We’ve been following the works of PRIVATE and Thomas Troelsen since their very first single “My Secret Lover” and with the release of “Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be” sitting firmly in our hot songs playlist, we thought it would be fun to catch up with Thomas to talk about this new era for Private, his knack for cool design, what life is like raising a family in Denmark whilst managing a blossoming career in pop and his work on the rising dominance of K-Pop.
So “Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be” marks a new era for Private. You’ve changed your sound a bit and have incorporated more of an hip-hop element into your music. Has hip-hop been an influencing factor on your new material?
Hip-hop has always been a huge influence for me but I haven’t felt comfortable incorporating those elements in my musical aesthetic until now. I love the contrast between my approach to making music, which i believe is more emotional and melancholic, and what hip hop represents. If you listen to my first PRIVATE single, “My Secret Lover”, you’ll hear my first attempt to incorporate rap a song. Of course, that rapping was a lot more old school sounding than the more contemporary sounding rap I’m experimenting with now.
I’ve been following your very cool blog for quite some time now. It was sort of Pinterest, Fab.com and theFancy.com before they became wickedly popular. Something tells me you’re a bit of design freak. How does everyday urban/consumer design play into your music?
Thanks for checking it out. My blog weareprivate.com is basically just my own guide to stuff that I’ve come across as great or that still need to check out. My wife, Eva Harlou, is an architect and we both care a great deal about design and architecture, which I also find very inspiring.
We’re digging the new hairdo. Was it hard to cut off your lovely long locks for this more sophisticated modern man look?
Thanks a lot! To be frank, I cut of my hair because I was tired of dying it black since the age of 13 and I felt it was time for a change. One of the benefits of shorter hair is also not spending an awful lot of time drying your hair after taking a bath.
What does the rest of 2013 hold in store for Private? We’ll we get to see you gig at any point? We still haven’t had the Private experience..
More songs will be released this year with some very cool collaborators. And also, I will play my first gig in over ten years at Tivoli in Copenhagen on June 7th, which I’m very excited about. I love performing and I can’t wait. It’s gonna be the ultimate party!
I didn’t know you had a kid! Tell us about em. Is being an emerging pop star hard with children?
Not at all. I’m not missing out on anything. I have two kids. A 5 year-old boy and 3 month-old girl. It’s the greatest. I love being a dad, and it’s never prevented me from pursuing any opportunities I was interested in.
You’re getting a bit of Michael Jackson comparison with “Hell Aint A Bad Place To Be”. Thoughts on that…
When I sing in very high pitch I tend to sound a bit like him, I guess. I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever, cause he’s probably one of my top five favorite singers of all time.
What’s the best and worst part about living in Denmark?
The best thing is that Copenhagen is very beautiful and has a lot of great architecture and amazing restaurants. The worst thing is that it’s so far away from LA and Tokyo.
Tell us about your work with Tohoshinki. You’ve had some success with them lately…
I work with a lot of K-pop artists and I love it! It’s a very inspiring process compared to working with labels and artists in the Western world. They don’t want another formulaic pop or indie song. They always ask for new and different sounds, which I guess is every producer and songwriter’s dream. One of my favorite K-pop songs that I’ve written is “Nu ABO” by F(X). Check it out.