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Øresund Space Collective are a music collective from Scandinavia and Portugal that plays totally improvised space rock music. They have released 40 records since 2006. Music for your mind to escape the Matrix…as Dr. Space explains:
What are the origins of Øresund Space Collective? How long have you been playing together?
Dr. Space – Øresund Space Collective (ØSC) started as a collective of musicians based around the Copenhagen band, Mantric Muse, and the Malmö, Sweden bands, Bland Bladen and the Carpet Knights. We have been playing since 2004. It has evolved a lot over the 20 years, and 113 different people have played in the collective now, and we have made 44 albums. 32 studio and 12 live ones.
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe Øresund Space Collective?
Dr. Space – When you check out ØSC, expect all instrumental long musical journeys as some of our songs like Everyone is Evil, Sleeping with the Sunworm, and Ode to the Black Hole are over an hr long!! We have shorter 10-minute songs as well. Describe myself, I guess, I am a musical adventurer. I make mostly improvised music and like to play with different groups of people to see what happens. This is exciting.
How did you feel performing your first gig as a band, and how was it?!
Dr. Space – We had only been jamming in the rehearsal room 6 times when we decided to play our first show in February 2005 in a cool underground club in Copenhagen called Dragens Hule (Dragons Cave). I think a lot of the band was very nervous that night, but also excited. I think there were about 50 or 60 people, as I recall, and we played a good 2-hours show…It was very fun and the first important step towards where we are to today.
What are you working on at the moment that people can check out?
Dr. Space – I personally just released two new solo albums called Dr Space- Music to Disappear to and Dr Space´s Alien Planet Trip Vol 8- Space with Bass IV- Purple Rose Powder. My other group in Portugal, Doctors of Space, has a new double CD coming out in November called Wisdom of Clowns. As for ØSC, we had our 44th release in July called Orgone Unicorn on the US label, Lazers Edge. We have a new DVD live from the prog festival, Crescendo in France, from 2022, out in November. We also have one of our Bandcamp subscriber releases, called Relaxing in the Himalayas, coming out on Vinyl in December. West Space and Love III, another project of mine with Swedish musicians from the band Siena Root, will also be out in December. Been a busy year..
In terms of a similar audience, which band out there at the moment do you feel Øresund Space Collective would be best suited to open for?
Dr. Space – Widespread Panic, Phish, Dead and Co…. I think any of these would bring our music to a bigger audience, as I think the US jam band scene has not really been open to us, and I feel there is a huge audience that would dig what we do. We have a protaping policy, all our concerts are up on the www.archive.org for free… Doubt it will ever happen, but one can dream…
Excluding yourself, which new band would you like to see break out and become a success?
Dr. Space – My friend Zach, his band called Zach Oakley, they only have one album out, but the 2nd one is due very soon. They are super cool, and I love his music and his band.
What frustrates you about the music business?
Dr. Space – Streaming music and the fact that big labels no longer support artists over the years to help them develop, like it worked in the 70s.. Streaming music is theft as far as I am concerned, and I hate Spotify and do not use it. I do not listen to streaming music. I have to be able to download it and play it on my stereo or in the studio speakers. As for how to combat it, we as artists have two choices, as I see it. We have to all band together and attack Spotify, the main streaming entity in the world, and threaten to remove all of our music or have them increase the amount they pay per stream from the shitty $0.003 to 0.03…….. I do not hold my breath that anything will happen. They are too greedy, and artists are difficult to pull off together, so we just have to accept this for now. Sucks…
What are your first musical memories? And what was the lightbulb moment that made you go “I want to do that”?
Dr. Space – No one in my family really played music except my grandfather, but I never saw him play the violin. My biggest influences were the great radio growing up in California in the 70s (KMET, KLOS) and the older kids in the neighbourhood who played Led Zeppelin, Robin Trower, Camel, Lynryd Skynryd, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, KISS, etc….
As for wanting to do it, I got the bug when I was 10 and played guitar for a couple of years, but my life was taken over by tennis, and there was no time to play. It was not until 1999 that I started to fiddle about with synthesizers, and that was it for me…
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
Dr. Space – Idiotheque- Seia Festival, PT Aug 18th, 2024. They are friends of mine and rehearse in my music studio every Thursday. They did a really good show.. They are a new band, so they have not released any music yet
What current social issue are you particularly passionate about?
Dr. Space – I am very concerned about the state of the climate and the lack of awareness of the general public. I live out on the mountainside in Portugal, and we live a life with a much smaller carbon footprint, which is great, but I do not see a lot of good things happening, so I try to just be a good human and work in our local community and surround myself with good people.
Everybody is a fan of something. Who or what are you a fan of?
Dr. Space – I like to read rock music biographies and love to try different kinds of beer.
What new music have you been enjoying so far this year?
Dr. Space – That is a big question.. I collect music, so I buy 50-100 albums a year and hear a lot of new music, which is great, as well as buy older music. Some of the most recent albums I have got are: White Hills- Beyond this Fiction, Orange Goblin- Science not Fiction, CB3- Exploration, Delving- All Paths diverge, Monkey 3- Welcome to the Machine, Fu Manchu- The Return of Tomorrow. I also like the new Deep Purple quite a lot.
How active are you on social media, and where can people connect with you?
Dr. Space – I do not have a smartphone, so Facebook is about the only media you can reach me besides old school email!! Here are links to my various websites.
Thanks for your support….
http://oresundspacecollective.com
http://oresundspacecollective.bandcamp.com
http://drspace1.bandcamp.com
http://doctorsofspace.bandcamp.com
http://www.spacerockproductions.com
Http://blackmooncircle.bandcamp.com
Http://auralhallucinations.bandcamp.com
https://estudioparaisonasn.wixsite.com/my-site
