The Mix 035: EVA808

When dubstep was going through a major boom from the ‘00s into the early ‘10s, EVA808 was quietly making some of the biggest club weapons in the game. From releases on London label White Peach, to working with Hudson Mohawke and picking up recognition from Flowdan, to actualising a “childhood dream” of releasing on dBridge’s Exit Records, her productions have become somewhat adjacent with the UK’s buzzing bass scene over the years, despite making her start over 1,000 miles away in Iceland’s capital city Reykjavíc. Now based in Sweden, Eva has been working relentlessly at producing music for more than a decade, often becoming the subject of mystery online as fans search the depths of the internet and music forums for unreleased or lesser-known EVA808 works.

Today, her music isn’t easily categorised into genres like dubstep or any of the dance music styles she was lauded for when she made her start — she’s now looking at music through a more experimental lens. Her latest album, ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’, mused on the feelings of growing up as a trans woman, and spent three years in the works as one of her most expansive and experimental projects to date. As a staple of her productions, Eva is innovative with the way she creates sounds like drums and brass from scratch by using gear in “unconventional ways”, while all the vocals heard on the record are her own. “Nowadays, I'm trying not to pigeonhole myself into any one genre or tempo too much,” she explains.

Eva is is also building the world around her record label, GLER, a home for music described as ‘cold records with a warm sound’, as well as her next album which promises to “pick up from where ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’ left off”.

“On the next album, there will be more emotional themes along with some crazy experiments,” she says. “I want people to connect with my sound world, textures, and sonics rather than a specific tempo and genre. I’m constantly trying to see where I can take my sound next.”

We sat down with EVA808 to chat about finding dance music communities in Iceland, being influenced by SOPHIE, and how her sound has moved in a more experimental direction in recent years. Check it out below alongside a full-throttle mix with teasers from her next projects.

Can you tell me about some of your favourite clubbing experiences in Iceland? Any particularly nostalgic memories?

It's been years, but as a teen there were mostly a lot of techno events, which was better then the mainstream stuff you’d hear in bars. So my first clubbing memories were techno, but I was always more into the UK sound, so I eventually stopped going to techno events. I was a teenager during the financial crisis and recession, which meant there were no big artists being booked. There also wasn’t much to do in Iceland if you didn’t have money, so very often it meant just buying “landi”, which is home brewed vodka, smoke some weed, and then go home and make tunes on FL Studio or listen to music on headphones and watch the Windows Media Player visualiser!

So there wasn’t much of a scene in Iceland for that sound you were enjoying at the time? Did you feel like there was a need for more parties and that catered to it?

No, not really. Especially when I was a teenager, there wasn't really anything like that. The music that I was into at the time, like The Prodigy, Noisia, Pendulum etc., those artists would play Iceland maybe once in a blue moon.

There were parties here and there, but Iceland is so small that at the time, there wasn’t really room to build a scene with regular events as the clubs and venues that were good for that stuff would close down out of nowhere. And like I mentioned, after the financial crisis there were less tourists for a while and young people couldn’t afford to go out clubbing. But I have to give a shoutout to Breakbeat.is - a radio show that would play all the new UK sounds that you could listen to while driving. Also DJ Ewok, who was a part of Breakbeat.is. He’s been supporting my music for years now, and now he’s got his own radio show with Plútó.

Nowadays though, there are club nights like Sleikur which are queer club events in Reykjavík, and a couple of different events regularly from other collectives. It’s good to see, even though I’m looking at it from afar as I’ve been based in Sweden. It’s just nice to see that the culture is thriving at the moment, even though it’s small. There are also some really fresh labels like NIX by Árni.

Read this next: The Mix 032: Introspekt

What’s your connection with the UK’s bass scenes?

I've always had friends in the music scene over in the UK, it’s always felt like a place I belong for some reason. Having different perspective might actually have been a good thing when I think about it. I live and breathe music and have dedicated my life to this. I had been uploading my tunes to YouTube for a few years, but then SoundCloud really came into its own and I started uploading my tunes to it and following other artists and slowly but surely, you’d get to know a lot of people that you’d then talk to regularly and send tunes to each other. Music is a way for people to connect and I think with the internet, it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a bedroom somewhere in Scandinavia or in the UK, we’re connected through the love of the same sounds and in that case, it was bass-heavy music. If you’re adding something meaningful to that scene then you’re an important part of it no matter where you’re from.

Due to mental health struggles and being sober, I basically stopped playing gigs a few years ago. But then V.I.V.E.K. managed to convince me to come do a gig with him in 2022, and I built a live set which I premiered in the UK in Room 1 at fabric, it was a beautiful moment. I didn’t really know what to expect, but the love I was shown by everyone there is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

I hadn’t really realised how big of an impact my music had made over the years, with imposter syndrome and all that it can be easy to be hard on yourself, and there are insecure people out there who’ll try to make you feel like you’re not welcome or try to erase what you’ve done. But I’ve been making bangers for years and no one can take that away from me, I’ve ALWAYS been music first and I don’t really care for the ladder-climbing and social hierarchy politics. I have my people that I talk to regularly and appreciate everyone that books me when I’m doing gigs. If I could afford to do so, I’d probably move to Bristol for a bit just to be closer to the people I talk to the most.

You’ve previously credited a lot of early dubstep, hip hop, and old school rock as influences on your sound, does that still hold true? What are you inspired by today?

Yeah, I first got into dubstep in 2009 or 10 when I heard Rusko and then I eventually heard Loefah’s ‘Mud’ — it changed something in me and I realised I wanted to make music with big big subs. I was always into rock too, I remember as a young child I was begging to go with my sister to see Rammstein live! My mom was also very into Pink Floyd and would play me her records. I’ve always been and still am really into rap too, the UK has some of the best rappers and lyricists in the game. But I’ve always been into all kinds of music and it’s been more of a sound I’m into rather then just one genre or BPM.

In recent years, I’ve been obsessed with film soundtracks and I feel like, sometimes, relatively unknown composers make some of the most crazy and unique soundtracks, building a sonic world that lifts up the visuals. I also just love the sound design and foley in ‘80s - ‘90s sci fi and fantasy horror movies, because in older movies, everything sounded so organic and creepy. I feel like that’s where some of the hardest music I’ve ever heard is hiding. It’s just a pleasure to sit in the studio and really listen to the music, sound effects and sound design, it’s so inspiring. No expenses were cut, and the sound designers/foley artists used really innovative techniques. I’ve been looking at my albums now as kind of [like] film soundtracks. For my next album, I want to make the visual world come alive, too, telling a story with both, but the music and sound design being the focal point.

I’m influenced by all sorts of things and not only by music – in my mix you can hear some of my influences – but nowadays my music is mostly inspired by life experiences and memories and I’ve been getting into higher BPMs just kind of naturally. For me, it’s all about the sound, and my sound can work in any genre but you’ll always hear it’s me. I kind of wish platforms like Spotify would stop pigeonholing artists to one genre.

I’ve always been fascinated by classical and orchestral music. Especially the contemporary classic and cinematic stuff, and I always wanted to make it myself. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but I’ve gotten very good at it in recent years. I have no formal education in music or anything but melodies have always come to me very easily. I now try to incorporate the contemporary classic stuff to my sound world and sound design, mixing it with my signature bass.

You said that your recent second album, ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’, was a “personal and emotionally challenging” project, can you tell me a bit about that?

I feel like I had the idea in me for this album for some time, but I was just waiting for the right moment to have all the resources to be able to pull it off. ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’, the name of the album, means ‘different’ in Icelandic – it’s the feeling of knowing that you're different from a very young age. It's basically about how it feels to grow up being trans in an environment that’s not really safe to explore that. All the vocals you hear on it are me.

I didn’t know how people would digest it because, when I released it, I didn’t wanna be too specific and wanted people to interpret it in their own way. But in the end, it was [Kraumur Music Awards'] album of the year last year in Iceland, I never thought that a self-taught nerd like me would be a multi-award winning artist.

‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’ was a really expansive body of work that harked back to some of your early productions, and included a tribute to SOPHIE. What was your relationship like with her?

When I heard about SOPHIE passing, it made me incredibly sad. I was never able to meet her, but I always loved what she was doing as an artist. I had been listening to her for a long time, and even though I’d transitioned some years earlier than she did, she was older than me and was more experienced as an artist and sound designer. There also weren’t many trans people making this kind of music, so I instantly connected to what she was doing and was always hoping that someday, we could possibly work together. I basically just wanted to give her a shout out, show respect, and dedicate a track on the album to her.

To get the feelings across in certain tracks, it needed to be very raw and organic and so it’s similar to my earlier tracks in that way I guess.

Do you think that the scene has become more open and accepting today? Do you feel more comfortable performing?

Yeah, the landscape is completely different and queer people now are just seen as a normal part of the spectrum in the underground electronic music scene and people mostly are held accountable for prejudice behaviour and stuff like that.

But at the end of the day, electronic music was pioneered by Black and queer people, and we’re all just humans wanting somewhere to belong and express ourselves and soundsystem culture, and raves should be open to anyone no matter who they are as long as they show everyone respect. It’s just sad that there are geniuses out there that could do groundbreaking things, but because they never were embraced, we’ll never get to hear it.

Your latest project, ‘Let’s Be Havin U?’, came out in August. You’ve said that this EP is a response to seeing people on the dancefloor who were too out of it to dance - that feels like a common point of contention recently. Can you expand on that experience and how it influenced this EP?

‘Let’s Be Havin U?’ was a way to experiment with different sounds and emotions since my last album, ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’, was so emotionally challenging with so many difficult memories attached to it. So I really just wanted to shake that off and make something that would go off in the club, make something fun and weird that would sound crazy even in a half-empty warehouse with loads of reverb. I had been performing roughly once a month since that show with V.I.V.E.K. at fabric, and there was a recurring theme where I’d witness people so out of it on a certain substance and their friends literally having to carry them backstage. So yeah, the EP is a bit of a statement on the current climate in many clubs. It’s just sad to see people too out of it to even enjoy the soundsystem, not everyone has to dance and I know that myself, but when you can’t even enjoy and process the music then I don’t see why you’d be there.

On that EP, I was also using the gear that I’d incorporated into my live set. I sent the title-track to dBridge and he loved it, and basically straight away wanted to release it on Exit, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to do something fun and weird without putting too much pressure on myself, and it’s such a sick EP to me and I’m happy with how the artwork came together and the yellow vinyl. It’s a fun thing to come in between two albums in my opinion. It’s also my first exploration in 170+ BPM, and exactly the 10-year anniversary since I first bought a 12” on Exit, so it felt like a very proud moment to now have my own music on the label.

Read this next: Exit Records pushes the limits of what a drum 'n' bass party can sound like

Tell me about the production on ‘Let’s Be Havin U?’, what was that process like? You usually make your drums and other sounds from scratch, right?

I’ve always done my drums with MIDI and never used drum loops, but nowadays I’m really really enjoying making as much as I can completely from scratch, and if I don’t, I love to resample things over and over to make it as unique and organic as possible. I have a strong vision of what I want things to sound like, that means sometimes rendering stems from the same project repeatedly and running through outboard preamps and pedals, even if it takes a little longer. I was really having fun with the Elektron Model:Cycles by making super sharp hats and percussion from scratch and then recording some really weird finger drumming techniques, and I’ve been doing some stuff lately where I record teeth sounds, biting my teeth together in different ways to get different timbre and texture, and then resampling those sounds over and over and over ‘til you get something that sounds like a creature from a sci-fi or horror film. Just the idea of being in a pitch-black club hearing something that, where it sounds like a huge creature is coming to eat you, is such a cool thought to me. I feel that it’s important to give people in that environment unexpected twists and turns and truly use the full capabilities of the soundsystem. I do of course sample things too, but the whole process of recording sounds from scratch completely in your own way is therapy.

I’m completely self-taught in all aspects of music and sound design, but I think that’s been to my advantage as I’ve always done things in my own way, and sometimes unconventionally by using gear in a way it wasn’t meant for. For ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’, when I was listening to some of my favourite contemporary classical artists, I thought everything sounded so organic and real but always thought they used plugins even though it didn’t sound like it, so I used plugins for my strings and brass, but would resample things over and over and add different reverbs each time until I had something that actually sounded like real recorded strings and brass. I then realised later when looking at the credits for some of these artists that these were live strings, orchestras, and brass that were actually recorded, but I’ve always had the mindset that I can do things DIY, so I continue to do that.

What inspired the launch of your label, GLER? What’s the vision behind it?

I’ve been releasing music under EVA808 for over a decade now, and apart from a few self-released things, I was always releasing on other people’s labels. I had always dreamed of starting my own imprint but looked at other labels that had been run for years and felt it might be awkward to start from scratch.

When ‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’ was close to being finished, I had been talking to a couple of labels to release it, but since it was such a personal album and an album really connected to Iceland and sounded very Icelandic, I felt it needed to come out on an Icelandic label with a very distinctly Icelandic visual theme. So in the end I did the good old “if you want something done well, do it yourself”! I was meditating and the name just came to my head, GLER means glass in Icelandic, but it’s also slang for when the roads are too icy to drive on. GLER also isn’t too difficult for non-native speakers to read or pronounce. The records will always be on transparent vinyl, so they look like glass or ice. GLER for now is a home to my music and luckily, I have Za at White Peach helping with distro — he’s the unsung hero, keeping many label afloat.

What’s next for you?

At the moment, I’m trying to secure funding so I can go all out with my next album and put all the ideas into actual real world things. I’m really excited for this album, and can’t wait to actualise it. There are some tasters from it in the mix, actually. There will also be a couple of new singles coming in the next few months.

I’ve never felt as free musically as I do now, and really have a clear vision of where I want to take things. If that doesn’t translate to a lot of streams and opportunities that’s okay with me, as it’s said that art isn’t inherently meant to be popular. I’m very content with having the opportunity to express me without boundaries through sound. And sometimes that means that you have to make music that’s almost unpleasant to listen to, because you’re expressing an unpleasant feeling.

Can you tell us about your mix?

I make music for the social outcasts and weirdos that live in their heads. This soundtrack reflects that — I want you to be constantly guessing what’s coming next without really knowing. It has the whole spectrum of sounds. I listen to so much different music and this mix should be refreshing for someone who might be used to normal DJ mixes. It shows where I am sonically too, and has a couple of unheard teases of upcoming projects.

‘ÖÐRUVÍSI’ is out now, get it here

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter

Tracklist:
Christopher Young - Hellbound
Flying lotus - Theme
dBridge, Maddison Willing - One Note
Aya - Lip Flip
Scratcha DVA - Drmtrk (K.M.T & TUT Vocal)
Caribou - Got to Change
Skee Mask - Reviver
Rustie - Black Ice Mudra
Arca - Urchin
EVA808 - GLEYMMÈREI
EVA808 - The WAR in MY HEAD
Á & H - Blautt og Loðið
Ex.Girls, LaFontaine - Stuttar buxur
EVA808 - MERKITÚSS (unreleased)
Matt Ox - DOLO
Shapednoise - Know Yourself
EVA808 - ÖLDUKALDI
BURIAL - LONER
EVA808, Jam Baxter - LOOSE TEETH (unreleased)
AMILLI 2K24 ALL CRUNCHED OUT
Dorian Concept - Hide (CS01 Version)
Amon Tobin - Lost and Found
EVA808 - GENDER
David Lynch - In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)
EVA808 - WHY ME?!
Hudson Mohawke - Forever 1 (Cashmere Cat Remix)
EVA808 - SD355 (unreleased)
The Frightnrs - Gotta Find a Way
EVA808 - REALIZATION
MY YOUT COMES AROUND
EVA808 - SSSTILLDRIPPIN’ (unreleased)
Sinjin Hawke, Zora Jones - And You Were One
BURIAL - LONER
EVA808 - LETS BE HAVIN’ U
EVA808 - ID (UNRELEASED)
EVA808 - BLUEBERRYPOISONDARTFROG
D Double E - Original Format
Marina Herlop - abans abans
FLUME - Highest Building ft. Oklou
EVA808 - Y R U N KET?
RHYW - DROOL
EVA808 - GEIMVERA
Danny Brown - Dark Sword Angel
CLUBDUB - Bad Bitch í RVK
BIG SIMZ - FEELIN IT
Fixate - Shaded
EVA808 - STILLLCAN’TTT (unreleased)
S.MURK - WARN DUB
SOPHIE - Infatuation (Twilight Zone)
Skeptical - Push Up
Scooter - Weekend
Samurai Breaks - Turbo Diesel
EVA808 - DEATHISCALLINGPICKUPORLIVE (unreleased)
DEFT - GO WEST
Dub Phizix - Esteban
EVA808 - MINDSTUCKINALOOPINALOOP (unreleased)
Daudi - I Am Grateful For My Friends
YEEZY - NEW SLAVES
Yung Lean, Bladee - Coda