Regardless of which corner of the music industry you’re talking to, Christian Karlsson's reputation for coming up with some of the most invigorating and popular tunes of the 21st century is hugely respected.
Best known as his technicolor dance music alter-ego Galantis, the Sweden-hailing Karlsson was formerly one half of hailed songwriting duo Bloodshy and Avant (alongside Pontus Winnberg). Together, they helmed cuts for Katy Perry, Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Not forgetting of course that they co-created one of the most iconic pop songs of the 2000s… Britney Spears’ Grammy-winning (and ever-omnipresent) Toxic.
That iconic Bollywood-sample riff that defines the track was the product of - as Christian explains to us - a day of no-holds-barred experimentation.
It’s Christian's excitable attitude towards the music-making process that eventually willed him out of the songwriting-for-others backroom, and to the stage. Creating beloved indie pop trio Miike Snow, Christian found an outlet for his unfettered ideas.
With notable tracks such as Animal and Genghis Khan, Karlsson, Winnberg and vocalist Andrew Wyatt became very big, very quickly.
Soon, however the pull of the decks lured the restless creative more wholeheartedly towards the wilder frontiers of EDM…
First forming Galantis with Linus Eklöw in 2014 (and now entirely a solo project) Christian used his new electronic persona to dust off some of those neglected prospective pop tracks that he’d had sitting in drawers for years, believing that their potential would be unlocked in a new context. He was bang on the money…
Galantis hits like Peanut Butter Jelly, Runaway (U & I) and No Money in particular fast became ubiquitous EDM staples, with many of Galantis’ best-known tracks now surpassing over a billion streams on Spotify alone.
Now, set to release a vivid new EP of astoundingly re-worked classics that Christian loved in his younger days (including songs from Frankie Valli, The Killers, Feist, and War On Drugs), we caught up with the man himself to dig into his extraordinary career, delve into his memories of making Toxic, and, how this new EP - The Devil’s Tax Return: Volume 1 - reveals the breadth of Karlsson’s passion for music across the genre aisles.
MusicRadar: Hi Christian, firstly, let’s start with the new EP. We really loved it. What was that trigger for you to make an EP like this, of re-interpreted songs?
Christian Karlsson: “Thank you for saying that, it’s so important for me right now before release to hear someone actually saying the words. [When you’re making it] you're just working towards something, and you never really like stop and check, ‘Does anyone like this?’ You know.
“I've been a songwriter/producer for 30 years, and I always felt like there was a stigma around touching anyone else's work. I felt it was not what I wanted to do, I wanted to write my own stuff - but it was an itch that I was curious about doing. Especially with the ones [songs] that are already great, because that's got to be the biggest challenge. Like, how do you make a new version of it? Not a remix. Not like a wedding band cover band version, but a version that deserves to exist. That was hard.
“What pushed me over the line and finally say ‘I need to do this’ was when I kept on finding out that a lot of amazing, huge songs that I love were actually not the original versions. I was blown away.
“For example, I really thought that Tainted Love by Soft Cell was the original, but it's actually a really soulful '60s song by Gloria Jones. I didn't know, and now I love that version too. Without Soft Cell, I wouldn't even have found it. [The original] is a B-side too, it wasn't even the A side!
“I kept on finding this, and I felt like, ‘Okay, so great songs actually deserve multiple versions’. So I was up to the challenge of making a new version of these songs. It’s harder [when you love it] because I don't want to ruin that song or that DNA that I am in love with, I need to keep that, but I also need to create a completely new version so it's not like just a beefed up ‘house’ version. It needs to be something new. I didn't want to sample or take anything. I wanted to make something new.”
MR: How many potential songs did you start with?
CK: “There were over 100 songs! But I [narrowed] them down. [For this EP] I kind of picked some ones that were somewhat in the same timespan in music. I felt like this should be ‘Volume 1’.
“Something to add to is that I did it for myself. I felt like I wanted to prove that I could do a version that deserves to exist of something that I already love. And I also felt that the more I worked on this, the [less time] I had to do other things. I mean, seriously, I could write 20 songs in the time that I reworked one of these songs. But I learned a lot too. I learned a lot from pulling apart something that I loved.”
MR: The EP begins with your version of José González song Stay Alive, and I must say, you’ve transformed that emotive original arrangement from its gradual build into something much more smile-inducing…
CK: “Sometimes I feel like I want more of the stuff that I like. Sometimes it's just that I want *this* section more times, repeated or looped or whatever. And sometimes, it’s more just the melody - like Stay Alive. I thought I could take the melody in the drop and repeat it. I love that melody. I wanted it more. Then that was kind of like a drive - like something [cool] that you want to show someone else. You want to kind of point it out. It’s why you like it!”
MR: I also really liked your version of The Killers’ When You Were Young which similarly re-jigs the tone of the original, making it a euphoric club track. It’s fascinating how many of these indie melodies are able to be repurposed into a new context. How hard was the process of converting a song like this from a different genre?
CK: “I’ll give you a short story about that song because that was one of my favourites that I really wanted to do. I kept on working on my version and I kept on giving up because I felt like I [couldn’t] nail it. It wasn't there. It wasn't working. So when the EP was done, the song wasn't on there originally. We sent it to all the DSPs, so this was Easter break. I went back through my folder and opened up my version of When You Were Young and thought, ‘This needs to be on the EP.’
“So, I just emailed everyone on the team, and I said; ‘Can you give me 48 hours?’
“I had this idea about the garage thing - to speed it up to 133bpm. I just booked myself for two days in the studio and worked on it. I called everyone back and said, ‘OK, pull it and then add this and then send it out again!’ Now, I think it's probably my favourite song on there. I’m so happy that I actually pulled it and finished it. I feel like the version that I came up with during those two days does do the trick for me.
“It has that spark that I love about that song, but it’s also a completely new version of it. I wanted to hear more of [the lyric/melody of] ‘He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus’. For me that's the chorus. So, yeah, I loved working that one, although it was like probably the hardest one to make work.
“I recut the vocal on it with so many different people. Sometimes you do that [so much] that I give up, I put it in a drawer and then [plan] to go back to it.”
MR: And then you’ve got Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. Your version features some really quirky vocal processing. What made you decide to play with an old classic in this way?
CK: “That was a tough choice. I’ll tell you a secret - it wasn't supposed to be on Volume 1 because it doesn't really fit with the others. But, it was ready and I didn’t want to sit on it. The timing and delivery of [the vocal] was so good, but I decided to do something that replicates that, so went full-on with the same chord progression but in the vocoder. It’s such a good hook. But the chorus hook, ‘I love you baby’, I was struggling with and actually took it out completely then just put it in as a break. Then, I just drowned it in reverb.
“So, it’s there - everyone can sing it - but it’s also not there, it’s not on the nose. It’s like floating and just kind of builds up.
“The beauty of [this project] is getting to work on something that you love, and then finding a completely new way of hearing the song. Hopefully someone will find my version, and then find the original. I still have to thank Soft Cell for showing me the Gloria Jones version of Tainted Love.”
MR: This EP has some incredible synth sounds - what was your main instrumental set-up?
CK: “That's tough to say. I don't really use that many hardware synths. Like I’ve always been drawn to organic things. I was always a little bit confused when the ‘EDM’, or ‘electronic’ term became applied [to me]. I felt like, I’m in this space, but I don't use that much electronic stuff. I use live strings and live bass and real piano. There's something that speaks to me when it's organic.
“Sometimes I record live strings with a 28-piece orchestra - and it's the best thing ever. And then in the end, I only use it in a little spot. This is something that it's like I learned - you still have to kill your darlings sometimes. But I do love to do those [real instrumentalist sessions]. You just have musicians in, and you say, ‘Let's try things out’. That’s the process that is the most inspiring to me. I feel like it's a blessing and a luxury that I can do that. I get to decide what other people are going to actually come in and play on a record. I love just having someone play through the track, and then editing their instruments.
“I come from sampling. I come from cutting something up into 200 pieces - and then I [sort] it out and I play on it. I’m not schooled like a classical musician in any type of way, which I feel like has helped me a lot in the way I think and feel about music. I come from just loving music and wanting to do something new by chopping it up and playing with someone else's work. I will never leave that way of working.”
MR: Do you think in your guise as Galantis, the sky's the limit really in terms of where you can go and just what you can do?
CK: “Yeah, after starting Galantis I realised that I always look for more freedom. Back when I was mainly just producing and writing for other people, I kept on noticing that when someone asked me to do something for an artist, I never hit the mark. I always did something else - and it ended up on another artist's record.
“I’m not a [tweaker], I need to like have freedom to be able to do something that's good. So Miike Snow came about when I felt they were all asking for [another] Toxic. I was like, I don't want to - I can't. I don't want to do another one!
“I did Toxic because they didn’t know that sound. I was expressing myself in different ways. So people asking for the same made me want to just close the door on working with other people.
“Miike Snow was the start of me doing my own music. But being in Miike Snow I was touring all the time, and I did the after-hours DJ set after the show. That’s when I found a new freedom. At the main show, I had to play Miike Snow stuff - play exactly those songs every night. The DJ set was pure freedom. I just felt that I needed to have a vehicle where I could express myself the way I was doing it at the after-hours. That’s why I created Galantis. I just needed an outlet for the ideas I had.
“It’s only myself in Galantis so I have definitely a lot of freedom because it’s only me. But also, I have the crazy luxury of being in the dance space. It means I can have anything be the vocal. Like, literally anything. Or I can just not have a vocal and that’s completely fine, too. It’s a very open-minded scene, but I still feel like I’m a little bit outside of it. I do love the scene and the whole community.”
MR: You've created so many amazing tracks as Galantis. I noted that Runaway had surpassed a billion streams on Spotify and those initial hits are still really well-known by so many people. That must be that must been quite vindicating for you, pivoting from the Miike Snow project into this space and then hitting the ground running as Galantis.
CK: “A lot of the songs that became big Galantis hits were rejects that people never wanted for other artists. Peanut Butter Jelly - I wrote that 10 years before I released it as Galantis. I literally sent that out to a bunch of big artists, and no-one wanted to have anything to do with it. I kept on feeling that someone needs to release it. I’m really happy that in the end I did it myself.
“I wasn’t upset about it, I just felt like ‘This one should not be in a drawer!’ I wanted it to be out.
“It’s an amazing feeling when you’re not stuck in someone else’s corner, knocking on doors and being like, ‘Hey, check this out’ - trying to hustle and sell your beats and if you’re lucky someone will pick it up. Even if they pick it up they might pull it apart and take out all the stuff that you loved. So when I became Miike Snow and then Galantis, there was nobody doing that. So there’s no way that I would ever go back. I’d never sit there and work for someone else - telling me to delete the stuff that I think is the best part of the song.
“I’m not saying that [writing] was a bad gig - because it was the best gig ever - but it’s still a ‘gig’ because you’re working for someone. When you’re doing it yourself it’s not work-for-hire in any sense. I can't even begin to say how grateful I am that I'm in that position that I can actually do that.”
MR: But you must be asked about those days quite a bit, considering the oeuvre of songs you worked on. You mentioned Toxic earlier. In our view, it’s really no exaggeration to regard that as one of the greatest pop songs of the 2000s - co-written of course with Cathy Dennis and Henrik Jonback. It has such a fascinatingly weird arrangement. I know you must be asked about that track a great deal but can you recall the early stages of making it?
CK; “I remember every second of it, and actually I get asked a lot - but I don't get asked this, so I'm happy that you asked. [Toxic] was probably like one out of 15 ideas that I had that day. I remember because I was like cutting something up. It was this Bollywood thing that I cut up into something like 100 pieces, and I was playing [with it], and I found that [hums Toxic’s Bollywood string sample riff - taken from the 1981 film, Tere Mere Beech Mein] and made it into a loop. The sample was on a loop only doing that. I was like ‘This is so dope!”
“Then I was like, ‘How do you make a song out of it?’ I had to put parts in and mute the loop, because just the string sample on its own was too intense. But I loved it like that. I started to edit it and mute it various points, then come back and figure out what we would do in that section. It was basically done like that.
“So, it wasn’t like it was [written] as a song and then we find that string thing – it was that on a loop, muting it and trying to write a section”
MR: So that Bollywood string sample really led the way on Toxic?
CK: “I have to say though, that it’s not a sample on the record like everyone thinks, because I replayed it with live strings. It was an amazing session because it was all kind of out of tune stuff, you know. They were trying to mimic the sample. It was amazing.
“Someone came after me anyway later on, and so I still had to pay the price – even though I did actually not sample it. I got punished for something I did not do in the end. Whatever. It was too big of a monster coming after me, so I just said, ‘What do you guys want?’
“I was upset about it for a while because I wanted to show everyone that it wasn't correct, and that I actually did not take anything from the master. That was the way I was making records. On every single record I was just sampling stuff, cutting it up and creating stuff.
“I was definitely smart enough to not use the actual master without clearing it. I mean that would be insane. But I also feel like I'm gonna always let the inspiration of creating something take the lead because. If there is a piece of art that I’m proud of and want to do, then I’ll figure out the rest later.
“I’m not a businessman like that, trying to figure out who I’d pitch a song too. I was working the same way that I work today as Galantis, really. I worked on stuff and then I sent it out to people. If anyone wanted it - they could have it!
“Nothing that anybody came to me for actually ended up with that artist, it always ended up somewhere else. I sent Toxic to Kylie Minogue, and I didn’t hear back. I was in a session with Britney, recording something else and I just felt like I should play her this one.
“I played it, and the A&R came into the room and said ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll take it for consideration’. So they took it in. It wasn’t supposed to be a single or anything. They released the first single [from 2003 album, In The Zone]. Then I got a call. They said ‘We dropped the first single, but Toxic has more downloads, so we’re going to change the strategy, we’re going to put your song out now and not go with the single we were planning on.”
MR: Well it just seems like such an obvious single, in retrospect. I suppose that mindset of unbound creativity was one of the reasons that song stuck out so much - on a production level, it was experimental and colourful and unexpected. Obviously Britney delivered a great vocal, but it’s such an incredible arrangement.
CK: “[A&R’s] typically say ‘Oh this sound is happening right now, so go after that’. But the industry doesn't move forward until someone ignores that. Someone does something else because that sound is popping everywhere. So I’m going to go with [mimes Toxic’s string sample again]
“Someone needs to be brave enough to say ‘Let’s put that out’ - I think that’s been a truth in music history.
“It’s always when someone has to be brave enough to break whatever is going on and put something out that isn't actually what's going on right now. Then you create that thing so people go ‘Whoa, what's that?’
MR: So fast-forwarding to right now and The Devil’s Tax Return, Volume 1 is dropping soon - can we expect a Volume 2?
CK: “Yes, I’m cooking. I definitely have a few in the bag that I love, that I absolutely need to see the light of day. So yes, that is something that I'm very excited about. I’m trying to build this thing so I can continue doing Galantis. I do still do Miike Snow, and then I have these EPs, where you know, if I want to rework something great from someone else. I can continue doing that.”
MR: One last question before we go, what was the inspiration behind the title, ‘The Devil’s Tax Return’?
CK: “Well, that came from the fact that I was scared of the whole thing that people hate you for touching something that's perfect.
“So if I was like, ‘Ok, if I'm the devil [for touching these songs], this is the tax return back that you get from the devil. If you want to use the return for anything, here it is. This is what I got from loving these songs, basically, it's the tax return!”
The new Galantis EP The Devil's Tax Return: Volume 1 is out October 16th, to hear more and for live dates check out his website.
