Dungen mastermind Gustav Ejstes is at home in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s the morning, with the dew light on the ground, but Gustav is doing his best to ignore the world – for the first time in a long time, he has four days off in which to relax.

Since Dungen released their debut album, the group have spent a great deal of time on the road, and being at home is almost at the point of not feeling normal. Instead of concentrating on writing for the group’s second album, he’s determined to take things one step-by-step. “I know that I should take one thing at one time,” he says, “and there will be time to write and record when this is over in just a few months. We have said that we’re going to take it a little bit more easy when the autumn is coming.”

Already, Dungen have began to write and record for their follow-up release. Gustav explains that, for Dungen, nothing comes in any particular order – they just do things whenever they get the time to do it. “As long as it’s fun to do it, it’s no problem,” he says of playing the older material over and over before they have finalised their sophomore release. “After a while you find that you want to do it again.”

Gustav is happy to maintain the consistency of songs themselves – instead of finding that he has to change them quite a lot to maintain interest in them, he’s happy for them to stay the same. “I’m not obsessed by having progress,” he outlines. “I don’t have to find something new. I think it comes naturally as a person as you hear more music.”

Gustav says that he listens to a lot of music, from classics to current recordings, and also a lot of in-between. Whilst not familiar with future touring buddies Wolfmother, he indicates that they’re definitely a band that he wants to hear more from.

After their tour with Wolfmother, the band have a select few shows in Europe before settling down in late August when they will have the time to record. He admits that it has been frustrating to have gap of time they’ve had between the release of Ta det lugnt and the follow-up, but that’s how it is.

The recording of Dungen’s debut was relatively simple – Gustav just recorded it on a portable studio. “A 16-track digital porta-studio,” he outlines, “and I recorded some ground takes and I did some of the recordings all by myself, but I also had people around who were appearing on a lot of tracks. I did the ground tracks during one period, and I just did the vocal and overdubs two years afterwards, and then I finished the album.”

Given that Dungen is now a band rather than a solo project, it would seem likely that he would do it differently next time around, with the album more a group effort. Instead, it appears that Dungen are going to combine the best of both worlds. “I have already done a lot of recordings by myself and we have done recordings as a group, so it will be a combination between.”

Dungen will record again in Stockholm, where they have their own studio. Gustav also says that the group have done some live recordings, but they will wait to see if there’s anything there they can use for inspiration for future release. Dungen aren’t a band who bother to work out the way that the songs are going to be when played live, but instead allow them to very much form themselves in the studio. “I don’t think about how they should be when I write them,” he states. “I just make music and then we adapt them into live performance afterwards. And I’m not going to let the live performance be something that holds me back in the recording process, where I’m going to less experimental or something, but I think it’s going to be like it has been.”

This album has brought Dungen to the world’s attention, and Gustav says that it’s been really good. “It brings music out of the songs every night – there’s a lot of improvised parts, and it’s not new music but it’s a new show and a unique show every day.”

Sweden has a strong musical presence in the world stage at the moment, with plenty of musical diversity. “I don’t know why, and I don’t have any explanation for that,” he says of the recent upswing in Scandinavian music. “There’s a lot of good things going on.

Was it there when you were growing up or is it only a recent development?

“There was some kind of things going on – ABBA was quite huge in the world, but I think it’s going up and down, and right now it’s going up maybe. There were artists when I was growing up, definitely.”

He doesn’t think there’s a cultural cringe in Sweden, and that bands are prepared to take on their own influences and develop them into something of their own. Growing up, he listened to both Swedish or international music. “Artists that sings in England, and artists that sings in Swedish,” he says of his preferred preferences when younger. “I didn’t think of it when I was growing up – I didn’t think of it when I was developing my singing. When you’re a little kid you don’t think of it that way, but just listen to music that you get over.”

Dungen play Splendour in the grass on Saturday in the Supertop, 1.45-2.30pm. Whilst here, they’re also doing a slew of other dates:
18th July - Spanish Club, Melbourne (supported by Mercy Arms)
19th July - @ Newtown, Sydney (supported by Mercy Arms)
20th July - Hordern Pavillion, Sydney (supporting Wolfmother)
22nd July - The Riverstage, Brisbane (supporting Wolfmother)