Diagram began as a home-recording project by Hákon Aðalsteinsson, who started creating tracks while familiarizing himself with recording software on his laptop.

Unable to record electric guitar properly, he worked with a cheap keyboard, preset sounds and drum loops. Those experiments led to Diagram’s first album, ‘Transmission Response’, released by Fuzz Club in 2019. ‘Short Circuit Control’, released by P.U.G. Records, is Diagram’s second album and a collaboration between Hákon and Fred Sunesen. Hákon also plays with The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Third Sound. Fred works with drum machines, hardware synths and analogue effects. Most of the album began in studio jam sessions. The pair recorded freely, then listened back, selected parts and developed them into songs. Mistakes were not always corrected. When an unexpected rhythm or sound worked, they kept it. On ‘Dub Boy’, Hákon and Fred realised after recording that the main bass pattern was in 5/4, while the rest of the track was not. They chose to build around that instead of removing it. Analogue equipment also leaves room for change. Sounds can be difficult to recreate, and Diagram do not try to make live performances identical to the recordings.

“Maybe the lines between human instability and machine malfunction become more blurry?”

Diagram started as a project you were working on alone, before it became a band or something you performed live. What was your life like at that point, and what made you decide it was worth developing beyond those first ideas?

Hakon: It was basically just to teach myself how to use a recording program that a friend had installed on my laptop. The setup I had at the time didn’t really allow for recording electric guitar properly, but I had this cheap keyboard with preset sounds and drum loops that I started fucking around with. I recorded a bunch of different ideas that mostly were only experiments for myself, but as I got better at editing, using EQs, compressors and effects, I started developing the better ideas further and structuring them into songs. I can’t really remember what my mental state at the time was like, but I must have been feeling pretty inspired at least, considering all the stuff I recorded.

<a href="https://diagram.bandcamp.com/album/short-circuit-control">Short Circuit Control by Diagram</a>

And to start with the record itself. ‘Short Circuit Control’ feels built around a constant negotiation between stability and failure. Patterns emerge, hold for a moment, then begin to distort or slip. When you were shaping the album, was that instability something you were actively designing, or something you allowed to develop inside the system and then framed?

Fred: The core of the album was done in 2 jam sessions we did in my studio, where we let the recording run and ended up with around 2 hours of music and ideas. The idea was to try to capture some of the moments of free improvisation we experienced when playing/jamming and not worry about the song structure.

Mistakes were left in and sometimes helped shape the song, and if it sounded great, we would leave it in.

I guess that’s what you call a constant negotiation between stability and failure.

Hakon: I remember it being much more than 2 sessions, but I guess the later sessions were for developing parts we had already selected from the 2 initial improvised sessions. It was quite a slow process because we had to look back and listen to a lot of material, select the parts that worked best and then develop them, and sometimes redevelop them, into songs, but I think it was worth it in the end. Although Fred might feel differently, as it was done in his studio and he did the manual labour of the editing process. At least we agreed, for the most part, on what was working and what wasn’t. Otherwise, we would still be working on the album.

There’s a lot of repetition on ‘Short Circuit Control’, but it never becomes completely predictable. The loops seem to drift slightly against each other. How do you build those rhythms? Do you start with fixed patterns and disrupt them, or are they designed not to repeat exactly from the beginning?

Fred: I’m a synth/drum machine nerd, so I work with a lot of hardware machines.

I think the initial recordings were done to a drum machine, but it wasn’t synced up to the DAW and I just aligned most of it manually.

Most of my synths are receiving clock, but all hardware has a bit of its own soul and swing, and does not always fit perfectly into the more rigid grid of a computer.

I would cut up sequences/beats to achieve the feel of a repetitive rhythm that was still a bit unpredictable. Drum fills would be played by hand or run through an FX pedal to create variations.

The album is full of hums, crackles, and sounds that seem to break down. They feel like part of the music rather than background detail.

Fred: Some textures came from the initial recording. When I listened back to the recording, I found passages that were really cool, and I cut them up and used them in the tracks. Some were made in post-production using hardware, especially the Lyra 8, and FX on a send track, only listening to the wet mix.

When you work with modular systems, how much do you plan in advance, and how much comes from catching a moment when everything falls into place?

Fred: I think we did 2 songs that Hakon brought to the record that weren’t from the core recording session, so they already had a structure and some vocal story. But the rest was capturing a moment and creating something new out of that idea.

Hakon: Yeah, after I got a bit of better gear for my home setup, I kept on recording some stuff and brought 2 songs from those home recordings to the table for this album, which we then developed further together. Only one of those actually ended up on the album, though, because we made 11 songs in total, so 2 songs remain unreleased.

Did you plan the album as one continuous journey, or did that shape become clear after the pieces were finished?

Hakon: The sequencing of the songs came after we had shaped them, but the focus was to make it work as a whole, as an album that you listen to from the beginning to the end. The same goes for the songs themselves. Although we obviously shortened some of the initial ideas, we were never concerned about doing something radio-friendly. It was much more important to let the songs breathe.

On a track like ‘Dub Boy’, the rhythm feels more familiar, but there is still something unsettled underneath it. How do you combine a recognisable structure with elements that keep shifting?

Fred: ‘Dub Boy’ is a good example of getting some recording done, really liking it, but finding out that the main rising bass ostinato is in 5/4 and the rest of the song isn’t.

So there was a lot of creative work going into this song in post-production to keep the original idea and build around that feeling.

I spent a shitload of time on that track.

Hakon: As far as I remember, we had no idea that the bass riff was in 5/4 until we listened back, and still don’t really know how that happened.

There is very little decoration on the album. Even the more abstract sounds seem to have a clear purpose. When you build these tracks, do you tend to remove elements until only what is needed remains?

Fred: Yes, building up a track and throwing all you have at it. Then starting to mute tracks and take things out.

Killing darlings and replacing them with other ideas. It’s easier to make a track dense and full than the opposite, but mostly the opposite works better.

Hakon: I think some of that came when Fred joined the band after the first album and we were discussing how to make it work live. We didn’t want to make layers upon layers of playback, so it became about finding the essential parts of the songs. I think that was in the back of our minds while recording ‘Short Circuit’. Generally speaking, though, it is just something that you need to be able to do as a musician. There is nothing worse than a musician that is too in love with his own ideas and can’t see the forest for the trees, or whatever the saying is.

There is a clear relationship between the human and the machine on this record. The systems create sounds and patterns, but you are still shaping and redirecting them. How do you think about that balance in your own process?

Hakon: I’m not sure I can define it, but linking up different analog gear creates a certain unpredictability, and when you mix that with improvisation, maybe the lines between human instability and machine malfunction become more blurry?

Compared to ‘Transmission Response’, this album seems to hold tension in a more deliberate way. What changed in your approach to composing between the two records?

Hakon: The main thing, obviously, is that I did the first record alone, and it was a learning process and me experimenting with sounds or instruments I had not used so much before, while the second record is Fred and me together and using much more sophisticated gear. I think there is still a lot of a similar approach in the minimal way of the actual songwriting, but it is more about the sounds and focus being different.

With analogue gear, it is not always possible to recreate a sound once it is gone. How does that affect the way you record and decide which takes to keep?

Fred: In a world where a laptop is a functioning complete studio and everything is perfect on a grid, I find working with HW very liberating.

I’m not interested in perfection, and I like when something sticks out because people will notice it and engage with the music.

I’m not afraid to lose a great idea in the process. If the idea is really good, it will come back later in life.

As for synths, I don’t use presets, nor do I save the sounds that I create as presets. I like the idea of carving out that sound that I feel is needed for the track.

Hakon: There were definitely a few moments in the process where we were trying to recreate a sound we had at an earlier stage. Sometimes it worked, sometimes we found something better, but sometimes we couldn’t quite get it. But that’s OK. That’s also how we approach our live performances: they should never sound the same, or sound the same as the album.

What’s next for you?

Fred: We both have been really busy lately with other projects. Hakon has been touring with BJM and The Third Sound, and I’ve been touring with AS Fanning and just finished the second record with my band Zoon Phonanta. So we haven’t had time to do new recordings, but I’m sure we’ll meet up in the studio sometime when the dust settles.

Hakon: Yeah, sadly, we have only played one live show so far since the album was released, and I don’t think I have even seen Fred since then. So maybe I use this online interview as an opportunity to reach out: Fred, give me a call or send me a message. Let’s make some noise.

Klemen Breznikar

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