stunning and lonely tea parties in the sunset. I sure did miss a coffee machine, and a cheese slicer.

We heard you had some problems with the internet connection. What happened and how did you fix it? The WiFi worked smoothly at first but soon started to quit on me. I quickly understood that it wasn’t my skills that was lacking, it was between the wall (operator) and the modem. I couldn’t really fix it, but found a way around it. Just unplug the power cable of the modem and plug it in again. The modem get a new IP-address, and voila! Off you go!

You are going on tour with your band EF now. Is life on tour as crazy as people think? 
Haha, for some, maybe. But to disappoint you… “Sex, drugs and rock n roll” doesn’t really exist on our tours. Our music is a little bit special and nerdy, and no real party starter. This is our 9th tour as well, and we’re pretty tour-grown-up nowadays: trying to sleep before the gig, and rather have a coffee and orange juice at arrival instead of starting emptying beer crates. Though I won’t say that we’re a boring band! We’ve been through some wiiild shit, and we’re usually ahead of our fans around midnight. Can’t even remember how many bars we’ve closed – every day in the week.

Where are you heading next?
Next week I’m leaving Swedish soil for a 3 week tour in Germany. In late October I repack my bag and cross some mountains (Himalaya) on my way to Hong Kong. My beloved one is living there and I’ll hang around with her the next 3 months - trying to find some new sparks and creativity, and get away from the shitty Swedish winter.

Ah, Germany. Niklas, you are out. Auf Widersehen.
Auf Widersehen and thank you.