INTRODUCING: Aiming For Enrike

Experimental music is without question one of the more avant-garde ways of creating, allowing some really expansive ideas and inimitable concepts. Two piece AIMING FOR ENRIKE have a completely distinct sound, working with guitar and drums to create music in the vein of rock, but with a heavy influences from dance layering and beats. Here, we spoke with drummer Tobias Ørnes Andersen about the importance of communication, not limiting what you make, and not drawing a line under any creative ideas.

The band started up as just two guys who wanted to see what could happen with a guitar and drums. “We met in Oslo, and wanted to see if we could make music as duo,” Tobias explains. “At the time we were inspired by bands like MONOLOTHIC, ZU, HELLA, LIGHTNING BOLT. It was really satisfying that it worked and we started playing shows and recording our stuff.”

To say that AIMING FOR ENRIKE is a simple two man set up, is really simplifying what they do. While all their albums, spanning from 2012’s Mao Miro, through to the latest release Music For Working Out, it’s as far from traditional rock or pop than you could imagine. For a start it’s all instrumental, but its high energy, volatile, synthy and layered sound creates it’s a balance between an organic idea and highly intricate dance music.

“Making guitars sound like something else has always been something Simen [Følstad Nilsen, guitars] has been striving for I guess,” Tobias affirms about his bandmate. “Johnny Greenwood, Nick Reinheart and Stian Westerhus are good examples of that. We love a lot of different music, but electronic music has been a big influence for this album. I think we managed to find a very cool space between electronic music and rock that we are very happy with.”

With such a unique sound and approach to their music, AIMING FOR ENRIKE taking what comes in terms of inspirations and life stages is all integral; nothing is forced on this trip, it’s a journey of enjoyment. “It’s been a very organic ride. All the changes have come very naturally,” Tobias agrees. “We talk a lot about what we want to do next, but it’s never been a struggle. If you go back and listen to the recordings from the first album to the last you will notice that it gradually has become more dance oriented. The last songs we made for this album was Diving Within and Flat Beats. I think that’s a good indication of what’s coming next. Maybe more atmospheric, spacey music. The instrumentation has always been the same though.”

It might be easy to assume that playing in the space between synthwave, rock, dance and funk might make it hard to find a complete collective of people that identify with the music. “We have never thought about that. We have just played together, created the music we wanted to create,” reassures Tobias, demonstrating a kind of composure and ease that makes creating genuine art and music work so apparent. “Our audience come from different backgrounds from prog/mathrock to mainstream music to electronic music. I see it more as an advantage. It makes it more fun too. I also think the audiences today don’t really care that much about how music is being labelled.”

It’s a fair point- no longer is the minutia of what you listen to such a hard-line to your identity. The point is to listen for experience, and to create for the experience. Listening to AIMING FOR ENRIKE will appeal to old school rockers on some songs, house and trance enthusiasts on others, while the punchier songs might appeal to the rock and pop rock fans in the mix. It’s a collection of music that only aims to be itself, weird and spacey and electronic and glorious.

That’s not to say that there’s no direction between AIMING FOR ENRIKE’s work. As Tobias mentioned, there’s intentions behind every album. Their latest release, Music For Working Out feels like a step up even from 2017’s Las Napalmas. “I think the song writing is much better on this album. We focused more on the structures, and the traditional sides of song writing. This album is supposed to be fun and exciting, while Las Napalmas was noisier and in your face,” he goes on. “I think this album represent more of the extroverted sides of our music. Melodies that will get stuck in your head, beats that you can dance to etc. This was definitely something that we have talked about a lot. It was a new type of challenge compared to the older stuff that is more technical and proggy. There’s also a lot more post production on the recordings than our earlier stuff. Effects on the master, a lot of automation etc. This is of course second nature for someone who makes electronic music, but maybe not for most rock bands.”

The band itself comes from a it’s fair to say that there’s plenty of fun being had on this album, especially with tracks like Don’t Hassle the Hoff and Spice Girls taking some pop culture reference. With a nostalgic edge in places that contrasts well with their intensely modern sound, it might appear that this is a theme throughout the record. “[laughs] no [it’s not really]. Coming up with names are always the last thing we add to the song,” Tobias clarifies. “Sometimes the name comes from a feeling we get from the tune, like Don’t Hassle the Hoff reminds us of 80’s movies.”

The band are currently on the road, taking their album to their eclectic listeners. “We are going to a lot of cool places,” he says happily, “At the moment we are touring in Norway by train so that’s pretty comfortable. There’s a lot to look forward to. Japan is for those looking to catch the two always on the top of the list.” The live shows themselves are a heavy and intense build up from such a small set up, and it’s a wonder how it comes together on stage. “It’s pretty much the same,” he says, “We compose the songs before we record them in the studio. And the studio recordings are more or less just recordings of us playing live. Some tracks for this album were made in the studio, but with the same set up, so it pretty simple to make it work live.”

With such expansive areas the guys could go down, we wondered what the very necessities for AIMING FOR ENRIKE are, both live and in the studio? “The guitar pedals are a must. There are specific models that do a certain thing that are really the basis for a track,” he states. “We played a show with one pedal once (airline trouble….). Really loud improv show. We made it work somehow, but it didn’t necessarily sound like our albums. We used to jam a lot without any specific notion of where to end up. Then record stuff that comes up. These days we often start with a reference. It could be a song that we like, tempo that would be cool in a live-set or album, feel, melody, new pedal. Could be anything really. Then we take it from there and gradually it morphs into our world.”

With the creative moments when music is flowing, without a structure of a conventional song, we wonder where the line I drawn on each song? “We don’t really draw a line on anything. If we like it and it sounds good, it works,” Tobias puts simply. “Most of the songs have a certain length so we know when they end. We often play certain parts longer and improvise between songs etc. We have some cues that we use for commutating where to go.

To make any music that reaches an audience is obviously a big part of making music, but for AIMING FOR ENRIKE, it’s much more than that. “It’s the freedom to do what we want. There is rarely a reference that is too out of context when it comes to making music. Another thing that’s important to us is when we manage to connect with the audience and communicate something through our music that makes their minds and bodies fly into weird directions.”

Music For Working Out is out now via Pekula Records. 

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