Click Interview with Torul: ‘I Need Something That Will Fulfil Myself In The First Place, Not The Audience’
Torul is a Slovenian project originally set up by Borut Bernik aka ‘Torulsson’. Several albums have been released over the years mixing elements of Dance music and Techno together with Electro/Indie-Pop. The band went throughout different line-up changes but hold on its ‘non-compromised’ writing approach. The new album “End Less Dreams” released by Infacted Recordings appears to me as the band’s magnum opus; a well-crafted and professional Electro-Pop production with sensual vocals on top. I talked about this master piece with ‘operator’ Torulsson.
(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: Torul has been set up in 2010. Can you draw up the balance sheet of all these years of commitment considering sound, albums, line-up changes etc?
Torulsson: It’s been quite a ride! After some really successful early releases since 2011 we begun to tour wherever possible and/or made sense for us. Our ‘main card’ has always been a wish to be and stay as independent as possible. Meaning, we felt no pressure or obligations to ‘adapt’ to any scene or mimic any style, band. We tried to keep on doing things our way. And we are obviously recognized this way these days, which is kind of fulfilling.
As Torul has begun as my solo project, I could actually work with any talented singer that is willing to work and develop and that’s how we survived a couple of front man changes. So Maj is actually our 3rd front man. Sticking to our style and direction, there hasn’t been a big gap for our fans and audience. Currently, we enjoy really enthusiastic reviews of our new album and we feel the same about it -might be our best to date.
Q: Let’s talk about this new album entitled “End Less Dreams” which comes four year after your previous full length. So the album has been composed during the pandemic and seems to reflect feelings you encountered during this period. Tell us a bit more about it and how did the album come alive?
Torulsson: This period has been quite challenging for me. So many things have changed in my world -disintegration of a long term relationship, corona restrictions, no gigs, and also important, I sensed so many changes in society due to the new crisis and dynamics. Well, probably many people have. It’s just that it added up to my introspections, re-questioning many things etc. Far from playing a victim or anything, I’m just saying I’ve been having a personal transitional period. I’ve discovered some things that I’m still processing. And at the same time I have begun to see my music explorations even broader, started a couple of new projects that are yet to see light, i.e. Flamingo Revolt, which is a new solo Indie-Pop-Rock project of mine, first single coming out in May.
As for Torul stuff that is on “End Less Dreams”, I got a very clear picture what I wanted and I’m very happy both with how smooth I’ve been writing and producing it, it’s always rewarding when the production of a new full length is effortless in terms of frustration and considering it as work -it was more like my playground, heading to the clear goal.
Q: Music and arts generally speaking have been seriously affected during the pandemic and lockdowns. But music also was a kind of therapy and cure for numerous people to hold on. How did it happen at your side and what’s the importance of arts, music and Torul?
Torulsson: As I’ve already described above, it was very personal and like a time -stamp of a very certain period of mine. I just knew this is like the most important thing to do and the very right time to do it. That part has been one of my few joys during the pandemic. Well, I also improved my routine a bit, doing more sports etc. But at the same time I coped with some weird form of depression, not like just feeling down or something, the sensation of loneliness and sadness crawled up to me and couldn’t get rid of it easily. It’s still there, but I understand it better, I understand it’s a process and try not to fight it, I try to live with it.
Q: What have been the different stages you’d to go through to compose and produce “End Less Dreams”? What have been the influences and eventually references when it comes to writing process and production? And what have been the main challenges and difficulties?
Torulsson: I can’t talk about influences, as usually, it’s a whole broth of them and never think about that -I have an empathy and appreciation of many different kinds of music and I sense music more like mood -boards, than individual isolated pieces. If you listen to our work with some attention, you can discover things that come from different fields, I think and am often recognized as having quite unique and eclectic approach inside of the genre. That is kind of important to me, as I also hear many genre music which is so full of cliches and copying stuff more or less directly. I am really not interested in doing stuff this way for Torul. I need something that will fulfil myself in the first place, not the audience -the audience must ‘understand’, haha… not to get me wrong, it’s just my hope they do.
Q: Torul is playing live again. What does it mean to be back on stage again and how would you define yourself as a live band? How do you transpose the songs from the studio to the stage?
Torulsson: Well, it’s a bit different now for us. I’m singing more than I used to and have more presence on stage, it’s a natural progression and kind of new one to me. I’m discovering myself as a performer more than I have in the past. We really love to play new material, all of us are enjoying it. It’s a very emotional and energetic performance. We are still developing it, gig after gig.
Q: You’re hailing from Slovenia. We for sure all know Borghesia and Laibach but I’m wondering about the underground ‘scene’ in your country. How does it look like considering bands, live venues, festivals, radio broadcasts, media etc. ?
Torulsson: There’s a lot going on in Slovenia within music, but all the scenes are more or less crumbled. We are only 2 million in total, so not every scene can develop -no critical mass. But audience can be curious and we see many different genres. A lot of concerts take place here, international ones as well. We do get radio play here, but not much on commercial radios, the same as everywhere, we know that on many radios there is no music editors really, there is a ‘model’, playlists that sell most commercial productions. That is the saddest thing for music industry really. So many great bands are overlooked these days.
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