Below, Elias Jungqvist of Viagra Boys answers Three Q's; PLUS a special 'Behind The Video: Troglodyte' Three Q's with director Cissi Efraimsson and director of photography, Max Flick.
Elias Jungqvist, Viagra Boys.
Synth History: What synths do you currently use with Viagra Boys and why?
Elias: Live I use the Korg MS-20 DIY kit and the Behringer copy of the SH-101, the MS-1. I think The MS-1 is perfect for short plinky-plonky sounds. I like that it sounds a little bit plastic. It’s also perfect with the built-in sequencer, which I use on a few songs. Maybe the main reason is... to transform it into a keytar [laughs]. Can’t resist picking it up on some song.
The MS-20, ohhh... I love the sound of the high-pass and the low-pass filter, preferably Rev-2. I think it’s brilliant both for flutey melodies and for aggressive sounds. It’s great with the patch panel to patch in another noise oscillator or whatever. The MS-20 is truly my favorite synth, I've played it countless of hours. That’s the main reason it’s my favorite I guess. I've learned to control it well, so it sounds the way I want it to sound in my head.
I really like the idea of having too few synths rather than too many, but really learning to manage the ones you have. I also have a fixed idea about only having monophonic synths live [laughs]. Limitations are good.
Synth History: Do you remember what got you into synths and what your first synth was?
Elias: The first one was some Yamaha home keyboard. Lots of hours with the ”firework” preset [laughs]. The first keys I bought was a 60s combo organ called the Ace Tone Top-5. I used it for many years with my old band, but then we started buying cheap flea market toy synths and that really got me into synths. To use undefinable sounds really turned me on! Instead of, ”That’s a guitar and that’s an organ,” to get the feeling of, ”What the heck is that?” The ”fantasy” preset on the Casio SA-10, which we bought, gave me so many goosebumps.
What also got me into synths was realizing how sweet it is tweaking the sounds while you're playing. I bought a Roland Juno-106 as a teenager and could play one chord forever, just playing around with the LFO or the filter…
Synth History: I love the music video for Troglodyte, can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration of the shrimps and also what synth(s) were used on that track?
Elias: Thanks! Cissi, the director, is a genius and a freak in the best possible way. She's a very good friend of mine.
The shrimps theme is something our singer Sebastian was obsessed with years ago and kind of just stuck. I think it is a reference to amphetamines and how they smell. Like crabs or shrimps. But it has now evolved into something else and is an all encompassing metaphor for our fans, and a reference to our LLC, Shrimptech Enterprises. Sebastian also is the father to over 47 shrimps, which he has in an aquarium at home.
I use my MS-20 for all the noisey stuff, tried my best to drown out the rest of the band [laughs]. The melody is played with a Roland SH-2 that I borrowed from our producer, Pelle.
Synth History: Here's a bonus question: can you recount one of your favorite memories from a live performance?
Elias: When we played Albert Hall in Manchester last year, three pints landed on the mixing desk and the sound cut out. It took 30 minutes to replace the mixing desk with another one. Meanwhile, we had some sort of cosmic-jam using just the amps and our singer Seb had a 30 minute long striptease. The nightmare when it took forever to get the sound back on became a really memorable space rock-burlesque-show.
Cissi Efraimsson, Director of Troglodyte.
Synth History: Can you tell me about what got you into doing stop-motion and what the process is like overall?
Cissi: I started out with playing music for many years and then I started making my bands and friends' bands music videos, which led me to making shorts. It was cool, but I always felt limited by live-action as a medium. I’ve always had very clear ideas of how I want things to look and there’s always some sort of supernatural element. These visions were just too hard to make in live-action, on a very limited budget, so I was thinking, "What if I could make everything exactly how I want it in miniatures and animate it instead?" I had some experience from doing stop-motion as a kid so I started experimenting. It was so much fun! It feels like magic, making objects come alive like that. In this way I can have full control over the expression and I feel freer. It’s just so much fun because it involves so much sculpting and building and I don’t have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer.
Synth History: Where do you find the small props - do you make them, like the calendar in the office or the packages for instance? Does stop-motion have set designers?
Cissi: Me and a friend, Jenny Nirgends - who also produced the video, did most of the fabrication. I was in charge of the puppets and she of the props and set design. Jenny did an amazing job on the office scene. She created a visual profile for Viagra Boys, made a company called Shrimp Tech and also designed and printed the calendar among all the other stuff. Everything was made from paper in that scene and is build from scratch. Other objects in the video would be too hard to get the way we wanted by hand, or would be too time consuming, like the instruments for example, so we bought miniature stuff on eBay and remade them to make them look right and go with the rest of the look. For example, the drum kit is a remade kit for a "rock Barbie". For the stuff we couldn’t find, we had a guy called Danny Baxter to 3D model and print them, like all the sunglasses, the Troglodyte’s glasses and the Moog synth. [Synth History note: Photographer Ambar Navarro also had Danny print Mark Mothersbaugh's mini green Mutato Muzika for his interview!]
Synth History: Who are some of your all-time favorite directors and what are some films you draw inspiration from?
Cissi: Jan Švankmajer is one of the filmmakers that made me get into stop-motion. His films are just the best! They age so well. If you haven’t watched his stuff yet, look up the food series to start with. A newer favorite is the Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg who makes the most amazing stop-motion work. It’s wild, colorful, dirty and hot. I have to mention Bruce Brickford. He worked closely doing the visuals for Frank Zappa. The amount of detail and skill is just mind-blowing. He’s the father of morphing animation. That’s what inspired me for the intro scene in the Viagra Boys video.
Synth History: If you could re-do any music video or movie in stop-motion, what would it be?
Cissi: This is so hard! Maybe a scene from Barbarella. It would be fun to make a retro sci-fi for sure.
Max Flick, DP of Troglodyte.
Synth History: For those who don't know out there in the music world, can you explain what the role of a DP is?
Max: DP stands for director of photography, also referred to as the cinematographer. Basically, this person is in charge of all things camera and lighting, capturing the director's vision on film. Most importantly, a good DP has to know how to control and shape light. A lot of people will get hung up on gear and think they need all the best equipment to make their work look good, but in reality it doesn't matter what camera you are using if you don't get the lighting right.
Synth History: What are some films that you draw inspiration from in terms of cinematography?
Max: Anything with Robby Müller as the cinematographer is incredibly inspiring. I am most inspired by low budget films with small crews, I think it forces the cinematographer to be more creative by only using the tools immediately available to them. Films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Angst (1983), 964 Pinocchio (1991), In the Shadow of the Blue Rascal (1986) that have such an intense visual style despite having had absolutely no money. These films were made with the sheer visceral drive to create.
Synth History: How is shooting something in stop-motion different from shooting a traditional video, are there certain aspects that are harder and/or easier about it?
Max: Shooting stop-motion is a challenge because moving the camera and changing the focus during a shot is not an option without the use of motion control, so you have to literally glue down the tripod and walk away once you set the frame. On the other hand, I enjoy lighting miniature sets because you can use a bunch of small lights and get it all dialed in just right, you aren't pressed for time like a live action shoot, the puppets aren't going anywhere.
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