We are currently in our studio in Gothenburg (Sweden), where we both live and make all of our music.

It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for our music to come out. We’ve had the album ready for quite some time now, but it takes a while to get all the bits and pieces together before you can press the button and actually release it. Anything from changing the playlist and adding new songs, to the visual side like artwork and video. The rose avenue team has been absolutely amazing, so everything came together beautifully!

I’ve been producing and releasing music as Jonas Rathsman and touring for over 15 years, that is a long time for sure! When we started making music as Modern Tales it just felt so right to both of us. It was different to the music I was making as Jonas Rathsman, which really triggered something in me. That feeling you get when you learn something new or the excitement you feel when you’ve created something you’re really proud of. It feels really special to create music with my brother, and we’re both crazy invested in this project! I love my solo project and I’m still gonna keep doing it for as long as I can, but right now I’m focusing most of my time on Modern Tales.

Well, it has changed quite a lot in many ways for me. I started producing music back in 2008. Mostly what you now call EDM, but also Trance/Tech Trance. Eventually, I got bored of being tied to one or two genres, so I started making loads of different styles and then I started singing. So my vision went from a quite narrow view to a more broad spectrum that has given me loads of amazing opportunities, and that has also shown me how many different things you can do in the music industry. Also, I’ve realised that the music industry is fast evolving and changing a lot faster than I thought when I first started making music. It’s gone from Myspace and music blogs to media such as Spotify and Soundcloud, which has definitely opened my eyes to the fact that I always need to look for new music and upcoming new styles.
Last but not least: damn, you have to work hard for a music project to work. I thought I was going to be able to make one song and boom, I’m set! But no, there’s so much work to be done. So my vision has gone from “hey, I can do it all by myself,” to making sure I work with great people in the music industry who can help me excel and boost my creativity. Like my dear brother Jonas, he is mostly nice!

Yes, the Covid years… If we speak from a musician’s point of view, we’d say it was very rough. Obviously, the whole music industry shut down in many ways, so inspiration pools like festivals and clubs just completely vanished. We think that contributed to a wide range of confusion for many musicians, including us. Both of us were trying to make new music for our solo projects but had a really hard time knowing what to make. So we decided to make music together instead, and boy was that a great decision. After many years of not being able to figure out what type of music we could do together, we finally had a great recipe and a great output. So, thank you but also fuck you, Covid!

It’s been pretty smooth for us, mainly because it’s a completely new project, so we sort of left all our preconceived notions behind and just focused on making some music. Sometimes the song is made really quickly, and sometimes we revisit it but we’re almost always on the same page with the same vision. The same goes for the visual part, we like the same things and we’re pretty good at giving/taking. Then, of course, Franz will always be the younger brother so he will never get to have the final say anyway, (laughs).

There are so many sources you can get inspiration from. Sometimes it’s by digging for some new music, watching a live show or even when we work on our own live show, we get really inspired. But sometimes it’s really just about taking it easy, taking some time off and living your life without music.

Oh well… Tricky question, since there are so many amazing musical projects out there. Without comparing ourselves to anyone, we think that people might like the fact that we’re making four-to-the-floor songs but with full vocals on – with a touch of the melancholic Swedish/nordic darkness…

Expect a quite wide range of different styles of music with a cinematic feel. Everything from happy vibes to darker sounds.

Curiosity or maybe hope.

The fact that we get to showcase our music in the most intimate way in front of a crowd is absolutely fantastic. For both of us, the goal is to make the audience feel something together with us, and there is no better way to do it than doing it live.

To be able to make a living from creating music and performing is the dream obviously. We’d love to tour some parts of the world, such as Australia, North & South America and Asia. Would be amazing to have designed a big show with visuals, lights and a full orchestra! We both talked about how it would be awesome to produce a soundtrack for a movie one day. Learn how to play every instrument and make some fucking money for once!