Swedish duo MAASAI have just released their debut album, “Feeling Blue Seeing Orange”. Consisting of Dominique Teymouri and Zackarias Ekelund they create soulful sonic landscapes with a cinematic touch and lyrical depth. Dominique and Zackarias took time out to talk to us about music and influences.
Hi there, how are you and what are you up to today?
Hi, we’re great, thanks!
We’ve been working on some new spacey stuff in our studio today.
To those not familiar with you, how would you describe your sound?
We would describe our sound as dreamy, cinematic pop with a touch of melancholia from the heart of Scandinavia.
Can you the name albums and artists that have influenced you the most?
For our new album ‘Feeling Blue, Seeing Orange’ we’ve been inspired by artist and albums like:
Jóns – Go
Björk – Yoga
James Blake – James Blake
Which other artists are you into at the moment and why?
At the moment we’re into Amason, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, Alabama Shakes, Kelela, Emilie Nicolas, FKA-Twigs, to name a few. We really love these artists and bands and highly recommend everyone to listen to them.
If not the popularity of electronic music, what would you say some of the challenges indie bands face today in the music industry today?
The challenges for indie bands and artist today and really regardless of genre is that you have to do a lot of things yourself and struggle to be heard in the middle of all the “noise”. It takes a lot of hard work and effort from yourself to shine true.
Where do you gather song writing inspiration?
From our own experiences, other people, surroundings, and places.
Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when put music together?
Every song has it’s own story and process. There’s no special recipe for us in making music.
What’s the best gig you have ever done and why?
The best gig we’ve done so far must be our release gig for our debut album ‘Feeling Blue, Seeing Orange’. It was such a magical night shared with our dearest ones.
And the worst?
It was a charity event, were the sound engineer wasn’t really who he said he was. He had no clue of what he was doing, and kept on putting the faders up and down like it was a turn table and he was Avicii, haha.
If you weren’t a musician what would you be?
D- I would probobly be an astronaut.
Z- I would be a gardener in the versatile gardens.
Do you have any particular gigs or festivals that you dream about playing?
We would loved to play at Coachella, Wilderness and FYF Fest, among others. A special venue that we love to play at would be the Hollywood Bowl in LA.
Do you have any information regarding upcoming releases, projects or gigs in the pipeline that you would like to tell us about?
We’ve recently released our debut album ‘Feeling Blue, Seeing Orange’. Have a listen here – https://phonofile.link/maasai
