Norwegian pop prince turned electronic production dude, Lido aka Peder Losnegård will be returning to Australia for his third second time; bringing his powerful and simply impressive live performance to our shores for the Listen Out festival alongside SBTRKT, Odesza, Ryan Hemsworth and more.

I spoke with Lido well ahead of his return to Australia about the development of his technical live shows, his musical progression from pop to dance music, his EP with French club dojo Canblaster and his upcoming collaborations with some Aussie big guns.

The multi-talented musician also dropped some notable insight and advice for young producers out there looking to make their waves.

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Joe: So you’re coming back to Australia for what I believe is actually your third time?

Lido: Well, you’re kind of right in saying that. This is my second time doing this Lido project in Australia but I may have been here with a friend once before, but this is officially the second time I am coming to Autralias as Lido.

J: Sounds suspicious? (Obviously nothing to do Trippy Turtle at all)

L: I have no ides what you’re talking about, of course.

J: Having seen some of your earliest live performances as Lido, I’m super keen to see how the show has developed seven months onwards. How will your new live show compare to when you first toured as Lido in Aus?

L: A lot has developed, basically what u saw was something I came up with maybe 2 or 3 days before I left for Australia, and there were a lot of improvised solutions for a lot of crazy ideas. Essentially, the live show is still full of crazy ideas, but this time under control. So it is basically the same concept, but the overall idea is that I wanted to do an electronic show that actually has musicianship in it. Most electronic shows become very much about pressing the right buttons at the right  time and recreating what ever is on the record as well as possible. I mean, that itself is a skill and a craft, but for me it is not as exciting to watch live and not as exciting to perform at all. I am a musician first and foremost. I am a drummer and a piano player way before I’m a producer, so it was important to me to involve and make room for the design around and improvisation , communication and musicianship. The live show is still me and a couple of keyboards and a couple drum pads, some CDJ’s and a mixer with a bunch of vocals. Each show sort of becomes whatever it becomes as I play. I basically have my tracks ready and I take out a lot from them so I have room to make up new stuff as I perform and have fun with things. In a nutshell, it’s me, a bunch of machines and a bunch of fun.

J: Musically, you have quite an arsenal of skills. You began as a drummer quite young I believe. What else did you delve into in terms of musical instruments as a kid? How many instruments can you play and what are they?

L: I’ve messed around with a bunch of stuff but I would never call myself anything other than a drummer or a pianist. Like, if you gave me bass guitar I could trick some people into thinking I can play bass but I really can’t. I love exploring instruments and writing music on different instruments and different melodies can pop up. It’s a cliche but it is true what they say about instrument’s in that they each contain different songs. I love messing around  with different instruments that I stumble upon but I am really not that comfortable on any instruments other than drums or piano.

J: You have been known to work on a lot of things at once. I know that Lido isn’t your first musical project, what did you do before this? Do you still work on any former projects today?

L: I have done a bunch of weird things. A bunch of things that were noticed and a bunch that weren’t noticed and just weird projects here and there. My primary project before Lido was kind of a pop project where I was more of a singer than an instrumentalist, and it was only released on Norway. It was sort of RnB and Hip-hop inspired pop music, and it was doing really well and I did a lot of fun stuff with it but ultimately figured that I needed more freedom than I had in a space like that. So I started the Lido project as sort of a hobby next to a few pop projects. I was messing around with some bands here and there. Different little groups and names and stuff that never really became anything but they’re still in my hard drive so who knows, they might pop up at some point. But the Lido project was sort of me not putting limits on anything, and pretty much combining every element from every genre that I liked. There are a few projects that I have online that are more or less anonymous, more or less low-key, but Lido is definitely the main project right now. I discovered that it is really about having fun with things, and the minute I stopped having fun with the pop stuff it stopped working, and I found this side ting with the Lido project and started having fun again, and the second you have fun it really starts connecting with people so I made it my main project and I’m going to keep it fun and sort of free and all over the place. It’s been a long weird journey. Ive done a lot of weird things but Lido is definitely where I am most comfortable.

J: Last time u had some studio time some a select few Aussie artists. How did that all go?

L: Yeah there are a bunch of little tunes here or there. I did one song with Cosmos Midnight that is going to be on their EP I believe. I did a few collaborations with Wave Racer that are really cool, and one of them is going to be on his EP which should be coming out in the not to distant future. I try not to focus on the calendar of things coming out and just focus on the music. I have super cool people who handle that stuff. But the Wave Racer track is amazing, and should be coming out very soon. I also have some stuff cooking with Miss Alison Wonderland again. We’ve already released stuff together before but we are still working on new things. I also got some studio time with Flume and we got to make some really cool stuff. i don’t really know what is going to happen with it but their is some fun stuff on my hard drive from that. There are other things I got up too here and there but they are the kind of main things I did that may be seeing the light of day sooner than later.

J: Do you find inspiration for your music, outside of the music world? Perhaps visual art, nature or anything?

L: Absolutely. I would say though that I primarily inspired by music to make music but music can happen in anything. I am pretty mental when it comes to harmonic stuff. Like I’ll be sitting in traffic and hear two car horns harmonise in a weird way and be like ‘holy shit I need to do that right now’, or I will find weird poly rhythms in stuff like the air conditioning and weird stuff like that. Their are songs in everything. Songs in mangos, songs in iced coffees, songs in fighting with your girlfriend for sure, there are songs in really anything, but I would say that I am mostly inspired by music and sound. I love making visual stuff. For example, lately I have been doing a lot of songs where I have taken things quite literally. I did a remix for Chance The Rapper of his song ‘Planes’ where I was actually on a plane and sampled the sounds of the plane and made a beat out of it. I love doing very literal stuff like that and really create a sense of place. A sonic place.

J: How did the Can Blaster collaboration EP come about?  Where you worried about how it would be received … having a bit of a different sound?

L: I think my fans are already so confused so I can kind of do whatever I want. I would say that I approach every song in a kind of narcissistic way. I basically approach every remix with the mentality of ‘how can I help this track’. Thats why a lot of my remixes are different because a lot of DJ’s and electronic producers think of how it is going to fit in their set, or how is it going to translate at a festival, or on the radio or whatever. But in my case I approach it like ‘what does this song need?’, and that leaves you with a lot of different stuff. Some remixes will just be piano, some will be huge productions with a lot of stuff on top of it. I think that the people who follow my music never really know what is going to come next, and I think that is because a lot of my work is so different already. The Canblaster EP was definitely one of those cases. We just wanted to create a concept EP about ‘time’, and how we achieve that concept. So we just took each melodic idea and treated how we thought it needed to be treated. And that makes it super hard to put it in sets or mixes and play live, but we really just wanted to play limitless music and see what happened with it. But I’ve never really been worried about what people think of my stuff. I just make music for myself, and once you start worrying about what other people think of it it will effect what you produce. It has happened to me in the past with former projects so I can’t let it happen with this project because this is like my freedom place. It is where I can just do whatever I want.

J: Before we wrap this up, if there was anything you could tell your ten year old self what would it be and why?

L: If I could say anything to my ten year old self, it would be ‘Don’t put any music on the internet’. Thats some of the advice that I give to young producers who ask me how what they need to do to blow up or how to I gain success. You have to be completely confident with your craft and do your thing for long, long time and when I was young I was fortunate enough to have a lot of peers around me who I would show my music to and that would be enough. If they said it was good then that was the purpose of that song; it was enough confirmation for me. I think a lot of people feel they need numbers and statistics and huge crowds to tell them that what they’re doing is good. I would advise anyone that they should be incredibly happy with your craft and all your music first, and then expose it to the public, and as of right now that is something that does not happen a whole lot. People will like throw out anything on the internet all the time, and I would tell myself to be a lot more selective with the music I put out. And not even just on the internet, like releasing music in general. I put out my first album when I was sixteen, and it was a good album but I still wish that it didn’t exist. I wish that it was just a step in my personal process. So I would just tell myself not to release any music for a while and wait until you’re truly happy before sharing it with the world.

Lido will be in Australia touring with the Listen Out Festival in September/October. You can check the dates below and head to ListenOut.com.au for tickets.

Saturday, 26th September Catani Gardens, St Kilda, Melbourne
Sunday, 27th September Ozone Reserve, Perth
Saturday, 3rd October Centennial Park, Sydney
Sunday, 4th October Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane

Interview by Joseph Smith and Adam Sullivan (Tsuki)