Little Dragon are releasing their brand new ‘Season High’ album around the world today, and we were lucky to score some time with LG bass-player Fredrik Källgren Wallin for a quick chat earlier this week – here’s what went down;
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First off, where are you and what are you wearing?
Good question! I’m in my kitchen and wearing a bath robe.
How has life been of late for Little Dragon? What have you all been up to recently?
We’ve been preparing to go on tour so we’ve been rehearsing, programming synths and messing with samples from the album to prepare the new songs to work live.
Last time you spoke to Acid Stag it was in the lead up to your performance at Laneway Festival, which included a sideshow at Sydney Opera House! What was it like to play at such a venue?
It was very special. I mean it’s such an iconic building, and that’s been with us from early childhood. It’s one of the most famous buildings in the world, and we’re very proud to be invited to play there. The actual show was great! People started sitting in the beginning and after one song people were standing and dancing. It was a very special moment.
Recently, you guys collaborated with Australian royalty Flume on the track ‘Take A Chance’. How did the whole collaboration process flow between you all?
It was when we were in Australia. We were promoting our shows and they (Flume’s management) asked us if we wanted to meet up with him and we had a quick dinner, and then went to the studio and played some songs. It was a good vibe and thought it would be something fun to try out.
Has this collaboration, as well as the ones with Kaytranada & De La Soul, inspired you to venture more into this area?
It’s fun with collaborations, but sometimes people want to know a lot about them and the process can be quite boring. It’s a lot of file sending! I think people have this illusion of vibing out in the studio with different artists but in reality, it’s a quite boring ‘sending files’ kind of process.
The new album, ‘Season High’, has already seen the releases of ‘Sweet’ & ‘High’ which dabble in the realms of both ambience and high energy respectively. Can we expect this contrasting nature within the rest of the track list?
Yeah, we were going in even deeper with the album and it’s more diverse. It’s a good preview & tastes of what’s to come.
‘Season High’ sees James Ford and Patrik Berger enlisted on production duties. Was it easy to come to this decision?
It was kind of natural. James Ford we met during the Parklife tour a few years back, and we always kind of liked the projects he was involved with like Simian Mobile Disco. So, when we started talking about people he came up as a natural choice. Patrik Berger was more of a wildcard, but talking to him we had an easy way of communicating which is essential.
You guys are on Day 1 of the epic Coachella line-up for this year. Who are some of the acts you can’t wait to see?
Radiohead is always an epic band with an epic show. Empire of the Sun I’ve never seen live so it would be amazing to see them. The XX are always good, and Mac DeMarco is fun also. There’s a lot of good stuff.
Finally, what music have you been listening to of late?
I’ve actually been doing a lot of ‘Discovery Weekly’ on Spotify, because it’s kind of random what pops up. There’s been a lot of Old Soul, like Nina Simone just to mix it up.
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‘Season High’ is available everywhere today via Loma Vista Recordings, or you can just stream it below.
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author: Chris Salce
