The PANG! project has been known to bring out the sheen and eerie atmosphere to every piece of art they create.
Made up of Alex and Kristoffer, every mesmerizing production from the duo will give you the feeling of being haunted by thoughts coming to your mind for some unaccountable reason.
While 2018 started on a great note for PANG!, it comes with some pretty sad news where Alex will be leaving the duo to start his own, solo project – Fahlberg.
While Alex will continue to be part of the writing team, he will no longer be an active member, and the majority of his focus will be on the Fahlberg project and a brand new label – No One Around, which kicks off with a brand new EP – Confessions, which is out today.
Alongside the release of the EP, we had a chat with Alex to discuss his plans going forward.
T.H.E – Hi Alex! How’s it going and how has 2018 kick-started for you, and PANG?!?
Fahlberg – Hi! I’m doing great thanks. 2018 has started with a lot of new things happening both for
me and for PANG!.
T.H.E – 2018 has some big news for you. You are leaving PANG! (no longer an active member) but will be starting your own project – Fahlberg. How did this come about?
Fahlberg – I found myself in a situation where my inspiration for making music came from things other than PANG!. I felt that I was more happy with writing songs for others and in the studio, I spent all my time on making different types of house music that I somewhat always knew was a genre that I wanted to get back into. Doing this and in the same time have full focus on PANG! didn’t work, so I came to a point where I had to choose on what direction I wanted to go with the music which led me to this decision.
Sometimes you have to let things go in order to build something new.
T.H.E – What is the significance behind the name – Fahlberg?
Fahlberg – It’s actually just my last name. I had some ideas for different artist names but for me it was important to only release music that I felt that I could put my own name on so I decided that to do just that. I don’t want to hide behind any nickname, this is 100% me.
T.H.E – Your first official project as ‘Fahlberg’ will be to launch a new EP, which will be out on April 18th. Is this something that defines the sounds we can expect from ‘Fahlberg’? Or would you be experimenting a lot of styles under the ‘Fahlberg’ project?
Fahlberg – I’ve tried to stay as true to myself as I can when it comes to the sound of this project. I want to make music that is both for the clubs but something that I also want to listen to. As the time goes, I hope and think people will recognize my sound but I want it to evolve organically and I don’t want to define a sound, be put in a box and feel that I have to start playing by any rules. But the deep and progressive sound is something that I personally like so I think it’s something that will be defining but you never know, I will try and let the creativity decide.
T.H.E – This EP is also out on your brand new label – No One Around. What can we expect from the label going forward, and what does the name signify?
Fahlberg – For me, “No One Around” is an expression of freedom. It’s a way of thinking and being true to yourself, to do the kind of things that you would dare to do (or in this case sound like) if no one was around to judge you.
I’ve been trying a lot of different sounds for my solo project and always found myself in a situation where I started to care too much about what others would think instead of listening to myself and what I really wanted to do. When I created the tracks for this EP, it was the first time that I stayed 100% true to myself and did exactly what I wanted to do and sound like.
So this, lets call it music philosophy, is what also led to the creation of the label and also gave name to the label.
What you can expect from the label is quality music made under creative freedom where I hope that we can encourage producers to step out of their comfort zones and get creative without thinking too much about different opinions. People are going to judge you anyway.
T.H.E – In the current era of dance music, there are tons of labels out there. What sets No One Around apart from the rest, and what will make it a unique destination for producers?
Fahlberg – We don’t aim to be the biggest or the most commercially successful label, there are other labels for that. But what we do want is to release top class music that stands out. There is not going to be an explosion of releases in the beginning, things will build slowly and every release will be giving the right attention that it deserves.
I hope that producers will find “No One Around” to be the label that they want to turn to and get their tracks released on when they feel that they have something special to share with the world in a cool and credible way.
T.H.E – Going forward, what does 2018 hold for you, and the PANG! Duo?
Fahlberg – Follow up my debut EP with a couple of Fahlberg releases, hopefully playing some shows, some cool releases on No One Around and continuing writing for others.
For PANG! I’m excited to see where Kristoffer takes it, he’s an extremely good producer so I have no doubt that the future for PANG! looks bright even without me.
We still got one release left as a duo and there’s one upcoming release where I’ve been co-writing the song which feels cool.
T.H.E – Thanks a lot Alex. Would like to wish you the best with both projects.
Fahlberg – Thank you!!
Download the ‘Confessions EP’ on iTunes.
