Get to Know: Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation

The name Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation has been on a lot of people's lips of late. Gaining attention on the back of their excellent second album Mirage, the psych-pop six-piece have seen a lot of radio play on BBC 6Music thanks to their singles Rushing Through My Mind and Sister Green Eyes, led by Öhrn's mysterious vocals.

When we speak with Öhrn, her band have just been announced as part of this year's Dot to Dot festival line-up, which is set to take over Manchester's Northern Quarter on 26 May before moving on to Nottingham and Bristol. We ask her what she's been up to lately, and to reveal her hopes for the festival.

Hello Josefin! How is your day going so far? What have you been up to?

I came home from Portugal last night so I’m just doing nothing!

Was that from the Lisbon Psych Fest? How was that?

It was really lovely! Lisbon’s such a beautiful city with such relaxed people. I really like the lights, the architecture and the colours.

We saw that you’ve been in Lisbon and Madrid the past few days. We have to ask: did you play your song In Madrid in Madrid?

Yeah! [laughs] It was really fun – a bit surreal.

Did people respond well to that?

They were dancing a lot. They were happy.

You’re going to Germany next week. Have you toured much there before, or is it the first time visiting some of those venues?

We opened for Goat in Europe last year so I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be really fun. We played at Berghain in October and I really like that place. We’re also playing in Cologne and Mainz.

We hear that you’re based in London now – you were in Stockholm before that. How have you found living in the English capital so far?

It’s been really good. It still feels like I’ve just got here, you know? [laughs] But I’ve been coming here quite a lot for the past two years so it feels really nice to spend more time here. It’s such a big city; there’s so much music, so much art and [so many] interesting things going on, so I look forward to exploring.

Earlier in the year you toured around the UK (including a stop at Soup Kitchen in Manchester). What did you enjoy about that tour?

I was so happy. It was my first UK tour and so many people showed up to the gigs. I was just so happy and I had such a great time. I think the British audience is really good.

The songs are very different live to the studio versions on Mirage, Rainbow Lollipop and Rushing Through my Mind especially. Do you try to embrace the spirit of the moment when you’re playing live?

Yeah, I think it’s really about that: to make it organic and to have this energy. You’re just in the moment and it’s different each time you play. It’s often about the space you’re in in the venue.

The circumstances are different of each show: the crowds are different, the environment is different. In the Soup Kitchen it was kind of a closed off basement, a very insular space.

Yeah, I really liked it there!

You recorded a lot of Mirage when you were touring. Do you try to stay true to that original idea of the song or do you see studio as a way of refining a song and making a definitive version?

Hmm… The idea and the vision when you write something is really, really important, but then I guess when you go into the studio a song can have a life of its own, you know? Unexpected things can happen; it’s about the people you work with, the atmosphere in the studio… I like how things turned out.

We know that your line-up changes quite regularly. Is your band set for this tour or are you bringing in any new people?

We’re playing with the same gang who played in Lisbon and Madrid; everyone except the bassist is London-based so it will be the same set-up now for the summer and onwards. Angela [Maki Won-Yin Mak] is our guitarist – she plays with a band called Parlour.

You’re playing Dot to Dot Festival in May so you’re coming back to Manchester. Have you played Dot to Dot or a festival like that before – the same line-up travelling to different places? What do you think that will be like?

It’s the first time I’ll do something like that. It’s really exciting. I think it’s a really cool concept so it’s going to be fun to just live in that world for [a few days]. It’s nice, I think, when you play a lot of shows after each other. It’s nice to just get in the rhythm of doing it.

We imagine it will be quite a tiring weekend as well.

Yeah! Maybe not up my street!

Manchester’s the first night so I guess we’ll get the most energetic set!

Manchester has such a good energy. A party town, right?

Totally! When we saw you play here, by the time you finished your set you seemed really exhausted because you were moving around so much! We weren’t sure whether you’d come back out [for an encore]. You seem to put a lot of energy into your performances.

Yeah, I think I just lose myself a bit in the performance!

Dot to Dot is notorious here for going on quite late: bands can get on stage at about midnight or something like that. We saw that most of Mirage was written at night. Is playing so late natural to you? Do you think you’ll be ready to embrace that?

Yeah, I think our music suits the night. It fits the day as well! It’s always fun playing at night in the dark. I think that sometimes it’s really nice to shut the day out and be absorbed by the music.

After this run of shows what are your plans for the rest of this year? Are you going to do some other festivals? Are you going to start working on a new record? Are you already working on a new record?

We’re going to play Glastonbury, which I’m looking forward to, and Way Out West [a Swedish festival in Gothenburg]; some other festivals… We’re writing new material so the focus will be to play live and write new songs.

Maybe you’ll take some of that energy! Whatever you write next, if you’re constantly playing you’ll still have that energy to write new material.

You mean the energy from playing live? Exactly. It’s a really good thing to be just living in the music, both playing live and writing – to be really in it!

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Dot to Dot festival, Manchester Northern Quarter, 26 May  
Mirage is out now via Rocket Recordings