Interview: Dr Space of Øresund Space Collective (Written)
Dr Space is an experimental artist known for his work in the band, Øresund Space Collective, as well as his solo efforts. We spoke to the space rocker (amongst other things) to learn a little more about him.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
Dr Space – I have been into music since I was 9 years old or so when I got hooked on the rock and roll the older kids in the neighbourhood were playing and the great radio stations like KMET and KLOS we had in southern California. I started actively collecting records in the late 70s and started recording and trading live tapes in 1980. It became quite the obsession. I started my own fanzine in 1984 called Metal Madness and this ran for 4 years while I was finishing my bachelors and masters degrees. I continued to write about music in the 90s primarily for Aural Innovations. When I moved to Denmark in 1997, I met Magnus from the band Mantric Muse and went to all their rehearsals and started messing about with his OSCar synth and loved. That was the start of me making music.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
Dr Space – Experimental synthesizer music, improvised. If you are talking about my main band, Øresund Space Collective, we play space rock with influences from progressive rock and jazz and world music.
3. What’s currently going on in your camp? New releases? Tours? Etc.
Dr Space – At the moment, I have 2 new solo cds, a new studio album with Doctors of Space (My band in Portugal), a new DVD with Øresund Space Collective I am trying to promote. West Space and Love III will also come out this year as well as ØSC- Relaxing in the Himalayas on vinyl (it was released a few years ago as a band camp subscriber CD). ØSC will have a 20 year anniversary show in Copenhagen on April 11-12th 2025. Ticket are on sale now.
4. What has been the most positive experience of making music to date for you?
Dr Space – I think I get it every time I am on stage with ØSC and hear the applause from the audience and see all the happy smiling people. It is powerful and emotional and hard to explain.
5. Likewise, what has been some of the more challenging aspects and how have you overcome them?
Dr Space – Covid… that fucked everything up as we could not play gigs, clubs were lost and suddenly when we could play again it was so much more expensive and the fees were the same so it was no longer possible to even break even so we play very rarely now.. Also, the fact that most people just stream music now from Spotify and they play us almost nothing, sucks… Please use Bandcamp people, this is the best way to support us.
6. How do you handle the modern expectations of being in a band? Always online, having to put out content constantly, your success measured in likes and follows?
Dr Space – It is a challenge for sure and I am good putting out lots of quality music but I hate being on line. I do not have a smart phone, as I would find it too distracting and I want to focus my life on music and art and not mindless streams of pictures, etc,…. videos.. I am not interested. I would sell more music if I used tik tok and instragram but I just do not get anything out of that.. I measure success more on the feedback I get from fans than sales or reviews or anything else. If they like it and the band, we like it, that is enough.
7. What’s something that really ‘grinds your gears’ about the industry/business these days and what would you propose is done to combat it?
Dr Space – Streaming music and the fact that big labels no longer support artists over years to help them develop like it worked in the 70s.. Streaming music is theft as far as I am concerned and I hate spotify and do not use it. I do not listen to streaming music. I have to be able to download it and play it on my stereo or in the studio speakers. As for how to combat it, we as artists have two choices as I see it. We have to all band together and attack spotify, the main streaming entity in the world and threaten to remove all of our music or have them increase the amount they pay per stream from the shitty $0.003 to 0.03…….. I do not hold my breath that anything will happen. They are too greedy and artists are difficult to pull off together so we just have to accept this for now. Sucks…
8. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support your music?
Dr Space – Use the Bandcamp links below and buy our records, cds or digital albums. Thanks.
9. Outside of the music, what’s do you do to relax?
Dr Space – Gardening, walking the dogs, reading books and watching movies.. I also collect beer labels but mostly, I listen to music. Put on an LP and sit on the couch with a beer and just listen and enjoy. That is very relaxing for me.
10. Where can people find you?
Dr Space – Thanks for this opportunity.
Estúdio Paraíso nas Nuvens – Website | Øresund Space Collective – Website | Øresund Space Collective – Bandcamp | Dr Space – Bandcamp | Doctors of Space – Bandcamp | Space Rock Productions | Black Moon Circle – Bandcamp | Aural Hallucinations – Bandcamp
