The Swedish producer on his latest offering, out in June

Swedish electronic music extraordinaire Kasbo is about to drop his first new body of work in four years, The Learning of Urgency, his third studio album. It was recorded at it was recorded at Arresten Studios in Stockholm – a converted prison – and arrives via ODESZA’s revered Foreign Family Collective label on June 7.

But that, as we discovered when we chatted, is only half the story…

First things first – where are you as you type this?  What kind of day are you having? Been up to anything interesting or got anything good planned for later?

I just got to my studio actually, cinnamon bun and a coffee by my side. I got a bit of a late start today though, I forgot my laptop at my sisters so I had to go fetch that which took a while so feeling a taaad behind. Plan for today is to answer some emails, and work on some edits for my Coachella set next month! Later tonight I’m headed to a friend’s release party which should be fun 🙂 

The album has been four years in the making – during which time, you recovered from a debilitating, stress-induced hearing problem.  A lot of that was down to the pandemic and months away from touring… Tell us the whole story.

Well, honestly the pandemic was sort of the remedy in a way. In 2019 I got this unexplainable fluctuating hearing loss in my ear, some days I was almost completely deaf in my left ear and some days it was fine. I went to about five doctors, none of whom could diagnose me because my symptoms weren’t aligning with anything they were familiar with. This led to a big depression and just constant anxiety, thinking my career was over, and I ended up having to cancel several shows. After about eight months of being in the dark of what was happening to me, I spoke to this doctor who suspected it could be stress, and tension related, saying that my prognosis was aligning with that. It kept coming back but it felt good to have some sort of explanation to it.

The whole thing was just eating up my life though, I was obsessing every day over my hearing, checking every few minutes if it had gotten worse or better, and at a certain point I just had enough I guess. I just reached this breaking point of just like “Fuck it I really don’t care anymore, if I’m deaf so be it”, and that became the turning point. It was almost like a light switch, after that full on realization it stopped coming back and I could hear perfectly. This lasted for almost like a year I think and kind of aligned with the pandemic. Obviously being away from touring and feeling like the entire world just was put on pause probably helped a lot in terms of not overstressing. Today I still have hearing loss some days but not nearly as bad, and I’ve found that exercising fully remedies it, the last few months have just been a bit hectic, so I haven’t really gotten the chance to exercise as much as I’d want to.

The title – The Learning of Urgency – seems to have something to do with that journey…  Or does it?

I guess it just made me realize the importance of slowing down. Like my career depended on me not overstressing. I think the pandemic was a big eye opener too. Like I was sitting there in my apartment every day and thinking “Wow I might never get to tour again ever” and I remember being so upset with myself for not really enjoying it, like I’ve been blessed to have done so many incredible things in my career but previously I’ve kind of let stress and anxiety consume the fun in that. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let stress and anxiety for things being perfect take over and ruin things that should be fun in the future.

I guess I just realized that being a perfectionist and wanting to always do more and do the best can sort of be a disservice to yourself even though it can disguise itself as the recipe for success. This whole thing became the theme of the album. Slowing down and realizing that achievement and perfectionism won’t lead you to happiness, it’s an endless void sort of. There’s always more to do, more to achieve. The title The Learning of Urgency is kind of a play on words insinuating that urgency to do more, and do better is something we’ve learned and been conditioned to feel, even though in the end we might be right where we’re supposed to be.

You were living in Gothenburg and Stockholm while writing it – how come two places, and what effect did they have on the music?  Are they very different?

I was living in Gothenburg in the beginning of the pandemic and moved to Stockholm in 2021. I think I just personally needed a change of scenery, not to mention most of the music industry in Sweden is in Stockholm, which made it way easier to collaborate with other people and have a sense of context.

You had the opportunity to work in the Swedish Prison-turned studio owned by ABBA, Arresten, located on the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm – a serene and unique former jail-transformed impressive studio.  So, what was it like a) being on an island b) being in a space that was once an old prison and c) working in the shadow of ABBA? 

Yup exactly, Benny from ABBA is renting the prison from the state and turned it into a studio. I love being here, it’s such a little oasis in the middle of the city. Walking here in the morning from my apartment is usually one of my favourite times of day. You just get so inspired by being so close to the water and these beautiful buildings. It’s kind of funny, we’re all sitting in these old cells, it’s state owned so there were restrictions on how much they could renovate, so the old prison windows and doors are still here which is kind of a fun little window to the past. I don’t think too much of Benny being involved in the studio here in all honestly though, he spends most of his time in another studio on the Island from what I know, I don’t really see him roaming the halls here hah.

The songwriting on The Learning Of Urgency orbits around slowing down – are these changes permanent, or will you be dashing back out on tour again?

There’s definitely some touring happening with this album! Starting off next month with Coachella, Hangout, Lollapalooza and some others. Planning some things for the fall as well which I will be able share more about soon.

Aside from that, what’s next for you in the short, mid and long term?

Right now, my main focus is building out the live show and making edits and unique sections for that! I always love creating a show. Other than that I’m already back to making new music, I’m looking forward to not taking as long of a break from releasing music again. 

Pre-order Kasbo’s The Learning of Urgency, out on June 7, here