Upclose with Koop
Billie Holiday, scratchy old jazz and a Mac – three of the billion things that go into making one of Koop’s vaunted electro-jazz albums. The Swedish duo is Magnus Zingmark and Oscar Simonsson and they’re masters at their particular blend of trip-hop. Zingmark airs his views on makeup, being gay, and those with actual abilities to play instruments.
Their style:
In a way, “Come to Me” [single off “Koop Islands”] sums it up. We’re a mixture between electronic and jazz with lots of samples and live instruments. And a little short and sweet. Our “thing” is probably the layers and layers of samples.
Actual instrumental skill:
We do it pretty much entirely by samples, except the singing. Though we do also invite other musicians as well. More or less to fill in the gaps when we can’t find the sample in our record collections.
Vinyl:
When it comes to jazz, everything is on vinyl. We still play on vinyl, though I don’t know for how long. It’s hard to find contemporary music on vinyl now.
Top 40:
I think we both like pop. In every genre there’s good and bad. I like a few songs by Timbaland and Nelly Furtado.
Biggest misconception:
Oh wow, I don’t know. That people think we’re gay? No, we’re not.
The dresses and the makeup:
Yeah well, I suppose so. We’re going for burlesque. The design is quite simple, not overwhelming. Maybe golden or green eyeshadow, sometimes standard eyelashes. Hide your eyebrows – paint one with a pen.