Five questions to… Joni Ljungqvist!

Since his breakthrough in 2004 (at the age of 17) Swedish producer Joni Ljungqvist has developed into a constant fixture in the musical field of progressive and uplifting trance music.
His tunes (under the project names Joni Ljungqvist, LNQ, JPL, A Boy Called Joni, External Art, The Illustrator, …) have appeared on compilations by DJ Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz and many more.

When and where do you usually get the inspiration and ideas for new productions?

Life itself. You pick up small stories on the street, you sit and let your mind wander on the bus home, you start humming melodies in the shower (which I actually did today hehe). But that’s how it usually works, then you implent that into an actual tune. It’s in this phase that inspiration from other producers and songs often come to me too. But life and every day would be the main inspiration! It’s there and it’s made for being creative with!

When having finished your track “Fanatic” in collaboration with Norwegian producer and DJ Terje Bakke, did you expect it to be causing the fuzz it actually did or was it kind of a surprise for you two that it became so successful?

No, it was actually quite a suprise! We loved it ourselves I remember, but we never knew anyone else would like it. So every response after that which was positive was good for us as we had no idea it would do so well with people!

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Bakke & Ljungqvist – Fanatic (Ljungqvist’s Intro Mix)__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is there a story behind every track title you choose for your tunes? Please give an example!

Uhm yeah I’d say there is. Seems my track titles are something people talk about, which is fun for me, I just hope they like the actual tunes too. Anyway…an example would be “Yellow Walls” and “Last Word I Hear You Say” which were produced while my grandma was in the hospital which had these ugly yellow walls. I drove up every day to go visit her, and the feeling inside those rooms in that hospital was really weird. Sad and scary, but yet haunting and hopeful, sort of melancholic. I think that’s what I wanted to describe with the two tracks, and the titles are obvious reflections of those memories.

I know you’re engaged in musical projects apart from electronic dance music. Tell us about these projects!

Those are my love-babys haha! I have various projects going on indeed. Thing is, as much as I love dance music, I usually listen to other stuff. And I’ve been playing in bands since I started with music. So you could say it’s more electropop or indierock or yeah…we’ll see, I’m not entirely sure where it’s heading yet, as there are numerous paths to the final record. Hopefully me and the other musicians who are helping me can get it done soon though, as I think it can be really good if we put our hearts into it (which we are)!

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FREE DOWNLOAD: Kings of Convenience – I don’t know what I can save you from (Joni Remix).mp3 (hosted by Tracklists.ca)
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What do you like most about your home country Sweden? What other places in the world do you like most?

I wish I had been travelling more than I have but I’m trying to change that. What I like about Sweden is the security. It’s a good country with good wellfare, and you get taken care of when you live here and it’s very liberal so you have a lot of freedom no matter what type of person you are! Otherwise I’d have to say that the Netherlands are nice, but only for a shorter period of time. I really like London too, because it has everything and the people are friendly. Finland is one of my favourite places too, it can be so calm and relaxing during summers – I only have good memories from there!

Thanks for taking the time, mate!