Interview: Cornelia

Cornelia’s world is a childlike state, and rather like a modern-day Alice Babs and Titi, she draws her spellbound listeners into an endless rabbit hole of experitronica, dream pop and old wave. Infamous in her native Sweden, and newly resident in London, she recently threw a launch party in a Dalston speakeasy to celebrate the launch of her latest opus, “Aquarius Dreams.”

We caught up for a hazy chat with the lady herself at a memorable jam that also included sets from fellow post-participants Daisuke Tanabe and Mooken, and a full house of extended RBMA family including Jamie Woon, Subeena and Tony Nwachukwu there to cheer them all on.

So what’s going on tonight?

Well I’m here to celebrate the fact that “Aquarius Dreams” is out, finally, as a single from my ongoing Cornelia project. It’s just really lovely to have something to share with people. I've put out music before. But I think this song is a step forward. It’s a song about having to choose between love for a human being and love for music.

Are you an Aquarian?

I am. The tradition is that Aquarius is a very creative sign. I don’t want to go into how much I believe in that or not, but it’s really funny to see how so many, over 50 percent of the artists that were playing tonight, are Aquarians. Even the visual guy, doing the oil projections, these incredible liquid paintings, is an Aquarian! I think Scratcha DVA is as well. It's not about astrology, but it’s more an expression of how caught up you can get in your own creativity, and how it effects you and your life. How it affects you as a person. I think everybody that works in some way with art or music, can relate to that. Sometimes we have to make choices that are not that convenient, sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it’s not.

Have you been performing much out and about?

I’ve just started really, this is my eighth show here in London, so I feel really grateful for that. This is the first time I’ve played with Danny (her drummer), we’ve been a band for about three days, which feels really great because I’ve been playing everything myself up to this point. That was good because you learn how to rework your songs in a live context, but I felt I needed some more strength onstage, and Danny was the perfect choice.

You chose a very diverse range of artists to rework the song.

I love them all but I feel like Scratcha’s version stands out on it’s own. Then Will Ward from Circle Traps made a beautiful remix. It’s true to the original but still very experiental. Kid Specific did a lively, banging dance tune. And then there are two more very special ones that are just coming out exclusively on Beatport, which are the Social Monster remix - myself and Mooken, so there I’m remixing myself, which is a bit odd - and another Circle Traps remix as well.

How did you hook up with Mooken?

We’re both RBMA participants from different years. I moved to London, he moved to London, and I kept seeing him at parties, and he kept coming up and talking to me (laughs). And I just realised I enjoyed talking to him. We decided to start a project that didn’t include our own music be cause we both already make our own music for ourselves. So then we decided to both do it to promote and help other people. And that’s why I started my label too, so that I can put out more stuff that other people do.

What’s the label called?

Camp Mozart. So far I’ve released my own EP in Sweden, which is called 'Capsule', and the double single 'By The Fire / Now And Hereafter', and now the new one. It’s a very small label but there’s a longer term idea of focusing more on other people's music.

Where do you see it heading from here?

I have no idea! I have no idea how people will react to this one. I’ve had a lot of positive reactions so far and I’m really grateful. But still I’m the smallest label in the universe. So what happens next is about how much effort I’m able to put into it. I’m really blessed, I have a lot of really brilliant people working with me, my manager, people around me that help me out. But still the hard work is all me, I have to sit there with the papers, fill out every form, I have to do all that stuff. Maybe that’s not my favourite thing to do, and we’ll see where it ends up. When it comes to my own creative project, Cornelia, and my album, I’m hoping to finish it. I’ve already written so many songs, but I know which songs will go on there. It’s all a matter of finding the time and space.

How did you fall into working with Dan Utters on Aquarius Dreams? He attended the Red Bull Music Academy way back in 2003.

I moved here from little old Sweden, I decided I wanted to work with some new people. A very nice gentleman called Hamish Harris said that there’s this guy called Utters that wants to have coffee with you, he’s a great producer and he would fit... Because I was explaining that even though I feel really engaged in my own producing and songwriting, I was looking for someone with the skills I lack. And Dan was that guy. He brought so much to the table, I was just like wow, this is amazing. Basically he’s even nerdier than me when it comes to sound (laughs).

Dan Utters

Perhaps in some ways! Cornelia is nerdy on a conceptual and intellectual level, whereas I’m more nerdy in a technical way, synthesis and stuff like that.

So how did the songs come about?

Dan Utters

I guess working with Cornelia differs to the usual sessions I do. It’s not songwriting in the traditional way, with piano or guitar necessarily, although it can be. It’s usually more experimental. It can come out of taking a recording of someone playing a spoon, you know, pitching it down five octaves or something. And then you write over the top of that, rather than a straight up guitar or whatever. We’re working on a lot of ideas simultaneously, which are still knocking about. The first song we did was 'Now and Hereafter', which came about in

Cornelia

I think it came about because you’ve got so much stuff, Dan, so much gear and equipment. Just walking into your studio is just like wonderland. You have that celeste, and I was playing around, like “I like this sound”. And that’s how it came about really.

Dan Utters

I remember, we set it up. It’s like a tuning fork piano, similar to a Fender Rhodes. But more acoustic, an acoustic Fender Rhodes, a mechanical keyboard. An unamplified 18th century Rhodes (laughs). It’s in such bad shape.

Cornelia

But the funny thing is we didn’t end up using it, because we couldn’t mike it up. But we got the idea of the song. Dan and me just really click. We’re like one person when we work. It’s truly real co-producing energy.

Dan Utters

We use whatever we can. My studio is set up that way that, there are loads of toys that we probably won’t end up using on the finished recording. But they inspire creativity. Bash something out on an omnichord for example. And then you take the harmony you’ve written and try playing it in on something else.

Cornelia

'Aquarius Dreams' was written with Laura Howitt. It was lying around for a bit, and we tried different ways of producing it. Marching drums and stuff like that. But we just couldn’t find the right sound. And then I just played it to Dan, and "poof", all these soundscape ideas came about.

Dan Utters

I heard the demo that they had made, it was very different. I worked on it based on what they had started, and took it somewhere more… circus-y (laughs).

Cornelia

I said to Dan, I want it to sound like you’re walking into a Mary Poppins painting. You know that scene in Mary Poppins? And he’s like, "okay!" And then we were just on it. It’s really nice, that I can speak in a certain language that somebody understands. It brings lots of other stuff into the frame, that I could never come up with. That’s the good thing with collaborations.

Where does your inspiration come from?

Cornelia

Every time an artist shows me their work, whether shows or paintings, or music. It’s just a matter of expression. Not to put a stamp on it, but I need to tell stories about what’s going on. I see myself as a storyteller, that’s what I do. I write songs, that’s why it’s really important that the lyrics and the music and the visual kind of wraps up in a story, in a vision you can take home. I want my songs to be like reading a book, or watching a movie. You get a certain space, an ability to think about things that you might not in everyday life. Sounds pretentious doesn’t it? Then I guess maybe I am. (laughs)