My Guilty Pleasure seems to be a happier, less melancholy record than your first album. Is this something you agree with? Were you consciously trying to make a “happier” record?
Johan: “Yes, we’d agree with that, except for some tracks like ‘Dying In Africa’ and ‘Miracle’. We’re glad this album is a bit more varied in style than Disco Romance. We wouldn’t say it’s a happy record though, just more varied.
Tell us some of the things – apart from music – that influenced the sound and feel of this record.
Sally: “The experiences of being in love, of course. That is there all the time in our music, also in the harmonies and melodies.”
You’ve spoken about how this album will make you fall in love with the person sat next to you on the bus….
Sally: “When we listened to all the different tracks in a row for the first time, we felt romantic, and had this image in our heads. Like in one of those music videos where people are bored in the beginning and then the music makes them want to dance in the streets or in a shop. We had the image of someone listening to the music on an mp3 player and starting to flirt with his or her neighbour on the bus.”
Johan – as producer, what were you trying to achieve sonically with this album? Did you approach it differently to Disco Romance?
Johan: “I wanted to take influences from more styles than just 80s disco – the first few Sally Shapiro tracks were an attempt to recreate the 80s sound authentically, but I didn’t feel that was interesting anymore. So on this album there are influences from ambient, trance, acid house, jazz and nu-disco. ‘Let It Show’ has an acid house bassline against nu-disco beats, and for ‘Moonlight Dance’ we asked Tensnake to guest-produce it – both these tracks have a bit more of a funky 80s r’n'b feel, a bit more ‘black’ than the otherwise very ‘white’ European-style productions. ‘Dying In Africa’ and ‘My Fantasy’ are quite 90s eurodisco/trance-influenced in their production, and the intro track ‘Swimming Through the Blue Lagoon’ is a reworking of an old ambient track of mine. I think the result is a much more varied – though still 100% electronic – album than Disco Romance, and I’m happy about that.
In the time since you released the first album, italo has become a much more widely-known and fashionable thing. Is that something which affected you or the way you approached the making of this album?
Johan: “No, not at all. On the contrary, we thought that maybe the italo disco hype would be over by the time this album was released.”
Do you still listen to a lot of italo, or is that less of an influence now?
Sally: “We don’t listen to it as much anymore, but it’s still there as an influence, since we have a way about thinking about music and ways of production that is undoubtly still very italo-disco inspired. Probably it will always be.”
What music have you been enjoying of late?
Sally: “Mostly listening to old singer/songwriter records by Suzanne Vega and Swedish Marit Bergman. I haven’t listened to much new music except what’s played on the radio and in the Eurovision Song Contest. Still listening to Mylène Farmer sometimes.”
Johan: “Listening mostly to nu-disco like Lindstrøm and Bogdan IrkĂĽk. I also really like some Richard X productions – especially Saint Etienne’s ‘Method of Modern Love’ and Annie’s ‘Songs Remid Me of You’.”
You decided to call a halt to performing live – is that still the case? Can you explain that decision?
Sally: “Yes, it’s still the case. I’m shy and I don’t like standing on stage. I tried with a few DJ gigs but it felt awkward. I don’t like the idea of touring so much either, I’m not into travelling and working late in the evening. I prefer to have a normal life with a normal job and the music as a hobby.”
What are your plans for the future?
Johan:”We are currently working on a few remixes for other artists together. There is also a short track that will be released on a charity compilation around Christmas. Otherwise we don’t know. The future of this project is always very uncertain. But music will probably always be a big part of our lives, in some form.”
Hanoi Jane
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