The punk-leaning Swedish act explain how they’re trying to disrupt the slog of modern living with their debut album, Forget In Mass
What do football, psychology and music have in common? Well, on some level, Deki Alem frontmen Sammy and Johnny have found that each of these helps people to let go and enjoy themselves.
Born in Gothenberg, Sweden, to parents of Eritrean and Ghanaian backgrounds, the twin brothers played football until their early twenties, and then Johnny moved to England to study psychology, while Sammy studied in Malmö. They founded a Swedish hip-hop act along the way, but it wasn’t until they formed punk-leaning trip-hop band Deki Alem during the pandemic that they found the perfect union of their interests.
“We’ve always been interested in people so I can see a connection there,” says Johnny. “We wanted Deki Alem to be the backdrop to people’s experience of fun and joy and escapism and all the good shit. It’s like a communal thing for us – everybody working on a project that everybody listens to and connects with. It feels like the thing we lost from our teenage years playing sports.”
This spirit of losing one’s individuality amid the crowd is the central focus of Deki Alem’s debut album, Forget In Mass, which urges listeners to unplug from the modern drone of social media and the constant pressure to optimise your life. They promoted the album by, among other things, littering signs across Stockholm that read: “Your yoga class taught you to bend over backwards”, while, elsewhere, lead single “Fun” casts a woman drowning in the inexorable tide of working life, before ultimately relinquishing herself to chaos. “That doesn’t sound like fun to me,” the track’s robotic narrator booms.
“There’s a lot of information to take in nowadays, and you can self-optimise the hell out of yourself if you want to,” Johnny explains. “‘Fun’ is just about giving in to your primal instincts. Sometimes it’s good to just blow off some steam and have a human experience,” Sammy adds.
It’s fitting, then, that the brothers have returned to the analogue roots of electronic music to deliver this message. In carnal basslines, crunchy drum and bass breaks and retro-futuristic lead synths, the new project evokes the likes of trip-hop trailblazer Tricky and The Prodigy, calling back to a time before smartphones and wellness culture infiltrated the rave. The message is clear: turn on, tune in and drop out.
Below, Deki Alem frontmen Johnny and Sammy explain their attempts to disrupt modern society with their debut album Forget In Mass.
When did you decide to switch from Swedish to English?
Johnny: We always had an interest in the English language, and I actually started rapping in English in the beginning. Me and Sammy were on different paths – in 2012 or 2013, he was studying in Malmö, I was studying to become a psychologist in London. We met for Christmas and started our career in Swedish, but then, when the pandemic hit, we felt that there was a little bit of a void. Sweden isn’t that big, and Swedish hip-hop is even smaller, so we needed a bigger arena and language to play with. It just felt normal to pivot to Deki Alem.
The “Fun” video is super unique. Could you explain a bit more about that?
Sammy: That video portrays this woman trying to keep everything together in a room, but then coming back the next day and seeing that everything has become even worse. She tries to put everything together again, but keeps failing. It leads up to her discovering this man, completely surrendered to the chaos, and she decides to just give in at the end. The woman sees that room as the problem; she’s trying to run away from the mess. But she finds that it’s easier to just break down and let go of being in control to find the release.
Where do you both stand on the spectrum of organisation to chaos?
Johnny: I think we’re where everybody’s at – you see a lot of information, you want to take it in, you want to improve yourself. I feel like this song is for ourselves as well, trying to just take it easy and be a fuck up from time to time.
Sammy: I feel like, if I’m connected to the internet and trying to hustle and bustle and make everything work with this music thing, it’s much harder to disconnect and indulge in life. Everything is trying to tell you something nowadays. So, yeah, on that spectrum [of organisation to chaos], I would say I’m not that good at disconnecting and indulging. It’s actually something I think of quite often. I hope that I can get to a place where I can just be. That’s the end goal.
Do you think there’s a difference between you two? Sammy, are you more on the reserved side?
Johnny: Funny enough, people say the opposite! I think there should be a book for people to learn how to approach twins. It’s easy for someone to see two identical people and say, ‘Oh, you’re black, you’re white, you’re hot, you’re cold.’ Growing up, I think that made us believe that we actually were these extreme opposites, but we share a lot of qualities as well. We don’t make each other one. You know, he’s one and I’m one as well. Together, we’re two.
I want to move forward with genres, with culture and everything, but I want that feeling of togetherness back
– Sammy, Deki Alem
I feel like that sense of giving into chaos translates into the guerrilla marketing campaigns you’ve been doing, too?
Sammy: I wanted to connect with real life on this project, rather than just creating something in digital space. Instead of telling people to hang out on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, we want to bring people outside. We want to bring people together. That’s the thing I like about nostalgia. I’m not into nostalgia in the sense of: ‘Oh, I love grunge music or what Nirvana did’. The thing I like is how people interacted with each other. I want to move forward with genres, with culture and everything, but I want that feeling of togetherness back.
So, that’s the thing with the guerrilla campaigns. I still feel like the best thing we did so far is our first listening session with our first EP. It was in a small garage in Stockholm and people were just experiencing this new band in Stockholm together. I felt like I was experiencing it too, even though I was behind the shit. One time we had our CDs given to one of the falafel guys and people who bought a falafel were handed a CD player to listen to our shit. It doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel, it could be something that just brings people out.
So, to quote “Fun”, what does sound like fun to you?
Johnny: Being able to take life in, not just pacing through it, sounds like fun to me. Actually enjoying the journey, not just because it has to be done. Waking up at five in the morning tomorrow to go to Romania for a show, and actually being hyped, being rested enough to take part in that and not just be there in a bodily form. That sounds like fun to me.
Forget in Mass is out now