Emmerald: How did Povo come together? Do you consider the group to
be just you, Anders and Lars, featuring the other players, or is it
the entire band that makes up Povo?
Povo: Lars and I are Povo. All the other musicians are handpicked
Danish music talents. We also used great old-timers such as Ed
Thigpen. Lars and I worked together a long time before we started the
Povo project. We go ten years back. We played in another band called
Mind Spray which was a jazz/beats and spoken word group. The poet we
worked with was a Danish poet, kind of the equivalent of a Danish
Allen Ginsberg. We released an album with this project as well. Lars
and I sat in the studio about three years ago and talked about how
cool it would be to make some danceable club jazz. Around the same
time, Mats at Raw Fusion started putting out 12" singles on his label.
Mats and I go back a long way as well and we share the same interest
in music from jazz, funk and Latin to hip-hop and nu-jazz. Lars and
I made the first three tracks and we were wondering who to send them
to. Then I played them to Mats on the phone. He said right away,
"Wow, I want to put this music out on Raw Fusion."
Emmerald: Have you been playing live with the musicians on the album?
If so, how has the crowd reacted to you?
Povo: So far, we have only played one live gig in Sweden, but we are
planning to do much more. We will be playing at the Copenhagen Jazz
Festival in 2005 and we've got an offer to play in Moscow over the
summer in 2005. The atmosphere when we played in Stockholm was
groovy; some people were dancing, some sitting back and chilling out.
Emmerald: You are a DJ and Lars is a jazz musician and it seems that
jazz side of your music is stronger than the dance side, or at least
the electronic dance side. What perspective do you bring into Povo?
Povo: All musical influence for Povo comes from the jazz and
spiritual side. The music on the album explores a number of my jazz
records. When I DJ, my sets are a variety of old jazz, funk and Latin
music to all the nu-jazz cuts that sound old. My goal as a DJ is to
preach jazz and to be a missionary for the good tunes. All the tunes
on the Povo album are programmed on a computer from the start. Then,
little by little, the programmed elements are replaced with the live
instruments. I hope that the listeners will find a good record full
of lush compositions ranging from soft and melancholy, deep modal jazz
cuts, to proper jazz-dance stormers. All this is fused together with
touches and a blend of Scandinavian 60s jazz and programmed beats.
