In today’s A-Z challenge, we wanted to find out more about Øresund Space Collective so asked Dr Space to tell us all about the band!
A song that made you want to make music?
Too Stoned by the Danish band Gas Giant.
Best rider you have had?
That is a hard one. I guess, Psychedelic Network Festival in Würzberg Germnay. They had a great selection of food and drinks for the bands and nice places to chill and they take great care of the artists.
Craziest moment as an artist?
One of them was when ØSC played the Slotskroggen goes Progressive Festival in Göteborg, Sweden in 2008. The audience was going crazy at the front and I wanted to take a picture of them and right when I snapped it the barrier collapsed!! (See picture, if I can find it!). That was wild….
Deepest lyric one of your songs features?
Seeing as we are an instrumental band and I think there is only one song (Dead Man in Space) where I did a spoken word, so it would have to be that. The message is don’t have your spaceship break down in space….
Easiest song you wrote?
Pretty much all of them as we play totally improvised music and just set up and play both live and in the studio, so we do not write anything, we just play and see what happens.
Favourite song in your set?
As the music we make every night is completely new and unique, we never play anything we played before, so I would have to tell you after the concert, which jam I liked the best.
Guest you’d most like to feature on your record?
For Øresund Space Collective, it would great to have Frank Marino or Zakk Wylde record with us but in a more realistic world, I guess, Dave W from White Hills, would be awesome to make music with.
Hardest thing about being a solo artist?
I make strange spaced out synthesizer music under the name Dr Space. It is a challenge to reach the target audience these days, especially since I do not have a smartphone and engage with social media very much. Also, it is almost impossible to earn money from streaming. Fuck spotify…
Interesting fact about you?
I have a PhD in Endocrinology and did basic science and diabetes research for 25 years before retiring just to make music.
Joke you like to tell?
I do not tell jokes and can not even think of one. Wife says I do not have a sense of humour!
Key to writing a song?
Letting yourself go and trying to think outside the box.
Longest distance you’ve travelled to play a show?
Copenhagen to Las Vegas, Nevada to play at Psycho Las Vegas. It was the longest distance but also the latest show we ever played when you are booked from 5am to 7am in the morning.. Last band obviously…
Most inspiring musician you’ve experienced?
I have met and played with so many but Jonathan Segel (Camper van Beethoven, solo, ØSC, Hasse Horrigmoe´s Tangle Edge). He brings endless ideas and can play almost any instrument from lap steel, violin, guitar, bass, keyboards.. Incredible talent.
New band/artist you’d recommend?
Idiotheque, a local afrobeat funk band that rehearses and records in my music studio. Great band..
Opening for this band/artist would be ideal?
I think ØSC would go down a great if we could open for a band like Widespread Panic or Phish, two of the big ones on the American Jam band scene. These bands are so big and play long shows now so they do not have opening acts. So more realistic would be a band like Ozric Tentacles or Hawkwind.
Place you’d most like to tour?
No doubt, Japan!
Quote that you’d like to pass on to our readers?
Noam Chomsky on AI: “lets stop calling it “Artificial Intelligence” then and all it for what is is and makes “plagiarism” software because it does not create anything, but copies existing works, of existing artists, modifying them enough to escape copyright laws…”
Reason for the title of your forthcoming release?
Our next studio album will be called, Alotta hella down in Estrela. The title came from our bass player, Hasse. It is in reference to the band recording at my studio in the Serra da Estrela mountains in Portugal and that my last name is Heller.
See me live at?
ØSC, we will play a 20th anniversary concert in Copenhagen, Denmark April 11-12th, 2025. It is going to be a very special night with lots of musicians (at least 15 different) playing over the two nights and we will play four sets of music. Also, we will play the Spaceboat in Hamburg Germany May 23-24th, our 10th time.. We hope to have a tour in Sept and play in Italy for the first time ever. Lots happening next year.
The old days of music were better than the current, do you agree?
YES.. I listen to mostly bands from the 70s, it seems. There is a lot of great music still today but it is hard to make something new. I can not listen to modern heavy metal as it all sounds like just copies of 80s music with worse sound production. Doom, I love it but it is impossible to do it in a new way. It has all been done. Lucky for the bands, people like to buy stuff that sounds like stuff they already like. I need to move forward and try to seek out stuff that is new sounding, if possible. At least more fresh ideas and chances taken.
Unusual merchandise?
Just look at KISS.. I think they have just about everything you could imagine, probably even a vibrator!!! The most unique, we have made was a credit card USB stick with 2GB or our early jams and concerts..
Variations you’d like to do on one of your songs?
I think for my solo stuff some one could try to add some techno beats. Maybe also with ØSC…. I am working on mixing some of our albums in 5.1 surround sound so that will also be a very cool when it is finished and a variation.
What do your fans mean to you?
The fans are everything. You are nothing without your fans. Ours are really great and dedicated and I find it very important the we keep delivering high quality music and artwork and concerts…. It is hard work but worth it when that one fan writes or come up and tells you how awesome the concert was, etc….
X-rays or any other treatments needed for performance-related injuries?
When we played Burg Herzberg Festival in Germany, after the first set, our guitar player, Mads, reached down to get a beer from a fan and slipped and smashed his head into the barrier. It swelled up into this huge lump and the doctors said he could not play the rest of the concert and he might have a concussion. He of course same out 20mins late but played the rest of the show. Thankfully, he was ok the next day except for this giant lump!
You’re late for a show, whose fault is it?
Usually, it means we got stuck in traffic, almost always.. Especially in Germany, it can be a nightmare around the major cities…
Zoo animal that best describes the personality of you?
Ask my wife…. I guess a chimp…