Meeting with Tomas Barford, member of the band WhoMadeWho and alternative skier.
WhoMadeWho, the Danish band formed by Tomas Barford, Tomas Høffding, and Jeppe Kjellberg, is accustomed to playing in fabulous venues. From the Temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt to the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, the band seems transcended by the majesty of the locations. The mountains are also a multidimensional space that unleashes the energy of this band, whose live performances are always spectacular. Tomas Barford reflects on the special connection the band has with skiing and altitude, vectors of creativity and unique emotions.
Black Crows : What does a day in the mountains give you that a day in the studio can’t?
Tomas Barford: The mountains give you back your body. In the studio you’re living inside your head, inside sounds, inside a screen, obsessing over finding drum sounds. On the mountain you’re suddenly just a person moving through something enormous and indifferent. That humility is hard to find anywhere else. You come back to the studio emptied out in the best way.
Black Crows : Does playing live have a similar energy to skiing? Where do those two sensations overlap?
Tomas Barford: Absolutely, both are about committing. Once you push off a steep slope or walk out in front of a crowd, there is basically no way back and hesitation is your enemy. Like down hill and in a concert it’s basically impossible no to proceed when you have begun. Also for djing – There’s a point in a long DJ set, maybe around the second hour, where something clicks and you stop deciding and start flowing. That’s exactly what a good ski run feels like. You’re not thinking anymore. The body just knows.
Black Crows : Has skiing ever influenced how you approach music-making or performing together ?
Tomas Barford: You can say many of our skiing trips has been while performing and the skiing actually was a very good bonding experience for the band. I’m thinking that everything that makes us closer as humans also makes us better as a band
Black Crows : Do you experience creativity differently in the mountains? Any ideas come to you on a chairlift?
Tomas Barford: The chairlift is genuinely a great place for brainstorming. You’re cold, you’re tired, your phone has no signal, you’re basically forced to just sit and stare at something beautiful. That boredom is productive.
Black Crows : How does playing at altitude, surrounded by peaks, change how you connect with the crowd?
Tomas Barford: There’s no way to feel anonymous at a mountain festival. In a club, people can hide in the dark. Up here, everyone is squinting into the same sun, cheeks red, a little bit exhausted, a little bit euphoric from the altitude and the day on the slopes. The crowd arrives already open. The emotional threshold is lower, in the best sense. We feel that from the first track.
