DC interview 2012 / mats gustafsson
Oct.17, 2012
DC interview 2012 / mats gustafsson by Tayfun Avdan
“Discaholic Corner” is a vital source for those who collect vinyl in free jazz, Scandinavian jazz and experimental music styles. By providing a field and some essential information about variety of vinyl in different formats, musicians, vinyls and record shops from the different countries in the world, news, interviews and recommends, this website is working like a sanatorium for discaholic maniacs and setting up a communion between these styles of music listeners and vinyl collectors. Publisher and editor Mats Gustafsson is a sound creator, improviser and amongst those most creative, novelists, avantgarde and outstanding musicians of a special cult within the Swedish experimental music trend. What leads Mats on this venture are the wants and needs of discaholics, and Fauna is more than happy to speak few words with him.
As it is rightfully stated at Discaholic Corner, the site is “full of info, texts, images, sound of vinyl in a huge variety of forms and smells.” To what extent Discaholic Corner is reflecting your music taste or what is the variety it provides?
– The intention is just to give people some hints and advices; open some doors towards new perspectives; provide some fresh stuff and get inspired by them. Of course it reflects my taste in music, but I’m trying to focus on free jazz, improvised music and Scandinavian jazz in all forms primarily -since there is a lot written about the other genres and this kind of music is very underrepresented in media these days. So it is difficult to find info about for example rare Japanese free jazz, which is kickin’, and I hope I can spread some light over that, in one way or the other.
In the digital era we are surrounded in what is the source of motivation that makes you insists on vinyl to invest and put a substantial energy on it?
– I need my vinyl fixes every day -there is no way around it. I don’t wanna get treated or helped. I like this state of mind -I like my sickness. Analogue sounds, The process of making vinyl -the a whole album, the real food or book, listening at your stereo to something you choose to listen to. All these have to do with slow processes. I don’t believe in the rushed behaviours that is connected to such a big part of the modern society and the medias connected to it. I like it slow. It is the only way to try to understand stuff, to be able to think about it, to take your time to move forward in the speed you choose yourself. I like it slow.
Discaholic Corner gives quite a bit of information about record shops, their web pages t gather with some pictures, comments about them and interviews with their owners. Can you tell us a bit about how do you work on this?
– I try to visit most of the shops as I am touring. That is an advantage of being both a musician and a discaholic. There is always time to run to a record shop and hunt after sound check -and these days I also take the chance to take photos and make some occasional interviews. I’ll for sure extend the site referring to record shops and related. That’s one of the main points and goals with running the Discaholic Corner; to give people the info they need to feed their discaholism in all ways possible.
How do you define discaholism and what does it really mean to you?
– If you have it, you know what it means. It is a way of living. It is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on!
I would like you to tell a bit about the trade option which is indeed a practical way of reaching music we need.
-It is simply just a great way to get records you need and not paying insane money for it. If you have the knowledge, you can pick stuff up. Hang on to it for a while and then trade it. My trades are up and available and if someone offers me something I need, I do that trade. Many people have tried to buy stuff from me but that is not the meaning of the site. To make a good trade is much more creative and fun that just buying a record. And prices these days are just over the top, when it comes to the really rare things -better to trade! As Olof Madsen once said; “one piece of vinyl keeps the doctor away.”
Discaholic Corner already guides us to good number of record shops from six countries all over the world. Are you planning to expand this network or add any other stuff?
– I’ll try to extend it all as much as I can and add more info from more countries; I have just begun! My ambition is to basically have all good shops for vinyl presented on the site -the ones that focus on free jazz, improvised music and Scandinavian jazz and other related stuff of course. There might be videos and music uploaded as well, we will see how it goes. But for sure there will also be unique stuff released on Discaholic Corners Records, editions of 7” vinyls and flexis discs. This is just the beginning.
the interview is published here: